Arkansas Times - February 23, 2017

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COMMENT

Attacking the press Criticizing the press is nothing new in American politics. However, what we are seeing from this president and his administration is on a whole new level.

While we should always hold the media to be accountable and honest, lambasting respected and credible news outlets as “fake news” simply because they are asking tough questions is not only childish, but also dangerous. Democracies need an active and free press. If the public trust in the free press erodes, then it will be a less effective check on those in power. The president of the United States tweeted on Feb. 17 that the media is the enemy of the American people. This is not normal in functional democracies. Not since President Nixon have we seen such animus from a president toward the press, and even he saved his more colorful comments for private conversation rather than through a medium like Twitter. If anything, President Trump should follow the example of a different Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt. President Roosevelt understood the importance, and the utility, of the press. My only fear is that President Trump will take the phrase “bully pulpit” too literally.

Colby Qualls Little Rock

From the web In response to the Feb. 20 Arkansas Blog post “Senate defeats resolutions on amendments to prohibit same-sex marriage and ban abortion”: It is something of a comfort to know that at least 17 Arkansas legislators have better sense than Rapert.

Kate Seems folks are figuring out that Stanley is one costly dude.

Vanessa Why do we keep allowing these idiots to be voted into office? Oh my God, get rid of him and Tom Cotton and start over.

Tem Pendergrass I’m scared Rapert will bully his way with those senators who didn’t vote today and actually pass his terrible resolution. The resolutions are terrible in themselves, but holding a constitutional convention would be a complete disaster. Every ultra-right-wing activist would try to insert their perverse ide4

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

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ology on the whole country and there are enough Republican legislatures to get it done.

David Smith Guess he doesn’t realize that abortion is self-defense for girls and women.

After all, pregnancy and birthing causes much pain, usually injury that sometimes can be permanent and potential death (800 plus a year just in the U.S. die!).

They are defending themselves, as surely as they would be if they used a

gun to shoot someone that was threatening them. rablib In response to the Feb. 20 Arkansas Blog post “Campus carry deal: Anyone over 25 can carry, with training”: Utter insanity. So now any hotdog, wannabe cop can sit through a class and then patrol our campuses carrying deadly force? Dammit, all the other students, parents, faculty and administrators who oppose this ought to have a

louder voice than this handful of idiotic, NRA-butt-sucking fools in the legislature! For God’s sake, Arkansas, punish these jackasses at the next election!

PVNasby What could possibly go wrong?

Silverback66 Why should college campuses be the only safe place? I think people should be allowed to carry weapons in the state Capitol. Mr. Collins et al. should be safe, too!

Quid pro quo Amen on being allowed to carry weapons in the Capitol. What’s the old saying — what’s good for the goose is good for the gander? The fools in the legislature are the truly scary ones.

Doigotta Welp, I guess we’ll have to start carrying dildos in our holsters, too ... .

DrRingDing In response to the Feb. 17 Arkansas Blog post “Gov. Hutchinson: ‘Concerns’ on using National Guard for immigration enforcement”: Don’t give Asa too much credit for any “moderate” view. He’s not disavowing the illegal nature of putting troops into the streets to ask folks for “their papers” or conduct searches and make arrests. He’s basically saying the Arkansas Guard is too busy.

“During my time at Homeland Security, we utilized National Guard partnerships for specific responsibilities along the border, so the concept is fine.”

It’s a false equivalency to compare previous guard border observation/surveillance missions with troops making arrests in downtown Little Rock. tsallenarng Setting aside the legalities of federalizing troops, what about making targets out of military personnel in uniform? The Hispanic population in many areas is already a bit perturbed with law enforcement in general. Our folks in uniform are already on a heightened state of alertness when outside their own homes. People thinking they might apprehend someone would only make their sense of uneasiness worse, especially when going into areas that are predominately Hispanic.

That said, I don’t think there’s a chance in the world our Guard would be used in such a manner.

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WEEK THAT WAS

Quote of the Week: “It’s just amazing to me that every time we talk about something that will hurt the little guy, we call it reform.”

— State Sen. Linda Chesterfield (D-Little Rock), speaking against a proposed constitutional amendment to institute “tort reform” by capping the damages that a jury may award to an injured party in a lawsuit and severely limiting attorney contingency fees. The Senate approved Senate Joint Resolution 8, sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin (R-Mountain View), 21-10. The measure now must win passage from the House in order to appear on the 2018 ballot. Chesterfield also criticized the fact that SJR 8 would transfer judicial rulemaking power from the Arkansas Supreme Court to the legislature, noting the “creeping infringement on the other two branches of government” by the legislative branch.

‘Bathroom bill’ filed As expected, some state legislators are targeting transgender Arkansans over the contentious issue of public restrooms. Last week, Republican Sens. Greg Standridge of Russellville and Gary Stubblefield of Branch filed Senate Bill 346, a shell bill that states “the purpose of this act concerns gender identity and bathroom privileges.”

(A shell bill is placeholder legislation to be fleshed out with an amendment at a later date.) Whatever details are eventually to come, it’s a certainty that Stubblefield and Standridge aren’t looking to make life any easier for trans folks. “My view is, if you’re born a male and your DNA is of male gender, 6

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ARKANSAS TIMES

then that’s the bathroom you should use,” Stubblefield told the Arkansas News Bureau when asked about SB 346.

The bill calls to mind North Carolina, whose legislature broke new ground in transphobia and needless cruelty a year ago by passing a law to require transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate. The state has reaped bitter political conflict and economic blowback ever since, which may be one reason that some Arkansas Republicans are wary of a “bathroom bill”: Governor Hutchinson said in a statement last week that the bill was “unnecessary” and “potentially harmful.”

A polluter’s dream Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was approved to head the federal Environmental Protection Agency, a move that green advocates like Arkansas Sierra Club Director Glen Hooks called “a complete environmental and public health disaster.”

Unsurprisingly, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge — who has called Pruitt a friend and mentor —

cheered his confirmation by the U.S. Senate. As Oklahoma AG, Pruitt, like Rutledge, sued the EPA multiple times to block clean air and clean water rules.

Now he’ll run the agency. It’s about as perverse as, say, placing Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions over federal civil rights enforcement.

Rapert rebuffed The Arkansas Senate narrowly rejected two separate attempts by Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) to call for an “Article V” convention to amend the U.S. Constitution, one to ban same-sex marriage and one to ban abortion. Both fell one vote short of approval, with a number of Rapert’s fellow Republicans not voting. The senator insisted the fight against gay marriage isn’t over: “History is on my side,” he declared from the floor during debate.

Unemployed workers on the chopping block The Arkansas House voted 62-26 to slash unemployment benefits, reducing both the number of weeks that laid-off

workers qualify for unemployment and the size of their weekly benefits. The purpose of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R-Elm Springs), was simply to increase employers’ profits. There was no immediate need for the benefit cuts, because the fund now contains over $500 million, but Lundstrum insisted “our employers have been overpaying now for years on their unemployment taxes.” The bill now heads to the Senate.

War Memorial conquered The House gave final approval to a bill that would end the independent War Memorial Stadium Commission and put the facility under control of the state Department of Parks and Tourism. The immediate impact will be a cut in general revenue funding for the stadium by 50 percent, to $447,000 annually. Combined with a loss of Razorback football income — the Hogs only have two scheduled games remaining at War Memorial, one this year and one in 2018 — the state must now come up with new ways to increase revenue for the stadium to keep it afloat.

OPINION

Stand up

I

f Little Rock deteriorates because of substandard schools, there will be blame aplenty to share. But some elected leaders deserve special mention.

The state took over the Little Rock School District two years ago because six of 48 schools were judged in academic distress for failing to have half of their students meet the “sufficiency” cut score.

Two years later, the number of such schools is down to three, and at least one of those, a middle school, is close despite an enrollment made up solely of poor children.

State Education Commissioner Johnny Key says — with far too much vigor for my taste, but correctly — that he can’t recommend a return to local control until every single school meets sufficiency, even a high school with a huge population of special education and non-English speakers.

But … the state law is a multilayered thing. While being quite clear on what Key can recommend, it also gives broad latitude to the state Board of Education

Time to return LRSD to the ppl of LRSD.” She’s proposed a state law that would clarify that the board has the power to demonstrate wisdom and not deprive to take any action the state’s capital of democratic repreit deems necessary sentation because of standardized-test in regard to schools shortcomings of a tiny portion of the in academic or fisschool district.

It’s crucial if the district is to receive cal distress. Board the property tax support Key has said it member Jay Barth MAX (also an Arkansas needs. On account of political resistance, BRANTLEY Times columnist) he and Superintendent Michael Poore maxbrantley@arktimes.com of Little Rock had to pull down plans for a March special election on continuing the existing pointed this out last week.

It’s unlikely Barth could pass a motion construction millage for 14 years — a vote to give tolerance to Little Rock and return that would amount to approval of a halflocal control without at least some quiet billion more in additional taxes, much of signal of support from Key. The district’s it devoted to operations. I’m not alone in progress would warrant it, however. So, reluctance to approve a half-billion in too, would the fact that the state board taxes to be controlled by a commissioner regularly grants leeway to failing char- who not only favored the takeover, but ter schools, sometimes while expressing has relentlessly endorsed school strategreat empathy for the work they do with gies — charter schools and virtual schools poor children. They are somehow more — that have plundered Little Rock schools. saintly than Little Rock, which shows The state board needs encouragement better results with similar populations. if it is to take the path suggested by Barth Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock) put and Elliott. A place to start would be it bluntly on Twitter: “According to state, the Little Rock City Board of Directors.

93.5% or 45 of 48 of LRSD schls ARE Many of them threw in, either openly NOT in state-defined academic distress. or by silent acquiescence, to the Cham-

Hating the media

P

residents, with the exception of George Washington, never found much joy with the media, although Donald Trump is the first to use the scarily freighted words “enemies of the people.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), twice a presidential candidate, declared that this is “how dictators get started” — consolidating power by destroying confidence in institutions like a free press and the courts.

“When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press,” McCain said. Tyrants like Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong used the “enemies” term for opponents who needed to be eradicated for the good of the state. Death, gulags or asylum followed.

McCain soon walked back his words, saying he wasn’t necessarily saying that Trump sought dictatorial powers.

That is a popular narrative in the United States and abroad among people who hear the distant thunder of authoritarianism in Trump’s histrionics, fear-mongering and spurious charges.

Myself, I think it’s all overwrought. Far from gaining dictatorial power, he will be brought down by incompetence, ignorance and vainglory. His war on the media is only a manifestation of it.

No president was ever so obsessed with the media, and Donald Trump is a mediamade phenomERNEST enon. From the DUMAS time his rich father gave him a leg up in the New York real estate market, he pursued publicity and aggrandizement with passion. All publicity, including failed marriages and serial infidelities, was good. Scornful articles about his deceits still enlarged his celebrity status. His offices in Trump Tower were adorned with framed magazine and tabloid covers with his likeness. He planted pieces in men’s magazines like GQ, which in 2000 featured his naked girlfriend Melania on its cover under the blurb “Sex at 3000ft, Melania Knauss earns her air miles” and an inside layout of the future first lady posing in various stages of nudity, including one shot lying naked but jeweled on a fur-draped bed handcuffed to Trump’s gold-plated briefcase inside his elegantly outfitted 747 at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Media celebrity landed him the gig hosting a TV reality show and a political career.

But the national media that track poli-

ticians is less obsequious, as so many before Trump learned. Reporters look for weakness, conflicts of interest, deception and error, and their papers and networks feast upon them. It maddened presidents from John Adams on. The second president passed the Sedition Act and filed criminal charges against editors and writers who lampooned him.

Thomas Jefferson, who followed him, pardoned the editors. Jefferson wrote lofty defenses of a free press as democracy’s guardian, but while president he also hated it, at least the Federalist press.

Modern presidents have found the press as troublesome as Trump does, but mostly they have taken it in stride.

Richard Nixon kept TV and newspaper people on his enemies list and tried to manipulate coverage through intimidation. But, like Trump’s, his attacks on the media struck a chord with many voters.

“The press is your enemy,” Nixon told the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a recorded Oval Office conversation in his first term. “Enemies. Understand that? … . Now, never act that way … . Give them a drink, you know, treat them nice, you just love it, you’re trying to be helpful. But don’t help the bastards. Ever! Because they’re trying to stick the knife right in our groin.”

No one before Trump felt more tormented by the press than Bill Clinton, unless it was his wife. I was lying in a hospital bed at home Jan. 3, 1995, recovering

ber of Commerce-backed push to put the district in receivership on account of unhappiness with the majority black school board. Now’s the time for them to speak up.

If the schools fail, the city fails.

Retired judge Marion Humphrey, a lawyer in the fight against the state takeover, called out state leaders and the city Friday night at a Black Legislative Caucus dinner. Mayor Mark Stodola was in the crowd when Humphrey blasted city officials’ decades-long dereliction of duty on schools. One hopes Stodola felt a little uncomfortable.

The majority of voters in the territory in the Little Rock School District, which is smaller than the city itself, are black.

Asking them to approve millions more in taxes to be controlled by someone who favored the ouster of a majority black school board is a losing proposition.

A return to democratic control would make all the difference. A City Board that spoke for the entire city, not just the chamber of commerce, should push the state Board of Education in the right direction. Who will help Little Rock schools if the city’s leaders will not? from heart surgery, when the president called. He was in town for the dedication of a Sherwood school named for him. His presidency was in shambles.

Republicans had killed his health reforms, swamped him in the midterm elections and taken over Congress. Whitewater investigations were raising one misbegotten “scandal” after another and his approval ratings were at rock bottom.

After offering sympathy for my condition, he launched into a 45-minute soliloquy on his own troubles, all more or less caused, he thought, by the Washington press corps, particularly The New York Times and Washington Post, which searched for the tiniest oddity in his or his wife’s past or White House operations. He and Hillary had pondered what brought the unholy alliance between the press and the Republican Congress, and he had some theories. When he was governor, these telephone calls were profanity-laced tirades about my own dishonest editorial criticisms of his stewardship, and I was grateful not to be abused in my current condition.

What Clinton and the other poor saps like George W. Bush, Gerald Ford and even Nixon didn’t realize and Trump did was that there was political gold in making the media the people’s enemy and not just yours.

Ineptitude and greed will still take their course.

Follow Arkansas Blog on Twitter: @ArkansasBlog

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7

Trump & Russia

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f you think about it, no wonder Donald Trump prefers the imaginative stylings of Fox News to the presidential daily briefing. He’s pretty much the network’s target demographic: a daffy old-timer with time on his hands.

Intelligence reports tend to be complex, hedged with uncertainties. That’s boring to an elderly adolescent. Rather like the big-screen evangelical churches that furnish much of the rest of its audience, Fox News delivers provocative melodrama that keeps viewers wide awake.

But just because somebody’s realitychallenged doesn’t mean they’re stupid.

Even downright delusional people can be extremely cunning in service of their crackpot notions.

Consider what one is tempted to call President Trump’s downright “Clintonian” nondenial denial during his recent press conference: “I own nothing in Russia, I have no loans in Russia, I don’t have any deals in Russia.”

“Russia,” he insisted, “is fake news put out by the media.”

Ah, but what about deals “with” or loans “from” Russia? Different question. Trump and his family have been up to their eyeballs in Russian cash for decades.

Indeed, father and sons used to brag about Russian money. In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. told a real estate conference that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets … . We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

After staging the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, Trump boasted that most of Russia’s financial elite attended a swank party he threw. “Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room,” Trump told Real Estate Weekly. It’s important to understand that politically independent Russian oligarchs do not exist. One way or another, Putin owns them all.

During a Republican debate, Trump even claimed a personal relationship with Vladimir Putin. “I got to know him very well because we were both on ‘60 Minutes.’ We were stablemates,” he said.

Except, oops, Putin’s segment was taped in Moscow.

Now Trump says the two have never met, probably true.

“Still, there has been the nagging sense for some time that there’s something off about the way Trump speaks about Putin,” the invaluable blogger Digby explains. “It’s obsequious and submissive, which is very uncharacteristic of his normal style and one can-

not help but wonder why that is.

Trump is not servile toward anyone in this world — except Vladimir GENE Putin. It would LYONS be one thing if we could chalk it up as another one of Trump’s weird psychological tics and hope that he isn’t so subject to flattery that he decides to help the Russian leader carve up Europe just to keep his approval. But it seems there’s more to it than that.”

It certainly does. Trump was similarly cagey about his campaign’s reported contacts with Russian intelligence. Another series of nondenial denials: not that he personally knows. He, Trump, had no Russian contacts. He’s seen people on TV — people he scarcely knows, maybe he was in the same room with them once — denying any such liaisons.

It’s all fake news to him.

So now comes yet another guy Trump hardly knows — a Russian émigré who channeled millions from Moscow investors to various (eventually bankrupt) Trump projects in New York, Fort Lauderdale and Toronto.

Felix Sater’s name has surfaced in connection with a private “peace initiative” to settle the Ukranian-Russian dispute on terms highly favorable to Russia. According to highly detailed accounts in the New York Times and Washington Post, the scheme was brokered by Trump’s attorney Michael D. Cohen, a pro-Putin Ukranian legislator, and Sater — supposedly through the good offices of recently fired National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

The scheme is absurd on its face. But what’s truly amazing is Sater’s background: He’s got two felony convictions: one for stabbing a guy in a bar fight and later for a multi-million dollar securities fraud tied to the Genovese and Bonanno crime families.

While awaiting sentencing, Sater lived two lives: one as a principal in Bayrock, an investment firm in Trump Tower that funneled millions in Russian capital into several of Trump’s characteristically grandiose projects, a second as a CIA informant on international arms smuggling. The dude belongs in a Jason Bourne movie.

In a 2013 deposition, Trump said he wasn’t sure he’d actually recognize Felix Sater, either. Chances are the rest of us will before this astonishing saga ends.

What they want

W

ith a surprisingly strong vote, 53 percent of Arkansas’s voters said last Nov. 8 that they wanted to bring medical marijuana to the state. This creation of a medical marijuana program via vote of the people came over the strong objections of Governor Hutchinson, most all of the state’s other elected officials and those charged with implementing health policy in the state. In the aftermath of the election, while most (including Hutchinson) have fairly gracefully accepted the will of the people, a few political leaders continue to resist medical marijuana at every turn.

Over two dozen bills have been introduced in the current legislative session to amend the constitutional amendment in large and small ways.

The amendment itself did allow the legislature (by a two-thirds vote in both houses) to reform the program as long as core key provisions — the right for those with certain medical conditions to use marijuana without fear of prosecution and the number of dispensaries and cultivation sites — were not touched.

Some of the bills that have been introduced are only intended to implement the program in a more methodical manner than at the breakneck pace laid out in the amendment, providing more time for the commission established to run the program a few more weeks to get rules and regulations finalized. Indeed, it’s good public policy to get a major new program done correctly on the front end.

Other legislation — mostly carried

by Rep. Doug House (R-North Little Rock), who was tasked with leading the charge on medical marijuana’s implementation — simply fleshes out elements of what was already a fairly detailed amendment. One bill that is already law clarifies doctors’ role in the process as a fairly limited one in which they simply confirm that the individual has been previously diagnosed with one of the qualifying conditions. Other legislation that will be passed creates new licensing requirements for those who move pot from a cultivation facility to a dispensary. Finally, new legislation will regulate the advertising of medical marijuana. (The quote of the legislative session by House: “We don’t want a dancing bear and flying rabbits and stuff on the advertising that would cause kids to want to frequent these establishments.”). While the ban on advertising veers into choppy constitutional waters because medical

marijuana is now a legal product in Arkansas, this set of bills does little to undermine availability JAY or use of medical BARTH marijuana.

Other legislation, however, proposes to more fundamentally undermine the intent of the medical marijuana program. These include a proposal to delay implementation until the federal government changes its policy toward medical marijuana (currently illegal, of course). Another bans the smoking of marijuana, meaning that marijuana could be delivered only by edibles. To close that loophole, another bill would ban edibles except in rare cases.

A new Talk Business & Politics/ Hendrix College poll released this week indicates that Arkansans meant it when they voted for medical marijuana last year, as majorities of the state’s voters oppose these efforts to undermine implementation. The survey examined attitudes about the proposals to delay implementation until federal legalization and the ban on smoking. On both issues, while about the same percentage of voters who favored the measure oppose intrusions into it, younger voters, men, African Americans and political independents were most thoroughly opposed to the provisions not included in the original amendment.

There is one more outstanding piece of legislation that may create the most interesting battle of the session in the area of medical marijuana. House Bill 1460 would protect employers from lawsuits if they took action, including termination, against employees who violated a substance-free workplace but were qualified users of medical marijuana. This legislation would seem to bump up against the commitment in the amendment that users may not be discriminated against in the workplace. With strong backing from business interests in a business-friendly legislature, HB 1460 could well get the required supermajority. As shown from the flurry of action in both the legislature and the Medical Marijuana Commission, medical marijuana in Arkansas has already been a boon for the lobbying industry. It may also soon begin to benefit lawyers as laws that may be in conflict with it are tested in court.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

rkansas followed up two abject disasters — Missouri ended its 13-game losing streak by beating the Hogs in Columbia, and then Vanderbilt came to Bud Walton Arena and throttled them three nights later — with a halftime redirection at LSU to win there. That wasn’t enough, of course, to get back through the gossamer bubble, but it helped stop all the fishtailing for a bit. Still, the Hogs had to take on a ranked and dangerous South Carolina team in one of its last real chances to curry favor with the selection committee, and then had to return home from that trip to square off against Ole Miss, a team that has historically bedeviled Arkansas on its own court.

The challenge was daunting. And after about five minutes against the Gamecocks, who were whipping the Razorbacks up and down the court in a transition frenzy that led to a 19-5 lead a few minutes in, it looked like the challenge was summarily ignored. Carolina was exploiting all the same ills that have dogged this team for, well, a couple of decades. It looked like a rout in the making, in much the same way the Oklahoma State disaster in late January played out from tipoff till final whistle.

Something curious and damn-near unprecedented happened, though.

Arkansas finally flaunted that resilience and tough-mindedness that it has sometimes flashed in the final minutes of games but rarely sported at any other occasion. Pinned by 14 quickly, the Hogs leaned on junior guard Jaylen Barford thereafter, and he carried them the rest of the first half. An ensuing 25-2 run flipped the scoreboard completely, and even though the Gamecocks drew close by halftime, it was evident that the Hogs weren’t going to stand idly away from the fray that followed.

And it was a remarkable second half.

As Carolina’s SEC Player of the Year favorite Sindarius Thornwell kept plugging away and trying to push his team back ahead, Arkansas simply answered and answered and answered again. Barford ended up with 17 of his 23 points in the first half, but after that, Dusty Hannahs regained his form and put home 20, including four three-pointers, and Moses Kingsley showed off with a 16-point, seven-rebound, fourblock effort in the 83-76 win. Manuale Watkins had to sink a garish 18-foot prayer with a dwindling shot clock in the final minute, and the Hogs made 16 of

18 free throws and shot over 50 percent from the floor. As has suddenly become the case, the Hogs BEAU were largely WILCOX and strangely undaunted in the most daunting of conditions, playing in an utterly composed fashion in environs that have commonly deprived them of poise over the years.

That backcourt chemistry — Barford, Hannahs and Daryl Macon were good for 56 of the Hogs’ 83 points in that win — bled right on over to Saturday’s tilt with the Rebels. While Andy Kennedy’s team is unlikely to draw anything but NIT consideration this year due to a spate of losses early on, the Rebs were still playing solid basketball and in position to really throw the SEC standings into disharmony if they could beat the Hogs for the sixth time in seven games at Bud Walton Arena. Thanks to a zealous crowd of 15,000-plus, though, Arkansas ended up playing its finest game of the year, routing the Rebels 98-80 in a game that truthfully wasn’t even that close.

This time, Hannahs ceded the threepoint arc to Macon, who poured in a career-best 30 points and six threes in only 24 minutes off the bench. Barford was good for 15 and, while Hannahs was held to nine points, Anton Beard returned from being hampered by illness earlier in the week to drain three more three-pointers and put in 11 points off the bench. Yet again, the Hogs’ guard play was enough alone to win the game, but the real statement was issued by Kingsley and fellow post veteran Trey Thompson.

The most impressive facet of the win against the Rebels came midway through the second half as the visitors used a brief flurry to knock out a doubledigit deficit and squeeze within 56-51.

From there, the Hogs tapped into the same source from the Carolina win, running off with a 19-0 burst to blow the game wide open. And every component of the Hogs’ ideal game was on display: on-ball defense and switching was timely and tight, ball movement was swift and precise, and shot selection was top-notch. It’s no wonder that this team, at 20-7 and 9-5, looks as good as its record or even better right now, because the talent to excel as a team has always been in place.

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THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Bang

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he Observer, who has lived in Little Rock many a year now, has a complicated relationship with this city. For every lovely sunset from the Big Dam Bridge, every stellar plate of taco truck fare down in Southwest, every friendly dog welcoming a scratch behind the ears seen out on a stroll with its owner, every selfless person working tirelessly for a better tomorrow, there seems to be at least 25 percent ugliness, spiking up to 50 percent when the moon is full, or Mercury is in retrograde, or some of the other star-crossed nonsense Spouse clings to in order to explain why some people just bees terrible sometimes.

For example: Yours Truly was motoring to The Home Depot out over the Western Wall on Monday night, pushing along Interstate 630 and then Chenal through a steady rain in search of home improvement, when we heard a gunshot behind us in traffic.

Though The Observer is a dyedin-the-wool liberal, we’re not one of those soft, gun-fearing pinkos you may have heard so much about on Fox News. We’ve been around and been firing guns dang near all our livelong days: handguns and rifles and shotguns, Saturday night specials and Pa’s Dubya Dubya Two-era paratrooper carbine, a functional cannon and an illegal, full-auto assault rifle once. We like the feel of a well-made gun in the hand or against the shoulder, the smell of powder, the gadgetry of it all. While we’re not one of those terrified Johnny Glocks who feels we must carry our shootin’ iron everywhere, lest we fall with our hand unfilled with a Peacemaker during The Great ISIS/ Transgender Burger King Bathroom Shootout of 2017, this child of proud hicks was raised to see a gun as a tool that could potentially make the difference between familial hunger and a table full of vittles someday. Given that, we still keep a few close, just in case things go to hell in a handbasket.

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We say all this to state the obvious: that the gunshot we heard in traffic Monday night in the rain wasn’t a backfire or blown tire, not tumbling junk in the trunk of The Mobile Observatory, not our imagination.

It was what it was, which was a single gunshot, probably a handgun, close enough to make us flinch. Seconds later, a dark SUV sped past, weaving through traffic, pedal to metal, before blowing through the turn at Chenal and Bowman and merging into the rain-blurred dark.

We thought of calling 911 then, giving the details to a dispatcher, the chronicle of one more stupid act in a city full of stupid acts, but then we thought: What would we say? What had we observed? An SUV, maybe black or dark blue, maybe a late-model Toyota but not certain of that, last seen disappearing into a rainy city full of dark SUVs, long gone from where last seen long before we ever picked up the phone. A waste of time, no doubt, other than to let two strangers separated by a phone line drown in the full, worrisome truth of the obvious: that people can be terrible, and reckless, and foolish, and callous, and more dangerously ignorant of consequence than a person putting along in traffic or working that day at the 911 dispatch desk could ever fathom. What good would that do?

So instead of calling, The Observer motored on though the rain, through this city we love, and wondered for a umpteenth time as a Little Rockian whether it’s time just say to hell with it and join the Johnny Glocks; whether maybe it’s time to flee the fragile joy of living in the city for the safer beige of Cabot or Benton or Bryant. And though we only realize it now as we write this, in that moment, the ties of complicated love that bind The Observer to this city were stretched another bullet’s width toward breaking.

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11

Downtown bustles

BY ARKANSAS TIMES STAFF

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very other year or so, the Arkansas Times catches up with what’s going on in the old city centers. Moribund Main streets no longer mar downtown Little Rock and Argenta. A spiral of new

life — new businesses, new restaurants catering to the businesses, new places to live filling up

with the new workers and new patrons — has dramatically changed not just Main Street, but its adjoining streets. Capitol Avenue is coming back, as the Financial Quarter west of Main and residential neighborhood on the east. New investment, to the tune of millions of dollars, is being attracted to the evermore hip South Main. The old industrial neighborhood east of Interstate 30 has enough new development that it’s earned a new name: the East Village. The Robinson Center is open again, making a symphonic splash with the new Broadway Bridge set to open in March. On the north side, investors are creating what that city calls the Argenta Waterfront District, a hotel-apartment-retail development featuring a boardwalk, plus a pocket neighborhood on the west, a residential complex east of Main and a plaza where the farmers market is now. It looks like a tipping point has been reached, and there’s no going back now: Downtown is back in business.

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Follow Arkansas Times on Twitter: @ArkTimes

BRIAN CHILSON

BACK IN BUSINESS

DONAGHEY BUILDING

ARK ANSA S THREE DEMOCR AT FOLD LOFTS

MCLEOD CR ANFORD & CO.

ALOFT

BALLET ARK ANSA S MM COHN THE BL ACK BOX

LITTLE ROCK TECH PARK

MAIN STREET LITTLE ROCK

BRUNO’S

CLUB LEVEL K-LOFTS

SOUL FISH C AFE

CJRW

IR A’S

WAYMACK & CREW

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WALTON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS BRIAN CHILSON

BRIAN CHILSON

SAMANTHA’S

WALTON COLLEGE OFFSHOOT: Coming to 117 Main St., the former Orbea headquarters.

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he Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas is working to expand its executive education by opening an office in downtown Little Rock that would offer nondegree programs to the health, banking and finance and retail industries in Central Arkansas. Brent Williams, associate dean for executive education and outreach at the Walton College, said, “I love what’s going on on Main Street … the energy and the vibrance.” He’s been meeting with major employers and potential

partners assessing need and how the school may “bring the right resources to Central Arkansas.” The school would offer noncredit, certificate-targeted programs in such subjects as leadership, finance, accounting and technical skills.

Williams said the college is working with Stephens’ interests to lease space at 117 Main St., the former Orbea headquarters, but that “nothing is finalized.”

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BRIAN CHILSON

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FEEDBAG: The 300 block of Main is shoulder-to-shoulder eateries, with Samantha’s Tap Room and Wood Grill, Bruno’s Little Italy and Soul Fish Cafe on the west side (above), and Ira’s coming to the Rose Building on the east side of the street.

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as it really only been four years since the 300 block of Main Street was home to little more than Bennett’s Military Supplies, Downtown Wigs and Mr. Cool (RIP)? Since then, the block has become the most fully realized stretch of a reinvigorated downtown.

Local advertising behemoth CJRW moved into the newly spiffed-up 1890 Fulk Building (300 Main) in the summer of 2015. A short while later, CJRW’s video production arm, Jones Film Video, relocated to a sleek new building across the street, on the site of Mr. Cool’s, and changed its name to M-3 Productions. In February, Waymack & Crew purchased M-3 from CJRW and took over the space (301 Main).

The rest of the west side of the block has become a restaurant row.

An offshoot of a Memphis catfish mini-chain, Soul Fish Cafe (306

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Main) opened last summer in the former home of Dundee’s. Back in the fall of 2013, the venerable Bruno’s Little Italy (310 Main) moved to the ground floor of the Mann Lofts, constructed in 1890 and the former home of Gus Blass Dry Goods. Last year, the restaurant spun off Bruno’s Deli (308 Main), a grab-and-go lunch spot next door, but because of the challenge of operating out of separate spaces, earlier this year Bruno’s began serving its sandwich menu from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. at 310 Main and using 308 Main as a prep kitchen. Bruno’s neighbor to the south is Samantha’s Taproom and Wood Grill (322 Main), a sprawling and well-appointed modern bar and eatery from Cheers in the Heights’ Chris Tanner and other partners. It opened in early 2015 in the ground floor of the Mann Building, a seven-story, 90,000-square-

foot office building that once housed the Gus Blass Department Store.

Perhaps as early as May, chef Ira Mittleman plans to relocate his Ira’s in Park Hill to 307 Main in the 1901 Rose Building on the east side of the block. It will now be called Ira’s, seat about 86 and cater to lunch, dinner and bar crowds. Mittleman says he hopes to restore the walls and floor to the style of the 1900s, while adding other modern touches.

Building owner Tommy Lassiter is offering living space upstairs.

Next to the Rose Building, Club Level (315 Main) since October 2013 has been packing in the folks who come downtown to drink and dance.

It’s the third club since 2011 on the ground floor of the former 1902 Gus Blass Dry Goods Warehouse, which Scott Reed of Reed Realty Advisors of Portland, Ore., purchased from the family of Little Rock City Direc-

tor Dean Kumpuris in 2010. Reed’s plan to rent 32 apartments in what he called KLofts never came to fruition, despite reports from Reed associates and others back in 2015 that the apartments were finished and only awaiting appliances. For several years, KLofts and other Reed downtown investments have been embroiled in financial problems and lawsuits. In January, Creek Capital Partners LLC of Fort Smith, led by the Steve Creekmore Jr. family, purchased the construction loan on KLofts from IberiaBank. Last year, IberiaBank sued to recover more than $1.4 million owed on an original $1.3 million loan to K Lofts LLC in 2013. If other legal entanglements were resolved, Creek Capital would own the building.

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THE LR TECHNOLOGY PARK, FINALLY

BRIAN CHILSON

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t has been 10 long years since the Arkansas General Assembly passed a bill to create research park authorities, legislation that kicked off the Little Rock Technology Park. Finally, the park is being realized, with buildings bought, renovated and ready for business. Its first building, at 417 Main St., is filling up the first three floors of its buildings with co-working space and startup tech business offices so quickly that an open-space floor intended for one or two businesses is being remodeled to accommodate more entrepreneurs.

A little history: The Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, where the Tech Park idea originated, first carried the ball, commissioning a feasibility study and then persuading the city to ask voters to pass a sales tax that would produce $22 million over 10 years to build the park.

There were several timeouts along the way, as the original plan of the park’s board of directors, established in 2011, to level a neighborhood south of Interstate 630 turned out to be a no-go for the neighborhood and city directors. Several other sites were considered, including land owned by the UA Little Rock, one of the park’s sponsors (along with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the city), and the Sears building lot on University. But Mayor Mark Stodola, saying today’s young entrepreneurs wanted to be in a livelier place than an isolated campus, pushed for downtown, and in 2013 the authority board voted 4-3 to go along with his idea of a Main Street technology corridor.

Tech Park Director Brent Birch said the 417 Main St. building should be open

PARK VIEW: Little Rock Technology Park Director Brent Birch stands at the large windows fronting Main Street on the fourth floor of the Tech Park’s first building.

(if not totally finished) the first week of March. The six-story, 38,000-square-foot address is made up of two renovated and connected buildings in the middle on the east side of Main. The first tenants include the Little Rock Venture Center, a business accelerator with a long-term lease; 14 technology companies, including longterm leaseholder Ritter Communications; two individual tenants and a coffee shop, Blue Sail Coffee Roasters, on the ground floor that will be open to the public. The building features high-speed internet and furnished co-working space on the second and third floors; showers for bike-to-work

millennials; repurposed wood planks as decorative wall features; glass-walled conference rooms on the upper floors; and large windows offering western and eastern views of downtown.

The authority purchased 417 Main (formerly the annex to 5 Main Place); 415 Main St. (the old Mays Building and now incorporated into 417 Main); 5 Main Place at Fifth and Main, which is under lease to the state Department of Higher Education; the old Stephens Inc. headquarters between Main and Scott on Fifth; the parking lot on the west side of the 400 block of Main and a parking lot at

Fifth and Scott for $12.6 million. The purchase was financed with a loan of $17.5 million from a consortium of banks. The city has also transferred $6.6 million in tax receipts to the authority and is expected to contribute another $1.4 million in the first quarter of 2017.

Later phases of the Tech Park will include construction of a building on the west side of the 400 block — a parking lot now — and another building, possibly a laboratory for biomedical research, at the northeast corner of Fourth and Main streets. The authority also hopes to buy the Channel 7 building at the southeast corner of Fourth and Main, its deck and the empty lot just south of it.

To date, new companies occupying 417 Main St. include Idatafi, a Venture Centerborn company; LumoXchange, a financial tech company from Atlanta; PC Assistance of Little Rock; PFITR income security company based in St. Louis; Labscoop, an online platform for medical facilities; Redoxica, a Little Rock biotech company; Sparkible, an online marketing company; MobX, software engineers; Touchwood Technologies, mobile and cloud software development; Playbook Weight Management; Noble Impact, an education initiative; and On Site Hepatology, a system for physicians. Mary Lewis with Accelerate Arkansas; and Clay Simmons, senior manager for software at Comcast, are individual tenants.

Blue Sail operates two coffee shops in Conway, where it roasts its own beans and will offer a limited menu of breakfast and brunch items downtown.

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n 2010, Main Street Lofts LLC, a group that included Portland, Ore., developer Scott Reed and Little Rock investor Wooten Epes, bought for $1.5 million the four vacant buildings that made up the west side of the 500 block of Main: the 100,000-squarefoot Boyle Building (500 Main), the 62,688-square-foot M.M. Cohn building (510 Main), the 21,000-square-foot Arkansas Annex (514 Main) and the

41,816-square-foot Arkansas Building (524 Main).

In 2013, Reed told the Times the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra would occupy the ground floor of the former M.M. Cohn building by the end of that year. Kent Walker Cheese, Bella Vita jewelry and artists Ariston Jacks and Keith Carter were also set to lease space, Reed said. None of that came to pass.

In 2014, Main Street Lofts sold the

12-story Boyle Building to the Chi Hotel Group LLC for $4.6 million. Jacob and Jasen Chi said they planned to build an Aloft hotel there. But in August 2015, Jacob Chi said the project was on indefinite hold.

Aside from the projects mentioned below, work has stalled on the residential redevelopment on the upper floors of the Cohn, Arkansas Annex and the Arkansas Building. Little Rock’s AMR

Construction LLC, which pulled its workers off the job in 2015, received a $896,756 arbitration award for unpaid work on the block in 2016. Attempts by the Times to reach Reed and Jacob Chi were unsuccessful, but Reed has been in town recently telling people that he’s close to new funding to get the 500 block going again.

arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

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ARKANSAS REPERTORY THEATRE EDUCATION ANNEX

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he Rep’s focus on education isn’t new. The company has been conducting summer acting camps, student matinees and master classes for some time, and the organization’s audition-only Summer Musical Theater Intensive — founded in 2005 — thrived under the direction of Nicole Capri. It has been mentioned in the same breath as young artist camps elsewhere in the U.S. that enjoy the benefits of longer histories and cushier budgets. Thriving plants need bigger pots, though, don’t they? To that end, The Rep has planted its education faculty amid the would-be revival of the 500 block of Main. The new Education Annex, just

across the street from The Rep’s main facility, houses a small office space, a 125-seat black box theater, and three studio classrooms outfitted with floorto-ceiling mirrors and sprung dance floors to absorb impact. Director of Education Anna Kimmell and a staff of teaching artists have expanded The Rep’s summer curriculum into yearround programming for a wider age group. The youngest student currently enrolled is 5 and the oldest is 78. “An education component of The Rep has always existed,” Kimmell told us. “The question was: How do we implement it? And the real game-changer was this space.”

BRIAN CHILSON

518 M a in St.

MATT MCLEOD FINE ART GALLERY

52 4 M a in

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hen brothers Jay, Ross and Chris Cranford left the CJRW advertising agency in the spring of 2014, they did so with the intention to create what they called a “garden” agency, leveraging their expertise and their local relationships to compete with larger-scale agencies focused on ad volume.

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10 8 W. Si x t h St. , Su it e A

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e may not have known it at the time, but when painter Matt McLeod brought the vibrant koi fish to life in “Beneath the Surface” — the 30-foot mural on the north wall of Bennett’s Military Supplies at 608 Main St. in the spring of 2015, he was creating the piece he’d see from his gallery desk every day.

McLeod opened his gallery in space on the south side of the remodeled Arkansas Building in November of that year, and conducts business from a sunny terrarium of a front room with high ceilings, exposed piping and a handsome wood plank floor made from lumber recovered from delivery truck beds. An adjacent hallway, which displays pencil drawings by Dominique Simmons and Harry Loucks and towering geometric sculptures

BRIAN CHILSON

CRANFORD CO.

WHERE HE WORKS: McLeod’s easel is set up in his gallery.

by Jeff Owens and Hunter Brown, connects to neighboring Ballet Arkansas’s rehearsal room and Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s Education Annex. “I love it,” McLeod said when we asked him about hearing Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” on repeat for most of the holiday season. “Ballet Arkansas brings such an energy to the building,” the artist and gallery owner said.

The block is slowly filling in vacant gaps with art, food and theater, and that excites McLeod. But because he’s a Little Rock native who’s been driving down Main Street most of his life, he’s measured about that enthusiasm: “It’s exciting for me to see Main Street come back to life, but these things take time,” he said. “It’s a pretty cool thing we’ve got, and it’s an infant.”

IN THE ANNEX: The dance workshop in The Rep’s new educational space.

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BRIAN CHILSON

REBECCA YAN

LOFTS ABOVE, DUMPLINGS BELOW: Residents of the Arkansas Democrat Lofts, six apartments in the historic building at 615 Main St., will soon be able to dine downstairs at Three Fold Noodles and Dumplings Co.

THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT LOFTS

ON THE CREATIVE CORRIDOR: Ballet Arkansas dancers rehearse at the company’s new space in the 500 block of Main.

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BALLET ARKANSAS

THREE FOLD NOODLES AND DUMPLING CO.

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fter years of anticipating a move to the Creative Corridor, Ballet Arkansas moved into a 1,300-square-foot space on the ground floor of the Arkansas Building on Oct. 25, 2016. The ballet had been leasing space in West Little Rock at Shuffles Ballet II, using the studio during the daytime when Shuffles’ students were in school. The new rehearsal space is fully mirrored, with a sprung floor designed especially for pointe shoes and ceilings high enough for the company’s astoundingly tall principal dancers, Deanna Karlheim (5 feet, 11 inches) and Zeek Wright (6 feet, 8 inches), to perform

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full lifts. The 13 full-time artists on the company’s roster can be seen at the barre from the sidewalks outside, something Artistic Associate Laura Babcock says sparks curiosity from passersby. “One of the first things that happened when we moved in was that a mother and daughter walked by, and the little girl’s face just lit up,” Babcock said. “I mean, the look on her face. I think we all felt like, ‘that could have been me.’ It’s important for us to let people see what we’re doing.” The Pfeifer Brothers Department Store was the original occupant of the Arkansas Building.

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hen crews working for Moses Tucker Real Estate removed a mid-20th century façade from the building they were restoring at 615 Main, the words Arkansas Democrat appeared, engraved in the original limestone sign above the entryway. The Charles Thompson-designed building, the home of the newspaper from 1916 to the 1930s, had been abandoned for more than two decades, and it took a couple of years and $3 million to rehab, such was its condition. (The architect for the restoration of the building was the Cromwell firm — founded by Charles Thompson.) But now, the 14,000-square-foot

building houses eight loft apartments, from 800 to 1,500 square feet on the upper floor, and all leased, and the popular Three Fold Noodles and Dumpling Co. will move from 215 Center St. to open on the ground floor. The new space will allow Three Fold seating for 120, up from 80 now, and for an open kitchen that owner Lisa Zhang says will allow her to serve her beloved noodles, dumplings and buns as soon as they’re prepared.

New for the restaurant: Baozi, a Chinese pastry with sweet and savory filling, will be offered for breakfast.

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6 0 0 bl ock WELCOMING, WATCHING: Mayor Stodola greets the newly hired Downtown Ambassadors.

ENVOY CONVOYS

BRIAN CHILSON

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f you’re walking down Main Street, you might be approached by a man in a red polo shirt with DLRP stitched over the pocket. If so, say hello: He’ll be one of the two new Downtown Ambassadors hired by the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, and he’s there to welcome visitors and keep an eye on

issues like graffiti, trash, burned-out street lights and the like. Mayor Mark Stodola introduced Donovan James and Aaron Clark, who were hired recently as the city’s first ambassadors, last week and said they’ll play a role in helping visitors have a pleasurable and safe experience. The ambassadors will also check panhandlers and walk you to your destination should you feel the need for an escort. They’ll work an area between Markham and Ninth streets on the north and south and Broadway and Cumberland on the west and east.

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he official name couldn’t be more boring: the Water Quality Demonstration and Education Project. But that’s what the snazzy improvements to the street and pedestrian areas on Main Street from the 100 to the 500 block are officially called. Phase I of the project, which began in late 2013 and finished in September 2015, was funded by a matching grant from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission via the Environmental Protection Agency.

It includes sidewalks that bulge into the street to “calm” traffic, pervious pavement (material through which water can flow) and rain gardens. Phase II will include work along the 600 and 700 blocks and will begin this summer. It’s the same idea: The project “will demonstrate the benefits of green infrastructure,” Caran Curry, grants coordinator for the city, said. The second phase is expected to cost $1.072 million and will be paid for with $536,000 in federal dollars to be matched by the city.

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DONAGHEY BUILDING 70 0 M a in St.

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hen constructed in 1925-26, this 14-story commercial property at Seventh and Main streets was the tallest building in Little Rock. Since 2008, however, it has sat vacant. An investor group from the Washington, D.C., area plans to convert the Donaghey Building into market-rate apartments — 155 of them — with retail space on the ground floor, along with amenities such as a fitness center, a movie theater and an outdoor patio and lawn.

Residents will park next door, in the deck across Seventh Street owned by the Metrocentre Improvement District.

Matthew Musgrave, the project manager, estimated the development costs of the Donaghey Building to be around $14.5 million. Last May, the project cleared one hurdle when the Little Rock City Board approved a zoning change that allowed the development to proceed.

Still, construction likely won’t begin anytime soon: The developer, LRMU LP, is still negotiating with the owner of the building, Lake Hamilton Corp., as of the publication of this article.

LRMU is a project of AII Funds, an EB-5 investor group. The federal government’s EB-5 visa program grants permanent residency (green card) status to foreign investors who make an investment of $500,000 or more in a commercial enterprise in the United States and create or preserve jobs in the U.S. LRMU expects to use historic tax credits to assist in financing the project.

THE DONAGHEY: The city’s first skyscraper, at 14 stories, awaits development.

arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

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STUDIOMAIN

FINANCIAL QUARTER

MAKING CENTS T h e F ina nci a l Qua rt er com e s sligh t ly mor e in t o f ocus .

I

n November 2015, the architecture and design collective StudioMain unveiled a catalog of ideas for transforming a oncevibrant stretch of downtown, the heart of which is skyscraper-lined Capitol Avenue. They called it the Financial Quarter for the financial institutions that have long defined the area, and defined the boundary

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ARKANSAS TIMES

of the 30-block area as the Arkansas River on the north, Sixth Street on the south, Broadway Avenue on the west and Main Street on the east.

Now, with a boutique hotel coming to the Hall-Davidson buildings on Capitol Avenue and plans to begin erecting signage and other branding to define the area, the Financial Quarter may soon become a district

people recognize.

In the past few decades, there has been little to draw people to the area. The lobbies of bank buildings have become “mausoleums,” as developer and realtor Rett Tucker aptly described them at a Financial Quarter meeting. Not even the tenants of the towers get down to the street.

Glen Woodruff, vice president and

director of business development at Wittenberg Deloney & Davidson Architects and a member of StudioMain, has been the chief instigator behind the rebranding of the area.

WD&D is located in the Region’s Center at 400 W. Capitol Ave. “We’ve watched the street die in the sense that there’s no activity. We can be guilty of this,” Woodruff said.

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arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

23

in “We that.” drive up in the parking deck StudioMain and comeenvisions into our tower, the transformation and we might happening go downstairs in three phases: Phase for lunch one calls or for weevents, might“street not. furniture” Then we’ll and get pop-up back kiosks in our cars designed for in retail. the parking Phasedeck two and suggests drive redehome and neveron step signing the literally seven plazas Capitol Avenue on thebetween street in Broadway downtownand Lit-Main totle create Rock. shopping And we’re or retail not alone areas and

Office Equipment Print Management Document Management Network Management All Of The Above

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FEBRUARY 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

Follow X X X X X X on Twitter: @X X X X

F ina nci a l Qua rt er

Woodruff said StudioMain’s offering is less prescriptive than inspirational. “The idea is to help people think creatively about design in their lives and especially their day-to-day routines, and think about how design can impact their lives for the positive.”

Last year, the Downtown Little

Rock Partnership formally established the Financial Quarter committee, chaired by John Martin of Moses Tucker Real Estate and Maggie Hogan of Flake and Kelley Commercial. Martin said funds, provided by stakeholders, would pay for branding efforts, which should roll out later this year.

The biggest impediment going forward? “Money,” Woodruff said. But aside from that, he said the group needed to formalize its relationship with city leaders, who’ve embraced the ideas thus far. Woodruff expects to see some special events around holidays hosted in the quarter this year.

BRIAN CHILSON

repurposing underused bank lobbies.

Phase three calls for transforming surface parking (which accounts for 40 to 60 percent of all property in the quarter) into mixed-use development, giving Capitol Avenue and Center Street distinctive street designs and, perhaps, adding residential options in high rises.

TODAY AND TOMORROW: The Hall-Davidson buildings on Capitol Avenue (left) will be redeveloped as a boutique hotel, restaurant and bar in the future (right) by Rock Capital Group.

HALL-DAVIDSON BUILDINGS 2 0 9 -21 5 W. C a pit ol Av e .

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new real estate firm is in talks with national hotel groups to bring a boutique hotel to the Hall-Davidson buildings on Capitol Avenue. The new group, Rock Capital Real Estate, represents the merger of two small firms, Rock Capital Group, led by Dan Roda and Blake Smith, and Capital Real Estate, led by Jordan Haas and Danny Brickey.

Rock Capital has the 1923 HallDavidson buildings under contract

to purchase from Capitol Lofts LLC, led by Scott Reed, of Portland, Ore. Reed’s acquisition of property along Main Street and Capitol Avenue in 2010-2013 helped spur other development, but Reed ran into financial problems, including lawsuits and liens that halted his work. The deal for the Hall-Davidson buildings should close by April or May, followed by 12 to 18 months of construction on the hotel, Roda said. It’s

expected to cost between $16 million and $17 million.

The proper t y i ncludes t he 41,672-square-foot Hall Building and the adjoining 19,752-square-foot Hall Building Annex.

There will be a 6,000-squarefoot restaurant attached to the hotel along with a bar and common areas, Roda said. He said he hoped it would attract a bar scene of locals like the Capital Hotel Bar has.

“We’re trying to make it a hub for the ‘Creative Corridor,’ ” one of the monikers — along with the Technology Corridor — for Main Street between Fourth and Seventh, Roda said.

Smith said Rock Capital’s hotel project would bring something new to downtown.

“When you think about it, every hotel in downtown Little Rock is ... just a business hotel. The brands

arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

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F ina nci a l Qua rt er

or muffin. We want to make downtown more relevant for this generation.”

Rock Capital also has the Gay Building at 300 Broadway Ave. under contract. It most recently was the home of Rufus Fender Mender. Roda said it was premature to reveal plans for it, but said the group expected to take advantage

of the federal Property-Assessed Clean Energy Program (PACE) financing and other energy efficiency programs.

Haas owns the Sterling Building (219 W. Capitol) and Moore Building (519523 Center St.). Rock Capital will handle the leasing and management of those properties. Michelle Posey has leased a

part of the Sterling building for her photography studio, Mariposa. Haas said he has a potential client for the ground floor space on the corner of West Capitol Avenue and Center Street, but it was too early to reveal it. It’s rumored a law firm is interested.

BRIAN CHILSON

we’re looking at are very creative. They accommodate business but also parties.

To put it bluntly, it’s going to bring in younger people. ... It’s going to accommodate people who’re in their 30s, who’re coming in for business, and they don’t want to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn or wherever and get a free biscuit

THE GAY BUILDING: The former headquarters of the Gay Oil Company, the building at 300 Broadway includes an underground parking garage.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

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BUILDING DOWNTOWN UP: High-rises Rive Market Tower (left) and 300 Third are Moses Tucker developments.

BRIAN CHILSON

OFF MAIN SOUTHERN COMFORT Mose s T uck er on t h e mov e .

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BRIAN CHILSON

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ittle Rock natives Jimmy Moses and Rett Tucker, both from families with deep roots in Arkansas, formed Moses Tucker Real Estate in April 1998. Since then, the firm has either initiated or has been hired to develop 21 projects downtown, 16 of which have a residential component. The value of the projects adds up to nearly $270 million, representing just a partial investment in downtown Little Rock in the past 20 years.

Moses Tucker’s residential development has added 619 units to downtown, and the firm plans to build more: Tucker says the downtown housing market isn’t “saturated” by any means. He estimates the company will work to add 50 to 100 units a year in the next decade.

Moses Tucker focused on the River Market district initially, and has made a steady march south in step with new life on Main Street and its parallel streets east. The company’s first development was the Tuf-Nut blue jean factory at 423 E. Third St., which it renovated into lofts in 1999.

MOSES AND TUCKER: The long-time downtown developers are adding to the apartment stock with new construction and renovations south of the River Market.

At the time, it was like a little bit of SoHo had come to Little Rock.

The company moved into new construction, both as owners and managers, with four high-rises and multiple complexes filling in blocks between Rock and Sherman streets south of President Clinton Avenue,

and it continues to renovate old spaces, like the Mann Building at Third and Main streets.

Speaking of SoHo, Moses Tucker also has a hand in the East Village, the old industrial neighborhood north of Ninth Street and east of Interstate 30.

Spirits, literally, have lifted the area,

with Rock Town Distillery at 1216 E. Sixth St. and craft brews and eats at Lost Forty Brewing at 501 Byrd St. and Rebel Kettle, 822 E. Sixth.

Moses Tucker and Cromwell Architects Engineers joined the mix last year to develop the Sterling properties at Sixth and Shall streets. The renovated Sterling Paint warehouse at the corner will house the Cromwell firm on the first floor and 16 apartments on the second.

The company’s latest project is the Craftsman-style Clayton, which will add 48 apartments to the block on the west side of Scott Street between Ninth and 10th streets. Moses Tucker has also bought, for $900,000, property at the corner of Sixth and Cumberland streets, where its previous owner hoped to build a hotel. The new development will likely be a sixstory mixed-use construction, with retail on the ground floor and apartments above.

In the last 15 years, according to Metroplan, the population of downtown Little Rock has increased by more than half — 54 percent. Tucker predicts

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that thanks to new businesses occupying in the Little Rock Technology Park opening March 1 on Main Street — which is bringing a coffee shop (Blue Sail) to Main Street and is partly to credit for a new restaurant coming to the Rose Building at 307 Main St. — and other new development, the need for new residential units will double in the next few years.

The River Market district, the Clinton Presidential Center and Heifer International are no longer on an island of activity: New places to live, be entertained and do business are bridging the River Market-Downtown gap and making the area’s vitality not just an optimistic assessment, but fact. Now, Tucker says, he’d like to see the city imple-

ment a master plan for downtown’s next decade.

Moses Tucker, which has expanded into Northwest Arkansas and is doubling its office footprint in the Capital Commerce Center, has either developed or hired to develop the following in downtown Little Rock: 1999 Tuf-Nut Lofts, 423 E. Third St., 36 loft apartments, $2 million project.

Clinton Presidential Park, 1200 President Clinton Ave., assembled 30 acres, $10 million project.

2000 Little Rock Regional Chamber

of Commerce Headquarters, 200 E. Markham St., development manager, $3 million project.

The Pour House, 300 President Clinton (now the Revolution Room), development manager, $2 million project.

2002 Arkansas Capital Commerce Center, 200 River Market Ave., offices, 16 condominiums, restaurant, a $14 million project.

Clinton Presidential Storage Archives, $3 million project.

2003 Heifer International headquarters, 1 World Ave., land assemblage and devel-

opment manager, $25 million project.

2004 First Security Center, 521 President Clinton Ave., 14-story hotel, office, bank branch, 24 condominiums development, $14 million.

2005 Rainwater Flats, 519 E. Capitol Ave., 20 condominiums, a $3 million project.

2007 300 Third Tower, 300 Third St., 18-story residential project with 98 condominiums, restaurant and salon, $42 million.

The Cliffs, 810 North St., apartment

WEST OF MAIN Bet w een A rch a n d G a in e s a n d 1 5t h a n d 16t h st r e ets

THE CLAYTON Sco t t St r e et, bet w e en Nin t h a n d 10 t h st r e ets The erstwhile Scott Street Lofts, now named The Clayton after Powell Clayton (the ninth governor of Arkansas and not to be confused with Adam Clayton Powell), will add 48 apartment units to downtown when the half-block-sized complex facing Scott Street between Ninth and 10th streets opens this summer. The Craftsman-style building of brick and lap siding will feature two

18-foot-wide courtyards on Scott Street.

Moses Tucker scaled back the development’s number of apartments, from 53 to 48, and height after neighbors expressed concerns about how it would fit in the neighborhood. Apartments range from 662 square feet to 1,007 square feet and $940 a month to $1,410, with the exception of the three-bedroom, 1,333 square feet, $1,800 a month.

R

eal estate investors Cassie Toro and Carol Worley hope to build a pocket development of 14 to 18 cottages and “carriage-style homes,” with what Toro calls a “Southern, New Orleans feel.” The houses would likely share a common green space.

Toro and Worley plan to submit their proposal to the Capitol Zoning District Commission. If approved, Toro says construction on the estimated $6.8 million investment should begin this summer.

Toro bought the property several years ago, but “almost instantly” became a foster parent to three children and put off development until she had more time.

MACARTHUR COMMONS 4 14 E . C a pit ol Av e .

Moses Tucker Real Estate said MacArthur Commons represented the first new apartment construction

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ARKANSAS TIMES

rehabilitation into 73 condominiums, $7 million.

2014 The Magnolia, 401 E. Capitol Ave., rehab of 12 apartments, $1 million project.

The Arcade, 100 River Market Ave., joint venture with the Central Arkansas Library System, theater, archives, Clinton School for Public Service classrooms, restaurant, retail, offices, a $14 million project.

2009 River Market Tower, 315 Rock St., 20-story development with 132 condominiums, restaurant and grocery, $58 million.

2013 Rainwater Apartments, 519 E. Capitol Ave., adaptive reuse of 12 apartments, $1 million project.

Mann Building/Lofts, 324 Main St. and 310 Main St., historic renovation for offices, 19 loft apartments, restaurants, a $22 million project.

2015

MacArthur Commons, 414 E. Capitol Ave., 59 rental apartments, $8 million project, sold for $10.5 million to David Thompson.

2016 The Row at Legion Village, 516 Rock St., 36 rental apartments, a $5 million project.

Arkansas Democrat Lofts, 615 Main St., historic renovation for eight rental apartments, restaurant, $3 million proj-

ect.

2017 The Clayton, between Ninth and 10th streets on Scott Street, 48 rental apartments, $6 million project.

The Paint Factory, 1300 E. Sixth St., historic renovation for Cromwell architectural firm, 16 loft apartments, a $10 million project.

BRIAN CHILSON

DYNAMIC DOWNTOWN in downtown Little Rock in 30 years when the complex opened in 2015. It includes 59 units, both one-bedroom apartments (leases start at $925 month) and two-bedroom apartments (starting at $1,575 a month); sizes range from 682 square feet to 1,113 square feet. Moses Tucker said the development was an $8 million project; developer David “Rusty� Thompson recently purchased the apartments for $10.5 million.

The City of Little Rock is proud to be a part of the revitalization of our downtown.

A vibrant vision for Main Street has come to life in the Creative Corridor. Culture, commerce, & innovation thrive in a mixed-use, work-live environment that is home to low-impact development, and soon, a local startup scene.

littlerock.gov arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

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THE ROW AT LEGION VILLAGE 516 Rock St.

S

o named because of its proximity to the former site of the MM Ebert Legion Post No. 1, which is being renovated as the Dust Bowl Lanes and Lounge, the Row at Legion Village opened in 2016

with 36 one- and two-bedroom rental apartments.

One-bedroom (682 square feet) leases start at $810 a month and two-bedrooms (1,113 square feet) at $1,295 a month. Besides bowling, there will be another nearby

amenity: Fassler Hall at 307 E. Capitol Ave., a German beer hall, next door to the Dust Bowl, 315 E. Capitol Ave. This Moses Tucker Real Estate development was a $5 million project.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

BRIAN CHILSON

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BARK BAR

FAST LANES: Bowling and beer coming to Capitol Avenue, thanks to Fassler Hall and Dust Bowl.

UNLEASHED ENTREPRENEURS: Elizabeth Michael (left) and Cara Fowler are opening Bark Bar, where folks — and their best friends — can enjoy libations.

BARK BAR

DUST BOWL LANES/ FASSLER HALL 3 07 E . C a pit ol Av e .

31 5 E . C a pit ol Av e .

1 2 01 Spr ing St.

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aving obtained a building permit and 246 percent of the $5,500 they wanted to raise for the project, Elizabeth Michael and Cara Fowler are well on their way to turning a vacant mission-style church building at 1201 Spring St. into Bark Bar, Arkansas’s first off-leash dog park and restaurant/bar. After wading through some red tape with the Alcohol Beverage Control, the Department of Health and the city, Fowler and

Michael conducted a groundbreaking (well, wall-breaking, technically speaking) ceremony earlier this month. They are partnering with food and beverage distributors to create a menu that includes gourmet hot dogs, pub fare, a full bar, beers on tap and, for the pups, a doggie drink menu perhaps featuring minnow-flavored, toilet-flavored and bacon-flavored water. Fowler, Michael and her husband, Dan Roda, anticipate a late April opening.

M

oses Tucker Real Estate and Tulsa’s McNellie’s Group are advancing longrunning plans to renovate the M.M. Eberts American Legion Post into Dust Bowl Lanes, an eight-lane retro bowling alley with forerunners in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. It’s to be neighbor to Fassler Hall, a Germanstyle beer hall, at 307 E. Capitol Ave. in the former Paragon Printing building. If the Oklahoma City location

is any indication of what we might expect for Little Rock’s Dust Bowl Lanes, we can look forward to midcentury-styled tables for keeping score by hand, potato pancakes, and house-made sausages fried in duck fat in Fassler Hall’s beer garden and throwback carpet and lighting. According to an article in The Oklahoman, the OKC location’s owner and architect googled “ugly carpet” for inspiration.

arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

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LOST FORT Y

REBEL KETTLE ROCK TOWN DISTILLERY

EAST VILLAGE VIEW: This drawing shows Shall Street, with Heifer International in the background, Rock Town Distillery on the west and The Paint Factory project on the east.

EAST VILLAGE THE PAINT FACTORY Si x t h St r eet a n d Sh a ll Av en u e

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FUTURE HOME OF CROMWELL: The former paint manufacturing plant is being transformed into the architectural firm’s new office.

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ittle Rock east of Interstate 30: With the important exceptions of the Clinton Presidential Center on the Arkansas River and southern neighbor Heifer International, the town’s old industrial area has been a sort of rusty and uninviting neighborhood.

Lots of folks who live here know what lies east of I-30 only because Sixth Street used to be the way to Adams Field and later the shortcut to the “new” airport.

That has begun to change, thanks to our taste for craft beer, homemade spirits and the neo-warehouse aesthetic. Rock Town Distillery, Lost Forty Brewing and Rebel Kettle lubricated the move into the area in recent years, and now the land east of the interstate even has a new moniker that calls to mind the bohemian spirit of the Big Apple: the East Village.

The Cromwell architectural firm, which has been around for more than 130 years in Little Rock, made quite a splash when it announced in 2015 it had purchased what were called the Sterling Properties at Sixth Street and Shall Avenue and would relocate its offices there.

The firm has joined with Moses Tucker Real Estate to develop a 50,000-square-foot building at the northeast corner of Sixth and Shall,

across the street from Rocktown Distillery, into The Paint Factory, housing Cromwell’s offices on the first floor and 16 loft apartments on the second.

Dan Fowler, Cromwell’s business developer, promises the new apartments will be “cool and edgy” and unusual, their industrial aesthetic similar only to Tuf-Nut Lofts’. The idea, he said, is to “evoke the spirit of that old industrial part of Little Rock, which is our goal really for the entire development — to retain the history and the spirit and the quality” of the area.

In addition to the Cromwell firm, the first floor will also include a small retail space — Fowler is hoping a restaurant will lease the 4,000-square-foot carve-out — and a community room, complete with bathrooms and a catering area, for lease to the public. “We hope it fosters a lot of creativity and interaction between people in the neighborhood now,” Fowler said. He estimated investment in the project at $10 million.

The Paint Factory will be a centerpiece in Cromwell’s transformation of the five Sterling Properties (originally the site of Stebbins and Roberts’ paint manufacturing business). Fowler said Cromwell is also “working pretty hard”

E a st Vill age

on its property at 1212 E. Sixth St., the former site of Ron King’s bike refurbishing facility. Fowler said Cromwell has some “serious tenants” lined up for the building, and an announcement would be forthcoming.

Fowler said Cromwell’s decision to move to the East Village was meant to inject life into the area and “show people it’s OK to come there, OK to live there,” in the same way the firm’s building on Markham Street played a role in the revitalization of that area. “We hope we are the first of many investments in the East Village.”

ROCK TOWN DISTILLERY 1 216 E . Si x t h St.

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hil Brandon’s engineering degree has come in handy since July 2010, when the debut of Rock Town Distillery’s gin and vodka was met with a chilly reception. Nearly seven years later, Brandon has slowly and quietly rebuilt the formula, earning top honors from New York City’s Ultimate Spirits Challenge, Chicago’s Beverage Testing Institute and Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible, which in its 2017 edition bestowed its “Liquid Gold” label to three Rock Town spirits: the Arkansas Rye Whiskey, the Barley Bourbon and the Single Barrel Bourbon. The company announced last June it had been exploring the idea of moving to a lot at 616 E. Capitol Ave. to accommodate its expanded production, but tours and events coordinator Kelly Gee told us Rock Town aims to stick around in the East Village. “We would like to stay where we are, but we’ll need a little more space. It’s a good problem to have, but we’re selling more whiskey than we can make.”

ARTISAN ON COLLINS Fou rt h a n d Collins st r eets

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n late 2016, David “Rusty” Thompson bought one block in the East Village from Industrial Realty Co. for $1.7 million.

Thompson has said he envisions mixed-use development, with retail in the ground floor and apartments above. The property is bound by East Capitol Avenue on the south, Rector

Street on the west, East Fourth Street on the north and Collins Street on the east. The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department’s plan to massively widen the Interstate 30 may require buying a 60-foot-wide slice of the western boundary of the property.

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E a st Vill age

ESTEM PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL 4 0 0 Sh a ll Av en u e

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ittle Rock’s best-known charter school is on track to open a new elementary/junior high campus by July 2018, which will allow it to more than double its student capacity in grades K-9. Last May, eStem purchased the 111,096-square-foot warehouse on Shall Avenue for $1.7 million, and the charter operator hopes to have its financing complete by the end of the first quarter of this year. EStem CEO John Bacon said the plan is to gut the warehouse, then divide it into two separate buildings, one of which will be a K-6 elementary that eventually will contain 800 to 900 students. The other will be a junior high that will one day

hold 450 students in grades 7-9. “We won’t start with that many but will grow it out over time,” Bacon said.

EStem is also working on a new high school for grades 10-12 at the UA Little Rock, which will allow its campus at Third and Louisiana to transition to serving grades K-9 only. When the expansion is complete, Bacon said, eStem will have two separate K-9 campuses in the downtown area (one on Shall, one on Louisiana) that feed into the UALR-based high school, accommodating a total of 3,800 to 4,400 students. (Today, the charter has an enrollment capacity of 1,462.)

BRIAN CHILSON

NEW SCHOOLS ON SHALL: EStem will gut a warehouse for new elementary and junior high schools.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

Follow X X X X X X on Twitter: @X X X X

hen Yellow Rocket Concepts opened the doors to Lost Forty Brewing and began making craft beer in December 2014, the locally rooted team behind it already had made it big on the restaurant scene with Big Orange, ZAZA Fine Salad and Wood Oven Pizza Co. and Local Lime. Lost Forty continues to churn out craft beer in cans and from the tap in small-batch limited releases, like the “Nighty Night” Imperial Stout and the “Snake Party” Double IPA, in addition to standard brews like the Love Honey Bock, the Lost Forty Pale Ale and the session-worthy Day Drinker.

Lost Forty’s “Beer Food” menu is full of curiosities like the Hoppin’ John hummus, an open-face fried Italian bologna and egg sandwich and a batch of 50 house-smoked rib plates every Thursday and Friday, sold by the pound until they run out.

BRIAN CHILSON

LOST FORTY BREWING 5 01 By r d St. REBEL KETTLE BREWING 82 2 E . Si x t h St.

The newest addition to the East Village brewhouses is Rebel Kettle, which opened its doors on March 25, 2016.

The taproom and adjacent beer garden pour standard brews like Working Glass Hero Blonde Ale, Dirtbag Double Brown Ale and Moontower Cream Stout, supplemented by a roster of “rotator” beers and seasonal brews like the Richard Persimmons Sour Saison and the After Hours Smoked Porter, all pair-able with menu items like Boudin Stuffed Mushrooms, po’ boys, burgers and salads. Rebel Kettle was founded by brewer John Lee; Pat Beaird, formerly of The Southern Gourmasian, runs the kitchen.

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SOUTH MAIN

SOMA SOARING: A computer-generated image shows the two-story mixed-use condo and retail complex Matt Foster plans to build at the northwest corner of 15th and Main streets.

SO MUCH IN SOMA

T

he biggest news in the South Main’s Southside Main Street Project — which we all know as SoMa — is developer Matt Foster’s plan to build a $4.4 million retail and residential center at the northwest corner of 15th and Main streets.

The two-story, 22,000-square-foot development will include seven retail spots on the ground floor and five condominiums on the

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ARKANSAS TIMES

second. Though the project will be the first major new construction to come to the historic neighborhood in years, Foster, owner of MWF Construction LLC, says the idea is to “continue the vibe and feel of the SoMa district” with local, small business retail tenants. The condos will range in size from 1,500 to 2,850 square feet.

Foster has preliminary plans and has

Follow X X X X X X on Twitter: @X X X X

received Capitol Zoning District approval with no stipulation for the yet-to-be-named development. He’s waiting for final architectural plans and final funding from banks.

He hopes to begin construction this year.

Here are some other businesses that have opened in SoMa in the past few years:

S ou t h M a in

T h e 1 2 0 0 bl ock

THE ESCAPE 1 214 S . M a in St.

BRIAN CHILSON

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GET TRAPPED: In a new “escape room” on South Main.

f you are not claustrophobic and like to show off your observational and puzzle-solving skills, you might want to think your way out of one of the four locked rooms of The Escape.

The business located to SoMa in 2016, Manager Aron Daughety says, “because it’s a really cool connected area” with lots of foot traffic. The key — figuratively speaking — to escaping the rooms, each of which has a storyline, is good communication skills, Daughety said, which makes it a good team-building event for businesses.

ELECTRIC GHOST 1 218 S . M a in St.

Y

BRIAN CHILSON

ou might not guess with a glance at the small retail space with the funny name in SoMa that it fronts a busy screen-printing business. Brooks Tipton moved his screen-printing operations to SoMa in 2016; a tour of the back of this 1930 storefront, where you’ll see master printmaker Caleb Pritchett pulling prints by hand and other great tools of the trade, makes for great entertainment, as well as appreciation of the process.

SPIRITED DESIGN: Tiffany Fagaly shows off a T-shirt printed at Electric Ghost.

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BRIAN CHILSON

BRIAN CHILSON

S ou t h M a in

ON FIRE: A 2016 blaze forced Midtown to close. Rebuilding just begun.

TWO-IN-ONE: Sweet Home Furnishing and Clement share space at 1324 S. Main.

MIDTOWN BILLIARDS

SWEET HOME FURNISHINGS/ CLEMENT 1 32 4 S . M a in St.

1 316 M a in St.

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L

BRIAN CHILSON

ast September, SoMa’s venerable watering hole — a favorite of the service industry and once named one of the best bars in America by Esquire magazine — was gutted by a fire that started when an appliance malfunctioned. Just last week, the business got all its permits to begin rebuilding, owner Maggie Hinson said, and work was to begin this week. Hinson will return Midtown to its original look, though with a new bar and benches. “My customers will take care” of returning the new construction to its original condition, she added. She’s aiming for a March reopening, but acknowledged that it’s anyone’s guess when construction will be complete.

PATIO DINING: At Raduno in SoMa.

RADUNO BRICK OVEN & BARROOM 1 318 M a in St.

R

aduno, or RAD UNO on its street sign, opened in February 2015 in a remodeled storefront in the Joseph Jung/G.P. Kordsmeir building and has been serving Neapolitan-style pizzas to good crowds since. The crowds are good enough, in fact, that in 2016 the restaurant built a patio to accommodate several tables on the sidewalk in front of the business and the city built a sidewalk around it.

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hen the owners of this antique store — which is actually two stores combined — lost their lease in Hillcrest, they decided to move to another place with a neighborhood feel: SoMa. SoMa godmother Anita Davis let them know about a building that Cassie Toro had bought and restored, and John Bell (Sweet Home Furnishings) and Chris Clement (Clement) swept right in. When Toro removed the metal façade from the old Lendermon Paint Co., she uncovered the glass tile art deco design over the front door, which faces diagonally across the intersection of 14th and Main. Just right for an antique store, now in its third year in the neighborhood.

Around the corner, in the rear of the Sweet Home building, Arkansas Wellness Professionals plans to open Spark Fit Community, a workout space for adults and children in June in the space formerly occupied by Krav Maga. Glenn McCracken and his wife, Kecia, operate Arkansas Wellness, which will offer personal training, pilates classes and yoga classes in the 3,300-squarefoot space in back of Sweet Home Furnishings/Clement. They’ll remodel first, hold a summer program and after Labor Day have a full class schedule set.

MOXY MODERN MERCANTILE 14 19 S . M a in St.

L

ara Kahler opened Moxy Mercantile, a store that sells vintage and vintage-inspired items (like old records and dog-butt refrigerator magnets and kitchen linens and stationery), when space became available on the first floor of the Bernice Apartments three

years ago. Flanked by the Bernice Garden, created by SoMa godmother Anita Davis, on the north and Boulevard Bread Co. on the south, Moxy looks forward to catching Mardi Gras beads thrown from the balcony of Matt Foster’s development planned for across the street.

LOBLOLLY CREAMERY

SALES-SERVICE-MOVING-TUNING

14 2 3 S . M a in St.

NOW CARRYING BAND AND ORCHESTRA RENTALS AND ACCESSORIES. GUITARS AND ACCESSORIES TOO! COME IN AND PLAY!

S

ally Mengel’s homemade ice cream company, now inside the Green Corner Store, will open

1222 S. Main Street • (501) 372-1446 •pianokraft.com

its own parlor next door in the space formerly occupied by the StudioMain design collaborative.

Happenings in SOMA this weekend:

Sat, Feb 25: Arkansas Times sponsors The Root Beard Contest high noon BRIAN CHILSON

Mardi Gras parade - after the Beard Contest

THE ROOT CAFE Sun, Feb 26 from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.

300 Block of Main Street Parade will start at 6th & Main

1 5 0 0 S . M a in St.

T

he Root Cafe has been around since 2011, but until November 2016, eating there meant standing in a long line with fingers crossed that you’d be able to get one of the three tables inside the former Sweden Creme or on the patios outside. The Root took mercy on its many devotees last year

and added shipping containers to expand the dining room and kitchen. The Root grows with all deliberate speed: It is offering Friday and Saturday evening meals and will expand that to Thursdays starting March 2 and Wednesdays starting March 15.

go to barkusonmain.com to register your dogs for the parade

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ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

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FINAL IS ON

MARCH 10!

DON’T BLINK, MY FRIEND

AND EMBR ACE THE FEAR .

M IN D S N B LOW

HEARTS N BRO K E

DETAILS ON THE SIX VICTORIOUS MUSICAL GETTOITS AT

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Follow X X X X X X on Twitter: @X X X X

S ou t h M a in

BRIAN CHILSON

Welcome Michael Weatherford to downtown Little Rock and Meadors, Adams & Lee.

ANTIQUE MALL: South Main Creative opened at 1600 S. Main in 2015.

SOUTH MAIN CREATIVE 16 0 0 S . M a in St.

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historic building that contributes to the South Main Street Commercial Historic District has been many things — grocery store, beauty shop, uniform supply store — and now it is, in a sense, all of that as South Main Creative antique mall, featuring

booths of vintage items, antiques, jewelry, clothing and art. Valerie Wingert opened the mall in the 5,000-square-foot storefront in September 2015; the store now also offers classes in such crafts as needle felting, chalk painting, silk screening, mosaics and other D.I.Y. lessons.

ARGENTA BEAD CO. 16 0 8 S . M a in St.

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llie Roy, who has been in the bead biz for years and whose shop is said to be among the best in the country, is moving her store from North Little Rock to SoMa in March.

Her move from Argenta was sped up by a car that lost control on North Little

Rock’s Main Street last December and smashed into her store, creating an enormous mess of thousands of beads, some of them precious, and broken glass. Out they went. The store, founded in 2000, will keep the Argenta name.

Do something different. We do.

100 RIVER MARKET AVENUE

IN THE ARCADE BUILDING |LITTLE ROCK 501-372-5200 | meadorsadamslee.com

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ON THE RIVER GLOBAL SOLUTIONS f rom r i v er citie s

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BRIAN CHILSON

A

rkansas has a history of winning long shots, from Bill Clinton to Sam Walton and his little fiveand-dime up in Bentonville. Given that, while it might be tempting to dismiss lawyer Mark Grobmyer’s plan for the Global Studies Institute and the Global Technology Expo Deployment Demonstration (or GTED2) as pie in the sky, stranger things have happened.

The projects, which Grobmyer said could cost up to $250 million if all phases are completed, would include a complex on both sides of the Arkansas River to showcase, demonstrate and distribute new sustainable technologies to fight poverty, hunger, drought and disease in the developing world.

The complex would include the Global Solutions Institute east of Heifer International headquarters, a library and museum complex north of Heifer, an exhibition hall to showcase emerging technologies across the Arkansas River in North Little Rock and a half-dozen other major facilities.

Grobmyer said the idea for the Global Solutions Institute grew out of a Decem-

THINKING BIG: Mark Grobmyer points to a map showing the sites where the $220 million Global Studies Institute and attendant facilities would be located.

ber 2012 meeting in Little Rock by the Club de Madrid, a group of over 100 former heads of state, and the P80 Group Foundation, an organization started by Charles, Prince of Wales, that seeks to steer investment from the world’s larg-

est pension and sovereign wealth funds into technologies that could influence climate change or sustainable development. “The premise of this whole thing is, while there are 240 tech parks in the United States and there’s lots and lots of

incubator innovation facilities, there is no facility anywhere that’s totally dedicated to deploying technologies. That’s what makes this unique and different,” Grobmyer said.

The first phase of the project, which could be completed this year, will involve upgrading exhibits in the Heifer Global Village Building and creating a series of functional technology demonstration stations on an island in the Arkansas River close to the Clinton Presidential Center. A bridge was built last year to the island, which has been set aside as a city park. “The idea is that island will be a place where you can have exhibits of things you would actually use in a developing country,” Grobmyer said. “We’ll partner on that with the Alliance of Small Island States, which is a group of 42 island countries.

They need to have water purification stations and micro-grid electric systems and flood resistant housing. The idea is we’d have examples of those technologies on the island.” Grobmyer said the land for the exhibits would be leased from the city, or else the exhibits might be operated by the city as a way to provide power and water to other facilities on the island.

Grobmyer said that with the global fundraising effort recently launched, $1.5 million in cash and services has been raised for the project. When fundraising goals are met, he said, the project should take five to seven years to complete.

We bring the city to life.

Photo Credit: Chase Wilson

Live, work, play, and invest in downtown Little Rock—with exciting neighborhoods like the River Market, SoMa, and the East Village, and thriving business districts like the Creative Corridor and the Financial Quarter. By hosting vibrant events like the Main Street Food Truck Festival and Barkus on Main, we create a more memorable urban experience.

downtownlr.com

@downtownlr

downtownlr

@downtownlittlerock arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

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BRIAN CHILSON

THE NEW BROADWAY BRIDGE

I

n March, the downtown commuter nightmare will be over. The new $98.4 million Broadway Bridge will open to traffic, though there will still be finishing touches to do. The four-lane, double-arch bridge replaces the 1921 structure, which was closed to traffic last September, thus diverting all down-

town river-crossing traffic to either the Main Street Bridge or Interstate 30. The old bridge didn’t go quietly — or rather, it quietly stood despite the first attempts to bring it down with dynamite in October. There was a boom, and then nothing. Finally, barges pulled the obstinate concrete construction down.

The new bridge, which is expected to stand for 75 years, has wider lanes (12 feet) than the old bridge; each arch is 446 feet long and 88 feet wide. Danny Straessle, spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said there will be an “impromptu ribbon-cutting” when contractor Mass-

man Construction Co. says it’s ready to open. Finishing touches will include an exit ramp to state Highway 10 and bike/ pedestrian ramps. There will be a commissioning ceremony April 6.

the paint factory in

V I L L AG E coming fall 2017

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ON T H E R I V E R

ORBEA AND THE WORKS 70 0 W. Broa dway, Nort h Lit t le Rock

BRIAN CHILSON

S

pearheaded by husband-and-wife developers Jim Jackson and Lisa Ferrell, The Works at Rockwater has transformed a former grungy automotive spring supply warehouse just west of Dickey-Stephens Park into a sleek and modern office and commercial space. The 36,000- square-foot building now houses the U.S. headquarters of Orbea, the high-end Spanish bicycle company, whose HQ had previously been located on Main Street in Little Rock. Though the walk-in showroom and coffee shop from Orbea’s Main Street digs — a collaboration with local bike seller Spokes — has been nixed at the new location, the larger space has allowed the company to relocate all of its operations under one roof, including a cavernous warehouse for new, boxed

bikes shipped from East and West Coast warehouses. Other parts of The Works at Rockwater development are being fitted out as offices for Jackson’s law firm, Rockwater Real Estate and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Arkansas. Final cost of the project, including the initial purchase of the building, will be in the neighborhood of $2 million. Ferrell said The Works will serve as a bridge between Argenta and her company’s residential development Rockwater Village, further west on the riverfront. “We saw that as a strategic property to join Rockwater with the excitement of the Broadway Bridge, the project going at Smarthouse Way and just all the fabulous stuff that the city is doing downtown,” she said.

“It’s a way for that whole corridor to become spectacular.”

THE BOTTOM LINE:

SMOKING COSTS YOU By the numbers

SMOKERS ARE 33% MORE LIKELY TO MISS

PRODUCTIVITY LOSSES

W O R K THAN NONSMOKERS

IN ARKANSAS

$1.21 BILLION THE ANNUAL HEALTH CARE COSTS IN ARKANSAS DIRECTLY CAUSED BY SMOKING

Cut the Smoke not the Budget SMOKE-FREE POLICIES

ROCKWATER POCKET

INSURANCE PREMIUMS

BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY

LABOR COSTS LEGAL LIABILITY

IMPROVING MORALE

MAINTENANCE COSTS

Rock wat e r Bou le va r d

A

cottage in North Carolina like the one shown above and others are the inspiration for the look of The Porches at Rockwater, a new pocket neighborhood to be built off Rockwater Boulevard in North Little Rock. The development, which will break ground in April, joins the Rockwater Marina, the Riverside at Rockwater apartments and Rockwater Village, projects

by Lisa Ferrell and James Jackson of North Bluffs Development Corp. Ferrell likens the Porches to Bentonville’s new Black Apple pocket neighborhood, with two differences: The nine homes

will be built in a traditional craftsman style with porches, rather than Black Apple’s more contemporary look, and they’ll be less expensive, starting in the $250,000 range. Each home will have three bedrooms and two baths. Ferrell said the “boutique homes” will be “nestled around a common garden.” She said the design follows an older neighborhood style of larger houses on high ground — Rockwater Village, a group of waterfront homes — surrounded by smaller houses and retail. Ferrell estimates the investment at $2.5 million.

WHEN YOUR TEAM FEELS GOOD, YOU CAN FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOUR TEAM.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CREATING A TOBACCO-FREE WORKPLACE, CONTACT:

ADH.TPCP@ARKANSAS.GOV

OR

501-614-5282

Arkansas Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program

www.cleartheairarkansas.com

STAMP OUT SMOKING 1-800-QUIT-NOW

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On t h e R i v er

SINCE 1981

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! REOPENED, AND GRAND: The Robinson Center Performance Hall now seats 2,214 people and has two balcony levels.

www.ac t i on -mechanical. com

Discovery Nightclub Presents the

ROBINSON CENTER

DI S COV E R MUS IC COM PET IT ION 7 weeks of music with 8 bands competing Grand Prize: $2000 cash and 4 hours of studio time at Blue Chair Studios

ROUND 7: GRAND FINALE! | DIRTY FUSS VS. THE FUNK DONORS | FEBRUARY 25 Doors at 9pm, Show at 10pm Cover is $10 (includes entry to Discovery Lobby and Disco-Tech after the show) 1021 Jessie Rd, Little Rock • 501-666-6900 • www.latenightdisco.com

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4 26 W. M a r k h a m St.

F

or downtown residents, patrons of the arts and maybe especially for Arkansas Symphony Orchestra musicians, it was a long wait until Nov. 10, 2016. The grand reopening of Robinson Center marked the end of the so-called “Second Act” renovation to

the historic structure at the corner of Broadway and Markham streets. The hall was finally opened to the public — the same public that had voted to fund the project with a portion of the city’s 2 percent hospitality tax, and whom the ASO thanked by giving away an entire

WARM FIRE. BRIAN CHILSON

Mount Magazine State Park #ARStateParks

COOL VIEW. evening’s worth of tickets for a special “Thank You, Little Rock” concert.

Implementing the vision of designers at New York City’s Ennead Architects and Little Rock’s Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, construction crews at CDI/ Hunt Joint Venture dropped the old stage a whopping 36 feet, creating a cavernous performance hall with a mechanical lift for the orchestra pit and two stage-level truck bays. The hall now seats 2,214 people, and in-

cludes two tiers of box seats. Under the direction of acousticians at Jaffe Holden, adjustable acoustic draping was installed, networked with stage lights and catwalks that allow the hall to help bring in the kind of grandspectacle, highly technical shows that would have been impossible in the old Robinson — Disney’s “The Lion King,” for one, slated to grace the stage in the Robinson Performance Hall in the spring of 2018.

Petit Jean State Park #ARStateParks

It’s no secret that Arkansas State Parks has incredible winter lodging specials and packages. During the winter months, the cabins are warm, the views are cool, and the rental prices are cooler. So if you want to avoid the crowds, chill by a crackling fire, and take advantage of some serious savings, reserve a cabin or lodge room at an Arkansas State Park today. Winter has never been so cool.

ArkansasStateParks.com/deals

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ARGENTA A R C H I T E C T S P.L.L.C. 10411 West Markham, Suite 220 Little Rock, Arkansas 72205 (501) 224-3055fax:(501) 224-6934

www.scmarchitects.com

EXISTING GLAZED BRICK WALLTO REMAIN 19

E . O .

M A N E E S

12

ADJACENT BUILDING

35' - 1"

02 SECOND FLOOR 15' - 6" EXISTING TRANSOM, UNCOVERED DECORATIVE MOLDING WOOD FRAMED GLAZING

EXISTING DOOR

GLAZED BRICK

6' - 8"

GLAZED BRICK

01 FIRST FLOOR 0' - 0"

1 MANEES BUILDING: John Chandler’s latest project.

A CONTINUUM OF REDOS

EAST ELEVATION 1/8" = 1'-0"

315 Main St.

WOOD FRAMED GLAZING

REPAIR WOOD WINDOWS & TRIM AS REQUIRED, TYP.

8' - 0" 10" 2' - 2"

ADJACENT BUILDING

ROOF PLAN 28' - 0"

17' - 5"

EXISTING STONEWORK TO REMAIN

02/03/17

F rom Joh n Ch a n dler

J

ohn Chandler, whose most recent project in Argenta was the old Koehler Bakery renovation in the 700 block of Main Street into retail and apartments, has new plans on the drawing board: the restoration of the two-story Manees Building at 317 Main St., which he purchased from Thomason Furniture Co. for $700,000.

The 10,000-square-foot building, constructed in 1912, features 12-foot ceilings covered in pressed-tin and hardwood floors; Chandler has removed

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the façade to expose the original glazed brick. The ground floor will hold retail spaces, the second floor offices. The work should be complete by August, he said.

Chandler’s played an important role in the revitalization of Main Street: He also renovated the Faucette-Cook building at the southwest corner of Fifth and Main streets, where Ristorante Capeo, Greg Thompson Fine Art and Argenta Methodist Church are located. Back on the 300 block, across the street from

the Manees Building, Chandler renovated 314-315 Main St., where Skinny J’s Restaurant and Bourbon and Boots are located.

Chandler figures he’s invested between $4 million and $5 million in downtown North Little Rock, in what he calls “a continuum of renovations.

We enjoy it, and it’s also economically fruitful. Whatever we have renovated has filled up very quickly.”

“If everything works out right,” Chandler said, he plans to buy the option from

the city on land at the north and east side of the plaza the city plans to construct in the 600 block of Main. Chandler is thinking of putting in two mixeduse buildings abutting the plaza; they’d accommodate a restaurant, retail, apartments and offices. That work would begin in late 2018.

“There’s a lot of demand” in Argenta, Chandler said. “I’m trying to create high-end renovated spaces that have some cachet and some culture to it.”

A Stronger Workforce.

Throughout central Arkansas, many students rely on the affordable transportation of Rock Region METRO. With major routes to some of Arkansas’ most popular academic institutions, our buses provide students the access needed to advance their learning and better prepare for their future careers.

THERE’S A LOT RIDING ON PUBLIC TRANSIT.

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rrmetro

Captured By Robots & Ginsu Wives, March 2nd @ Low Key Arts 118 Arbor, Hot Springs $8 adv $12 door

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BRIAN CHILSON

A rgen ta

THE KOEHLER BUILDING AND KOEHLER BAKERY BUILDING

70 0 bl ock of M a in St r eet, A rgen ta

I Proudly ser ving the downtowns across the state of Arkansas.

The Arkansas Municipal League is a voluntary organization serving 500 cities and towns throughout the state.

“Great Cities Make A Great State” is more than just a motto for us— it is the spirit of our organization.

Learn more at www.arml.org.

(501) 374-3484 www.arml.org 301 W. Second Street, Nor th Little Rock, Arkansas 54

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

Follow X X X X X X on Twitter: @X X X X

t has taken a while for the continuing revival of Main Street in Argenta to progress beyond a few core blocks between Broadway and Seventh streets, but the push further northward is in progress, with the renovation of four buildings in the 700 block, including the historic Koehler Building and the Koehler Bakery buildings. The mixed-use, two-story redevelopment will feature commercial space downstairs and condominiums and apartments upstairs. Three businesses have committed to locate in the block so far, including studio space for painter Barry Thomas at 711A Main. Next door will be Ozark Escape, the area’s newest entry in the popular “escape room” entertainment genre, a live-action puzzle-solving game that locks participants in a themed room filled with clues and gives them a set amount of time to figure out how to escape. Ozark Escape will feature three different rooms that can hold up to 20 players at a time.

At 715 Main will be Mortgage Peer Network, a startup company that sells technology to mortgage lenders, run by Greg Ellis.

BOOKS FROM THE ARKANSAS TIMES

THE UNIQUE NEIGHBORHOODS OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS Full of interesting voices and colorful portraits of 17 Little Rock and North Little Rock neighborhoods, this book gives an intimate, block-by-block, native’s view of the place more than 250,000 Arkansans call home.

Created from interviews with residents and largely written by writers who actually live in the neighborhoods they’re writing about, the book features over 90 full color photos by Little Rock photographer Brian Chilson.

Also Available: A HISTORY OF ARKANSAS HUB OF TECHNOLOGY: The Innovation Hub has merged with Winrock International.

ARKANSAS REGIONAL INNOVATION HUB 2 01 E . Broa dway

O

pened in January 2015, Argenta’s Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub is a haven for tinkerers. It features a full woodworking shop, a printmaking and screenprinting shop, several 3D printers and two highpowered lasers that can do precision cuts and engraving in materials from paper to plywood. The Hub also offers regular classes on welding, laser-cutting, coding, block printing and more to members who pay a reasonable monthly or per-day fee.

Warwick Sabin, who served as the executive director of the Innovation Hub, now oversees its operations as well as Winrock’s other job-creating programs as the senior director of U.S. programs for Winrock International, which combined with the Hub in June 2016.

Sabin said the number of people who used the Hub grew by about 40 percent in 2016. New developments on the drawing board for 2017 include continued work toward satellite makerspaces in other cities and a mobile makerspace that can be towed to far-flung corners of Arkansas.

For Central Arkansas, the big Hubrelated news is a new Food Innovation Center, which Sabin said should open this year. While those looking to start food-related businesses — cheesemakers, pie makers, artisan bakers and the like — often have to turn to under-used industrial church kitchens to get their small businesses off the ground, Sabin said the Food Innovation Center would offer a certified industrial kitchen available for use by members, plus industrial packaging and labeling machines, a large garden and cooking classes. “It would take a similar approach as what we’ve established at our current Innovation Hub,” Sabin said. “It would basically be an aggregation of tools, technology, equipment education, making that available to the community, both youth and adults, around food and agriculture.”

The location for the Food Innovation Center is still up in the air as of this writing. A source close to the project, however, says developers are looking at sites in East Little Rock and Southwest Little Rock.

A compilation of stories published in the Arkansas Times during our first twenty years. Each story examines a fragment of Arkansas’s unique history – giving a fresh insight into what makes us Arkansans.

Well written and illustrated. This book will entertain and enlighten time and time again.

ALMANAC OF ARKANSAS HISTORY This unique book offers an offbeat view of the Natural State’s history that you haven’t seen before – with hundreds of colorful characters, pretty places, and distinctive novelties unique to Arkansas. Be informed, be entertained, amaze your friends with your new store of knowledge about the 25th state, the Wonder State, the Bear State, the Land of Opportunity.

Payment: CHECK OR CREDIT CARD Order by Mail: ARKANSAS TIMES BOOKS 201 EAST MARKHAM STREET, STE. 200, LITTLE ROCK, AR, 72201 Phone: 501-375-2985 Fax: 501-375-3623 Email: ANITRA@ARKTIMES.COM Send _____ book(s) of The Unique Neighborhoods of Central Arkansas @ $19.95 Send _____ book(s) of A History Of Arkansas @ $10.95 Send _____ book(s) of Almanac Of Arkansas History @ $18.95 Shipping and handling $3 per book Name _________________________________________________ Address _______________________________________________ City, State, Zip ___________________________________________ Phone ________________________________________________ Visa, MC, AMEX, Disc # ________________________ Exp. Date _______ arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

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BRIAN CHILSON

A rgen ta

SKINNY J’S: New eatery on Main in Argenta.

ARGENTA EATS

P

lenty of good food and nightlife is either in place or coming soon to Argenta. In the “coming soon” category is Kamikaito by Kiyens (521 Main), in the space at Sixth and Main streets that previously housed Good Food By Ferneau and Argenta Market.

A spinoff of Kiyen’s Seafood Steak and Sushi on Chenal Parkway, the space will reportedly offer sushi, seafood, steaks and Asian fusion cuisine. The original target date for Kamikaito was last October, but permitting snafus got in the way.

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Open since early last year and steadily drawing raves since then is Four Quarter Bar (415 Main), the New Orleansinspired music venue and bar by former Midtown Billiards bartender and talent booker Conan Robinson. Located in the former Sidetracks storefront, Four Quarter features cozy decor reminiscent of a French Quarter dive, over a dozen local beers on tap, a 2 a.m. private club permit and a solid lineup of live music several nights a week. Four Quarter took home the Best New Bar award in

Arkansas Times’ annual 2016 Toast of the Town issue, and was a finalist for a half-dozen other awards, including Best Dive, Best Neighborhood Bar and Best Bar Food. That last is a nod to a solid menu of booze-soaking fare, including slow-smoked pork sandwiches, burgers, nachos, mac and cheese and more.

A bit longer established is Skinny J’s (314 Main), which opened in July 2015, the latest link in a small, Arkansas-only chain by chef and owner James Best, who opened his first Skinny J’s near

Jonesboro in 2009. Skinny J’s features a solid sub-menu of bar vittles, including staples like loaded nachos, cheese curds, cheese fries, fried green tomatoes and crab cakes. For more stick-to-your ribs food, Skinny’s has over a dozen incarnations of cheeseburger, 11 different sandwiches, a whole bunch of salads, several pasta choices and more. Unique, however, is Skinny J’s status as the lone oyster bar north of the river.

Take another look at North Little Rock...

...we’re closer than you think.

NLR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION 501-371-0116 • NLR.AR.GOV CITY OF NORTH LITTLE ROCK • NLR.GOV NORTH LITTLE ROCK CONVENTION VISITORS BUREAU • NORTHLITTLEROCK.ORG NORTH LITTLE ROCK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE • NLRCHAMBER.ORG arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

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ARGENTA FILLS IN R i v e r side de v el opm en t, a pa rtm en ts a n d a pl a z a .

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hat would of what would be good happen if for North Little Rock. you took A farmers market roughly $100 million occupies the spot now. and worked with the The city is working city of North Little with architect SusanRock to invest in its nah Drake of dlandstudowntown? dio in New York and For one, you’d get TAGGART Architects an estimated $50 milon a design for the park, lion project on 5.6 acres which Smith said had fronting the Arkansas to have a “wow factor.”

River and west of the They envision a park new Broadway Bridge with a water feature that that would include a can be turned on and off: high-rise building, a It will spray fountains hotel, apartments, a when the main part of boardwalk cantilevered the plaza is not in use, over the seawall where but the fountains will disappear when the folks could sit outside, enjoy a drink and watch space is needed for seatthe river, and maybe the ing or other uses. Smith River Trail bikers, go by. would also like to see A development with a projected, changing art view of Little Rock that on the existing wall of Mayor Joe Smith, who the old fire station at held up selling the city 506 Main St., now the property until he got North Little Rock Heritage Center. something he believed would be “first class,” Smith is also talkthat is unparalleled. ing to developer John (He knows, because he Chandler about a new got a ladder truck to lift building that would A NEW LOOK NORTH LITTLE ROCK: (Above) An artist’s rendering of what the east side of the 600 block of Main could house a restaurant on him up for a view from look like. And Terraforma LLC has bought acreage west of Dickey Stephens Ballpark for a mixed-use development. the north side of the an elevation equivalent to six stories.) plaza and a commercial Smartway LLC, building on the east side. of Fort Smith. Plans call for 164 units in formed by Terraforma developers Doug activity,” Meyer said. The city is dubbing The city itself wants to build six storeseveral three-story Colonial-style brick fronts on the east side of the 600 block of Meyer and Dave Bruning, closed on the the area the Argenta Riverfront District. buildings divided by a plaza-like street. property in early February and is now The $50 million estimate is at the top Main; Smith said he has commitments looking for an anchor tenant, Meyer said. end, but Smith is thinking top end, on The complex will be north across the from businesses to buy two of the storefronts.

“We have had three companies approach the river and over to Main Street. “I’d street from the Innovation Hub. Some us,” Meyer said, to talk about a purchase rather not have anything if it’s not first of the buildings may hold retail on the Maple Street has undergone enormous class,” he said. or lease agreement. North Little Rock ground floor, Smith said. North Little change in the past four years as well. In sold the land, previously a brownfield, There’s another, more solid, firstRock will create a parking district around 2013, the city and Argenta Community class development coming to North to Smartway for $2.6 million, and will the THRIVE development that will Development Corp. sold the western half put the proceeds toward the creation Little Rock: an upscale multibuilding dedicate street parking to its residents, of the blocks between Fifth and Ninth of a plaza on an empty lot at Sixth and apartment complex by THRIVE, the much the way Fayetteville has done in streets to Argenta Flats LLC, bringing Main streets. its downtown.

Bentonville residential developer. The 160 new townhouse-style apartments and The Smarthouse plans are fluid, developer has plans to build on the two Fort Worth’s Sundance Plaza was the condos to the street. blocks that once held the old feed mill, but envisioned is a 91,950-square-foot inspiration for the plaza that Smith enviSmith said a private developer has hotel, an office building 10 to 11 stoon Fourth Street between Magnolia sions on the vacant lot on the east side plans for a lot north of Firehouse Liquor of Main Street between Fifth and Sixth on Main Street. He added up how many ries tall and 244,250 square feet and an and Poplar. Harold Tennenbaum and 89,200-square-foot apartment building.

Dave Grundfest are selling the property streets. The mayor, with a party of 60 dollars he expected to see invested in the The development will be a place where to THRIVE, which is a venture of ERC folks who paid their own way, visited the coming years: $100 million. That’s a nice Properties Inc., headed by Dawn Cook round number. people “live, play and work, with 24/7 Sundance Plaza and others to get an idea 58

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

ARGENTA SUDS

BRIAN CHILSON

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hen Diamond Bear Brewery packed up its taps and headed to the other side of the Arkansas River to establish the Arkansas Ale House (600 N. Broadway St.) in June 2014, it marked the beginning of a brewery community in North Little Rock’s Argenta District. Diamond Bear still serves prebrewery boom staples like its Pale Ale, Dogtown Brown and the Paradise Porter, as well as a rotating cast of seasonal ales like the Irish Red, the Honey Weiss and the handsome-hued Strawberry Blonde. The Ale House has an expanded taproom, a patio and an ample menu worthy of prepartying before heading to Dickey-Stephens for a baseball game: fried cheese curds, beer nuts, brat plates and one of the

FILL ‘ER UP AT FLYWAY: One of three new breweries in Argenta.

best veggie sandwiches in town, a crusty sourdough hoagie loaded with zucchini, caramelized onions, goat cheese, tomato, olive tapenade and fig jam.

Diamond Bear is just a short walk from newcomer Flyway Brewing (314 Maple), a microbrewery whose Bluewing Berry Wheat was a favorite at last year’s Riverfest. Flyway,

which moved into the space at 314 Maple St. in December 2015, serves up Banh Mi sliders and Duck Confit Nachos alongside standard brews like its Migrate Pale Ale and the Early Bird IPA. Its seasonal brews include the Lord God Imperial Chocolate Stout, with a whopping ABV of 11 percent.

If that last one sounds like trouble to you, try the Flyway Root Beer (nonalcoholic).

And, while Flyway Brewing was celebrating its grand opening, Northwest Arkansas’s Core Brewing and Distilling was making plans to move into the neighborhood. In March 2016, the Core Public House opened its doors in the former location of the Starving Artist Cafe, 411 Main St., to serve the full range of Core brews, including year-round favorites like the Arkansas Red, Behemoth Pilsner and the Leg Hound Lager.

THE DOWNTOWN RIVERSIDE RV PARK is known as one of America’s most unusual RV park locations with its proximity to the Arkansas River and spectacular skyline views.

Within walking distance of the Clinton Presidential Library, guests can easily walk to the Argenta Arts District, ride a vintage streetcar across the river or cycle along the Arkansas River Trail.

The park is a gated, secure facility with on-site management that can accommodate 61 RVs with water, electricity, sewer, free WiFi, a clubhouse with washers and dryers and a large outdoor pavilion perfect for get-togethers.

The RV park has also been a year-round boon to the tourism economy. In 2016, guests from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and 12 foreign countries ate in local restaurants, shopped and enjoyed entertainment on both sides of the river, resulting in a $2 million economic impact.

So be sure to tell your friends and relatives to bring their RVs the next time they come to visit for one of the best views in central Arkansas.

www.northlittlerockriversidervpark.com

arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

59

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HOT SPRINGS HAPPENINGS MARCH 2017 Hot Springs For a complete calendar of events, visit hotsprings.org.

FEBRUARY 25TH 6 PM TO 11 PM JAZZ SOCIETY’S 5TH ANNUAL MARDI GRAS COSTUME BALL & CONTEST @ THE HOTEL HOT SPRINGS BALLROOM. All Proceeds

leave the premises) and will allow you to see as many games as you’d like that day; again the only provision being that you do not leave the premises.

from the Mardi Gras Costume Ball are used to support the Society’s Jazz Events and Educational Programming. Come join us for music, dancing and a costume contest. Hot Springs 5th AnnualMardi Gras Costume Ball.

MARCH 11TH THE BACKSTRETCH BLUEGRASS BAND WILL BE PLAYING THEIR TUNES IN THE GRANDSTAND @ OAKLAWN RACING & GAMING from Noon-3:30.

FEBRUARY 25TH THE KENNETH ADAIR MEMORIAL CULTURAL CONCERT@ FUMC CHRIS-

MARCH 11TH THE MUSES “CELTIC SPRINGS” VOICES/FLUTE/HARP/DANCE/DRUMS/PIPES @

TIAN LIFE CENTER, PRATT STREET Featuring “The Vesper Choir” will be performing a varied program of classical choral literature, spirituals, choral jazz, commercial music, music of popular appeal and gospel selections.

MUSES CULTURAL ARTS CENTER 6 P.M. The Muses Creative Artistry Project celebrates the beauty of spring, and St. Patrick’s with spectacular performances of its “Celtic Spring” concert.

MARCH 2017 DAFFODIL DAYS & TULIP EXTRAVAGANZA @ GARVAN WOODLAND

MARCH 11TH AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION, HEART BALL @ THE HOT SPRINGS

GARDENS. Celebrate the end of winter at the Gardens during Tulip Extravaganza! There are thousands of beautiful blooms – starting in February with crocus, daffodils and hyacinths; followed closely or perhaps concurrently depending on weather by over 150,000 brilliant Dutch Tulips.

CONVENTION CENTER, HORNER HALL. The Hot Springs Heart Ball is an annual event held to help raise funds for the AHA’s fight against heart disease through their mission to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

MARCH 2ND THE SPA CITY BLUES SOCIETY PRESENTS ANTHONY GOMES @ THE BIG CHILL,

MARCH 11TH BEER & BAGEL OFF-ROAD RACE SERIES @ TIMBER LODGE RANCH 966

910 HIGDON FERRY ROAD. On Thursday night, beginning at 8 p.m., listeners can catch the sounds of Canadian-born singer and songwriter and guitarist Anthony Gomes when he plays for the first time at The Big Chill. Tickets only $20 per person.

MARCH 3RD GALLERY WALK @ LOCAL ART GALLERIES. A continuous tradi-

tion for 25 years and counting, galleries stay open late for Gallery Walk on the first Friday of each month to host openings of new exhibits by local, regional, national and international artists.

MARCH 8TH CRAFT BEER CELLAR PRESENTS THE SWEETWATER TAP TAKEOVER ON WEDNES-

LODGE RD, AMITY, AR. Fun and festivities like you’ve never seen before!

We’ll be running a 4(ish)-mile course around the lake and through the woods.

MARCH 12TH THE MUSES “CELTIC SPRING” CONCERT: VOICES FLUTE/HARP/DANCE/PIPES

@GARVAN WOODLAND GARDENS, ANTHONY CHAPEL. The Muses Creative Artistry Project celebrates the beauty of spring with a spectacular performance of its concert entitled, “Celtic Spring” on Sunday March 12 at 3 p.m. in Anthony Chapel.

MARCH 17TH-21ST THE 13TH ANNUAL VALLEY OF THE VAPORS INDEPENDENT MUSIC FESTIVAL

DAY, MARCH 8 AT 6:30 P.M. JUST BEFORE TRIVIA! Enjoy an afternoon of wonderful beer fromSweetWater! We’ll be sampling some tasty brews and listening to some great tunes from Rick McKean!

@ VARIOUS VENUES THROUGHOUT HOT SPRINGS. The 13th annual Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival brings the global underground to Hot Springs, Ark. with an eclectic mix of live music performances.

Presented by Low Key Arts, a nonprofit community arts organization.

MARCH 9-11TH ARKANSAS HIGH SCHOOL STATE BASKETBALL FINALS @ BANK OF THE

MARCH 17TH 4PM-11PM CRAFT BEER CELLAR BEER BLOCK PARTY @ 120 OUACHITA

OZARKS ARENA. Ticket prices are $8.00 per day (providing you do not

AVE. Craft Beer Cellar joins local breweries in celebration of everything Irish on St. Patty’s Day – Friday, March 17th at 4 p.m. First Annual St. Patrick’s Day Beerfest. Craft Beer Cellar joins local breweries in quaint, historic downtown Hot Springs, to host our annual St. Patrick’s Day Beer Block Party.

MARCH 19TH AT 3 P.M. THE STARDUST BIG BAND MONTHLY “T” DANCE @ ARLINGTON

MARCH 17TH WORLD’S FIRST EVER 14TH ANNUAL WORLD’S SHORTEST ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE. The parade begins at 6:30 p.m. Downtown Hot Springs.

Everybody is Irish in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas on March 17th! Announcing the 2017 Grand Marshal!!! Alfonso Ribeiro, star of TV’s “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” winner of “Dancing with the Stars” and host of the popular “America’s Funniest Home Videos”.

56 FEBRUARY 23 23, 2017 ARKANSAS TIMES 62 FEBRUARY 23, 2017 ARKANSAS TIMES

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RESORT HOTEL & SPA, CRYSTAL BALLROOM. Admission is $10 with none for students 19 years and younger. We encourage the young student to attend and learn some ball room dance steps by participating with the instructors who have brought their students.

MARCH 26TH AT 3 P.M. ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT @ GARVAN WOOD-

LAND GARDENS, ANTHONY CHAPEL. The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Philip Mann, returns to Garvan Gardens for its fifth year!

On the 2017 program are Britten’s “Simple Symphony” and Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.” This concert always sells out fast!

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live music CALENDAR FEBRUARY 24 & 25 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Moxie @ Silk’s Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30

MARCH 2 Larry Womack & Jackie Beaumont @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 7-11 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Jazz Night @ The Ohio Club All American Freakshow Peepshow @ Maxine’s Live

MARCH 3 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 John Calvin Brewer Band @ Silk’s Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30 Opal Agafia and the Sweet Nothings @ Maxine’s Live

MARCH 4 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 John Calvin Brewer Band @ Silk’s Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30 Mountain Sprout/Turtle Rush/AmyJo Savannah @ Maxine’s Live

MARCH 9 Larry Womack & Jackie Beaumont @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 7-11 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Jazz Night @ The Ohio Club

MARCH 10 SusanErwin@Pop’sLounge,Oaklawn,5-9 The Big Dam Horns @ Silk’s Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30 Brian Martin with Dan Redmon & Mike Hopper @ Maxine’s Live Ohio Club Players @ The Ohio Club

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63

MARCH 11 The Backstretch Bluegrass Band @ the Grandstand Oaklawn, Noon-3:30 p.m.

Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn,5-9 The Big Dam Horns @ Silk’s Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30 Ohio Club Players @ The Ohio Club Adam Faucett & The Tall Grass/The Go Rounds/Ryan Sauders Band @ Maxine’s Live

10:30 a.m. Friday. Historic Bathhouse Row

MARCH 16 Larry Womack & Jackie Beaumont @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 7-11 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Jazz Night @ The Ohio Club American Pinup @ Maxine’s Live

MARCH 17 Bag Pipes @ the Grandstand Oaklawn, 11-4 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Willy D’s Rock & Roll Traveling Show @ Silk’s Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30 Ohio Club Players @ The Ohio Club VOV Ginsu Wives/Big Piph/May the Peace of the Sea Be with You/Oh My Blue Sky @ Maxine’s Live

Ohio Club Players @ The Ohio Club VOV Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase Winner/The Dangerous Idiots @ Maxine’s Live

MARCH 23 Larry Womack & Jackie Beaumont @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 7-11 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Jazz Night @ The Ohio club

MARCH 24 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Moxie @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30 Fabulous Minx/Bringer/Nothing for Breakfast @ Maxine’s Live

MARCH 25 Moxie, Infield Day @ Oaklawn Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Moxie @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30 Foul Play Cabaret Burlesque Show @ Maxine’s Live

MARCH 30 Larry Womack & Jackie Beaumont @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 7-11 Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9

MARCH 18

MARCH 31

Moxie, Infield Day @ Oaklawn Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Willy D’s Rock & Roll Traveling Show @ Silk’s Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30

Susan Erwin @ Pop’s Lounge, Oaklawn, 5-9 Mayday by Midnight @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn, 10-2 Willie Davis & Company @ Arlington Resort Hotel Lobby & Bar, 8:30-12:30 Pearl Earl @ Maxine’s Live

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Come shop and celebrate Arkansas and our world-class craftspeople AT WAR MEMORIAL STADIUM IN LITTLE ROCK

MARCH 31 & APRIL 1

Brought to you by War Memorial Stadium and the Arkansas Times

FRIDAY MARCH 31, 6 P.M. TO 9P.M.

SATURDAY APRIL 1 10A.M. TO 7 P.M.

Preview Party and Private Shopping event at War Memorial Stadium.

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Visit with Arkansas artisans and see some of the finest work in America. Textiles, metal, glass, fine art, jewelry, wood, food and more!

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65

Arts Entertainment AND

M

ahler’s “Symphony No. 2,” known as the “Resurrection Symphony,” is a bold choice and ideal selection to celebrate the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s return to Robinson Center and to breathe new life into Little Rock’s landmark concert hall. Mahler’s notes for the symphony call for “the largest possible contingent of strings,” a sizable percussion ensemble and a full choir — Robinson’s equivalent of testing out a new stereo by turning up everything to full blast.

Even if you’ve never been, or if you’ve felt like orchestral music is too stuffy for your tastes, this symphony has the power to move just about anyone.

The tense opening notes of the first movement hook you immediately, kicking open the door to Mahler’s emotionally charged world and establishing the gravity of the piece. The rollercoaster that follows takes the listener deep into Mahler’s exploration of life and mortality before soaring to a transcendent finale that stands as one of the most spectacularly uplifting movements ever composed.

The ASO’s performance will include choirs from UA Little Rock, the University of Central Arkansas, Lyon College, Hendrix College and the Arkansas Chamber Singers, giving students from across the state an opportunity to perform on a professional stage.

Soprano Kristin Lewis and mezzosoprano Christin-Marie Hill will sing the two solo parts.

Lewis is a Little Rock native who 66

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

RESURRECTION: Soprano Kristin Lewis joins the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, mezzo-soprano Christin-Marie Hill and a host of choirs for Mahler’s “Symphony No. 2,” the “Resurrection Symphony” at the Robinson Center Performance Hall 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 25 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26.

Up to 11 ASO christens renovated Robinson with Mahler’s ‘Resurrection.’

BY JAMES SZENHER

has achieved worldwide success as an opera soloist. Now based in Vienna, she performs throughout Europe and America and has been celebrated for her work singing Verdi’s operas. She first performed the “Resurrection”

with the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. “I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it; it’s big, robust, and it celebrates life and afterlife in such a phenomenal way,” Lewis told us. Like Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony,” “Res-

urrection” ends with a powerhouse choral finale that seeks to channel the divine.

“Clearly for me the ending, when the soloist is singing with the choir and the orchestra, stands out the most,” Lewis said. “The message at the end is so incredibly inspiring, and there’s so much sound and beauty in the music.”

For those of us who can’t speak German, the meaning of the lyrics comes across in the music itself, but here’s an excerpt of the English translation: “You were not born for nothing! / Have not for nothing, lived, suffered … / Rise again, yes, rise again, / Will you, my heart, in an instant!”

The “Resurrection Symphony” has further connections to Arkansas: Arkansas native soprano, Barbara Hendricks, recorded it with Leonard Bernstein’s New York Philharmonic.

Lewis studied this and other recordings before she began performing the piece. “I definitely paid attention to how different sopranos treat it, and now after I’ve sung it, I believe I’ve found my own voice in it,” she said.

In addition to her jet-setting opera career (she’s about to embark on a tour with Placido Domingo across Europe), Lewis has found time to help her home by establishing the Kristin Lewis Foundation in Little Rock. “I wanted to give back to singers much like I was given support in my career, and it was important for me to base the foundation here,” Lewis said. “I wanted to add to the cultural life that exists in

ROCK CANDY

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A&E NEWS

Arkansas by bringing international artists to perform and to mentor to students.” The foundation will host a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 5, at Pulaski Technical College, where finalists for vocal scholarships will perform.

Members of the ASO are excited to perform the “Resurrection.” The extreme shifts in emotion and technically difficult transitions provide a challenge they are eager to meet.

“This piece is often played symbolically when an orchestra is undergoing a prideful change,” violinist Katherine Williamson told us. “We are hoping that performing this piece will further cement our excitement about the move back to Little Rock and our plan to generate a new period of growth and strength in the arts through classical music across Arkansas.”

The ASO will perform the “Resurrection Symphony” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, and at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Robinson Center Performance Hall. Tickets can be purchased online at arkansassymphony.org; at the street-level box office beginning 90 minutes before a concert; or by phone at 501-666-1761, ext. 100. K-12 students can get free tickets (with the purchase of an adult ticket) at arkansassymphony.org/ freekids.

LOW KEY ARTS announced a smart, politically driven lineup of pop and punk music for the Valley of the Vapors Music Festival, to take place March 17-21 at two spots: the organization’s venue at 118 Arbor St. off of the north end of Bathhouse Row (Central Avenue) and Maxine’s, the brothel-turned-watering-hole at 700 Central Ave. Acts include ’90s politipunk heroes NIL8; Chicago rock duo North by North; a solo project called Loud Sun from Minneapolis’ Andrew Jansen (Dial-Up); Baton Rouge duo Moon Honey; Andrew Bryant (Water Liars); Ronnie Heart (Neon Indian); “bilingual political dance sax punk party” band the Downtown Boys from Providence, R.I.; and DTCV (pronounced “detective”), the self-described “anarchosymbolist” project from French musician Lola G. for whom Steven Soderbergh made the video “Histoire seule.” Also performing are Houston six-piece Vodi and local hip-hop collective Big Piph and Tomorrow Maybe, both of whom return to the Low Key Arts lineup after 2016 performances at the organization’s fall throw down, the Hot Water Hills Music & Arts Festival. Passes range from $10-$120. For a full schedule, visit valleyofthevapors.com.

Join us for Hope Wins.

A fundraiser to support Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Pulaski County (SPSF Pulaski).

March 9, 2017 6-8pm Trapnall Hall Come out, have a cocktail, listen to live music by Stacy Higginbotham and enjoy Hors d’oeuvres provided by Capers while raising money to help single parents break the cycle of poverty in Arkansas.

Ticket Price: $60

Buy tickets at centralarkansastickets.com

Questions: Lori Lynch: llynch@spsfpulaski.org 501-301-7773

When you bring single parents out of poverty, they bring their children with them.

COMPOSER AND COUNTRY singer Bonnie Montgomery, a Searcy native, won the reigning title in the “Outlaw Female” category at the 2016 Ameripolitan Music Awards ceremony in Austin, Texas, and she returned this year to present the award to the 2017 champion, Seattle’s Darci Carlson.

“The Ameripolitan community is a beautiful crew of anti-establishment and grassroots musicians who are all independent artists doing it their way,” Montgomery told us. “It’s been a game changer for me to be welcomed and celebrated by these artists, and I think within this group, a lot of genuine nonconformist American music is happening.” Montgomery and Carlson will perform together at UA Little Rock’s Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall for the school’s 31st annual Songwriters Showcase at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, and Carlson plays again later at 10 p.m. at Reno’s in downtown North Little Rock.

LGBT ACTIVIST JOHN Schenck died late last year, almost exactly a year after his longtime partner and husband, Robert Loyd, died. The Conway residents were co-founders of Arkansas’s longest running Pride parade. Their family has launched a GoFundMe page to repair and restore the large pink Victorian house they lived in, with hopes of turning it into a museum dedicated to the history of LGBT rights.

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67

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THE

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BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND AARON SARLO

THURSDAY 2/23

THURSDAY 2/23

MVP JAZZ QUARTET

8 p.m. South on Main. $25-$42.

Whatever you do, don’t overlook this concert merely because the group’s newly minted name isn’t familiar. You might better recognize the names of its members: Bobby Watson, saxophonist and music director for Art Blakey’s pioneering Jazz Messengers from 1977-81; Donald Brown, pianist for the Messengers a couple years later alongside Wynton and Branford Marsalis; bassist Ray Drummond, who currently teaches bass at the Juilliard School in New York; and Marvin “Smitty” Smith,

the former house drummer for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” under the direction of Kevin Eubanks. These guys are some of the modern greats, and we get to hear the quartet before they play a multiday stint at Lincoln Center (complete with an Amsterdam Avenue ticket price). The MVP Quartet, as they’re calling themselves, pay homage to two influential bandleaders and jazz piano greats, each who played piano in the Jazz Messengers’ later period: James Williams, who died in 2004, and Mulgrew Miller, who died in 2013. SS

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SELWYN BIRCHWOOD

8 p.m. The Big Chill, Hot Springs. $20.

International Blues Challenge winner for 2013 Selwyn Birchwood is coming to the Spa City. He and his band (saxophonist Regi Oliver, bassist Donald “Huff” Wright and drummer Courtney Girlie) have enjoyed critical acclaim for their 2014 record, “Don’t Call No Ambulance” (best album title ever), which peaked at No. 6 on Billboard’s Top Blues Albums charts and won the “New Recordings/Best Debut” honor at the 2015 Living Blues Awards. During the same time, Birchwood and his band won “Best New Artist Debut” at the Blues Music Awards, and Birchwood himself won Albert King Guitarist of the Year in 2013. Talk about a streak.

But then again, all those awards weren’t simply handed to the band. The Selwyn Birchwood band earned them by stupefying audiences with good performances and by being badasses. If you are a fan of the blues, and you like to see it played with a dedication and proficiency that mirrors the greats such as Buddy Guy, Louis Walker and Robert Cray — all of whom shared stages with Selwyn Birchwood — you would be hard pressed to find a better show to attend. The evening is sponsored by the Spa City Blues Society. AS

Come to the final on March 10!

Come to the final on March 10!

CAPRICCIO: The Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet (from left, Kee-Hyun Kim, Ying Xue, Daniel Chong and Jessica Bodner) gives an intimate concert at UA Little Rock’s Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 23.

THURSDAY 2/23

PARKER QUARTET

7:30 p.m. Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, UA Little Rock. $5-$15.

Kim Kardashian may get more facetime with the public, but Kim Kashkashian is where it’s at. The Armenian-American violist has been touring Europe with the Parker Quartet, a group she mentored closely in her faculty position at the New England Conservatory. The four string players — Daniel Chong and Ying Xue on violin, Jessica Bodner on viola and Kee68

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

Hyun Kim on cello — have been making music together since 2002, and their chemistry is unreal. In a performance of Schulhoff’s “String Quartet No. 1” from a 2014 appearance on American Public Media’s “Performance Today,” they played in a semi-circle, signaling each other when a shift is about to happen, then barreling forward aggressively, four heads of black hair thrown sideways in unison. Their entire bodies are part of their musical phrasing, and because they’re so preternaturally in

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tune with one another, they can allow for dramatic space in between phrases without losing steam. While there’s no doubt they’d be perfectly audible in a larger setting, Stella Boyle Smith Hall’s intimacy and dry acoustic setting make it an optimum hall for music like this; the sound doesn’t bounce around and get all muddled with reverb, so you’ll be able to bear full witness to the quartet’s ferocious attacks and rhythmic delicacy. This concert marks the beginning of the spring portion of UA

Little Rock’s Artspree Concert Series, directed by Naoki Hakutani and funded in part by the college’s Chancellor’s Circle and KLRE-FM, 90.5. Admission for UALR students and employees is free, and tickets for students from other institutions are $5. If you can’t make it Thursday evening, drop by Stella Boyle Smith on your lunch break; the Parker Quartet has opened its master class with UALR and local high school students to the public, 12:15 p.m., free admission. SS

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 2/23

FRIDAY 2/24

CIRCULAR CALLS/ RESONANT SHADOWS

7 p.m. Great Hall, Crystal Bridges Museum. $10.

DON’T CALL NO AMBULANCE: Florida-born blues guitarist Selwyn Birchwood returns to Hot Springs’ The Big Chill 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, $20.

FRIDAY 2/24-SUNDAY 2/26

ARKANSAS FLOWER AND GARDEN SHOW

10 a.m. Statehouse Convention Center. $10-$15.

There are people — maybe even some of your friends and neighbors — who are kept up at night with lingering doubts about soil pH and the general tenability of broccoli in Arkansas. Once a year, Those People slink off to the Statehouse Convention Center and abandon their weekend duties to stare at pristine specimens of daffodils and tea roses in vases necklaced by blue ribbons.

Or to take a seminar on the finer points of maintaining succulents past that first blissful honeymoon period. (That one’s in the Pope Room Saturday, 11:45 a.m.) If you’re one of these people, or even if you’re just paranoid enough about the current presidential administration to have pondered plans for a tuber stockpile and a sustainable bunker in the backyard, head over to

this convention for an hour or two. Sure, you may have to make your way through some booths in the vendor hall dedicated to unremarkable home decor or high-level discussions of irrigation systems, but there’s a ton to see for the casual gardener or the garden-curious. Last year, there was a live, buzzing beehive shown in profile through glass panels; shelves of seeds from Botanical Interests and from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. of Mansfield, Mo.; tons of gardening and landscaping tips from Heights/Hillcrest mainstays Botanica Gardens and Hocott’s Garden Center and from West Little Rock’s Good Earth Garden Center; and some giant “display gardens” featuring plants that do well in Arkansas. On Friday at 5 p.m., food trucks will move in for a dinner hour event, “Rock in the Garden,” appropriately accompanied by live music from The Wildflower Revue. For the full weekend schedule, visit argardenshow.org. SS

Composer Guillermo Galindo has fashioned a collection of instruments made from objects collected along the border between the U.S. and Mexico: shotgun shells, empty cans and bottles, a Border Patrol flashlight and even part of an electrical box used in surveillance as part of the defunct Secure Border Initiative. He obtained those objects from photographer Richard Misrach, whose camera lens has been devoted to immigrant narratives since 2009, when he began documenting lives and artifacts along the 2,000-mile wall. Misrach’s photographs of Nogales, Ariz., and the socalled Friendship Park at the San Diego-Tijuana border are on display at Crystal Bridges through April 24 as part of a collaboration with Galindo called “Border Cantos: Sight & Sound Explorations from the Mexican-American Border.” In this concert — the kickoff to Crystal Bridges Museum’s 2017 Performance Lab series — Galindo performs his composition “Circular Calls/Resonant Shadows,” a quartet using these found-object instruments: Galindo on string, percussion and wind instruments, Paula Cekola and Tom Dambly on wind and percussion and Joel Davel on additional percussion. It’s part of what Misrach and Galindo call an “effort to correct the gaping omissions they see in mainstream discussions and media coverage of border issues,” and though it’s been on the museum’s calendar for months, it comes at a moment when an empathetic look at the lives of undocumented and migrating people couldn’t be more relevant. SS

The Ron Robinson Theater screens the Oscar nominees in the Live Action Short Film category, 6 p.m., $5. Neil Flory’s “Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Band” for saxophonist Dr. Andy Wen, commissioned by the Little Rock Wind Symphony with the help of contributions from Flory’s students, will premiere at Second Presbyterian Church, 7:30 p.m., $8-$10. Seven-time Grammy winner Toby Mac joins Matt Maher, Mandisa, Mac Powell and more for a concert of contemporary Christian music at Verizon Arena, 6:30 p.m., $15-$70. Nashville’s Whoa Dakota (Jessica Ott) comes to the White Water Tavern, with an opening set from Zakk & Big Papa Binns, 9 p.m. Nu metal quartet Flaw comes to Revolution with Righteous Vendetta and Source, 8 p.m., $8-$21. Oklahoma country musician Chance Anderson plays Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack with an opening set from Tyler Kincheloe, 8 p.m., $7. Third Degree holds down the dance floor at Cajun’s Wharf, 9 p.m., $5. Florida-born comedian Valarie Storm performs at the Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., $8-$12.

FRIDAY 2/24 Four Quarter Bar in Argenta celebrates its one-year anniversary with a concert from Freeverse and Dirtfoot, 10 p.m. Hexxus, Null, Seahag and Sumokem share the stage for a heavy show at Vino’s, 9 p.m., $7. Birthday Club, Hawtmess and Landrest share a bill at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 8 p.m., $7. Fort Worth rockers Quaker City Night Hawks return to Stickyz, with an opening set from Stephen Neeper and The Wild Hearts, 8:30 p.m., $10. Androids of Ex-Lovers, Los Tirones and Ginsu Wives share a bill at White Water, 9 p.m. Nine-piece soul group Lawrence plays a show at Revolution with Andy Frasco and the U.N., 9 p.m., $8-$10. Blues siren Charlotte Taylor plays at The Tavern Sports Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. The Woodpeckers take the stage at Cajun’s Wharf, 9 p.m. “Mardi Gras in Arkansas” raises funds for the Boys & Girls Club of Central Arkansas at Next Level Events, with music from DJ Ronald Daniel, 8 p.m., $25-$40.

Author Daniel Oppenheimer gives a talk titled “Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century,” to be followed by a book-signing at the Clinton School’s Sturgis Hall, noon, free. The Ron Robinson Theater screens the Oscar nominees in the Animated Short Film category, 6 p.m., $5. Reggae and roots rockers The Driftaways play a show at King’s Live Music, Conway, 8:30 p.m., $5. Doug Duffey’s ensemble Louisiana Soul Revival leads the Mardi Gras celebration at South on Main, 9 p.m., $10. Eight-piece salsa band Calle Soul accompanies the dancing at Club 27, 9 p.m., $10.

SATURDAY 2/25 The ninth annual “Delta Visual Arts Show,” exhibitions of works by 180 visual artists, book-signings and acoustic musical entertainment, runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at downtown venues in Newport. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center’s Storytime Saturday hosts a read-through of Laban Carrick

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BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND AARON SARLO

‘WHEN I WAS A CHILD I READ BOOKS:’ Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson was named as one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People in 2016, and she visits Arkansas for a talk at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, where she says she’ll speak on “issues in contemporary life, among them our problems in dealing with the concept of truth,” 6:30 p.m., $25.

SATURDAY 2/25

MARILYNNE ROBINSON

6:30 p.m. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. $25-$100.

In a conversation at the Iowa State Library on Sept. 14, 2015, Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson was asked by friend and superfan Barack Obama why she decided to write a collection of essays called “The Givenness of Things.”

She replied, “Well, the essays are actually lectures. I give lectures at a fair rate, and then when I’ve given enough of them to make a book, I make a book.”

The former president goes on — gushing in his own fashion, which is to say, reticently — and teasing out theological and ethical points of concern from Robinson’s works of fiction and nonfiction:

America’s mantra of competition as “a language of coercion that implies to people that their lives are fragile ... meant to make people feel that they can’t get their feet on the ground”; whether or not the novel itself is a dying medium; how to square cutthroat politics with “goodness and decency and common sense” in regular peoples’ lives; democ-

racy as an extension of Robinson’s belief that “people are images of God.” Robinson’s list of awards and professorships is extensive, symptomatic of what’s so striking about the author: her moral intelligence and the way she uses it to earnestly inquire how we might all live with others in a way that’s commensurate to the best bits of our humanity. SS

of “Spooky Talk Show” has wrapped (the final guests were sludge rock masters Iron Tongue) and now “Spooky Talk Show” is holding a benefit to help fund a second, glorious season. And, what an event Josh the Devil has in store for us. Comedians Jay Jackson, Jared Lowry, Kit Haraughty, Kayla Esmond, Devincey Moore and Paul Hodge will be there, as well as musicians Jeremiah James Baker, William Blackart, Daniel Renfro, Chris

Long and Justin McGoldrick of the P-47’s. The night’s featured guests are “The Colonel,” and Velvetine Tombstone: R&B Psychic. According to Smith, “There will also be surprise guests and prizes!” Emphasis his, but who doesn’t enjoy prizes? All of this entertainment is being brought to you in the format of a “Conan [O’Brien] on-the-road special.” Smith says, “I will have the desk on stage and everything. We will be taping it to broadcast later.” Read that

last part? They’re taping the festivities.

So bring your hollering voice. As if all of the aforementioned glee wasn’t enough, the event will be hosted by multitalented local superstar Michael Brown (“Brain Trust with Michael Brown”).

Your $7 will get you this great night of entertainment (at a legendary venue with scrumptious pizza and even better beer), and also awholenother season of Spooky Talk Show. Best deal of the week! AS

SATURDAY 2/25

SPOOKY TALK SHOW: LIVE BENEFIT

7 p.m. Vino’s. $

If you’re a fan of the devil (and who among us isn’t — the dude invented chocolate and internet porn), you have somewhere to be on Saturday because the devil will be at Vino’s. Josh the Devil, to be specific. That’s right: The Devil is named Josh (Smith), and he has a YouTube show, “Spooky Talk Show,” that airs live Sunday nights. Season one 70

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Live: 1.875" x 5.25"

“Barkus on Main: A Parade of Pet Proportions” celebrates Mardi Gras with a dog parade that starts at 2 p.m. at Sixth and Main streets, followed by a block party featuring music from Big John Miller Band, a beer garden, a crawfish boil from Club Level and gumbo from Soul Fish Cafe, all on the 300 block of Main Street, see barkusonmain. com for details. The Robinson Center hosts Red Carpet 2017, a posh Oscars-style benefit raising money for the Wolfe Street Foundation, 5:30 p.m., $175-$325. To Speak of Wolves, Rival Choir, Conspire and Becoming Saints play an early shows in the back room at Vino’s, 7 p.m.

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SUNDAY 2/26

MUST INITIAL FOR APPROVAL

Hill’s “Dave The Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave” for ages 3-7 years, after which participants are invited to the classroom to sculpt their own coil pot, 11 a.m., free. For the 6-to-10year-old crowd, come at 12:15 p.m. for a reading of Jabari Asim’s “Fifty Cents and a Dream: Young Booker T. Washington,” free.

Hernando, Miss., rockers Rustenhaven play Cajun’s Wharf, 9 p.m., $5. SoMa’s Mardi Gras celebration includes a parade, a beer garden and Root Cafe’s 5th Annual Beard and Mustache Contest, noon, South Main Street. Weakness for Blondes plays a bluesrock set at White Water, 9 p.m. Fayetteville’s Boom Kinetic returns to Stickyz, 9:30 p.m., $10. Foul Play Cabaret performs a burlesque show at Maxine’s, 8 p.m., $10-$15.

Nashville’s Frank Foster headlines at Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $25-$30. CosmOcean takes its dance tunes to Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m.

Discovery Nightclub hosts the grand finale of its Discovery Music Competition, 9 p.m.

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IN BRIEF, CONT.

NOT EASY. © 2016 ANHEUSER-BUSCH, BUDWEISER® BEER, ST. LOUIS, MO

MONDAY 2/27 THE BRONZE AGE: Marcella and Her Lovers, the zydeco vehicle for accordionist and vocalist Marcella Simien, returns to the White Water Tavern just in time for some Fat Tuesday revelry, 9 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28.

The Argenta Drafthouse Film Series, to kick off in June, previews its programming with a screening of “Two Trains Runnin’,” at The Joint Theater, 7:30 p.m., followed by a civil rights-focused panel discussion led by Crystal Mercer, 9 p.m., $10.

TUESDAY 2/28

TUESDAY 2/28

MARCELLA AND HER LOVERS

9 p.m. White Water Tavern.

“What does a smile sound like?” asks the bio section of Marcella René Simien’s website. I had an answer: zydeco. Turns out I was right! Well, partially right. Marcella Simien, and her band, Her Lovers, perform a fascinating, spirit-filled fusion of Creole roots music and Memphis soul. Songs tempered in zydeco accordion and Creole French buoy Simien’s fierce singing voice like trade winds carrying a fine blend of aromas from uncharted regions of the imagination. Hers is not the work of a shoe-gazing novice, supplanting prefab guitar effects in place of songcraft. Marcella Simien hails from music royalty, namely her father, Terrance Simien, who dutifully featured Marcella on his

most recent album, “Dockside Sessions,” winning the pair the Grammy Award in 2014 for Best Regional Roots Album of the Year. To recount the highlights of Marcella and Her Lovers’ career is to weave a tapestry of successes that wind through Sub Pop Records, The Oblivians, The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Boo Mitchell and Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. But, simply reading about a band without taking its music into your soul for judgment is like reading a menu to learn about the genius of a great chef. So, while a smile might sound like Cajun-spiced pidgin belted drunkenly over the wheeze and whinny of a Grammy-worthy band, Marcella and Her Lovers sound like something slightly different. And it’s much better than just a smile. AS

It’s “Fresh and Fat Tuesday” at 109 & Co., with live music from SeanFresh & The NastyFresh Crew, 6:30 p.m., $5. Arkansas Symphony Orchestra musicians play Tchaikovsky’s “Piano Trio in A Minor” for the River Rhapsody Chamber Music Series, 7 p.m., Great Hall, Clinton Presidential Center, $10-$23. Fire & Brimstone hosts a Mardi Gras Party at The Tavern, 5 p.m., free. The University of Central Arkansas Dixieland Jazz Band plays a Mardi Gras concert at the Faulkner County Library, 7 p.m. Author Cara Brookins describes how she regained her life after an abusive marriage by building a house with her four children in “Rise: How a House Built a Family,” 6 p.m. Sturgis Hall, Clinton School of Public Service, free.

WEDNESDAY 3/1 May the Peace of the Sea Be With You, Peach Blush, Megan and Dook of Hurl play a rock show for the benefit of Lucie’s Place at White Water, 9 p.m., $5-$10 suggested donation.

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TV REVIEW

One for the money CMT’s ‘Sun Records’ gets dramatic about Sam Phillips and the roots of rock ’n’ roll.

BY STAN JAMES

P

laying a musical icon in a movie or a television show is a tall order.

There is much to live up to and frankly, I usually expect the worst. On top of that, the cast of CMT’s new series “Sun Records” is tasked with depicting Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins — the Million Dollar Quartet. Good luck with that.

Enter Chad Michael Murray (“One Tree Hill,” “Gilmore Girls”) as Sun Records founder and producer Sam Phillips to almost save the day. His portrayal of Phillips is a bright spot that makes the series worth a look. He doesn’t look like he is trying to play one of the most famous people of all time, and it serves him well. Newcomer Drake Milligan provides an admirable performance of Elvis Presley and Kevin Fonteyne stars as Johnny Cash in a performance I am not ready to call bad, but that I hope develops from here to the end of the

during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. To incorporate the racial tensions of the day into the story, great liberty, sometimes hokey, is taken in several scenes, detracting from what could be a great bio-series centered around the explosion of these five musical legends. I couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t best left to a Broadway stage.

The love scenes in the narrative seem gratuitous, too.

Despite its shortcomings, there are some good things about the show. The actresses that introduce us to Phillips’ wife, Becky (Jennifer Holland), and his recording assistant, Marion Keisker (Margaret Anne Florence), play strong roles that temper MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET: Country Music Television’s series “Sun Records” homes in on the early the marked theatrical feel careers of (from left) Ike Turner (Kerry Holiday), Johnny Cash (Kevin Fonteyne), Elvis Presley (Drake of the show. Impressively Milligan), Carl Perkins (Dustin Ingram) and Jerry Lee Lewis (Christian Lees) under the mentorship and surprisingly, the music of renowned producer Sam Phillips (Chad Michael Murray, not pictured). It premieres on CMT 9 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 23. itself is not a weak point. The only thing harder than acteight-part series, which premieres at 9 focuses on Elvis Presley and Johnny ing like Elvis or Cash is sounding like p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23.

Cash in their early years, hoping for a them. Overall, “Sun Records” has promSet in Memphis in the 1950s, “Sun break from the old order. Presley battles ise. There’s enough name recognition Records” takes a look at the birth of prejudice in Memphis while Cash takes and star power in its characters to prorock ’n’ roll within the context of the on his own family’s hatred in rural Dyess. vide tons of potential, and the first epicivil rights movement. With Phillips’ The production is based on a Tony sode’s portrayal of Sam Phillips does just founding of the Memphis Recording Award-winning musical, and that enough to make you want more. Its overt Service (which would later become the immediately puts historical accuracy dramatization, though, clashes with what world famous Sun Studios), future musiin the backseat in favor of the theatrical. could be an intense, insightful look at cal icons develop around him. Presley, Aggression-laden portrayals of Cash’s how the roots of Memphis rock and blues Cash, Lewis and Perkins would come father, Ray Cash, are nothing new, but in developed against the background of the together on Dec. 4, 1956, with Phillips at reality he was probably no rougher than civil rights struggle, and that melodrathe controls in a historical collaboration any struggling Arkansas tenant farmer matic treatment risks dismissal from a of rock ’n’ roll pioneers. The beginning with a large family to feed and clothe debut audience.

A n A r k A n s A s F Av o r i t e .

YeAr AFter YeAr. Dr. Bev Foster has been named to numerous “best of” lists for Best Chiropractic Physician since she opened her doors.

Ask her loyal patients and you’ll hear comments like: “Her staff are both professional and always helpful,” “I would trust her skills with anyone in my family.” “…loves what she does and cares for her patients,” or our favorite, “Best chiropractor in the world!”

We appreciate our loyal patients who support better health through chiropractic medicine.

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Hey, do this!

FEB & MARCH

DON’T MISS HOT SPRINGS HAPPENINGS. THIS MONTH IS THE WORLD’S SHORTEST ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE, VALLEY OF THE VAPORS INDEPENDENT MUSIC FESTIVAL AND THE OAKLAWN INFIELD IS OPEN IN MARCH. PAGE 56

Arkansas Times and the Root Cafe present the annual BEARD FESTIVAL at high noon on Saturday, followed by the SOMA Mardi Gras parade.

The Argenta Arts Foundation invites you to our annual fundraiser at the Argenta Community Theater for a preview night of THE SECRET GARDEN. Tickets are $50 and available online at centralarkansastickets.com. The musical opens Feb. 24 and runs through March 5 with show times and more info available at argentacommunitytheater.org.

FIRST THURSDAY DINNER JAZZ at Cafe Bossa Nova. 6-8p.m. with Ryk St. Vincent and Chris W. Parker.

MARCH 10-11

MARCH 3

MARCH 30

The MacArthur Museum screens THE REAL INGLORIOUS BASTARDS at 6:30 p.m. as part of the monthly Movies at MacArthur series.

The event is free and open to the public.

In a fundraiser for the ACANSA Arts Festival, the Oxford American, the Butler Center and the Argenta Arts Foundation are proud to present NORA JANE STRUTHERS and JOE OVERTON in a private concert at The Joint. Tickets are $100 and available online atcentralarkansastickets.com.

THROUGH FEB 26 SISTER ACT runs through Sunday at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Don’t miss The Holy Order of the Little Sisters of Our Mother of Perpetual Faith in the musical based on the film. For tickets, visit therep.org.

MARCH 4

TWENTY ONE PILOTS performs at Verizon Arena with special guests Jon Bellion and Judah & the Lion.

Tickets are $35 and $45 and available online at ticketmaster.com.

MARCH 14

Verizon Arena hosts the PROFESSIONAL BULL RIDERS at 7:45 p.m. on Friday and 6:45 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets are $18-$303 and available online ticketmaster.com.

FUN!

FEB 25

FEB 23

MARCH 2

Food, Music, Entertainment and everything else that’s

United Cerebral Palsy of Arkansas is excited to announce its 2nd annual PUTT PUTT PUB CRAWL sponsored by Diamond Bear. The event will take place on Saturday, March 4 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Teams of four are $100 and include an event t-shirt, drink specials, and nine holes of putt-putt in Little Rock’s River Market District. To participate, visit centralarkansastickets.com.

FEB 26

Little Rock Downtown Partnership presents the BARCUS PARADE at 3rd and Main Street. Enroll your fourlegged friends at littlerock downtown partnership.com.

MARCH 4-5

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra presents IMAGINE: THE MUSIC OF JOHN LENNON at Robinson Performance Hall.

For show times and tickets, visit arkansassymphony. org.

MARCH 15

MARCH 31

BLINK-182 performs live at Verizon Arena at 7 p.m. Tickets are $29.50$60.50 and available online at ticketmaster. com. Naked and Famous opens the show.

TERRANCE SIMIEN & THE ZYDECO EXPERIENCE [ARCHETYPES & TROUBADOURS SERIES] THURSDAY, MAR. 2, 2017 AT 8:00 PM SOUTH ON MAIN, 1304 MAIN ST., LITTLE ROCK THE STEEL WHEELS [AMERICANA SERIES] THURSDAY, MAR. 23, 2017 AT 8:00 PM | SOUTH ON MAIN, 1304 MAIN ST., LITTLE ROCK

FEB 28

FEB 28-MARCH 25

UCA Public Appearances presents 42ND STREET. The quintessential Broadway musical comedy classic with an American Dream story includes some of the greatest songs ever written, such as “We’re In The Money,” “I Only Have Eyes For You” and of course “42nd Street.” The show takes place at 7:30 p.m. at Reynolds Performance Hall. Other performances this month include the Doo Wop Project, March 4, featuring stars of Broadway’s smash hits Jersey Boys and Motown: The Musical; illusionist Adam Trent on March 9. For tickets, visit uca.edu/publicappearances. ■ The folks at @ The Corner have partnered with Lost 40 to present a five-course FAT TUESDAY PANCAKE SUPPER at 6 p.m. Tickets are $70 and include food and beer pairings. Purchase tickets online at centralarkansastickets.com.

MARCH 5

MARCH 8

Celebrating 15 years, the LITTLE ROCK MARATHON runs through the heart of downtown Little Rock. Register for the whole 26.2 miles or half-marathon online at http://littlerockmarathon. com, where you can also register for Saturday events like the 10K, 5K and kids marathon.

MARCH 16

Colonial Wines & Spirits is once again partnering with the Girl Scouts to create a tasting event that pairs your favorite GIRL SCOUT COOKIES WITH CUSTOM-SELECTED WINES. The event is free and takes place from 4-7 p.m.

This month is also Women’s History Month with special events recognizing female industry leaders, including March 8: Alexia Elichiry, first woman wholesale distributor in Arkansas; March 16: Liz Ransom, area sales rep for Beam Suntory, March 18: Margie Raimondo, winery owner; March 22: Sandy Walheim, oversees Sonoma Country wine program for Francis Ford Coppola; and March 29: Audrey House, owner and winemaker at Chateau Aux Arc.

OXFORD AMERICAN AND SOUTH ON MAIN presents these excellent shows

100.3 The Edge presents Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees and Grammy Award-winning rock band GREEN DAY. See them live at Verizon Arena with special guest Against Me! Tickets are $29.50-$69.50 and available online at ticketmaster.com.

■ La Terraza Rum & Lounge hosts a BACARDI RUM DINNER from 6-10 p.m. The food and rum pairing is $42 per person. Tickets are available online at centralarkansastickets.com.

MARCH 16

SING OUT FOR THE BUFFALO at the Argenta Community Theater. Enjoy a night of singer-songwriters performing their favorite songs along with food, cash bar, silent auctions and fun. With your paid admission, you will be helping support the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance in their fight to preserve the Buffalo River and the surrounding area.

Tickets are $59 and available online at centralarkansastickets.com.

Peter Janson and Aaron Larget-Caplan perform at THE JOINT, as part of the Argenta Acoustic Music Series, which brings award-winning musicians from around the world to the intimate theater in North Little Rock’s Argenta district. Tickets are $25 and available online at centralarkansastickets.com.

MARCH 31-APRIL 1

ARKANSAS MADE-ARKANSAS PROUD takes place at War Memorial Stadium.

It’s a unique shopping event showcasing products that are created or produced in The Natural State. Browse and purchase art, crafts, jewelry and food created or produced by Arkansans. The preview party is from 6-9 p.m. on Friday. Visit centralarkansastickets.com to purchase tickets. Proceeds benefit the War Memorial Foundation. All day Saturday the grounds will be open, $5 to enter at the door.

APRIL 13-14 AND 21-22

Make plans to attend the 16TH ANNUAL OZARK FOOTHILLS FILMFEST in Batesville. For tickets, visit centralarkansastickets.com.

For a schedule of events, visit ozarkfoothillsfilmfest. org.

DRIVING MISS DAISY is showing at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse. Don’t miss the classic comedy about the unlikely relationship between an aging Southern lady and her soft-spoken black driver who becomes her best friend. For show times and tickets, visit murrydp.com.

MARCH 10

Shops, restaurants, museums and galleries are open late for 2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT in downtown Little Rock. Participating venues include the Old State House, Historic Arkansas Museum, Cox Creative Center, Butler Center and Arkansas Capital Corp.

MARCH 19

WINTER JAM 2017 at Verizon Arena is set to showcase 10 of Christian music’s best and brightest artists.

Tickets are $10 and available online atjamtour. com.

THROUGH APRIL 16

ANSEL ADAMS: EARLY WORKS is on display at the Arkansas Arts Center. The photographer, musician, naturalist, explorer, critic and teacher was a giant in the field of American landscape photography.

Also showing through April 16 is HERMAN MARIL: THE STRONG FORMS OF OUR EXPERIENCE, featuring 90 works from the great Mid-Atlantic modernist. For more info, visit arkartscenter.org.

BEALE STREET FESTIVAL TICKETS ON SALE NOW! THREE SINGLEE

2017 BEALE STREET $115 MUSIC FESTIVAL May 5-7, 2017 • Memphis, TN

DAY PASS

TICKETS VIA

$50

DAY TICKETSS

www.memphisinmay.org

MARCH 11

The annual ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE takes place in Little Rock and continues over the river to the Irish Festival in Argenta in North Little Rock. where the Beer Garden and Food Trucks will be set up at 6th & Main.

MARCH 29-APRIL 16

JAR THE FLOOR opens at the Arkansas Repertory Theater. Four generations of African American women gather to celebrate their beloved matriarch’s 90th birthday in this fierce, funny and heartfelt play by Cheryl L. West. For show times and tickets, visit therep.org.

ALSO THIS MONTH: Four Quarter Bar celebrates its one year anniversary with DIRTFOOT and FREEVERSE. Stop in during new brunch hours (Sundays at noon), and enjoy late night food offerings (until 1:30 a.m.).

VINO’S is a Little Rock establishment for pizza and craft beer. Check out their complete live music schedule atvinosbrewpub.com.

arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

73

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’

AT THE CORNER restaurant at Scott and Markham streets is teaming up with Lost Forty Brewing to offer a Mardi Gras meal, its first “beer dinner,” from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28. The restaurant will serve food to grow fat on for Fat Tuesday: A five-course dinner including beignets, pancakes and Lost Forty beers to match the creole cuisine. Cost is $70, and includes dinner, tax, gratuity and “Mardi Gras swag.” Reserve at centralarkansastickets.com.

STOP THE PRESSES! Or toss out the ashtrays at least. No longer does The Sports Page serve its great cheeseburgers and ginormous chilidogs with a hint of Marlboro. The Sports Page has served up some pretty good chow for 40 years, but it’s done so amid a blue fog of cigarette smoke. Owner Eric Tinner decided to end the practice in January and shut the restaurant down for a week to get the pros in to clean the surfaces of tobacco grime. Tinner said he’d been on the fence about the smoking “for a long time” and his smoking customers knew a change was inevitable.

He knows he lost business from folks who didn’t like the smoke, and he wanted to be able to serve the under-18 set. Tinner also said some customers had expressed interest in stop in for a beer after work, so he’s thinking of expanding into evening hours. Hours now are 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. Now, if only The Tavern Grill would do the same …

TOMAS BOHM, THE owner of The Pantry and The Pantry Hillcrest, has settled on a name for his new venture in the old Hillcrest Artisan Meats spot: District Fare. The name “suits the Hillcrest location … and everything else is called Hillcrest,” Bohm said. The fare at Fare will include deli cheeses and house-cured meats, sandwiches served on Arkansas Fresh bread and takeout dinners, with an emphasis on charcuterie.

Everything will be available for retail as well as eating in in the intimate space, which will now seat 26. District Fare will serve beer and wine, and be open seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Bohm said he hopes people will stop by for “happy hour” until 7 p.m. for a glass of something and maybe a sandwich or takehome dinner. He’s shooting for a late March, early April opening.

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FEBRUARY 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

STILL GOT IT: Sonny Williams’ packs in the crowds in the River Market district.

Love for Sonny Williams’ River Market steakhouse hits all the marks.

O

ur Valentine’s Day dinner at Sonny Williams’ Steak Room was as close to perfect as a meal

can get.

Perfect food: Every single thing we had was the epitome of what it could be. Perfect service: We wish we could tout our waiter by name; he deserves the accolades. He was pleasant with an understated but acerbic wit — present when we needed him but not lurking; special requests were handled with no issues. Perfect pacing: We were there early, as we had chosen the first of our Follow Eat Arkansas on Twitter: @EatArkansas

two reservation options when we called — 5 and 9 p.m. — but we weren’t rushed, nor pressured to turn over our table.

Each course came when it should, and our dinner stretched over a relaxed two hours. Perfect atmosphere: The quiet calm of Sonny’s made us realize how many other spots are loud, the cacophony seemingly by design with hard surfaces and large rooms vs. the cozy layout at Sonny’s, with several conjoined smaller spaces. Even on one of the busiest nights of the year, no one seemed harried — employees or patrons — and

carrying on a quiet conversation wasn’t challenging.

We started with the French onion soup ($8). When we asked for two spoons our waiter offered to split the soup into two bowls, a more laborious process with this classic than with a soup not topped with a large crouton and blanket of gooey Swiss. The rich, salty beef broth, plenty of sweet, cooked-down onions, slice-oftoast sized crouton and the Swiss combined into, yes, perfection.

A 6-ounce filet is $40; a 12-ouncer is $49. It’s a no-brainer which to choose.

We’ve never had a better steak. Weeksaged Angus beef, well charred on the outside, exactly medium rare and fork tender — like buttah! How can it get any better?

That said, if we were restricted to one entree at Sonny Williams’ it wouldn’t be a steak, believe it or not. It would be the seafood platter ($55). The lineup: two massive, already split, tantalizingly sweet king crab legs with drawn but-

BELLY UP

DOE’S KNOWS LUNCH & DINNER

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

Lunch: Mon- Fri 11am-2pm Dinner: Mon-Thur 5:30-9:30pm • Fri & Sat 5:30-10pm FULL BAR & PRIVATE PARTY ROOM 1023 West Markham • Downtown Little Rock 501-376-1195 • www.doeseatplace.net

February

24 One year anniversary party w/ Dirtfoot and FreeVerse!

25 CosmOcean

March

3 Queen Ann’s Revenge 4 The Squarshers 10 Sweetwater Tap takeover w/ Greasy Tree 11 Agori Tribe 12 Adam Faucett and the Tall Grass w/ Fox45

175ML 175ML 750ML 750ML 750ML 1.5L 750ML 12PK

SMIRNOFF RED CAPTAIN MORGAN HENDRICK’S GIN KNOB CREEK BASIL HAYDEN’S MERIDIAN WINE FREIXENET BRUT, DRY HEINEKEN, MODELLO, CORONA

$19.99 $24.99 $00.00 $32.99 $31.99 $12.99 $9.99 $15.99

Open until 2am every night!

$16.99 $20.99 $00.00 $24.99 $28.99 $9.99 $8.99 $14.49

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

NOW TWO CONVENIENT LOCATIONS

12 YEARS AGED CIGAR ON SALE!

ter; three large (prawn-sized) shrimp, perfectly fried in a light batter (grilled is an option); three plump, tender, perfectly seared grilled scallops; and one of the best crab cakes in town — not lump, but thin pieces, and lots of them, with minimal filler.

We remember the day when side dishes weren’t included with Sonny’s entrees. But today they are — two, in fact.

(They are $7 a la carte if you want more.)

We had au gratin potatoes — cheesy, just the right amount of greasy, and a bit gooey; wild rice with walnuts — light, fluffy and flavorful; creamed spinach — rich and fabulous; and sauteed mushrooms — salty and earthy.

All desserts are homemade, and the two we had were superb. The peanut butter cheesecake was rich, dense and smooth, artfully drizzled with caramel.

The chocolate creme brulee, again, was as good as it gets: lusciously smooth and rich with a crisp, not too thick, hardened sugar topping. A nice Valentine’s Day touch was the accompanying rasp-

berry syrup in a heart shape on a pool of vanilla cream.

Perfection is exceedingly rare. On Valentine’s Day, with a packed house, Sonny Williams’ Steak Room delivered it in every way a dining experience can be defined.

LITTLE ROCK • NORTH LITTLE ROCK 175ML 175ML 750ML 750ML 750ML 1.5L 750ML 12PK

SMIRNOFF RED CAPTAIN MORGAN HENDRICK’S GIN KNOB CREEK BASIL HAYDEN’S MERIDIAN WINE FREIXENET BRUT, DRY HEINEKEN, MODELLO, CORONA

Every Day $19.99 $24.99 $31.99 $32.99 $31.99 $12.99 $9.99 $15.99

SALE! $16.99 $20.99 $26.99 $24.99 $28.99 $9.99 $8.99 $14.49

ALL CRAFT BEER 10% OFF WE NOW HAVE A VARIETY OF AGED AND CLASSIC CIGARS AT OUR BROADWAY LOCATION. 12 YEARS AGED CIGAR ON SALE!

• WE GLADLY MATCH ANY LOCAL ADS HURRY IN! THIS SALE EXPIRES MARCH 1, 2017

WEDNESDAY IS WINE DAY 15% OFF • WINE CASE DISCOUNTS EVERY DAY

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

Sonny Williams’ Steak Room 500 President Clinton Ave. Little Rock, AR 72201 324-2999 sonnywilliamssteakroom.com QUICK BITE Don’t discount Sonny Williams’ as a fine place to catch a drink and listen to some standards at the piano bar. Jim Dickerson was tickling the ivories when we were there, and it added a nice touch to the experience.

HOURS 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

OTHER INFO Full bar, credit cards accepted. arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

75

PUBLIC REVIEW AND COMMENT

Rock Region Metropolitan Transit Authority (METRO) invites the public to review and submit comments on the proposed Program of Projects (POP) for the FY17 Section 5307 Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant funds. METRO has been awarded $2,632,978 in FTA FY17 Section 5307 funds.

UPCOMING EVENTS ON CentralArkansasTickets.com Argenta Arts Foundation

FEB

23 FEB

Please submit your comments or request a public hearing by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 via email (javery@rrmetro.org).

Easterseals

The public may also submit written comments to Accounting Manager, METRO, 901 Maple St., North Little Rock, AR 72114.

Wolfe Street Foundation

FEB

Watch Party and Banquet for the 89th Academy Awards

26

Pancake Supper with Lost Forty Brewing

28 MAR

United Cerebral Palsy of Arkansas

4

UCP’s Putt Putt Pub Crawl

Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Pulaski County

MAR

9

Hope Wins!

MAR

Buffalo River Watershed Alliance

16

Sing Out for the Buffalo ACANSA Arts Festival

MAR

Fundraiser featuring Nora Jane Struthers and Joe Overton

30

Arkansas Made Arkansas Proud

MAR

Fine Art and Craft Preview Party and Silent Auction with heavy hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer. $25

31 Come shop and celebrate Arkansas and our world-class craftspeople

Go to CentralArkansasTickets.com to purchase these tickets!

AT WAR MEMORIAL STADIUM IN LITTLE ROCK

MARCH 31 & APRIL 1

FRIDAY MARCH 31, 6 P.M. TO 9P.M. Preview Party and Private Shopping event at War Memorial Stadium.

Brought to you by War Memorial Stadium and the Arkansas Times

Wine, Beer, Heavy Hor d’oeuvres and Silent Auction Tickets $25 at CentralArkansasTickets.com Please purchase your tickets online early. Tickets are limited.

SATURDAY APRIL 1 10A.M. TO 7 P.M.

ARKANSAS TIMES

Our hogs are a cross between Large Black and Berkshire, old 19th century breeds. They are raised on our pasture and forage in the forest that adjoins our fields. They are never confined like industrial hogs. We do not use any kind of routine antibiotics. Our hogs live ARKANSAS GRASS were FED LAMB like they meant to.

PRICE LIST FRESH RAW HAM $7 lb.

PORK LOIN $8 lb

HAM BREAKFAST STEAKS $7 lb

BREAKFAST SAUSAGE $9 lb

We offer first quality one-year-old lamb raised on our farm in North Pulaski County. Our meat is free of steroids or any other chemicals. The only time we use antibiotics is if the animal has been injured which is extremely rare. All meat is USDA inspected.

PORK BRATWURST $10 One pound package

You can pick up your meat at our farm off Hwy 107 in North Pulaski County (about 25 miles north of downtown Little Rock) or we can meet you in downtown Little Rock weekdays.

All meat is aged and then frozen.

PORK STEAKS $10 lb PRICE LIST: RIB ROAST TESTICLES contains about eight ribs (lamb chops) $17 lb.

$10 lb

WHOLE LEG OF LAMBPORK BUTTS TANNED SHEEPSKINS, $10 lb SHOULDER (about 4 to 5 lbs) $12 lb.

(bone in, cook this slow, like a pot roast. Meat falls off the bone). $11 lb.

HEARTS, LIVERS, KIDNEYS, $5 lb

$100-$150

(Our sheepskins are tanned in a Quaker Town, Pa. tannery that has specialized in sheepskins for generations.)

PORK TENDERLOIN BONELESS LOIN $12 lb TENDERLOIN $8 lb

$20 lb

LAMB BRATWURST LINK SAUSAGE NECKBONES

(for stew or soup) $5 lb

Admission only $5 at the door! Food and drinks available for purchase.

LOCAL TICKETS, One Place

PASTURED OLD BREED PORK

(one-lb package) $10 lb

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Visit with Arkansas artisans and see some of the finest work in America. Textiles, metal, glass, fine art, jewelry, wood, food and more!

SPARE RIBS $9 lb BABYBACK RIBS $12 lb

India Blue F a r m

12407 Davis Ranch Rd. | Cabot, AR 72023 Call Kaytee Wright 501-607-3100 alan@arktimes.com

For more information call Vickie Hart, 501 529 7624 or email at arkansasmadearkansasproud@gmail.com

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

If there are no comments or request for a public hearing, this proposed Program of Projects will become the final Program of Projects, unless amended.

@ the Corner

FEB

76

The public comment period is from Thursday, March 2, 2017 through the close of business on Wednesday, March 8, 2017.

The Secret Garden: AAF Night at the Theater 2017 Easterseals Arkansas Fashion Event

24

The proposed POP may be viewed online at https://rrmetro.org/about/learn-more/facts/.

A physical copy of the POP can be obtained at the River Cities Travel Center (RCTC) in downtown Little Rock. A Spanish version of the POP is also available online and at the RCTC.

From your goin’ out friends at

12407 Davis Ranch Rd. | Cabot, AR 72023 Call Kaytee Wright 501-607-3100 alan@arktimes.com

Directed by Jamie Scott Blakey and Sarah Scott Blakey Music Direction by Jeannie Scott Cross February 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26 March 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 2017 $16 Adults $12 Students & Seniors THURSDAY DISCOUNT: $2 off “Date Night Discount” Our 24th Season Is Sponsored by Piano Kraft For more information contact us at 501.374.3761 or www. weekendtheater.org

1001 W. 7th St. Little Rock, AR 72201

ARKANSAS TIMES

MARKETPLACE TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.375.2985

.NET SYSTEMS ANALYST

(North Little Rock, AR and client sites) Perform analysis, design, development, implementation, maintenance, and testing of custom software and systems applications.

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in Computer Science or Info Management and 5 years of work experience required.

❤ ADOPTION ❤

A Loving, Successful, Professional, Energetic, Family hopes to Unconditionally Love & Support first baby. Expenses paid.

1-800-775-4013

Required skills: .NET, ASP.NET, T-SQL, SSIS, SSRS, C#, VB, XML and XSLT. Mail resume to: Tecsource International LLC Attn: HR 11901 Crystal Hill Road North Little Rock, AR 72113

STATE OF INDIANA COUNTY OF DUBOIS

) IN THE DUBOIS CIRCUIT COURT ) SS: ) CAUSE NUMBER: 19C01-1607-JC-00265

IN THE MATTER OF A Child ALLEGED TO BE A Child IN NEED OF SERVICES HR - DOB 2/9/2001 (Minor child) AND Katie Dodd, Mother Tony Ronnbeck, Father (Parents)

SUMMONS FOR SERVICE BY PUBLICATION & NOTICE OF child IN NEED OF SERVICES HEARING

TO: Tony Ronnbeck; NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to the above noted parent whose whereabouts are unknown, that the Indiana Department of Child Services has filed its Verified Petition Alleging the child to be in Need of Services, in accordance with I.C. 31-34-9-3, and that an adjudication hearing has been scheduled with the Court.

YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED to appear before the Judge of the Dubois Circuit Court, 1 Courthouse Square, Jasper, IN 47546 - 812-481-7020 for an Initial Hearing on 4/17/2017 at 3:00 PM. At said hearing, the Court will consider the Petition and evidence thereon and will render its decision as to whether the above named minor child is a child in need of services and shall enter adjudication accordingly. Your failure to appear after lawful notice will be deemed as your default and waiver to be present at said hearing.

UPON ENTRY OF SAID ADJUDICATION, A DISPOSITIONAL HEARING will be held in which the Court will consider (1) Alternatives for the care, treatment, or rehabilitation for the child; (2) The necessity, nature, and extent of your participation in the program of care, treatment, or rehabilitation for the child; and (3) Your financial responsibility for any services provided for the parent, guardian or custodian of the child including child support.

YOU MUST RESPOND by appearing in person or by an attorney within thirty (30) days after the last publication of this notice, and in the event you fail to do so, an adjudication on said petition and a dispositional decree may be entered against you without further notice.

Dated this 31st day of January, 2017 Bridgette Jarboe, Clerk Evan Biesterveld, 33960-63 Attorney, Indiana Department of Child Services, 1045 Wernsing Rd., Jasper, IN 47546 Office: 812-482-2585

City of Little Rock

CAREER FAIR Saturday, March 11 • 12 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Southwest Community Center 6401 Baseline Rd. Little Rock, AR 72209

Join our City family • Competitive Compensation • Paid Health, Dental & Vision Insurance • Nine Paid Holidays • Great Retirement Plan

Visit with City of Little Rock representatives from: - Police Department - Fire Department - Parks & Recreation - Little Rock Zoo - Public Works - & All other departments

View all job opportunities & apply online at lrjobs.net

EOE

arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

77

2017 BEALE STREET MUSIC FESTIVAL May 5-7, 2017 • Memphis, TN

KINGS OF LEON

SOUNDGARDEN

WIDESPREAD PANIC

SNOOP DOGG

STURGILL SIMPSON

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

WIZ KHALIFA

MGMT

JILL SCOTT

BEN HARPER AND THE INNOCENT CRIMINALS

TORI KELLY

LUDACRIS

GROUPLOVE

X AMBASSADORS

ZIGGY MARLEY

BUSH

GRIZ

JIMMY EAT WORLD * THE REVIVALISTS * SILVERSUN PICKUPS * MIDNIGHT OIL * THE STRUMBELLAS TAKING BACK SUNDAY * ALTER BRIDGE * SUM 41 * DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS * GREENSKY BLUEGRASS MACHINE GUN KELLY * HIGHLY SUSPECT * ANI DIFRANCO * MUTEMATH * MAYER HAWTHORNE * DAWES KONGOS * CHARLES BRADLEY & HIS EXTRAORDINAIRES * DECLAN MCKENNA * BOOKER T. JONES JOHN PAUL WHITE * DEER TICK * PETER WOLF * BIG HEAD BLUES CLUB * RONNIE BAKER BROOKS * LIL WYTE POPA CHUBBY * AMY LAVERE * TORONZO CANNON * DEAD SOLDIERS * PRESTON SHANNON * FREEWORLD CARLOS ELLIOT JR. * GHOST TOWN BLUES BAND * COREY HARRIS BAND * SUPER CHIKAN * BLIND MISSISSIPPI MORRIS DADDY MACK BLUES BAND * MARCELLA & HER LOVERS * TAS CRU * EDEN BRENT * AND MANY MORE!

$115 THREE $50 SINGLE DAY PASS

78

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

TICKETS VIA

DAY TICKETS

www.memphisinmay.org

TERRAFORMA

301 Main

Awards for Excellence in Preservation through Rehabilitation

Fulk Building, Little Rock - the prominent c. 1900 brick commercial building was rehabilitated for use as the offices of CJRW. Developer TerraForma, LLC, designer JAMESON Architects and contractor Kinco Constructors were recognized with the award.

O

ur holdings include commercial and office property for sale, lease or build to suit for your specific needs.

With a 20 year track record of unprecedented growth, we have the ability to create a win-win environment for our clients. Our team of successful professionals plan, lease, develop, finance and market our projects and property holdings.

Contact us to see how we can help to make your project a reality.

TERRAFORMA, LLC Doug Meyer - 501-425-1843

300 Main Dave Bruning - 501-517-7220 www.terraformallc.com arktimes.com FEBRUARY 23, 2017

79

Experience Quality | Personal Service | Dependability | Best Value

BUILDING EXCELLENCE www.KincoConstructors.com

80

FEBRUARY 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES