Arkansas Times | December 13, 2018

NEWS + POLITICS + ENTERTAINMENT + FOOD /

DECEMBER 13, 2018 / ARKTIMES.COM

Little Rock’s Clay Kasper helms a grassroots initiative to reduce the harm of unsafe drug use. She highlights our annual Philanthropy Issue.

PHILANTHROPY 2018 PAGE 12

DEC

The Weekend Theater Steel Magnolias

DEC

South on Main Trey Johnson

DEC

The Joint Mo Alexander’s Holly Jolly Comedy Show

DEC

14

South on Main Dazz & Brie with Heart Society

DEC

South on Main mömandpöp’s Old Fashioned Christmas

DEC

South on Main Bijoux

DEC

South on Main The Wildflower Revue presents a Hard Candy Christmas

DEC

Old Chicago - Conway Winter Brewers Dinner

13-15

13 13

15

19

20 20 DEC

26

South on Main Radiohead Tribute Show with John Willis

DEC

South on Main Sean Fresh with Bijoux, Davison Davison, and Ashley Evans

DEC

Four Quarter Bar NYE w/ Opal Agafia and the Sweet Nothings//Red Oak Ruse

28 31

Go to CentralArkansasTickets.com to purchase these tickets and more!

Arkansas Times local ticketing site! If you’re a non-profit, freestanding venue or business selling tickets thru eventbrite or another national seller – call us 501.492.3994 – we’re local, independent and offer a marketing package!

LOCAL TICKETS, ONE PLACE 2

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

SUPPORT THE TIMES

The Studio Theatre A Christmas Story - The Musical

ARKANSAS TIMES

DEC

13-16

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AT MY.ARKTIMES.COM

UPCOMING EVENTS

RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA ARKANSAS’S SOURCE FOR NEWS, POLITICS & ENTERTAINMENT 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200 Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 @ArkTimes

arktimes

arkansastimes

oldarktimes

youtube.com/c/arktimes

W: arktimes.com E: arktimes@arktimes.com

PUBLISHER Alan Leveritt EDITOR Lindsey Millar SENIOR EDITOR Max Brantley MANAGING EDITOR Leslie Newell Peacock

Follow Arkansas Blog on Twitter: @ArkansasBlog

2600 CANTRELL RD 5 0 1 . 2 9 6.9 955 | R I V E R DA LE1 0.CO M

Follow us on Instagram: ArkTimes

ELECTRIC RECLINER SEATS AND RESERVED SEATING

SHOW TIMES: FRI, DEC 14 – TUE, DEC 18 11 AM SHOW TIMES FRI-SUN

THE FAVOURITE R | 11:15 2:00 4:30 7:00 9:30 THE MULE PG-13 | 11:00 1:45 4:15 6:45 9:30 SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE PG | 11:15 2:00 4:25 7:00 9:25 MORTAL ENGINES PG-13 | 11:00 1:45 4:15 6:45 9:15 GREEN BOOK PG-13 | 10:45 1:30 4:15 6:45 9:30 THE GRINCH PG | 11:15 2:00 4:00 7:00 9:00

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET PG | 11:00 1:45 4:15 6:45 9:15 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY PG-13 | 10:45 1:30 4:15 6:50 9:30 A STAR IS BORN R | 10:45 1:30 4:15 6:50 9:30 BOY ERASED R | 11:00 1:45 4:15 CREED II PG-13 | 6:45 9:30

MARY POPPINS PG 12/19

FULL FOOD MENU • SERVING BEER & WINE TICKETS & GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT OUR WEBSITE LUXURY LEATHER ELECTRIC RECLINERS WITH TABLES IN ALL AUDITORIUMS RESERVED SEATING • TICKET KIOSK IN LOBBY FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE 2019 FREE POPCORN TUB IS HERE: GET FREE POPCORN ON WEDNESDAYS

NOW TWO CONVENIENT LOCATIONS LITTLE ROCK • NORTH LITTLE ROCK Every Day

175ML 175ML 175ML 175ML 175ML 750ML 750ML 12PK

BULLEIT BOURBON GREY GOOSE VODKA BOMBAY SAPPHIRE GIN CAPTAIN MORGAN RUM JOSE CUERVO TEQUILA KORBEL BRUT EXTRA DRY KENDALL JACKSON VINTNER’S RESERVE HEINEKEN, CORONA

$43.99 $51.99 $37.99 $24.99 $31.99 $14.99 $14.99 $15.99

SALE!

$37.99 $46.99 $33.99 $20.99 $27.99 $10.99 $12.99 $13.99

ALL CRAFT BEER 10% OFF EVERY DAY! • WE GLADLY MATCH ANY LOCAL ADS

HURRY IN! THIS SALE EXPIRES DECEMBER 19, 2018

MIX AND MATCH 6PK CRAFT BEERS AT OUR BROADWAY LOCATION. COME SEE US!

LITTLE ROCK: 10TH & MAIN • 501.374.0410 | NORTH LITTLE ROCK: 860 EAST BROADWAY • 501.374.2405 HOURS: LR • 8AM-10PM MON-THUR, UNTIL MIDNIGHT FRI SAT • 8AM-12AM FRI-SAT • NLR • MON-SAT 8AM-12PM

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Mara Leveritt COPY EDITOR Jim Harris ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Stephanie Smittle CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mandy Keener EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR Katie Hassell PHOTOGRAPHER Brian Chilson DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL STRATEGY Jordan Little ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Mike Spain DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Phyllis A. Britton ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Brooke Wallace, Lee Major, Nathan Stamp, Terrell Jacob ADVERTISING ASSISTANT Hannah Peacock ADVERTISING TRAFFIC MANAGER Roland R. Gladden ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Larissa Gudino IT DIRECTOR Robert Curfman CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Anitra Hickman CONTROLLER Weldon Wilson BILLING/COLLECTIONS Linda Phillips OFFICE MANAGER/ACCOUNTS PAYABLE Kelly Jones PRODUCTION MANAGER Ira Hocut (1954-2009)

COVER PHOTO CREDIT: BRIAN CHILSON

association of alternative newsmedia

VOLUME 45, NUMBER 15

ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, 201 EAST MARKHAM STREET, SUITE 200, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $150 for one year.

For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current singlecopy price is 75¢, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $2.50 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all single-copy orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

©2018 ARKANSAS TIMES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

FOR SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE CALL: (501) 375-2985

SAVE TIME. ORDER ONLINE. DELIVERED TO YOUR CAR.

YOUR FIRST THREE ORDERS ARE ON US! Use Promo Code: WELCOME

edwardsfoodgiant.com LITTLE ROCK: 7507 CANTRELL RD 501-614-3477, 10320 STAGECOACH RD 501-455-3475, 20383 ARCH STREET 501-888-8274 BRYANT: 2203 N REYNOLDS RD 501-847-9777 • FORREST CITY: 2307 N. WASHINGTON 870-633-4369 HARRISBURG: 605 N ILLINOIS ST 870-578-2434 • MARIANNA: 460 S ALABAMA 870-295-9311 arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

3

WEEK THAT WAS

EYE ON ARKANSAS

Historic mayoral election

Frank Scott Jr. was elected Little Rock mayor Dec. 4. The 35-year-old b a n k e r, a s s o c i a t e p a s t o r a n d ex-state Highway Commissioner is the first popularly elected black mayor in a cit y that ’s str uggled to escape the legacy of the 1957 Central High crisis. Scott defeated Baker Kurrus 58-42 percent in a runoff.

Scott started his victory speech by say ing, “First, I just wa nt to say, it is good to see Little Rock right now. It’s good to see ever y race, ever y cult ure, ever y fa it h, ever y sex ua l orientat ion, ever y gender identity — because this is a ll about unif y ing our cit y.” He s a id h i s c a mpa ig n wa sn’t ju s t about unification; it was also about “securing our communities” a nd “making certain we get our school board back yesterday.”

Scott has said he plans to ask the city Board of Directors to change Little Rock’s form of government to make him a “strong ” mayor to whom the cit y manager answers a nd to move away from at-la rge board positions. If the board isn’t w illi ng to ma ke t hose cha nges, Scot t has sa id he will ca ll for a referendum.

LRSD teachers in state crosshairs

930), an update of state education accountabilit y standards passed by the legislature in 2017, gives the State Board of Education member state board wide latitude to waive Diane Zook will move to eliminate education laws in districts that are t he Teacher Fa ir Dismissa l Act classified as in Level 5 Intensive and Public School Employee Fair Support, as the LRSD is.

Hea ring Act for a ll Lit t le Rock The fair dismissal act has been School District employees at the in the crosshairs for weeks now. In b o a r d ’s D e c . 1 3 m e e t i n g . Th e October, Education Commissioner Arkansas Times obtained a copy of Jo h n n y K e y, w h o a c t s a s t h e her motion and notes regarding it. school board for the LRSD while T h e m o v e w o u l d m a k e L R S D the district is under state control, teachers unique among traditional rejected a new contract between public school teachers in Arkansas the district a nd the Lit tle Rock in lacking basic due process rights Education Association, which was that have been enshrined in state negotiating on behalf of teachers. l aw si nce 1979. Z o ok ’s mot ion Key said he wouldn’t agree to a new would make the waiver effective professional negotiated agreement immediately and extend through unless the LREA agreed to allow the 2019-20 school year. for the waiver of the Teacher Fair The state took over the LRSD Dismissal Act in the 22 schools in in 2015, and, by law, must return the LRSD that received a “D” or it to local control within five years. “ F ” g rade under t he state’s new Also in her notes, Zook writes, “We accountabilit y system, which is need all administrators (central ba s e d la r g ely on s t a nd a rd i ze d off ice and building level system testing. Key said the district needed wide) evaluated.” That suggests “greater f lexibility” to fire teachers she m a y wa nt t he s t at e b oa rd at the so-called “D” and “F” schools. to m icroma nage sta f f ing at t he But when pressed, he could not district. provide examples of instances in T h e A r k a n s a s E d u c a t i o n a l wh ich t he LR SD wa s unable to Support and Accountability Act (Act f ire teachers because of the fair 4

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

dismissal law.

On Nov. 13, Key and the teachers’ u n ion c a me t o a new cont r ac t agreement. It acknowledged that t h e L R S D c o u ld s e e k w a i v e r s f rom t he state boa rd, including el i m i n at i n g t he f a i r d i sm i s s a l law, but added some due process protec t ion s t hat wou ld go i nto effect if the state moved to waive the fair dismissal law.

D-G to stop weekday distribution in 25 counties

The A rk a n s a s D emo c r atG a z e t t e w i l l s t op d i s t r i but i ng print editions of all but the Sunday newspaper in five South Arkansas counties beginning Feb. 11, general manager Lynn Hamilton confirmed in a phone inter view. The D-G’s subscribers will instead be provided wit h iPads to access t he dig ita l version of the paper and taught how to use them.

The move w ill put a n end to home deliver y a nd “single copy outlet” distribution in El Dorado, Camden, Magnolia and surrounding areas six days a week. That means

the statewide daily paper will no longer be available for purchase at coin-operated boxes or at retailers (such as gas stations or g rocer y stores) in t he f ive- count y a rea .

The Sunday edition will continue to be dist r ibuted bot h to home subscribers and to retailers.

The D-G has already substituted iPads for home delivery service in about 20 counties in East and North Arkansas, Hamilton explained. The f ive counties in South Arkansas represent a simila r but distinct experiment in cutting distribution costs and shifting to digital. In the East and North Arkansas counties, the D-G has stopped home delivery entirely — including on Sundays — but it continues to distribute the paper to retail stores and newspaper boxes seven days a week. “ We’re testing dig ital deliver y in a couple different methods in cou nt ie s r emo t e f r om C ent r a l A rka nsa s,” Ha m ilton sa id. “ We pic ke d t h o s e r e g io n s b e c a u s e they ’re the f ur thest f rom Lit tle Rock and the most expensive for us to deliver a printed paper.”

Its distribution in the rest of the state, including Northwest Arkansas, will remain unchanged.

Hope and change LR

OPINION

W

MAX hile I was away, Frank Scott racially discriminate. BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com Jr. won a historic victory in a All three are white runoff with Baker Kurrus to and only three of the succeed Mark Stodola as Little Rock mayor. 10 city directors are black. A key way to Voters said they wanted change and prove discriminatory election procedures decided that the 35-year-old Scott was is to demonstrate racially polarized voting. more promising. He happens to be black Scott did enjoy Soviet-style results in black and thus is the first popularly elected black precincts — 373 to 6 at a precinct on Roomayor of Little Rock. sevelt Road in the inner city, for example.

Scott’s promise for change included, as But he demonstrated significant (and hearta candidate, supporting ward-only election ening) cross-racial support. Example: The of city directors. That would end the three two precincts that vote at Pulaski Heights at-large seats that tend to concentrate city Presbyterian Church in liberal Hillcrest political power in the moneyed business went only 764-733 for Kurrus. If a black establishment. He’s already modified that man can run strong in white precincts and good proposal with a mention of willing- win the mayor’s seat in plurality white Litness to consider a Memphis-style system tle Rock, it is more difficult to argue that blending ward-only seats with a couple of polarized voting demands a new way of multimember “super wards.” This sounds selecting city directors. to me like a fig leaf that would produce the But change is needed. And, in this matsame money-friendly formula for board ter, Scott’s promise of change AND unity control. bumps up against the calcified city board.

Interestingly, Scott’s own election is For now, the arithmetic is the same. The prime evidence against the legal argu- mayor needs six votes to achieve major ment that at-large seats amount to a way to changes. Three city directors — Kathy

Sex and Trump

N

o one, least of all Donald Trump, should be surprised when sex puts him in mortal jeopardy, which seemed to be the case last week when his personal lawyer pleaded guilty to violating the law by arranging $280,000 in hush payments to a porn actress and a Playboy model who were prepared to tell voters about having sex with him.

Sex is not illegal, but lying about it under oath is, as President Bill Clinton discovered, and so is directing a subordinate to violate campaign finance laws or colluding to cover up the violations. Trump said Clinton’s only mistake was owning up to sex after first lying about it; if he had stuck with the lie they would have never got him. That’s a policy Trump learned from his old friend Roy Cohn.

Now, Trump is discovering that is hard to do. He denied both the sex and paying women to be quiet about it when the staid Wall Street Journal, owned chiefly by his friend Rupert Murdoch and citing “dozens” of sources, reported the sex and bribes three days before the presidential election in 2016.

Trump sent out Hope Hicks, his communications director, to say the paper lied.

He didn’t count ERNEST on the governDUMAS ment finding proof.

Now that the federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, a Republican whom Trump personally interviewed for the job, has forced Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to admit violating the law on Trump’s directives, the president says, OK, he arranged to buy the women’s silence, but they were private business transactions that were nobody else’s concern — not the government’s and not the voters’.

All but five Republican congressmen, including many who are now saying Trump’s peccadilloes and lies are inconsequential, voted to impeach Clinton for not being truthful about sex and nearly every Republican in the Senate voted to remove him from office for the sins.

It seems almost certain that, if the

Webb, Capi Peck and Lance Hines — supported Kurrus. The three at-large board members — Joan Adcock, Dean Kumpuris and Gene Fortson — are jealous of their prerogatives as functional deputy mayors.

The board has rejected earlier proposals to change to ward elections. I think voters would be more receptive, but perhaps not after business establishment money is deployed in defense of the status quo.

Scott should have more immediate impact in altering the balance of power between the mayor and city manager. First Kurrus and then Scott argued that the law already provides that the city manager works at the direction of the mayor. Scott reportedly has delivered that message to Manager Bruce Moore. This will put more responsibility — as it should — on the mayor in selection of the next police chief.

The last chief, Kenton Buckner, threw in with the Fraternal Order of Police, which supported Kurrus in a racially offensive way. There’s no percentage in going to war with the FOP, but it’s past time for the city to stop coddling this reactionary, mostly white, mostly suburban-living element of the police force. Being a fair but tough overseer of the police will be Scott’s first great test.

Another test will be Scott’s effort to champion public education. It’s not an

official role, but the city fails if its schools do. His endorsement of charter schools earned him the editorial endorsement of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, not a mark of honor. The continued erosion of the state-controlled Little Rock School District by charter proliferation might please the Waltons, but it will create a balkanized system of education with a few haves and lots of have-nots. Not exactly a jobs magnet.

I was glad to hear Scott note over the weekend that Little Rock hadn’t had a net increase in jobs over the last decade. You’d think that would be a good point to reconsider providing a $300,000 taxpayer subsidy to the anti-labor Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. It might also be a point to consider the billion-dollar I-30 concrete gulch that Scott himself backs through downtown so those who work in Little Rock can get home a few seconds faster to the suburbs, which sell themselves as antidotes to Little Rock crime and substandard (read majority poor and black) schools.

We saw a historic national electoral victory built on hope and change sometimes founder against entrenched political opposition and the status quo. That’s no reason to regret friendly Frank Scott’s famous victory. It’s only a reminder that now the hard part begins.

violations are not sent to the House of Representatives for impeachment articles or even if they are, sealed charges will await Trump on the day he leaves office. It is not the law but current Justice Department policy that a president must not be charged in criminal court until he leaves office. Trump has no choice now but to run for re-election in 2020 and win, unless he feels confident that his successor, Mike Pence or someone else, will pardon him, as Gerald Ford did for Richard Nixon. If he is defeated in November 2020 he can immediately resign, get a quick pardon from Pence and escape prison.

As Trump will tell you, it is the fault of the press that a little extramarital sex has become a political calamity and grounds for booting men out of office if they can be tricked into lying about it under oath or violating the law in some other way, like bribing the women to keep silent.

Insinuating depravity by presidents was not above the press in Jefferson’s day, but with the 20th century press it was considered a private matter and unprofessional for reporters to pursue such stuff. It lowered them to the level of trashy supermarket tabloids like the National Enquirer.

Our beloved Arkansas congressman Wilbur Mills’ public romps with the Fanne Fox, aka the Argentine Firecracker, in 1974 and presidential contender Gary Hart’s rendezvous with Donna Rice on the yacht Monkey Business ended media modesty forever. The press’ duty was to give voters everything they needed to know about a politician’s moral fitness for office. Politicians had no domain of privacy. On the eve of Clinton’s announcement for president in 1991, a Washington Post reporter begged for my help in chasing rumors of his amours with women, an assignment he seemed to hate. I put him on the phone with one of the women, who denied it.

There were ethical limits, except at the National Enquirer. It plowed through garbage for dirty diapers to get DNA evidence that the child of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards’ secret girlfriend and campaign aide was the spawn of the Democratic presidential candidate. The paper exposed Edwards’ scheme to use campaign funds to carry out the hoax that the child was the son of a male campaign aide. Edwards beat the rap that he violated campaignfinance laws, but that is the matrix for the charges against Cohen and ultimately Trump.

Follow Arkansas Blog on Twitter: @ArkansasBlog

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

5

No leash

Pinnacle Mountain State Park

L

ENJOY

A HIKE

ON NEW YEAR’S DAY

In step with America’s State Parks’ “First Day Hikes” health initiative, state parks around Arkansas will host guided hikes on January 1. It’s a great way to get outside, connect with nature, and start the new year on the right foot. Visit ArkansasStateParks.com for a participating state park close to home.

#FirstDayHikes

ArkansasStateParks.com

For reservations, call 877-879-2741

#ARStateParks

SUPPORT INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM Help the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network continue to do the sort of in-depth investigative reporting that other media in Arkansas can’t afford to do. ANNN only pursues stories that have a potential to bring about change on topics that matter to Arkansans, like health care and public corruption.

From Nov. 1 until Dec. 31 all donations to the ANNN will be doubled!

Learn more and donate today at arknews.org

6

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

iving as I do in the remote provinc- deepest goal is “to es, I often find myself fascinated by break down patriarGENE the cultural advances of America’s chal and hierarchiLYONS great metropolises. Last week, for example, cal ideas of mascuThe New York Times featured an entertain- linity,” a phrase that has more than a whiff ing column urging people to walk cats on of the campus about it. (To give you some leashes. If I tried that, I’d definitely have a idea, I once got scolded from the audience fight on my hands. during a college talk for using the word Now and then, Albert the orange tabby “murderess,” as if the gender-neutral “murfollows the dogs and me on our daily consti- derer” were an honorific.) tutional. Mostly, however, he’s busy snoozIllustrated by photos of men hugging ing. Or hunting rats, his favorite pastime and petting each other and gripping a since we left the farm and brought him to feathered totem like bearded Cub Scouts, town. He deposits their corpses where the Seligson’s article describes ours as a pardogs are sure to find them. ticularly “fraught” time for American men So, yes, it’s true as The New York — which would probably confuse most of Times columnist lamented, that free-roam- our fathers and grandfathers, the men who ing cats kill many small mammals. Also that built the nation’s railroads and highways most of them need killing. and fought its wars. Apparently, there’s But walk on a leash? Let me put it this also a lot of eye contact and crying. way: Two years ago, after I broke several This too: “Some retreats have optional ribs falling from a horse, Albert clearly felt nudity, in an effort to promote healthy my pain, as Bill Clinton used to say. He body image.” Does this feathered headtransformed himself from an outdoor to dress make my butt look big? Football an indoor cat for a few weeks. We watched locker rooms have nudity, too, of course, baseball together on TV until I quit scream- but that’s a different story. ing every time I moved. Then he headed Elsewhere, the author informs us back to the barn to kill mice. that “most men would rather be electriThose, he eats. cally shocked than be left alone with their But Albert doesn’t even particularly like thoughts” — more bad news for somebody to be carried. Put a leash on him and he’d like me, as, like most writers, I spend many fight like a barracuda. I might never see hours by myself. him again.

Seligson interviews a TV actor for A neighbor recently asked me to do whom most of humanity’s ills can be laid something about our other cat, Martin, at the feet of the accursed patriarchy. “ ‘The visiting her yard. She’d grown sentimental stoic male who doesn’t express or share about wild baby rabbits — the McDonald’s his emotions, I see that as being extremely quarter-pounder of the animal kingdom, detrimental,’ Mr. Darville said in a phone predated by everything with sharp teeth or interview. ‘A lot of pathologies in society, talons. (But not by Martin, more lover than such as entitled masculinity, are related to hunter.) I told her I’d speak to him, but that men who are repressed.’ ” the best solution would be to spray him with In short, it appears that the ManKind the garden hose. Then she took offense on Project’s main goal is preparing “woke” the cat’s behalf. Happily, she’s moved away. men for a lifetime of being bossed around The new neighbor knows a pacifist when by aggressive New York career women she sees one. who disapprove of such ordinary male pasBut hook Martin up to a leash? Passive times as playing ball, attending Yankees or resistance would be more his style. He’d just Knicks games, or having a few cold ones lie there like a lump and I’d have to drag him. with your pals.

I’m only guessing, because I’d no more Because out here in the boondocks walk a cat than attend a meeting of the Man- where I live, that’s where most guys find Kind Project, this week’s trendy Manhat- male companionship: They play basketball, tan thing. According to author Hannah golf or tennis. They watch sporting events Seligson, the organization focuses “on together. Some, like me, mess with horses men’s emotional well-being, drawing on or hunting dogs. They go on fishing trips, elements like Carl Jung’s theories of the canoeing expeditions, even deer camp. psyche, nonviolent communication, breath Stories get told; intimacies shared. work, Native American customs, and good Often enough these activities also old-fashioned male bonding. Minus ogling involve women. women, drinking or fist fighting, of course.”

Others participate in community theThose apparently being the only options ater or art exhibitions. They play in bands. in the author’s mind: drunken brawling or But above all, they DO something hippy-dippy cant. Supposedly ManKind’s besides sitting around complaining.

Beware of ‘unity’

“U

nity” is the new buzzword politicians use to claim now is the time for us to come together and heal our divides. You know, it sounds wonderful, especially in the midst of the holiday season. Families are no longer feuding, a red hat merely means the wearer supports the Hogs and, finally, Facebook can return to being a place where we primarily share photos of our children, pets and meals. It would be a welcome respite for those who are exhausted from the years of hard battles over immigration, voting rights and racial justice issues.

Progressive readers, beware.

Beware the sweet lull of that siren song calling for “unity” and for us to “come together.” It’s the latest incarnation of the call for “civility,” and just as dangerous. “Unity for its own sake cannot be the goal,” Rev. William Barber, leader of the revived Poor People’s Campaign, warned recently. He’s right. The current push for unity, like the earlier demands for civility, depends on those pushing for equality and justice toning it down. Backing off and not asking for so much. Waiting their turn and not fighting so hard against the status quo. Otherwise, they are labeled as “divisive.”

It is already happening. Candidates who ran on the platform of helping the poor, working for racial justice, expanding access to health care and protecting voting rights are seen as fringe or extreme in parts of the country. Never mind these issues are not political, as Barber often says, but moral. And never mind those candidates won in many districts. A call for unity is really just a call to stop rocking the centrist boat.

Tuesday’s televised Oval Office meeting between President Trump, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) demonstrated the folly in believing the current GOP will compromise. Pelosi and Schumer were there to try to work out an agreement to avoid a government shutdown, but it was clear that the petulant Trump was only there to grandstand, lie and further embarrass anyone with any sense.

How can anyone expect unity when our president refuses to nego-

tiate and insists on using madeup facts and statistics to make decisions on key issues AUTUMN such as border TOLBERT security and the military? He treats the Oval Office like the fake boardroom on “The Apprentice,” where he was the boss and his ratings depended on outrageous behavior, cliffhangers and shocking twists. That is all fine and good for television, but not for governing.

It is clear that Trump, who is in way over his head on policy, has made up his mind and anyone who disagrees with him is at fault for the impending government shutdown. He repeatedly talked over Pelosi and Schumer and outright scoffed at their claims that they had a bipartisan plan.

After watching that spectacle, what I want to know is why do the calls for “unity” and “civility” seem to be directed toward the young and those advocating for better, more accessible government? The expectation is that they are the ones who should change, instead of demanding that moderate Republicans speak up and tell Trump and his supporters their behavior is unacceptable and not unifying in the least. Instead, there is a constant push for the progressives to join the warm and fuzzy center where immigration reform, racial issues and poverty take a backseat to winning over rural, white voters. It’s offensive and bad strategy because, as we saw in Arkansas with the passing of an increased minimum wage and medical marijuana, those voters will embrace progressive, moral ideals if the right messaging is used.

That is where the energy needs to be focused by the Democrats, instead of trying to rein in the visionaries and activists. So, progressive readers, lash yourself to your principles and be prepared to fight off those who want to claim your values are divisive. Keep fighting. Many are depending on you for their safety and health because too often “unity” comes at the expense of the most vulnerable.

TIX AVAILABLE @

NOVEMBER 29 - DECEMBER 16 MUSIC & LYRICS BY CAROL HALL BOOK BY LARRY L. KING & PETER MASTERSON

#TSTChristmasStory

@studiotheatrelr studiotheatrelr.com 320 W. 7TH STREET- DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

7

PEARLS ABOUT SWINE

Your gift to Methodist Family Health provides behavioral, emotional and spiritual care to almost 5,600 Arkansas children and families.

Will you bring light to someone's life this holiday season with your donation?

• Text GIVE to 501-254-6048 • MethodistFamily.org, click Donate Now • Call 501-906-4209 and charge to card • Mail donation: Methodist Family Health, P.O. Box 56059, Little Rock, AR 72215 Real MFH client

S

et in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done, centered around six women, filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength and love which makes the characters truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.

NOV. 30, DEC. 1, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16 2018 DIRECTED BY: DUANE JACKSON

$16 ADULTS • $12 FOR STUDENTS/SENIORS/MILITARY FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT CURTAIN TIME IS 7:30 PM. SUNDAY AFTERNOON CURTAIN TIME IS 2:30 PM. Please arrive promptly. There will be no late admission. The House opens 30 minutes prior to curtain. Box office opens one hour before curtain time.

For more information contact us at 501.374.3761 or www.weekendtheater.org

CentralArkansasTickets.com to purchase tickets and flex passes.

1001 W. 7th St. • Little Rock, AR 72201 • 501-374-3761 8

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

Back to square one

I

just had to go and write a column ex- the Hogs had mantolling these basketball Hogs, didn’t I? aged to avoid, save After an impressive six-game run for two notable excluBEAU that was punctuated with a rout of Colo- sions. The opener WILCOX rado State in Fort Collins, Colo. — exact- against Texas was a ing some small measure of vengeance nip-and-tuck affair that should’ve been a for the Rams beating the football Hogs season-opening victory for the Hogs but there in a crushing defeat in September with a three-point lead late they left the — the Arkansas Razorbacks came back to Longhorns’ best scorer an unchallenged a pretty lively Saturday afternoon gather- three, which he drilled to send the game ing in Bud Walton Arena to take on a 4-4 to overtime. That ended in a loss, and Western Kentucky team that, based on its then days later, the Hogs hosted Indiana record alone, appeared average at best. and survived with a one-point win only That was what the initial sheen would because Mason Jones was the victim of lead one to believe. Arkansas entered a an ignorant Hoosier foul after a defensive double-digit favorite but there was sort rebound, and he made the one free throw of an inauspicious aura surrounding the needed to secure that win. game. The Hilltoppers had beaten West Because of Arkansas’s overall inexpeVirginia earlier in the year, and former rience those close games can be nightMississippi State Coach Rick Stansbury marish, and that is why it has become had clearly amassed a group of talented critical for the hoopsters to build and players led by Nigerian teenager Charles maintain sizable leads. When they’ve Bassey in the post. After the Hogs built an done that, they look like one of the couneight-point early lead and had the crowd try’s most dynamic and composed young behind them, Bassey started to assert teams. When tasked with guarding the some dominance against Hogs center narrowest of leads or overcoming a close Daniel Gafford, which led a lot of folks deficit, the results have been decidedly to murmur about Gafford’s alleged pro- less than favorable. fessional caliber.

This game may have also cast an Make no mistake, Gafford was produc- unflattering light on some of Gafford’s tive. He had 17 points and nine rebounds, weaknesses. He’s still inconsistent with hit all three of his free throws, and stayed his shooting stroke, which is not even out of foul trouble. But when Bassey, who that big of an indictment given his wonbested Gafford’s scoring output with 21, derful gifts around the basket as a scorer, decided he wanted to go to work against rebounder, passer and rim protector. But the lankier El Dorado product, he essen- Bassey had the edge in girth and used tially had his way. The Hilltoppers were it masterfully in the paint (and, to be within striking distance at halftime, and clear, Gafford wasn’t always the victim). then basically put together a near-perfect Because Gafford has a leaner physique second half, shoring up their perimeter and the associated agility therewith, he’s defense, protecting the rim, and swishing sometimes viewed as being a little soft, threes at an uncanny rate, some of which and that may be an unfair designation. were reasonably well-contested.

But what it does mean for the Hogs is that Arkansas did manage to nudge back freshmen forwards Reggie Chaney and ahead on a Gafford score with less than Jordan Phillips, two guys with Basseya minute to play, but the Hilltoppers exe- like builds, will have to keep maturing cuted a well-designed interior play of and at an even quicker pace than they’ve their own when Bassey fed Marek Nel- showed so far. son to put WKU ahead 78-77. The Hogs Arkansas slipped to 6-2 with the loss then had an infuriating final possession, and gets to host University of Texaswith Jalen Harris waiting far too long to San Antonio on Saturday at North Litbegin the action toward the rim and then tle Rock’s Verizon Arena. This game getting a layup attempt forcibly blocked looks like a lopsided one on paper, but,

by Bassey. That left the Hogs with 1.8 of course, Arkansas has just shown that seconds to come up with a final play, and it can be susceptible to an upset if the they opted to lob to Gafford, who had to opponent plays a fearless brand of basangle his body awkwardly among the ketball, shows a willingness to attack Gafinterior defenders and failed to draw iron ford rather than to dance around him, on the play. and crashes the boards and distributes It was precisely the kind of game that the ball.

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Ramblin’ Jack

T

he Observer, like a lot of folks, is drawn to the real places: barbecue joints and honky-tonks, seedy truck stops and greasy little diners where the waitresses and clerks still call you “Hun,” used bookstores that have been there since Faulkner was still drinking mint juleps, bait shops hung with dustyeyed bass pulled up from the deep when Eisenhower was in the White House.

Though The Observer once longed to ditch this backwater for places with more zing and neon as a pup, we see now that we’re lucky Arkansas moves a little slower than everyplace else. One result of that slower pace is that we’re also slower than everywhere else to move on to the spankin’ new and flashy, less likely to fire up the bulldozers and more likely to let good enough be good enough. That has allowed a lot of our real places to survive.

In Little Rock, one of our favorite real places is the White Water Tavern, the dive-iest of dive bars, situated right proper near the railroad tracks on Seventh Street.

We don’t get in there as often as we should anymore, The Observer having drunk our bicarbonate of soda and retired to Dreamland by the time White Water gets really cranked up most nights. But we still love that joint. To any of the plasticized “influencers” who make a living off looking chic, or fly, or fleek, or whatever the kids are calling cool these days, White Water would surely look like something that washed up out of the river, to be hazarded only as shelter in a hailstorm. To The Observer, though, White Water looks like Southern music, in its entirety, coalesced into physical form and manifested beside the railroad tracks. It’s world-class real, and an Arkansas treasure.

Matt White is the co-owner of White Water, keeping the lamp lit so the next generation can experience real once they get tired of $9 drinks and watching drunk sorority sisters in heels fall down.

In addition to being one of the priests who tends the temple, he’s a hell of a writer, and takes to Dr. Zuckerberg’s Electric Book of Countenances much too rarely to share some beautiful moment he experienced at the bar. He posted the following story earlier this week, and The Observer thought it was so lovely that we talked

him into letting us publish it below. It, too, is world-class real. Enjoy: “Ramblin’ Jack Elliott walked into the White Water early Saturday evening wearing a worn rancher’s jacket and cowboy hat, guitar strapped across his back, ready to play the first show of a two-night stand. Warm, kind, and intrigued at 87 years of age, Jack took a look around and said: ‘What a cool place. Good vibes.’ I’m always halfway worried what an artist is going to think when they walk into this crazy looking bar. Jack appeared to feel at home. ‘You know, I’ve never been to this town before, except for the time I jumped off a freight train and hopped into a pickup truck,’ he said. He’d later tell the full story of being thrown around the cab of said stranger’s truck on a death trip through winding Ozark highways.

“Saturday was very cold. There were rumors of sleet. Jack sang ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.’ A train howled through the rain and the entire building shook a little. As we walked outside at the conclusion of the night, Jack turned slightly and said with a genuine sense of wonder: ‘What a great adventure. This is the first time I’ve been held over to play two nights in a row.’ When I gently protested that there’s no way this could be true, he laughed and said, ‘Well, I played for six nights in a row at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles, opening for Lightnin’ Hopkins. But I missed the first night because I was checking on a ranch in West Texas.

I thought there’s no way they’re going to miss me.’

“We were standing in the rain and it was time to say goodbye.

“On Sunday I sat in stunned disbelief as Jack sang ‘Pretty Boy Floyd.’ It was surreal to hear his voice and these timeless songs from a disappearing America I love. In affectionate regard to Woody Guthrie, Jack said: ‘He had some fine ways of playing of which I never could quite learn.’

“Before he departed back into the night, I opened the front door one more time and saw the soft form of Jack’s cowboy hat in the interior lights of the car. He looked up, flashed a huge smile, and gave a big thumbs up. The man seemed happy, heading out for the next adventure.”

11200 W. Markham 501-223-3120 www.colonialwineshop.com facebook.com/colonialwines SCOTCH –WHISKEY – VODKA – GIN (1.75L)

Dewar’s 12yo Blended Scotch $49.98 Everyday $59.99

Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon $49.98 Everyday $58.99

12/12–12

/18/18

Sebastiani 2016 Lake/Sonoma Counties Sauvignon Blanc $8.97 Everyday $11.99 Guild 2015 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris $9.97 Everyday $12.99

Reyka Icelandic Vodka $34.98 Everyday $42.99

WINE SELECTION (750 mL)

Citadelle Artisanal Gin $34.98 Everyday $43.99

CONNOISSEUR SELECTION (750 mL) Glenmorangie 18yo Single Malt Scotch $99.97 Everyday $149.99

Arran Amarone Cask Single Malt Scotch $49.98 Everyday $71.99 Havana Club Anejo Clasico Rum $15.97 Everyday $21.99

Sauza Tres Generaciones Plata, Reposado and Anejo Tequila $28.98 Everyday $36.99

Donati 2014 Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon $15.98 Everyday $19.99

Clos de los Siete 2015 Red Blend $16.97 Everyday $21.99 Wild Horse 2015 Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon $16.97 Everyday $21.99 Mud House 2017 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc $10.97 Everyday $13.99

Byron 2014 Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir $15.97 Everyday $27.99

1.5L WINE SELECTION

Beringer Founders’ Estate Cabernet, Chardonnay & Merlot $12.98 Everyday $17.99

BEST LIQUOR STORE

3FOR THURSDAY – Purchase 3 or more of any 750ml spirits, receive 15% off *unless otherwise discounted or on sale.

Distinctively Different Service We invite you to experience the benefits that await you at IBERIABANK Private Client. Visit us at any one of our convenient locations throughout Arkansas so you can see how extraordinary an IBERIABANK Private Client relationship can be.

Committed to Serving our Clients

Little Rock Private Banking and Commercial Team Diana Smithson

Adam Sharp

David Shindler

Eugene Castrejon

Bear Van Ness

www.iberiabank.com IBERIABANK Private Client is a service offered by IBERIABANK and subject to specific eligibility requirements. arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

9

Arkansas Reporter BRIAN CHILSON

THE

Times challenges state law

Federal lawsuit contends that law that requires state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel violates the First Amendment.

BY LINDSEY MILLAR

T

he Arkansas Times Limited 710 of 2017 violates the First Amendment Partnership, the company to the U.S. Constitution by suppressing that owns and publishes the public debate. The lawsuit was assigned Arkansas Times, is challenging to Magistrate Judge Beth Deere and U.S. in federal court a state law that requires District Judge Brian Miller. government contractors to pledge not to State Rep. Jim Dotson (R-Bentonboycott Israel or reduce their fees by at ville) and Sen. Bart Hester (R-Cave least 20 percent.

Springs) sponsored the bill that became The suit, filed Tuesday by the Ameri- Act 710, which took effect on July 31, can Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas on 2017. behalf of Arkansas Times LP, says Act The Times initiated the suit after the

10

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College, which has advertised regularly in the Times and its sister publications, informed the Times that it had to sign a certification that it would not engage in a boycott of Israel if it wanted to continue to receive advertising contracts from the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees on behalf of UAPTC. The university imposed this condition because Act 710 requires all state

institutions to do so. Times publisher Alan Leveritt declined, and UAPTC has refused to advertise further with the Times. The Times has never participated in a boycott of Israel or editorialized in support of one.

“Campuses in the University of Arkansas system have been advertising with us for years, so we were shocked and more than a little troubled when they sent over what looked like a loyalty oath as a condition of payment,” Leveritt said.

“As journalists, we are fervent believers that the First Amendment’s speech protections are essential to a free and just society and would never sign a contract that’s conditioned on the unconstitutional suppression of free speech.

Regardless of what people may think about this particular boycott, it is not the government’s place to decide what causes Arkansans can or cannot support.”

The law defines “boycott of Israel” as “engaging in refusals to deal, terminating business activities, or other actions that are intended to limit commercial relations with Israel, or persons or entities doing business in Israel or in Israelicontrolled territories, in a discriminatory manner.” It applies to all contracts valued at $1,000 or more.

“This law imposes an unconstitutional tax on free speech,” said Rita Sklar, ACLU of Arkansas executive

Tune in to our “Week In Review” podcast each Friday.

Available on iTunes & arktimes.com

director. “The state has no business telling Arkansans what causes they can or can’t support — or charging them a fee just because they hold a particular viewpoint. Our client is simply asking the courts to uphold a fundamental First Amendment principle that the government cannot force people to subscribe to a specific political viewpoint.”

The lawsuit names as defendants the members of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees: Mark Waldrip, John Goodson, Morril Harriman, Kelly Eichler, David Pryor, Stephen Broughton, C.C. Gibson, Sheffield Nelson, Tommy Boyer and Steve Cox. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, argues, “There is no plausible justification for the certification requirement, except the desire to identify, punish, and chill disfavored political beliefs and associations. That justification cannot survive First Amendment scrutiny.”

The suit asks for an injunction to prevent the UA Board of Trustees from enforcing the requirement against all government contractors, not just the Times.

Dotson told the Associated Press in 2017 that the law was a reaction to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement that targets Israel for its treatment of Palestinians. Arkansas’s law is similar to those in more than a dozen other states. Federal judges in Arizona and Kansas issued injunctions against the enforcement of similar laws earlier this year. The Kansas judge later dismissed the case after the Kansas legislature altered its law.

At the federal level, versions of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act have been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate, but neither has come up for a vote.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas is a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, along with a number of Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York.

Arkansas’s Act 710 also requires public entities to identify and create a list of all companies that boycott Israel for distribution to their retirement systems, and requires their investment managers to demand certification from those companies that they cease their boycott. The managers must divest from those companies who refuse to withdraw their boycotts.

THE

Inconsequential News Quiz:

Sawbucks edition BIG PICTURE

Play in South Arkansas on your Arkansas Times-provided iPad!

1) The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state’s largest newspaper, recently announced a change that’s coming Feb. 11. What’s the change?

A) The obituary section will be renamed “Who’s Dead Who Ain’t Me?” B) In an attempt to appeal to the preferences of millennial readers, newspapers will now be delivered directly to trashcans.

C) The paper will end delivery of all but the Sunday print edition to subscribers, retailers and coin-operated paper boxes in five South Arkansas counties.

D) The features section will henceforth be 18,000 words of obscure Philip Martin musings and the “Garfield” comic strip.

2) With the Dem-Gaz ending delivery of all but the Sunday paper, how does it propose to get the day’s news to paid subscribers in South Arkansas?

A) Big van with a giant megaphone on top.

3) As seen in a dramatic video, firefighters with the Fayetteville Fire Department recently rushed to the rescue of two local residents in northeast Fayetteville. What was the trouble?

B) Publisher Walter E. Hussman Jr. will make a daily, pre-dawn visit to the homes of all South Arkansas subscribers until they get so creeped out they ask him to stop.

A) Black Friday knife fight at Fred’s over the last discount waffle maker.

C) Every subscribing household will be provided with a new Apple iPad that includes a subscription to the online version of the Dem-Gaz — a plan that is cheaper than printing the news on paper and delivering it to each subscriber’s driveway or doorstep.

C) Two large buck deer got their horns locked together while fighting in a backyard, and firefighters had to resort to sawing off an antler to free the exhausted but apparently unharmed combatants.

D) Peyote-induced telepathy.

B) No idea, but they did it in slow motion while dramatic music played.

D) A crew cleaning out the old home of former Razorback football coach Bret Bielema found a bunch of nudie shots of him, leading to lifethreatening projectile vomiting,

4) When the final votes were tallied in a recent runoff election for a seat on the Hoxie City Council, in Lawrence County, it was revealed that challenger Cliff Farmer and incumbent Becky Linebaugh had tied 223-223. According to the Lawrence County clerk, how do officials plan to decide the election?

A) Smoking guns at dawn.

B) Interpretive farting contest.

C) They’ll draw lots on Dec. 13, with chance deciding the winner.

D) Winner-takes-all lawnmower race at the local fairgrounds.

5) News of a cruel twist soon emerged from the tied race between Farmer and Linebaugh in Hoxie. What was it?

A) Farmer and Linebaugh were best friends … until that fateful summer when bad boy Johnny Dalton came to town. Then everything changed ... .

B) DNA testing Linebaugh had performed to prove her pure Hoxite bloodline revealed she is actually 31 percent Walnut Ridgite, leading to her immediate banishment from Hoxie.

C) Farmer, delayed by a trip that kept him out of town until after the polls closed, wasn’t able to cast what would have been the tie-breaking vote for himself.

D) Donald Trump has already prepared two tweets so he can quickly mock the loser the minute the race is decided.

Answers: C, C, C, C, C

LISTEN UP

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

11

BETTER LIVING THROUGH HOSPICE: A hospice team helped Cara Childress and her daughter, Jazzlin (left), navigate an ER unfamiliar with the girl’s disease.

ARKANSAS HOSPICE FOUNDATION

Helping the dying live.

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

T

hanks to the Arkansas Hospice Foundation, a mother and father can take their dying child on a last family vacation. Relations who live far away can be provided transportation to be with their loved one in her final days.

It can help with things as practical as paying the light bill or as important as making a final wish come true.

The services that Arkansas Hospice Inc., which is supported by the Hospice Foundation, offers to dying adults is well known. Less known is how it helps children and their families.

Thanks to the Arkansas Hospice Foundation, Cara and Adrain Childress of Batesville were able to afford to heat their home during especially cold months of winter — the landlord was dragging his feet on hooking up the gas service — and take care 12

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

of their baby, Jazzlin.

Jazzlin was born with a condition called holoprosencephaly, a deformation of the brain. Doctors did not expect her to survive to term in the womb.

But she did, and Arkansas Hospice was brought on at her birth. Doctors put her life expectancy at a year.

Now, Jazzlin is 4 and no longer on hospice — which is the outcome Arkansas Hospice hopes for all of its pediatric patients. Arkansas Hospice can work with the families of children while the child is receiving medical care; children need not give up treatment by physicians.

Arkansas Hospice did more than weekly nursing visits to Jazzlin, who is immobile and can only drink from a bottle. It helped Cara Childress administer the six or seven medicines that Jazzlin, whose brain can’t control her sodium levels, takes. “If we ever

ran out of formula they would get us some more.

They would make sure she had medical equipment,” such as her special stroller, chair, humidifier and more, she said, and found a source of free diapers.

“It was nice to know there was help when we needed it,” Cara Childress said. Jazzlin’s nurse went “above and beyond” what the Childress family expected, meeting the family at the hospital on Jazzlin’s trips to the ER to help explain her special problems to doctors. On one occasion, when Jazzlin was dehydrated, a doctor at the ER thought Cara Childress didn’t understand the child’s condition and commented, “So she’s going to die, anyway?”

“He didn’t even want to treat her. The hospice nurse intervened, we called everyone on Jazzlin’s team, and had them all down there,” Cara Childress said. The hospice nurse “went off” on the doctor, Childress said, and arranged for direct admission

the beauty of hospice care for children and adults. A trip to Disneyland for a 34-yearold pediatric patient who has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old. A final birthday party for a teenager and her best friend. A final fishing trip for a dying woman.

Renie Rule, the executive director of the foundation, cited other programs the foundation supports: In recognition that one in four dying Americans is a veteran, Arkansas Hospice Inc. has what it calls its Committed to Veterans program. Foundation dollars go to Hospice Inc. for the training of caregivers in the special needs of veterans and their kin, and to honor veterans in other ways. Hospice observed Armistice Day this year by providing pinnies — special pins acknowledging war service — to veterans in Hot Springs. The foundation has also provided grants to study how to increase the use of hospice care among minorities, and two gifts last year of $40,000 each to the foundation were directed to Hospice Inc.’s pediatric services, one for the children and another for their families.

Hospice care, Rule and foundation communications manager David Edwards stressed, is not to simply usher people into the next life, but to help patients live the best way they can. Patients can leave hospice whenever they wish — if they want to try a new therapy, for instance.

Terminal patients in hospice have been found to actually live longer than those who are not, yet many believe that going into hospice is something done at the last minute. It’s the most important message Rule and Edwards hoped to get across: that hospice is as much about living as it is dying.

BRIAN CHILSON

for Jazzlin’s future trips to the hospital.

The hospice team that treated Hunter Williams, the son of Ashley and Clint Williams of Beebe, who was in and out of the hospital since birth for treatment of the problems that attended his Miller Dieker syndrome, worked with Hunter’s team at Arkansas Children’s Hospital to ease the pain he suffered from his fragile, broken bones.

“We lived in the hospital pretty much since his first months of life,” Ashley Williams said. It was hard on his parents, especially because they have two other children at home.

“I had heard of hospice as far as older people and the dying process,” Williams said. “It can be scary, when you hear ‘hospice’ and you think of dying.” But she learned from Children’s Hospital that her child could receive medical care concurrent with hospice services.

Hospice made it possible for Hunter, then 4, to come home and be pain free. “It was a blessing,” Williams said.

Knowing Hunter was getting worse, the Hospice Foundation helped the Williamses make a last family vacation together in July 2017, to the Dolly Parton Stampede and the Promised Land Zoo in Branson, Mo. Hunter, who had a condition called cortical blindness, could still see the bright lights of the Stampede and could express excitement. “He loved it,” Williams said. “That was a big thing they did for us.”

Then Ashley Williams read about Caton’s Cubs, started by a mother who lost her son to cancer. Hospice will record a patient’s heartbeat on a device that looks like a heart and places it in a stuffed bear that will play the heartbeat when squeezed. The idea came from the family of Caton Jones, a 19-year-old who died of cancer while recovering from injuries he sustained in a car accident. His sister came up with the idea; his mother created the Caton’s Cubs nonprofit to help Arkansas Hospice record heartbeats and provide the stuffed bears to families.

Hunter’s nurse came to the Williamses and recorded the sound of his heartbeat.

“It was an amazing thing,” Ashley Williams said. Williams purchased two other recordings for Hunter’s sisters, who made their own bears at a Build-A-Bear store and put the recordings inside.

Hunter died Nov. 9. “He got to pass away the way I wanted him to. At home, all the family there. With no doctors, no machines. Peacefully.” Hospice care for children — who may not necessarily be dying — is “something I think was needed a long time ago, and now is a blessing to a lot of people.”

There are many other such stories of

Donate to the Arkansas Hospice Foundation at arkansashospice.org.

SEND A HUG FOR THE HOLIDAYS: Arkansas Hospice Foundation Director Renie Rule holds huggable bears that, for a donation of $125, Hospice will send to a grieving loved one or friend to let them know you care.

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

13

14

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

CENTRAL ARKANSAS HARM REDUCTION PROJECT

A grassroots initiative provides free naloxone and other life-saving resources.

BY REBEKAH HALL

I

n 2017, a series of overdose deaths devastated Little Rock’s punk community. Conversations among the community about how to combat the overdose problem led local organizer Clay Kasper to found the Central Arkansas Harm Reduction Project, an overdose prevention program that provides free naloxone (trade name Narcan), a life-saving drug that can reverse an opioid overdose.

The group also advocates for public health policies, programs and practices that work to reduce harm from unsafe drug use.

Kasper’s grassroots effort takes the idea of boots-on-the-ground organizing seriously — and literally. Kasper will personally deliver the drug to persons who text CAHRP’s anonymous, confidential hotline number (501-438-9158) for help and teach them how to administer it.

CAHRP also provides strips to test drugs for fentanyl, a dangerously potent synthetic opioid that has exacerbated the already staggering numbers of opioid overdose deaths in the United States. According to The New York Times, using recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 70,237 people who died from drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2017, 40 percent — 28,466 — of those deaths involved fentanyl or a similarly potent painkiller.

CAHRP also distributes overdose reversal kits, which include two doses of naloxone, two syringes and needles with which to administer the drug intramuscularly (not intravenously) in the shoulder, buttock or thigh, a packet with instructions on how to administer the drug, and the hotline number. Kasper said the kits have saved lives.

“I’ve had overdose reversals reported to me,” she said. “There have been some overdose reversal kits that we’ve distributed that have saved people’s lives. I feel very grateful that I had the resources to CAHRP CREATOR: Clay Kasper says its hard to raise funds for a project to deliver life-saving naloxone and fentanyl to drug users.

start the project when I did, because those people might be dead without it having been started.”

Kasper is able to distribute naloxone thanks to the Arkansas Naloxone Protocol, a state law enacted in 2017 that allows licensed pharmacists to sell the drug without a prescription to people who use opioids and those who might know someone at risk of an overdose. Kasper said this legislation was crucial to the founding of CAHRP. “The act is what legally allowed a doctor to give a standing order to all the pharmacies in Arkansas,” Kasper said. “A standing order is something that’s been really important to our project. It’s basically a prescription for a community.”

Other key laws for CAHRP are “Good Samaritan” laws, which both protect doctors who write standing orders from being liable for civil damages for doing so and allow people who are not health care professionals to administer naloxone without legal risk.

To be able to buy the naloxone CAHRP distributes for free, Kasper got in touch with Tracey Helton, a harm reduction organizer featured in the harrowing 1999 documentary “Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street” about folks addicted to heroin in San Francisco. Helton in turn put Kasper in touch with a contact at the Harm Reduction Coalition, an agency that was able to broker a contract between CAHRP and the drug maker Pfizer. The contract allows CAHRP, which has a doctor’s standing order, to purchase individual vials — each a single dose — of naloxone directly from the manufacturer.

CAHRP is exclusively funded by community donations. But funds have been difficult to come by because of the stigma surrounding drug use and addiction, Kasper said.

“It’s really hard for us to fundraise since people with a lot of money want to hear the narrative of someone who was in college … or a child of a family with a lot of privilege,” Kasper said. “And it’s hard for them to hear a story of a home-

less, gay, black sex worker who is using heroin intravenously. People don’t want to provide money to that person’s safety and survivability because they view it as being their fault.”

This kind of stigmatization is why the harm reduction element of CAHRP is important to Kasper and her team. For Kasper, harm reduction includes efforts to combat the stigma of drug use by marginalized groups such as sex workers, people experiencing homelessness, people who are HIV positive, LGBT folks and persons of color.

CAHRP is also an HIV-prevention project, and it provides free condoms. The Arkansas Department of Health recently certified Kasper to administer free rapid HIV tests through the Voluntary Counseling and Testing program. She can perform an on-the-spot test that, while not taking the place of a blood test for a medical diagnosis of HIV, is a preliminary indicator for those wishing to know their status. CAHRP is also preparing to advocate for legislative reform of state HIV-related laws.

Kasper is working to incorporate CAHRP as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Until CAHRP is incorporated, donations are not tax-deductible. The best way to support the project is to donate to the project’s GoFundMe campaign, or to reach out to Kasper directly. All funds will be used to continue purchasing naloxone to distribute for free, to purchase fentanyl test strips and condoms, and to buy other important supplies, Kasper said.

Kasper wants to continue providing resources to the community with as few barriers to access as possible. She hopes to attend graduate school soon to study public health, but, for now, growing CAHRP’s ability to impact the community is her priority.

Those interested in donating to or volunteering with CAHRP can contact Clay Kasper at arkansasharmreduction@gmail. com.

THE PHILANTHROPIC HONOR ROLL

Higher education, from business to the arts, top givers’ lists.

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

U

niversities have been the major beneficiaries of multimillion-dollar gifts in the past 24 months, with the University of Arkansas system taking in a record yearly amount in 2018 for its current capital campaign. UA Monticello received a record gift of $6 million and Arkansas State University, Hendrix College and other universities received substantial new grants, thanks in great part to mega-funders the Walton Family Family Foundation, the Walton Family Charitable Foundation and the Windgate Foundation.

The UA announced recently that it has raised close to $1 billion — $947 million — in its ongoing Campaign Arkansas. Of that, nearly $300 million came in 2018 alone, a record year for the campaign. Contributing to the record was the Walton Family Charitable Trust’s gift of $24 million for the UA’s Office of Research and Innovation and its Office of Economic Development. The gift will pay for scholarly and business initiatives, faculty, and contribute to industry partnerships and UA’s Technology Ventures, which works to commercialize university research.

Here’s a look at some of the most significant gifts of 2017, gleaned from grantmaking foundations’ 2017 990 tax forms, the most recent on record, and giving by both foundations and individuals made public in 2018. Given the recent market decline, charity in 2019 might see a decline.

The Walton Family Foundation The Walton Family Foundation, which has $3.65 billion, made more than 2,000 grants totaling $506 million, $60 million of which went to entities in its “home region” of Arkansas. The largest Walton Family Foundation gift to an Arkansas nonprofit in 2017 was its $13.4 million grant to CONTINUED ON PAGE 17

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

15

A THIN BLUE RIBBON

Gordon Watkins helms an effort to ‘Save the Buffalo River — Again.’

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

F

orty minutes and six seconds into my phone conversation with Gordon Watkins, president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, his abiding reticence finally gave way. The low, steady baritone pitch of his voice lifted by a fraction, and an audible hint of a smile spread across his face. I’d asked him to name his favorite spot on the Buffalo River.

Watkins had plenty of spots to choose from; he’s floated all the Buffalo you can float — in its entirety and in smaller stretches — hundreds of times. “In fact,” he said, “if you include the Little Buffalo where I live,” the number probably swells into quadruple digits. “We call it ‘livin’ behind the river.’ We have to cross the river daily by a low water bridge, and it’s frequent that it’s too high to cross.” Watkins’ kids are grown now, but when they were young, he’d canoe them across that low water bridge to catch the school bus.

Watkins, who hails from Greenville, Miss., developed an eye for the Ozarks as a teenager, when the banality of his native “flatland, as far as the eye can see”

16

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

left him wanting to explore topography with a little more flair. “It was about 1968 when I first found the Buffalo and first started floating it,” Watkins recalled. “At that point, I was beginning to think about living in the woods, living in the country, building a house.” Initially thinking he’d use his psychology degree (and his experience counseling troubled youth with Outward Bound) to pilot an intensive outdoor therapy program, Watkins and his wife, Susan, bought a patch of land in Newton County near Parthenon in 1973. That outdoor therapy program took a back seat, though, when the couple decided to start a family of their own — and when their garden outgrew its hobby parameters.

“We had one of the oldest certified organic farms in the state,” he said, delivering blueberries twice a week to a thensmall scale operation called Whole Foods.

The Arkansas Farm Bureau named the Watkinses’ Rivendell Farms as one of its Arkansas Farm Families of the Year in 1987. “We’ve grown vegetables, hogs, turkeys, the whole gamut,” Watkins said. A few decades later, they’ve cut back the farming operation consider-

ably, and opened up a rental cabin on the property for Buffalo-bound visitors.

“I cut a little bit of hay,” he said, “and I tell people kind of tongue-in-cheek I’m farming tourists these days.”

Jokes aside, Watkins’ longstanding connection to the soil of Newton County makes it difficult to paint him the way he and his fellow Buffalo River Watershed Alliance board members were painted by former gubernatorial candidate/rightwing rabble rouser/gun range owner Jan Morgan — presumably ignorant of the ways in which farmers’ hard work keeps the grocery store shelves stocked — in a Feb . 1 Facebook video: as “elitist environmentalists from out of state.” That video taps into a white-hot Newton County controversy over a national river and an adjacent hog farm, one that’s sparked emotionally charged public hearings, cost loads in legal fees and divided once tightknit rural communities.

It started in May 2012, when a construction permit was obtained for an operation to raise 6,500 hogs on Buffalo River tributary Big Creek in Mount Judea, about 6 miles from where Big Creek meets the Buffalo. The permit,

Watkins said, was the first mistake. The National Park Service — responsible for protecting the Buffalo since 1972, when it was designated as the first national river — “had a gentlemen’s agreement, if you will, with the state Department of Environmental Quality” that no swine facilities would be allowed in the watershed.

“So they probably weren’t paying as close attention as they should have. I know as an individual I wasn’t paying enough attention to what the ADEQ was doing at that time. They were off my radar.”

When the construction of the Buffaloadjacent Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation did come to the attention of the National Park Service later that year, the NPS wrote a scathing letter to the Farm Services Agency, the organization guaranteeing a loan for C&H’s construction and operation. A copy of that letter made its way to Watkins and alliance co-founder/Vice President Jack Stewart in early 2013.

“I remember it very clearly,” Watkins said. “We sat down at the Low Gap Cafe and discussed ‘what the heck is going on here, and how did this happen? And what can we do about it?’ ” They got their

BRIAN CHILSON

BUFFALO RIVER PROTECTOR: Gordon Watkins is a farmer and conservationist.

paperwork in order, and the alliance was formed in the spring of that year. As a nod to the conservation efforts by Neil Compton and others at the Ozark Society who’d saved the river from being dammed in the 1960s, a slogan was born: “Save the Buffalo River — Again.” Seven board members, all of whom are unpaid, have been working since 2013 to do just that. Part of their work involves employing lawyers, a substantial expense for the BRWA, despite the fact that the alliance’s attorneys are working “at about a third of their normal rates.” Another part of the mission, Watkins said, involves educating people about the Buffalo River — what it is, why it’s important, why the tourist dollars it generates are so vital to the local economy. “We don’t think it’s fair to risk the crown jewel of Arkansas,” Watkins said. It’s not only the chief economic engine in a poor county, he said, but “an icon. You look at every piece of tourism that the Department of Tourism puts out and most of them feature Hawksbill Crag or Roark Bluff at Steel Creek or other parts of the Buffalo.”

The alliance also advocates for the relocation of C&H and seeks to make permanent the existing temporary moratorium on new CAFOs in the watershed. “Of all the places in Arkansas, why would the state decide to put this here?”

Watkins asked. “We’re not anti-farming. We’re not even anti-CAFO. We’re opposed to this one facility in this one particular location. That’s what it boils down to.”

The Regulation 6 program that allowed the ADEQ to first issue a permit C&H Hog Farm has expired. C&H subsequently applied for a Regulation 5 permit — the permit under which other Arkansas-based CAFOs operate — and was denied by ADEQ. That denial is on appeal. With an upcoming legislative session just around the corner, it’s doubtful a tidy, swift resolution is in sight.

Perhaps worse, the two sides of the issue are being painted with the broad brush of political tribalism: as a battle between farmers vs. conservationists.

But at the helm of the alliance is a man who’s both.

Watkins doesn’t blame the owners of C&H, but the slipshod government oversight that he says misled them. He does, however, express deep disappointment in the Arkansas Farm Bureau, the same organization that awarded him that Farm Family of the Year title in 1987.

“They’ve taken this thing and couched it

in terms of property rights and a rightto-farm issue, which it’s not,” Watkins said. “It’s a unique, one-of-a-kind situation that has to do with its location, both next to the Buffalo National River and sitting on top of karst [porous limestone]. …

They’re telling farmers all over the state that if they can shut this one facility down, you’re next. No permit is safe. And we think that’s probably disingenuous and misrepresents the issue, and does a disservice to farmers across the state.”

“People need to understand,” Watkins said, “that the Buffalo National River as a national park is not like Yosemite or Yellowstone or Glacier, which encompass tens of thousands of acres of land.

The Buffalo comprises 11 percent of the watershed. It’s like this thin blue ribbon that meanders through the bottom of the valley. Eighty-nine percent of the watershed that feeds it does not enjoy those same protections. So that makes it especially vulnerable to impacts from activities on those surrounding lands.”

And, when those “impacts” make up the largest source of nutrients and bacteria in the entire watershed — pardon the pun — shit can go downhill fast.

“We’ve got 6,500 hogs that produce an amount of waste equivalent to the town of Harrison,” Watkins said. “It’s untreated waste, and it’s sprayed on fields alongside this little creek that flows directly into the Buffalo River a few miles downstream. And we’re now seeing — in spite of alarm bells being rung that whole time — we’re seeing degradation of the river. We’re seeing algae blooms, we’re seeing low dissolved oxygen, we’re seeing nutrient levels that were not there before, all of which are indicators of contamination of the water.”

After our conversation, Watkins said, he’d go down and clean his rental cabin for that night’s round of guests. And, with the first killing frost in the forecast that night, he’d be doing a little winterizing and getting firewood to his tenants to enjoy.

And as for that favorite part of the Buffalo? The upper part, from Ponca to Steel Creek, down to Kyles. “The trails along that stretch are really spectacular,” he said. “You’ve got those big overlooks over Roark Bluff,” and “the open vistas that are kind of covered up by the foliage during the growing season are now open. ... It can be really beautiful in the wintertime. For 40 years, I’ve been canoeing the Buffalo year-round and sometimes those winter floats are the ones that stand out.”

Find out more about the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance and donate at buffaloriveralliance.org.

the Bentonville Child Care and Development Center; its second largest gift was $10.3 million to the Bentonville Bella Vista Trail Blazers Association, reflecting the interest in the youngest generation of Waltons in bike trails.

In 2017, the foundation distributed $193 million in education grants promoting charter schools across the nation; its largest gift in that category to an Arkansas charter institution was $2.5 million to the KIPP Delta Public Schools. Other multimillion-dollar gifts from the foundation were $8.9 million to Camp War Eagle in Rogers; $3.8 million for a new theater for Theatre Squared of Fayetteville, part of a $12.5 million pledge; $3.7 million to the city of Fayetteville; $3.3 million to the Thaden School, a private secondary school in Bentonville; $3 million to the city of Rogers; $2 million to the Northwest Arkansas Council Foundation; and $2 million to the UA Campus Foundation.

Loans made up a portion of the grantmaking total. Actual gifts totaled $491 million.

The Walton Charitable Support Foundation The Walton Charitable Support Foundation, whose offices have moved from Siloam Springs to Little Rock, reported assets of $581 million and giving of $130 million on its 2017 990 tax form. Most of that amount — $120 million — went to the University of Arkansas Foundation to establish the School of Art. The gift was a philanthropic record nationally for a university art program. The foundation also gave $3 million grants to the Arkansas Community Foundation and John Brown University in Siloam Springs and $2 million grants to the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville and Harding University in Searcy.

Windgate Charitable Foundation The Windgate Charitable Foundation, which is spending down its millions, is, like the Walton Family Charitable Foundation, changing the landscape of art education in Arkansas. Its 2017 gifts included $11 million to UA Little Rock, part of its $20 million grant to build the Windgate Center for Art + Design; $10 million to the Arkansas Arts Center for its operating and curatorial expenses and new con-

struction; $10 million to UA Fayetteville; and $5 million to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, completing a $10 million pledge. Its 2018 planned giving included $30 million to the UA for the Windgate Art and Design District south of campus (it pledged a total of $40 million to the project) and $10 million to Hendrix College for its endowment. The foundation announced this year it will give $6.7 million to Arkansas State University to build a new arts facility on that campus. The foundation reported $271 million in net assets in 2017 and 345 grants totaling $84 million.

Individual gifts of $500,000 or more The estate of former professor Myles Friedman has left $10.8 million to Arkansas State University for scholarships for students seeking bachelor’s degrees in the liberal arts.

Arkansas State University alumnus and retired banker F. O’Neil “Neil” Griffin of Kerrville, Texas, donated $10 million to the Jonesboro university to create professorships in the business college, which will be renamed for him.

A gift of $7.5 million from John Ed Anthony Timberlands Inc. and Isabel Anthony to the University of Arkansas will help build the $15 million Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation.

The center will promote wood design construction, such as the $79 million residence hall of cross-laminated timber that the UA is building, said to be the first in the country. The center will be built in the Windgate Art and Design District in south Fayetteville.

An anonymous donor has agreed to make grants totaling $7 million over four years to the Supply Chain Management Research Center in the UA Sam Walton College of Business to support professorship, fellowships, visiting faculty and other expenses.

Anonymous donors have included the UA as a beneficiary in their revocable trust in the amount of $6.2 million for projects at Garvan Woodland Gardens outside Hot Springs.

The University of Arkansas at Monticello announced the largest private gift in its history: an estimated $6 million-plus from the estate of Merle and Deloris Peterson of Dumas.

An anonymous donor pledged $2 million to the UA Foundation Inc. to endow a chair in the university’s Architecture and Urban Design proCONTINUED ON PAGE 30

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

17

ARKANSAS HUNGER RELIEF ALLIANCE

The state’s ultimate anti-hunger warriors.

BY LINDSEY MILLAR

W

hen Mark Warner, assistant supervisor at the Central Arkansas Community Correction Center in Little Rock, posts a notice of a new session of Cooking Matters, a class on how to shop on a budget and cook healthy food, inmates always hurry to sign up. “In less than 24 hours, there’ll be 50 names on [the sign-up sheet],” he said. “And I don’t have but 125 guys.

They can’t get enough.”

Arkansas has the second-worst food insecurity rate in the country — a U.S. Department of Agriculture measure of both access to enough food and access to sufficient nutritional food — according to Feeding America’s 2018 Map the Meal Gap survey. Little Rock’s Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is working to combat that statistic from so many different angles that executive director Kathy Webb jokes that her elevator explanation of what the nonprofit does requires an elevator ride to the top of the Empire State Building. It’s hard for her to name her favorite alliance program, but she says Cooking Matters is “one of the coolest things we do.”

“We know you can reduce your food insecurity up to 50 percent if you learn to cook and shop,” Webb said. “By learning how to shop, you’re learning unit pricing, learning how to stretch your food dollars, when to buy fresh, when to buy frozen, when to buy canned. We teach you, if what you’d done before was to go buy a box of Hamburger Helper, that instead if you separately bought all the ingredients of that meal, it would be less expensive, take the same amount of time and be a lot healthier for you.”

As it does with a lot of its initiatives, the Hunger Relief Alliance works to find partner organizations that want to bring Cooking Matters to their communities and provide those partners with support. The alliance 18

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

teams with just about every group imaginable on the program: churches, senior centers, after-school programs.

But, before Warner started teaching Cooking Matters in early 2017 as a pilot when he was a deputy warden at the Department of Correction’s J. Aaron Hawkins Sr. Center, the class had never been taught in a correctional setting anywhere in the country.

State prisons offer programming on writing a resume and work preparation, but there has been a dearth of health and fitness programming in state correction, Warner said. Cooking Matters was a good fit because, Warner said, “when you start talking about people involved in the justice system, a lot of them don’t know where their next meal is going to come from. This gives them some tools in their box that they could take home and be able to feed their families, both more economically and actually feed them a better diet.”

Warner saw it as part of an effort to get inmates ready to re-enter the real world. “Because 95 percent of inmates who are locked up are going home,” he said. “What we had been doing for years was handing you $100 and saying, ‘Good luck, we’ll see you after while.’ Nationwide, and here in Arkansas, the pendulum has really swung the other way and we’re really trying to get people ready to go home.”

When Warner took the program to the Central Arkansas Community Correction Center after he began work there, Cooking Matters became an officially sanctioned program in the departments of correction and community correction. It’s expected to soon expand to prisons, including Tucker, Grimes and McPherson, and Community Correction facilities in West Memphis and Texarkana.

“The great news about the program is the super support we get from the Hunger Relief Alliance. The program doesn’t cost us anything. They come

GLEANING: Kathy Webb, executive director of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, said the nonprofit’s Arkansas Gleaning Project produced 1.2 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables this year.

out and train staff. They’re available all the time for any kind of support in terms of where can I get this and who can get me that,” Warner said.

He hopes to work with the alliance to develop curriculum specifically for inmates. “It’s kind of hard to work on knife skills in a correctional setting,” he quipped.

For her pitch on the work of the alliance, Webb borrows University of Illinois professor Craig Gunderson’s keys for tackling hunger because they fit naturally with the alliance’s mission: No. 1: You need a strong emergency food system. The alliance works with food banks “to secure food for them and their pantries through a variety of programs, by looking for donated food, purchasing food and gleaning food,” Webb said. The nonprofit’s Arkansas Gleaning Project was the first of its kind in the country and is the most developed, she said. This year, the alliance worked with 21 farmers and hundreds of volunteers to glean about 1.2 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Arkansas Beef Project, also the first program of its kind in the country, encourages Arkansas cattleman to donate cows to be processed for meat.

No. 2: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, must be kept strong. Webb said 20-25 percent of Arkansans who are eligible for what used to be known as food stamps don’t take advantage of the program. The alliance works closely with the state Department of Human Services to get the word out, both through direct outreach and by training volunteers to do outreach.

No. 3: Other USDA programs must be kept strong. The alliance works with public schools to make sure they’re taking advantage of free breakfast and lunch programs and with other community partners that offer after-school and summer feeding programs. The alliance’s work in these areas comes as part of the No Kid Hungry campaign, an initiative of the national anti-hunger nonprofit Share Our Strength, which has provided the alliance with a multiyear grant. Webb said the Hunger Relief Alliance’s big win in this area this year was the rollout of the Breakfast After the Bell “Good 2 Go” Smoothie program, a joint effort between the nonprofit, Baptist Health and the Little Rock School District.

The alliance had previously gotten the LRSD and other school districts to roll out Breakfast After the Bell programs, where students get free

breakfast served in their classrooms.

Twenty-one of 28 elementary schools in the LRSD offer the program. Studies have shown that having breakfast increases concentration, reduces behavioral problems and generally improves academic outcomes. But how to reach older kids who aren’t as likely to go to the cafeteria first thing in the morning? The smoothie program launched in January 2018 at Hall, J.A. Fair and McClellan high schools in the LRSD. Rates of high school students having breakfast doubled, and even tripled at Hall, said Stephanie Walker Hynes, LRSD child nutrition director. This year, the program expanded to all 13 schools that serve children in grades 6-12. The smoothies are made with yogurt, fresh fruit and milk, and come with a package of granola that can be mixed in. “It’s a trendy food item that’s healthy and popular,” Hynes said. The alliance helped the district structure the program, get new commercial kitchen equipment to make the smoothies and market the program. That sort of support is “amazing,” Hynes said.

No. 4: Advocacy is necessary.

“Needless to say, this is one of my favorite things the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance does because of my love of policy,” said Webb, a Little Rock city director, the city’s vice mayor and a former state legislator. The alliance acts as the liaison to the Arkansas Legislative Hunger Caucus, the first such caucus in the country, and takes legislators to see or participate in alliance events throughout the year. It also works with the state’s congressional delegation on federal legislation.

No. 5: Financial literacy is important. Webb puts Cooking Matters, which is also an initiative of Share Our Strength, in this category. The program has reached some 41,000 Arkansans since it began in 2012.

The alliance has around 500 members who pay $25 per year. Membership includes food pantries, community groups and individuals. The nonprofit regularly sends out action alerts when it needs help advocating for certain legislation or helping in the field. Although the alliance receives support from the state and federal government and national funders like Share Our Strength, Webb said the organization has traditionally lagged when it comes to individual donors, though donations have increased in recent years.

YOUR GIFT WILL HELP SAVE THE BUFFALO RIVER — AGAIN Buffalo River Watershed Alliance P.O. Box 101, Jasper, AR 72641 buffaloriveralliance.org

BEST CHARITY

No child should go to bed hungry Join the Alliance and help us make sure they don’t.

Your voice, your donation, your activism will make a difference.

Get involved at

arhungeralliance.org

To donate or learn more, visit arhungeralilance.org. arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

19

Arts Entertainment AND

RAMBLER’S REVERIE

An 87-year-old folk legend casts his spell at the White Water Tavern.

ANTI- PRESS

BY JACKSON MEAZLE

A

little before 9 p.m. on a cold and drizzling night, Elliot Charles Adnopoz, better known as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, tiptoed downstairs from a makeshift green room — the pool room at the White Water Tavern — and captivated a mostly silent audience for 45 minutes.

Elliott, wearing a silver-belly cowboy hat and suspenders, said his usual opener, “San Francisco Bay Blues,” had been played so well by opening musician Joe Sundell that he’d start with a Bessie Smith classic.

The mean “Bedbug Blues” had audience members chuckling from their chairs lining the front of the White Water’s wooden stage.

By the end of the song, Elliott had morphed from a Flatbush, Brooklyn, blues singer to earnest cowboy songster and slaphappy road poet with “Diamond Joe.” Elliott introduced the song with a story about how he’d heard it from a rodeo cowboy in Brussels, Belgium, in the mid1950s. In predictable but pleasing form, Elliott then rambled for five minutes about the breakup with his picking and singing partner, Derroll Adams, over a case of beer and the pressure alcohol had on his ex-wife, June, who later managed the Rolling Stones.

The way Elliott waxes, you hang on to every word. He’s like a grandfather gesturing from an old comfortable chair, and you nearly forget that he has a Martin D-28 guitar in his hand and is here to play music.

Suddenly, the yarn stopped.

Elliott played a few lonesome minor

chords and sang the shaky opening verses of the song, about a cowboy under the thumb of greedy and lawless ranch boss Diamond Joe. The song was obviously a crowd pleaser; fidgets ceased, the crowd’s breath stopped collectively short.

Elliott moved on to the “Arthritis Blues,” singing a little high for his liking, and moved his guitar capo to a sweeter spot up the neck. Switching the musical key a few times with a capo, sometimes called a guitar “cheater,” is a repeat gag in Elliott’s repertoire, but this particular time, one false start was enough for him to settle upon the key in which he wanted to sing. The song twisted and turned, rendered in the manner of an arthritic hand.

Soon after, we were introduced to the material that Elliott is most famous for, from the star to which he hitched his wagon. “Buffalo Skinners” took the wind out of the room, much like the 78 rpm version Woody Guthrie recorded in 1945. Trancelike in delivery, Elliott placed us on the range of the buffalo in ’83 — not 1983, he clarified — in a dream-like tapestry, filmic in its montage detail.

Again, the narrator laments a cowboy’s exploitation by a corrupt buffalo hunter boss in what Alan Lomax called Elliott’s “Hollywood version” of the song. In Elliott’s hands, Woody Guthrie’s words and images took on childlike wonder, as if a young Elliot Adnapoz had fallen in love with the American myth of the Western Plains not only from hearing about it in song, but in the darkened room of a 1940s picture show. As “Buffalo Skinners”

SLAPHAPPY ROAD POET: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott wove tales of sailors, clipper ships and cowboys during a captivating two-night run at the White Water Tavern.

20

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

A&E NEWS

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

came to its last breath, Elliott imitated the sound of the wind on the prairie, blowing into the microphone, reminding us to catch our own breath after a stunning gaze into the past.

After playing a fragment of the Rolling Stones’ song “Connection” — to which Elliott himself couldn’t quite make a connection — he told how Bob Dylan “relinquished” his song “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” to him sometime in the mid’60s. Most intriguing about his tale was the way it revealed Elliott’s knowledge about clipper ship anatomy, explained by the dropping level of whiskey in a bottle of Cutty Sark he was drinking one night trying to learn the Dylan song from a record.

The final highlight of the show came with another Woody Guthrie song, “Talking Sailor.” Elliott talked his way through the adventures of a marine merchant fighting the fascists in World War II. With homespun details about sea life and brilliant rhyme laden with acronym (“I’m a union man from head to toe/ I’m U.S.A. and C.I.O.), Elliott channeled the sailor’s life of danger and the often rudderless happenstance of wartime exploits. On both land and sea, Elliott coaxed human dignity and absurdity from the silver-belly hat of history.

Encoring with another Dylan staple, “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” Elliott bid farewell and safe travels to his adoring audience. If you were one of the lucky ones sitting in front of a folk legend for those 45 minutes, you may have also been lucky enough to see an 87-year-old man in cowboy boots gallop up a flight of wooden stairs in the White Water Tavern and into immortality.

The Arkansas Times is accepting submissions for the 2019 Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase. Original material in any musical style is welcome. Finalists will be asked to perform in one of four semifinal rounds, to take place at Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack. Winners from each round will compete for a robust prize package in the final round at the Rev Room in March.

Send streaming links (Bandcamp, YouTube, Soundcloud, etc.) of your band performing to showcase@ arktimes.com. Please include band name, hometown, date the band was formed, age range of members (all ages are welcome) and a contact person’s name, email address and phone number. Deadline for submissions is Jan. 1, 2019.

DeWitt native and current Poet Laureate of Arkansas Jo McDougall has been given the Porter Fund’s Lifetime Achievement Award, given out every five years to an established Arkansas writer. “McDougall is the fourth Arkansas writer to be given the Lifetime Achievement honor following Donald Harington in 2004, Miller Williams in 2009 and Charles Portis in 2014,” a press release said. A prize of $2,000 accompanies the award. McDougall will be recognized in a ceremony and gala at 6:30 p.m. June 20, 2019, at the William J. Clinton Library and Museum. McDougall has authored a memoir, “Daddy’s Money: A Memoir of Farm and Family,” as well as six poetry collections: “The Woman in the Next Booth,” “Towns Facing Railroads” (the stage adaptation of which premiered at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in 2006), “From Darkening Torches,” “Dirt,” “Satisfied with Havoc” and “The Undiscovered Room.” The Porter Fund was founded in 1984 by novelist Jack Butler and novelist/lawyer Phil McMath in honor of UA Fayetteville English Professor Dr. Ben Kimpel, and has been awarded to over 30 poets, novelists, nonfiction writers and playwrights.

The Porter Fund Prize was named in honor of Kimpel’s mother, Gladys Kimpel Porter.

The Argenta Community Theater has named Laura Sessoms Grimes as executive director. Grimes, a North Little Rock native, will join Board Chair Judy Tenenbaum and Artistic Director Vince Insalaco in expanding ACT’s outreach and education programs, most notably a 2019 initiative called “Second ACT,” an educational program for adults of all acting experience levels. The 218seat theater, co-founded by Insalaco and Tenenbaum, opened in 2011.

For details and tickets to upcoming shows at the ACT — “A Christmas Carol” (up through Dec. 15), “Newsies” (March 1-9) and “A Chorus Line” (July 19-27) — see argentacommunitytheater.org.

LOCAL TICKETS, ONE PLACE

CENTRALARKANSASTICKETS.COM mnjeoasdfghrjkl!.=O The Wildflower Revue presents a

Hard Candy Christmas THUR, DEC 20, 8:00PM

We’ll be a little more than just fine and dandy with this Hard Candy Christmas with the Wildflower Revue! Concert begins at 8 pm. Purchase advance tickets for $10 or pay $15 at the door.

mnjeoasdfghrjkl!.=O

Radiohead Tribute Show with John Willis WED, DEC 26, 8PM

For the final show in his December Sessions, John Willis is bringing his incredible Radiohead tribute show back to the South on Main stage. Concert starts at 8 pm. Purchase advance tickets for $12 or pay $15 at the door. Tickets do not guarantee you a seat. Please call (501) 244-9660 to reserve a table.

mnjeoasdfghrjkl!.=O 1304 MAIN STREET LITTLE ROCK, AR 72202 501-244-9660

GET TICKETS AT CENTRALARKANSASTICKETS.COM

Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

21

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK, REBEKAH HALL AND OMAYA JONES KATIE CHILDS

THE

FRIDAY 12/14

2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT

5-8 p.m. Downtown museums.

Many noggins will come together Friday for the “14th Ever Nog-off,” the fierce annual eggnog battle at the Historic Arkansas Museum (200 E. Third St.). Prepare to taste all sorts of nogs, from the traditional to nog made with beer, which might win the “Not Your Great, Great, Great Grandfather’s Eggnog Award,” created a while back so the recipe by Nicholas Peay (1812-1857) wouldn’t get all the nog nods. Sippers will name the People’s Choice Award winner; experts in the making of nog will present the Taster’s Choice Award. Then find a more sober, yet rich in purpose, gathering at the Cox Creative Center (100 Rock St.): There the Arkansas Music and Arts Foundation, which sponsors the girls songwriting camp Trust Tree, opens the 2018 Robert J. Fisher Award photography exhibition. Nationally known architectural photographer Tim Hursley judged the competition; photographs by winners Destiny Lepard, Tom Nguyen and Paris Dugan will be displayed. Jamee McAdoo, who merges ukulele with hip-hop and spoken-word poetry, will perform. Shows at the Galleries at Library Square in the Butler Center next door include one of paintings by Terry Brewer from his time in Nepal; Gallery 221, which has moved its gallery to the second floor at Second and Center streets, will be open; Bella Vita (523 S. Louisiana St.) will host a design-your-own-earrings event; McLeod Fine Art (108 W. Sixth St.) is hosting a holiday group show; Art Group artists have work at the Marriott Little Rock (3 Statehouse Plaza); and the Old State House Museum (300 W. NOG AND STROLL: Pair your sipfest at Historic Arkansas Museum’s 14th Ever Nog-Off with a performance from poet Jamee McAdoo in the nearby Cox Creative Center.

Markham St.) is screening the classic “A Christmas Story.” LNP

FRIDAY 12/14

CORY BRANAN

9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern. $10.

Perpetually undersung Memphis rocker Cory Branan followed up “No-Hit Wonder” in 2014 with “Adios,” the 2017 release Branan’s bio labels “his death record.” Don’t dare take it for a soft-focus glorification of the dead, though; Branan’s acidic takes on expired relationships mingle with elegies to American patriotism and, heartbreakingly, to his late father, as in “The Vow”: “I could’ve curled up in one footprint, one giant laugh, one giant hand/Until the sickness and the treatment shrunk him down to just a man/A shrinking man still tinkering with my old busted car/When his wedding ring must’ve slipped into the muddy yard/At least that’s what he figured when he noticed it was gone/I can still see him on his knees digging up that lawn.” No spoilers here, but suffice it to say Branan can wreck you with a quatrain and reassemble the pieces with an E Street Band-inspired rocker like “Another Nightmare In America.” What’s more, the record’s peppered with musicians you already dig from other projects: Amanda Shires, Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace and Deer Tick’s Robbie Crowell. SS

‘WAKE THE QUEENS’: Heart Society and Dazz & Brie share a rock-soul bill at the White Water Tavern on Friday night.

FRIDAY 12/14

HEART SOCIETY, DAZZ & BRIE

9 p.m. South on Main. $8-$10.

It must be exhausting to be asked, as musicians so often are, to explain their music in easily digestible and decidedly unmusical bullet points, which is probably why so many defer to the listener for her own individual interpretation. Not so with Heart Society’s “Wake the Queens,” which guitarist/soul queen Teneia Sanders-Eichelberger will wrap up neatly for you, thankyouverymuch, as she did following a live performance of “What’s On Your Mind, Kid?” for GoDaddy last year: “It’s an album about 22

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

female empowerment. It’s about women standing strong, speaking their truth and not worrying about what other people think.” And with Sanders-Eichelberger’s mighty belt as a vehicle, that’s exactly what the band’s flagship track sounds like. In a beauty of a pairing, Dazz & Brie — fellow merchants of positive vibes, electric guitar and mighty melisma — share the bill. It’s gonna be a lovefest and a dance party, guaranteed. SS

Follow us on Instagram: ArkTimes

IN BRIEF, CONT.

THURSDAY 12/13

FRIDAY 12/14-SUNDAY 12/16

‘HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS’ 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun. Robinson Performance Hall. $16-$75.

Families and festive Arkansans of all ages can join in the jam-packed holiday spirit with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s “Home For the Holidays” series. The ASO will perform such holiday favorites as Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride”; the “Hanukkah Festival Overture” with three traditional bright, melodic Hanukkah songs; and a unique rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” called “The Twelve Gifts of Christmas,” excerpts of classics arranged by Jeff Tyzik. Other highlights include “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker,” which will be performed with the Episcopal Collegiate School Steel Drum Ensemble; “Silver Bells,” with tenor Vernon Di Carlo, a New Orleans native who’s performed with Opera in the Rock and the River Rhapsody Concert series; and “O Holy Night,” featuring soprano Maria Fasciano, who also has performed with Opera in the Rock and with the ASO. Each “Home For the Holidays” show will also feature preconcert performances, so arrive early to hear Andrew Irvin’s “Caroling Violins” before Friday’s show, Brent Shires and Hornaments before Saturday’s show and ASO’s “Caroling Cellos” before Sunday’s final show during the annual ASO Children’s Fair. The ASO Youth Ensembles’ Academy Orchestra will perform during intermission Sunday. Ugly holiday sweaters welcome!

RH

FRIDAY 12/14

AKEEM KEMP BAND

8:30 p.m. Markham Street Grill and Pub. Free.

If you’re a fan of the electric blues and you’ve been sleeping on this Conway County outfit, sleep no more.

Blues guitarist Akeem Kemp is the real deal — way too young to channel Albert King so convincingly, and way too virtuosic to be so young. Even better, he’s been playing with the same musicians — bass player Kentrell Clemons and drummer Juwaan Trezvant — long enough to take genuine musical risks and liberties, of which flipping the guitar over behind his head and shredding Hendrix-style is only one. For fans of Gary Clark Jr. and Eric Gales. SS

Comedian Tim Gaither goes for laughs at The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Fri., 10 p.m. Fri., 9:30 p.m. Sat., $8-$12. Postgrunge rockers Smile Empty Soul take the stage at the Rev Room, with Co-Op and Eight Eyes, 8 p.m., $10-$13. The Central Arkansas Library System’s Not Quite Holiday Film Fest continues with a screening of “Love Actually,” 6:30 p.m., Ron Robinson Theater, $5.

Songwriter/ukelele player Barbara Raney takes her clever turns of phrase to Guillermo’s Coffee, Tea & Roastery for Poetry Night, 6:30 p.m. Comedian Mo Alexander pays a visit to The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse, with Elaine Jackson, Colin Nelson and host Blake Lensing, 8 p.m., $12. Frontier Circus joins The Floor Also Rises at the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $7. Tragikly White accompanies the dance party at Cajun’s Wharf, 9 p.m., $5, or go early and catch Brian Ramsey, 5:30 p.m., free. Bluesman Trey Johnson takes the stage at South on Main, 8 p.m., $8-$10.

9th annual

Holiday Music at the Arsenal Sunday, December 16, 2018 2 p.m. | Admission is FREE Welcoming the talents of the Margaret Wyatt Piano and Vocal Studio

FRIDAY 12/14 Couch Jackets, Elephantom and New Motto channel rock’s weirder tendencies at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 9 p.m.

With original Temptations member Otis Williams, The Legendary Temptations take the stage in El Dorado at Murphy Arts District’s First Financial Music Hall, with an opening set from Rodney Block, 8 p.m., $50-$85. Paul Prater of Haunted Argenta explores spooky holiday history at the Elks Lodge, 123 E. Broadway, for “Spirits of Christmas,” 8 p.m., $20. DeFrance takes its signature rock to TC’s Midtown Grill in Conway, 9 p.m. DiamondBack, XIIIX, Hooker Red, The Federalis and McCuin share a rock bill at the Clear Channel Metroplex for “Hardcore for the Homeless,” 8 p.m., $10 donation.

Guitarist Asher Perkins and Resophonic guitar player Sean Essary, known as Roots Tour, perform at Fenix Fayetteville, 7 p.m., $10. Richie Johnson kicks off the weekend with a happy hour set at Cajun’s, 5:30 p.m., free, followed by a late night set from Mister Lucky, 9 p.m., $5. Four Quarter Bar hosts a show from The Busty Petites, 10 p.m., $7. At Oaklawn Racing & Gaming’s Silks Bar & Grill, the Wesley Pruitt Band plays, 10:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. The Hendrix College Choir takes its Candlelight Carol Service on the road for a performance at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, 7:30 p.m., free. Monsterboy plays a set at Dugan’s Pub, 9 p.m. The City Boyz take the stage at Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9:30 p.m., $5. The Craig Gerdes Band performs at Kings Live Music in Conway with an opening set from Garth LaGrone, 8:30 p.m., $5. Guillermo’s hosts downtempo electronica sets from Flintwick, Fringe Bass and more for “Cafe Disco,” 7 p.m., $10.

503 E. Ninth St., Little Rock 501-376-4602 ArkMilitaryHeritage.com

M A G A Z I N E

CONTINUED ON PAGE 39 Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

23

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK, REBEKAH HALL AND OMAYA JONES A NORTEÑO CHRISTMAS: Corrido/Norteño quintet Quinto Poder give a free, one-hour holiday concert at CALS Ron Robinson Theater Friday evening.

TUESDAY 12/18

‘FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED POLITICS’ 6 p.m. Great Hall, Clinton Presidential Center. Free.

SATURDAY 12/15

QUINTO PODER

8 p.m. CALS Ron Robinson Theater. Free.

In the musical landscape where polka accordion rhythms and the bright strings of the bajo sexto hold sway lives Q5P, a local Norteño quintet. The genre’s both a staple of Mexican-American radio and one that’s experiencing a revival of sorts, with takes from traditionalists and reinventors alike. (For more on the latter, check out Los Tigres del Norte’s immigration reform anthems or the band’s GLAAD Award-winning “Ella Era Diferente,” a Norteño bop about a lesbian who falls in love with her best friend.) And, for a primer on QP5, check out the polyrhythmic excerpt of “Las Envidias” the group posted to its Reverb nation page (with hay bales as benches and a cameo from a horse!), or the YouTube video for “El Adaptado,” performed guerilla cinema-style on a railroad track. Or the bedroom ballad confessional video for “Fue Un Error Amarte,” a slow jam from the sometimes-trio’s full band. I’m not convinced there’s a better aural antidote to the overplayed holiday mishmash of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”and “Jingle Bell Rock” than this free concert from Quinto Poder, brought to you courtesy of the Butler Center’s Arkansas Sounds series. SS

Political superstars Donna Brazile, Yolanda Carraway, Leah Daughtry and Minyon Moore, the African-American authors of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics,” will give a moderated discussion about race, gender and politics. Brazile has served as interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee and as a trusted talking head on CNN and ABC News; Carraway chaired the DNC’s Fairness Commission; Daughtry has twice chaired Democratic National Convention committees; and Moore was the first AfricanAmerican woman to serve as political director in the White House, under President Bill Clinton. This powerful group is encouraging women to continue carving space for themselves in the political landscape. A book signing will follow the discussion. Reserve free seats by emailing publicprograms@ clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling 501-683-5239. RH

TUESDAY 12/18

‘HIS GIRL FRIDAY’

7 p.m. Riverdale 10 Cinema. $9.

Howard Hawks’ 1940 film “His Girl Friday” is both a remake and an adaptation. The film is a comedy of remarriage in which reporter Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) is engaged to be married to an insurance salesman (Ralph Bellamy) and is trying to break the news to her ex-husband, editor Walter Burns (Cary Grant).

Meanwhile, a man sentenced to death for the murder of a black police officer has escaped. Burns’ goal is to get Hildy to cover one last story before she goes off to marital bliss with her husband. There’s tension in that Hildy, a good reporter, has an exciting life, but marriage promises bland stability. Adapted from Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1928 play “The Front Page,” and the 1931 film adaptation of the same name, the role of Hildy Johnson was initially played by a man. Hawks supposedly got the idea to gender swap Hildy’s role (and to make the character the ex-wife of editor Walter Burns) after his secretary read the part during a rehearsal.

He liked the way the dialogue sounded coming from a woman. The film is known for its snappy, overlapping dialogue, a trait attributed to Robert Altman some 40 years later. There’s no shortage of film discussions these days about the lack of quality roles for women and people of color. One solution? Take your script and just flip the gender or race of a protagonist, a la a 2016 “Ghostbusters” or a 2018 “Oceans 8.”

“His Girl Friday” screens at Riverdale 10 Cinema as part of the Arkansas Times Film series, programmed and presented by Film Quotes Film. OJ 24

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

Follow us on Instagram: ArkTimes

GENDER SWAP, CIRCA 1940: Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell star in “His Girl Friday,” next up in the Arkansas Times Film Series.

IN BRIEF, CONT.

SATURDAY 12/15 SATURDAY 12/15

BILLY DON BURNS

8 p.m. Low Key Arts, Hot Springs. $10-$15.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Billy Don Burns, a Fifty-Six (Stone County) native and the man whose songs landed on the lips of Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson, is playing a show at Low Key Arts. Nelson, in a written appeal to a Kentucky judge for leniency for Burns after he landed himself in legal hot water (again), described him this way: “Keep him in rehab until he’s clean, then give him another chance.

He’s not a bad guy, he just made some bad choices.” Connecticut’s Shore Line Times introduced him as follows: “He’s been stabbed 17 times, been divorced six, and had a deviated septum from the time he was beat up and left for dead. 2014 was his most recent stint at a penitentiary, for a parole violation.” His life’s one giant outlaw country song, and he’s got the writer’s touch to make that story sing. Catch him here, so that when somebody makes a movie about him, you can say you were there. Danny Smith and Garth LaGrone share the bill; all proceeds benefit the Unknown Legends Musicians Relief Fund, an Arkansas nonprofit that supports Arkansas-based musicians with medical needs. For details on the show, see lowkeyarts.org, and for details on ULMRF, see ulmrf.org. SS

SATURDAY 12/15

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS

9 p.m. Rev Room. $20-$25.

From the DNA — musical and biological — of ever-Dixie Fried pianist and producer Jim Dickinson come Luther and Cody Dickinson, the duo at the core of the North Mississippi Allstars. They’ve been at the forefront of blues reimagining for decades now, managing all the while to channel the legacy of the Mississippi tradition to which they’re connected through collaborations with family members of R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, producing with Royal Studios royalty Boo Mitchell and through sheer collective devotion to keeping the grooves greasy. Cody Dickinson & Friends open the show, giving you a chance to understand what Luther meant when he said, “We used to filter every experiment, every new interest, every aesthetic idea, into the Allstars because we were so focused on the one band.

Now that we’ve spread our wings and have other outlets, everything can just breathe and be itself. We know what we’re supposed to do so we can just go in and do it.” SS

SATURDAY 12/15

DEEP SEQUENCE

10 p.m. Four Quarter Bar.

Song titles like “Double Scrootie” and “Midnight Snack” are the tip of the iceberg here; Deep Sequence dropped many a jaw when the quartet played our Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase this year with infectious, front-and-center bass riffs and arpeggio solos arranged so tightly Zappa and Bach must surely have smiled down at them from the clouds and whispered to themselves, “It’s good, what we’ve done.” Oh, and the fact that Four Quarter’s bar menu is eternally on point doesn’t hurt things one bit. For an idea of what you’re getting into, devote the next 11 minutes to the meandering, funkified “Helix” on Deep Sequence’s Bandcamp page. SS

The White Water Tavern hosts a venerable trio of songwriters: Drexel & The Spirit, Isaac Alexander and Kevin Kerby, 9 p.m. Duo Bobby Matthews and Virginia Ralph, known as mömandpöp, take their “Old Fashioned Christmas” to South on Main for a kidfriendly Brown Bag Brunch, 10 a.m., $5.

Dunbar Magnet Middle School sings at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center for “Cocoa and Carols,” 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The Arkansas Razorbacks men’s basketball team takes on the University of San Antonio’s Roadrunners at Verizon Arena, 7 p.m., $25. Hwy 124 kicks off a set at TC’s Midtown Grill in Conway, 9 p.m.

Stickyz hosts the 6th Annual Christmas Karaoke for The Van, 8 p.m., $10. The Rodney Block Collective, featuring Bijoux, performs a live holiday set at Zin Urban Wine Bar, 11121 N. Rodney Parham, 9 p.m., $15. Gold Leather, Peace of the Sea, The Phlegms and Ankle Pop get loud at Maxine’s, 9 p.m. Liberty Bridge gives a concert at Hibernia Irish Tavern, 7:30 p.m.

Not-Quite-Holiday Film Fest 6:30 p.m. • $5 • Ron Robinson Theater Library Square, 100 Rock St.

Love Actually (R) Thursday Dec. 13

Die Hard (R)

Tuesday • Dec. 18

Gremlins (PG-13)

Thursday • Dec. 20

The Not-Quite-Holiday Film Fest is sponsored by 106.7 The Ride and The Point 94.1.

SUNDAY 12/16 Soprano Mary Ann Robinson joins the River City Men’s Chorus for a holiday concert, 3 p.m. Sun., 7 p.m. Mon.-Tue., Second Presbyterian Church, free.

Stone’s Throw Brewing hosts a Sip & Stroll Neighborhood Caroling walk through the MacArthur Park neighborhood, 2 p.m. Students of the Margaret Wyatt Piano and Vocal Studio perform “Holiday Music at the Arsenal,” 2 p.m., MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, free. The Natural State Brass Band gives a Christmas concert at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 3 p.m.

MONDAY 12/17 Soak up the sounds of The Goat Band (with Jay Payette sitting in on percussion) at its Monthly Monday Jazz session at The Lobby Bar, 7:30 p.m.

Holiday Music Concert Friday • Dec. 14 • 8 p.m. • Free Enjoy a mix of new original songs and fresh takes on holiday favorites

by Quinto Poder (Q5P).

Nexus Nook

The Nexus Nook coffee shop in the lobby of the Main Library opens Saturday, Dec. 15.

CALS.org

TUESDAY 12/18 The Not Quite Holiday Film Fest at CALS Ron Robinson continues with a screening of “Die Hard,” 6:30 p.m., $5.

Punch Line Stand Up Comedy goes up at The Joint, 6 p.m., $5.

WEDNESDAY 12/19 Vocalist Bijoux takes center stage at South on Main as one of composer John Willis’ picks for the “Sessions” series, 8 p.m., $8-$10. Meanwhile, the Rev Room hosts an evening of Caroling for the Less Fortunate, $10 suggested donation, $15 VIP.

handmade jewelry 523 S. Louisiana (In the Lafayette building) 501.396.9146 | www.bellavitajewelry.net

Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

25

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’

The Nexus Nook coffee shop will open Saturday, Dec. 15, on the first floor of the Central Arkansas Library System’s Main Library at 100 Rock St. Nexus Coffee and Creative, just around the corner at 301 President Clinton Ave., will operate the Nook, serving its regular menu of coffees (but none blended, to keep down the noise) and teas along with scones, muffins, cookies, parfaits and trail mix.

The Nook will serve and have seating around the Information Desk. Monitors will update cafe customers on library news. The Nook will be open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.

Also opening Saturday: A Tacos 4 Life restaurant in the Dillard’s Department Store parking lot at McCain Mall.

Besides serving tacos, quesadillas, salads and rice bowls, Tacos 4 Life serves another purpose: It donates 22 cents for every meal bought to the Minnesota nonprofit Feed My Starving Children. The restaurant says the donation equals the cost of one meal in the countries in which the nonprofit distributes food. The North Little Rock store will be a new prototype, co-founder Austin Samuelson said in a press release. Hours at the restaurant, which will face Warden Road, will be 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The North Little Rock store will be the 10th Tacos 4 Life in Arkansas.

David Rice, who operates the Bramble Market at 9325 Ferndale Cutoff Road, is planning on adding a prep kitchen for people to use for canning vegetables and making salsas and other items that require a licensed kitchen. “People could use the space to can their own pickles and use our label, address and permit number to produce their own food” for sale, Rice said; he hasn’t worked out pricing but said it will be modest. The market, which opened Aug. 25, sells fresh organic vegetables in season (apples, winter squashes, peppers now) and Arkansas-raised beef, pork and chicken. It also sells such items as Wayne Plantation Sunflower Oil, Fennel & Fire mulling spices, Jelly Madness jellies and cider, PoppyJ’s Popcorn, gift baskets and pottery.

Breakups: The Southern Table is no more; owners Al Hodge and Margie Raimondo have split ways. Baker Kelli Marks is also reported to have left Cathead’s Diner, where she was partnered with Donnie Ferneau.

26

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

GO WITH THE PORK: The ramen bowl of pork belly, egg, onions, black mushrooms and “chili hair” was served piping hot.

Uncommon ramen

Aji Ramen Bar provides great food, atmosphere.

I

t’s a random weekday night around 7 p.m. and Aji Ramen is buzzing. Its location in an unassuming West Little Rock strip mall (a couple of doors down from Star of India) belies the fun, hip vibe inside. There are several fourtop tables along the southernmost wall and more seating around the L-shaped bar. The kitchen is open, allowing aromas to drift. Servers dart here and there. The sound of slurping can be heard at the little bar beside the front door. The whole place hums.

The wall of the long, narrow restaurant is home to a mural depicting jolly Japanese men making ramen noodles and broth. The good-spirited staff seemed to go about their work with a similar disposition. “It’s always this busy,” our server said when we asked if the amount of hubbub was normal. “On weekend nights, there’s a line.”

Follow Eat Arkansas on Twitter: @EatArkansas

Aji achieves a rare bit of magic, making you feel like you’re somewhere else entirely. Tucked into a table in the back corner of the restaurant with a couple of friends, we felt like we’d ducked into a ramen bar on a cold night in Brooklyn.

There are plenty of small plates to share. Although we were tempted by the fried octopus balls, we decided on some more familiar choices. The fried vegetable spring rolls ($2.95 for two) are what you’d expect: filled with veggies, fried to a golden brown, a safe and dependable choice. The pork and veggie gyoza dumplings ($4.95 for six) were one of our favorites. They’re lightly fried, which adds a nice textural note, and the ponzu sauce that comes with them is bright and tasty.

The pork buns ($4.25 for two) were a bit heftier than the rest, but they’re great for splitting. The pork belly was cooked properly: tender and juicy.

The bun itself was nothing remarkable (we’ve found that to be the case no matter where we’ve had them), but the pork and sauce more than made up for it.

For the main course, you basically have two options: ramen or rice bowls.

Within those two categories, there are lots of varieties to choose from. We picked our server’s brain about what to order for the main course. “Any of the Ms and Ts,” she said, referring to different ramen options (M for miso broth and T for tonkotsu, or pork broth, as far as we know). “And go with pork over chicken.”

We found that to be a good rule of thumb to follow at Aji Ramen. Despite the restaurant being full, turnaround was quick. Two orders of T1 ($10.50) — rich creamy pork broth with pork belly, soft-boiled egg, green onions, black mushrooms, seaweed, corn and “chili hair” — came out piping

BELLY UP

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

Aji Ramen Bar

301 N Shackleford Road, Suite F3 414-8433

QUICK BITE

We didn’t expect to see — nor would we typically go for — creme brulee at a Japanese restaurant, but we’re happy to admit we were short-sighted.

Our server bragged that the creme brulee ($4.50) was homemade, so we figured what the hell. It was great. Pale yellow in color, with a nice stiff, creamy texture, and a good ol’ layer of burned sugar on top. Try it. You’ll be glad you did.

hot along with two rice bowls, one chicken and one with chopped pork.

The rice bowls were solid. Both the chicken ($6.50) and pork ($7.50) were flavorful and juicy, and the portions of both meat and rice were generous. The bowls were garnished with a leaf of lettuce (we recommend making a lettuce wrap with the leftover sauce from the appetizers). Next time we will add some fresh vegetables, one of the only things we found lacking. But really, though, you come to Aji Ramen Bar for the ramen.

We’re no experts, by any stretch, but we do know good stuff when we taste it. The ramen was everything we were hoping it would be: rich, meaty broth with plenty of classic ramen noodles, veggies and protein. Knowing there was such a chill in the air

Seafood Boils and Catering!

Book your event today!

1619 REBSAMEN PARK RD. 501.838.3888 thefadedrose.com

HOURS

11 a.m. until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Open until 9:30 on Friday and Saturday. Closed Sundays.

OTHER INFO

Beer, wine and sake available. CC accepted.

outside made it that much better. The broth was nice and fatty, warming the soul on its way down the esophagus.

The noodles were sturdy — cooked to a nice al dente — and filling, too. Of course, there’s no cute way to eat it.

It’s best to keep your mouth as close to the bowl as possible and shovel and slurp your way through it. It was a surprisingly hearty meal, perfect for these cold, wet December days.

Or any day for that matter. We just hope you can get a table.

Get tickets at centralarkansastickets.com

jewelry & GIFTS

GOOD GYOZA: Lightly fried dumplings, with a bright ponzu sauce.

523 S. Louisiana (In the Lafayette building) | 501.396.9146 | www.bellavitajewelry.net arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

27

ANTI-PRESS

CONCERT REVIEW

Lullabies, maybe, but no sleepers Mandolin Orange charms in a Little Rock premiere.

BY JIM HARRIS

S

immering beneath the lush, musical melancholia of hip folk/Americana duo Mandolin Orange (Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin) is a bluegrass jam or Appalachian stomp ready to jump out and take over the stage. But, just before things get hootin’ and hoedown-like, Frantz and Marlin reel it back in and regain everyone’s contemplative moods with softer songs of loving, living and loss, history and even climate change, even if you don’t buy all that science hokum.

Mandolin Orange was the guest Dec. 6 at South on Main in a show sold-out 28

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

long ahead of time. Being North Carolinians, the programming fit right in with the Oxford American’s promotion of its newest music issue, which focuses on the vast treasure of talent emanating from that state. Some standing-room seats were available, which can be kind of dicey for these OA-presented shows (to wit, it was a crazy scene within the tiny quarters a couple of years back for shows from Patterson Hood and the Indigo Girls, as you can imagine). On an evening that had turned misty and cold, every seat was still occupied, but we managed to sidle up to one of those wooden half-wall-dividers still linger-

HOWARD HAWKS’

‘TAKE THIS HEART OF GOLD’: A concert from duo Mandolin Orange was timed most fittingly with the Oxford American’s 2018 music issue, which focuses on the state of North Carolina.

HIS GIRL FRIDAY 7 P.M. TUESDAY DECEMBER 18

ing from the old Juanita’s days, giving us as good a view of Mandolin Orange, and a place to set our bourbon, as we could have hoped.

Formed basically in 2009 and recording (now on the Yep Roc label) prolifically with much critical acclaim since 2013, the pair was making its first visit to Little Rock, via a couple of stopovers earlier in the week in Northwest Arkansas. They’ve been to Colorado often lately, including Red Rocks Amphitheatre with the Avett Brothers; it’s amazing they haven’t stopped in sooner traveling the I-40 circuit to and from Carolina. Their shows now are expanded to include three other instrumentalists, and friend Eli West from Seattle also joined in to open the show for some singer-songwriter work with guitar and banjo. His best moments would come later, stepping in during the mid-portion of the main act, when things started to heat up.

Emily Frantz is an exceptional fiddler but spent more time Thursday on acoustic guitar, when Marlin handed her his acoustic and strapped on the mandolin. She sometimes had the lead vocal but mostly supplied perfect harmonies over Marlin’s solid singing.

They paired very well together Frantz, a waif, blends girl-next-door charm with a look that might favor Rachel McAdams. The lanky Marlin, hairline beginning to recede and with a tight cut after once letting the locks flow in their early days, seems like the guy who would pine over this girl-nextdoor. Turns out, he landed her long ago starting with some country guitar strumming when they first met back in the Chapel Hill, N.C., area. They seem to go out of their way NOT to stress their off-stage relationship, focusing instead on the music. But, the musicaland-more chemistry is undeniable, and works so well. As a friend said on the way out, when we were still trying to figure out if they were actually a couple, and why he wore a ring and she didn’t, “You can listen to that and know, those two are definitely ****ing.” Well, OK. That Marlin mentioned a two-month old baby seemed to make it certain.

Every single song, whether it was a waltz or the rare 4-4 upbeat country

number, seemed to strike some kind of emotional chord with the audience.

While this is music to chill by, there were no sleepers. All had sweet harmonies and no wasted notes, all were purposefully structured. Marlin’s mandolin work naturally was high-caliber with exquisite melodies. Frantz’s fiddle seemed to cry out through some of the more somber tunes. Josh Oliver added some harmonies, some timely Telecaster backing and softer leads and some acoustic accompaniment, never overpowering the duo; Clint Mullican provided a solid upright bass line.

When drummer Joe Westerlund took a mid-set break, West joined the foursome for a stand-around-the-midstagemic bluegrass-style arrangement. One traditional fiddle tune — Marlin mentioned Arkansas’s great history of fiddle tunes afterward — got the crowd toeand finger-tapping like we might all just get on the floor and two-step.

John Mandolin Orange doused that flicker, Neal though, with a retreat into nostalgic musing over a North Carolina Revolutionary hero, and took that storyline through a historical trip through what might have been if people didn’t instead kill each other in war. Marlin at one point bantered with a highly enthusiastic fan at a front table, “That’s my dad, everyone,” he said as everyone laughed.

The song that hit most with me was one with a catchy bass-run-up in the chorus, “Gospel Shoes.” Other standouts that stuck with us through the night were “Wildfire” and “Take This Heart of Gold,” but nothing missed.

At the end of a 78-minute set, the crowd finally got that chance to fully get out of their seats, clapping enthusiastically for an encore, and Frantz and Marlin obliged with one more that seemed perfect for listening to on a wet evening, which we were all greeted with on the way out.

They promised to come back, but who doesn’t? Mandolin Orange, though, will be back near us in early April in Memphis and after that they head to Europe for 13 dates. But it’s probably time for Andrew and Emily to get home to that baby. You can find their registry online, if you’re inclined to look hard enough.

$9.00

RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA, 2600 CANTRELL RD

501.296.9955 | RIVERDALE10.COM ELECTRIC RECLINER SEATS AND RESERVED SEATING

FRIDAY DEC. 14 9PM Dazz & Brie is a rock ‘n soul woman-fronted duo & band that combines acid rock instrumentation with funky and soulful melodies. Heart Society, the Jackson-based husband-and-wife duo, are bringing their powerhouse soul and rock ’n roll to open the show.

Show beings at 9 pm. Purchase advance tickets for $8 or pay $10 at the door.

Tickets do not guarantee you a seat. Please call (501) 244-9660 to reserve a table.

1304 MAIN STREET LITTLE ROCK, AR 72202 501-244-9660

GET TICKETS AT CENTRALARKANSASTICKETS.COM

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

29

HONOR ROLL, CONT.

NYE with Opal Agafia

and the Sweet Nothings

Red Oak Ruse Dec 31 • 8PM

Come celebrate the New Year with the one and only Opal Agafia and the Sweet Nothings!! Red Oak Ruse to open the show.

Champagne Toast at midnight and full Go to CentralArkansasTickets.com kitchen service until 1;30am. to purchase these tickets - and more!

Get Tickets Today!

centralarkansastickets.com

Open until 2am every night!

415 Main St North Little Rock • (501) 313-4704 • fourquarterbar.com

gram.

The estate of Linda Garner Riggs, who served on the board of directors of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Foundation, bequeathed $1.8 million to the orchestra, the largest individual gift in the orchestra’s history.

Riggs’s estate also made a gift of $1 million to the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to advance research in triple negative breast cancer.

The estate of Carl R. Stout donated $1.5 million to UAMS to create the R. Louise Stout Simmons Endowed Scholarship.

Chris Rakhshan donated $1 million to UAMS to create a chair named for his daughter, Pamela Rakhshan, in otolaryngology in gratitude for the life-saving treatment provided her by head and neck surgeon Dr. James Y. Suen.

Beverly Keener, a volunteer at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, established a $1 million endowment to support a child maltreatment prevention and education center at Children’s David Clark Center for Safe and Healthy Children.

Bert and Annette Mullins of Rus-

sellville made a pledge of $1 million to the Arkansas Tech University Foundation for scholarships. Bert Mullins was a member of the Wonder Boys baseball and football teams at the university.

Jean Cameron “Cami” Jones, the daughter of Fay and Gus Jones, has made a planned gift of $1 million to the University of Arkansas to benefit the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design and University Libraries.

Kim and Chris Fowler donated $750,000 to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation to expand its clinic in Jonesboro.

Sam Mathias, owner of Mathias Properties and Today’s Bank, donated $700,000 to the construction of Arkansas Children’s Hospital Northwest.

An anonymous donor has pledged $500,000 to the UA Foundation Inc. to create the Health Leadership Faculty Fellowship in the Department of Sociology and Criminology.

University of Arkansas alumni Kelly and Steve Barnes of Dallas pledged $500,000 to the UA Sam M. Walton College of Business to create the Kelly & Steve Barnes Health & Wellbeing Innovation Fund.

ADVERTISEMENT

DR. YAZAN GHOSHEH

Under the Radar with Dr. Yazan Ghosheh

W

hen it comes to cardiac health, vascular diseases are probably not the first thing that comes to mind. However vascular diseases like peripheral artery disease (PAD) and venous insufficiency are common and sometimes overlooked. In fact, CHI St. Vincent Heart Institute cardiologist Yazan Ghosheh, MD, calls PAD “an underdiagnosed and undertreated epidemic.”

WHAT IS PERIPHERAL ARTERY DISEASE? PAD is the narrowing of the arteries to the legs, stomach, arms and head. It is most common in the arteries of the legs and pelvis. PAD can result from a condition known as atherosclerosis, where a waxy substance called plaque forms inside the arteries. When enough plaque builds up, the artery becomes clogged, and blood flow is slowed or stopped. This can cause leg pain and cramping.

HOW DO YOU DIAGNOSE AND TREAT PAD? PAD diagnosis starts with knowing the patient’s history and examining them. If a patient has PAD, a simple test comparing the patient’s blood pressure in their ankle to the blood pressure in their arms. Depending on that test’s results, an ultrasound or other imaging technique might be done. Once a diagnosis is made, the treatment plan may include lifestyle changes, medication, or minimally invasive procedures such as angioplasty or stent placement.

PERIPHERAL ARTERY DISEASE RISK FACTORS

Some risk factors for PAD Include:

• Family history • Smoking • Diabetes • High cholesterol • High blood pressure

30

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

BOARD VACANCY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS CENTRAL ARKANSAS WATER The Board of Commissioners, Central Arkansas Water (CAW), is seeking letters of interest and resumés from Little Rock residents interested in serving on the Board. CAW is the largest public water supplier in the state of Arkansas and serves the Greater Little Rock-North Little Rock area. The water commissioners have full and complete authority to manage, operate, improve, extend and maintain the water works and distribution system and have full and complete charge of the water plan.

The governing board consists of seven members who serve seven-year terms. The Board appointee for the existing vacancy will fulfill a term beginning February 14, 2019. In accordance with Ark. Code Ann. § 25-20-301, the Board must consist of four residents of Little Rock and three residents of North Little Rock. The current vacancy is for a Little Rock representative.

CAW is committed to diversity and inclusiveness in all areas of our operations and on the CAW Board of Commissioners. All interested Little Rock residents are encouraged to apply and should submit a letter of interest and resumé by 12:00 p.m. (noon) Friday, December 28, 2018.

Resumés will be accepted until filled. Submit to:

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS CENTRAL ARKANSAS WATER C/O Glenda Bunch, Director of Human Resources P. O. Box 1789 Little Rock, AR 72203 Telephone: 501-377-1348 Fax: 501-377-7051 humanresources@carkw.com

MARKETING SPECIALIST NEEDED AT FAITH DENTAL CLINIC IN LITTLE ROCK, AR. Must have an MBA or related.

Must have 2 yrs exp: Designing and implementing marketing strategies to achieve sales goals; Mapping potential customers and generating leads; Generating weekly sales reports for upper mgmt; Utilizing Microsoft Excel.

Interested applicants should fax resumes to Lilliam Prado at 501-565-3511.

EOE – M/F/D/ V.

Can ihelp you?

Learn to get the most from your Apple products at home or your office.

• Learn to get the most from your Apple products at home or your office • Guide you to the perfect Mac or device for your needs and budget • Everything Apple: Macs, iPads, iPhones, Apple TV and Apple Watch

• Data Recovery & troubleshooting • Hardware & software installations • Organize and backup all your documents, photos, music, movies and email on all your devices with iCloud

Follow @MovingtoMac on Twitter and Like Moving to Mac Facebook for news and deals.

Call Cindy Greene Satisfaction Always Guaranteed

MOVING TO MAC

www.movingtomac.com

cindy@movingtomac.com • 501-681-5855

ATLAS BAR is hiring for opening in January!

Kitchen and front of house.

Some bilingual knowledge preferable.

Call Tony at 501-773-5919 or email at: Tony@atlassoma.com

SCIENCE TEACHER

(Little Rock, AR): Teach Science to secondary school students. Bachelor’s in science Edu., or any subfield of science. +1 yr exp as Science Tchr. at mid or high sch.

Mail res.: LISA Academy, 10825 Financial Centre Pkwy Ste 360.

Little Rock, AR 72211, Attn: HR Dept., Refer to Ad#BD2

ARKANSAS TIMES

MARKETPLACE TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.492.3974 OR EMAIL LUIS@ARKTIMES.COM

MARSHALL & MARSHALL CLEANING SERVICES

These are the primary interpretations of the Sherwood logo. It can be executed in 4-color process (CMYK) , RGB and Pantone spot colors.

RESIDENTIAL - COMMERCIAL - FREE ESTIMATE 501-833-8297

Y

X

MECHANIC CDL – A OR B

4

Apply online: www.cityofsherwood.net EOE

Pulaski Heights Christian Church

JOIN US!

Special Jazz Service on Sun, Dec 16 at 3:00 p.m.

4724 Hillcrest Avenue, LR, AR 72205 www.phcc-lr.org • Phone: 501-663-8149 Find us on facebook

All are welcome.

“This church defends no doctrine but Christ, preaches no gospel but love, and has no purpose but to serve.” *There will be no morning service on 12/16.

TO: LLOYD GONZALEZ LITTLE ROCK ARKANSAS

By Order of the Court for Service by Publication dated 29th day of October, 2018 RAYMOND ADAM VAN DALEY, filed a lawsuit against you for termination of parental rights and Petition for Step-Parent Adoption of CRISTINA LIANI NELSON, a minor child. You are required to file with the Clerk of Superior Court at P.O. Box 1661 Darien Ga 31305 and to Serve upon Petitioners Attorney Andrew H. Lakin, 3596 Darien Hwy Ste#2 Brunswick Georgia 31525 an Answer in writing within thirty days of the last day of publication of this Notice and meet the requirements of O. C. G. A. § 19-8-12.

arktimes.com DECEMBER 13, 2018

31

2019 MUSICIANS SHOWCASE

THIS COULD BE YOU!

To Enter:

Send streaming Facebook, ReverbNation, Bandcamp or Soundcloud links to showcase@arktimes.com and include the following: 1. Band Name 2. Hometown 3. Date Band was Formed 4. Age Range of Members (All ages welcome) 5. Contact Person 6. Phone 7. Email All musical styles are welcome.

Acts must be able to perform minium of 30 minutes of original material with live instrumentation.

32

DECEMBER 13, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

Submission Deadline:

January 1st, 2019 PREVIOUS WINNERS INCLUDE: DAZZ & BRIE JAMIE LOU & THE HULLABALOO HO-HUM THE UH HUHS TYRANNOSAURUS CHICKEN AND SO MANY MORE!!!