Arkansas Times - March 24, 2016

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MARCH 24, 2016

3

COMMENT

Failing Gideon

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ARKANSAS TIMES

E MA P L O Y

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MARCH 24, 2016

In response to the Arkansas Blog post, “How the Walton education agenda harms public schools”:

Regressives have always declared war on education. An educated and informed electorate will always vote for progression. That scares the crap out of Republicans.

Errol Roberts

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4

From the web

Just because your daddy was rich does not mean you know what is best for me.

In Arkansas, we have no democracy. We have rule by the 1 percent.

Paying Top Dollar for Legislators

EDU

On March 18, 1963, a diminutive man accused of stealing $5 and soda from a pool hall threw himself at the mercy of the Supreme Court and changed the course of American history. Prior to this moment, Clarence Gideon had been sitting in jail, trying to overturn a five-year sentence he had received because he was too poor to pay for a lawyer. The Supreme Court sided with Gideon, declaring that those that could not afford counsel still had the right to receive one in criminal proceedings.

Gideon would go on to be released and to die in obscurity, buried in an unmarked grave.

It’s important to ask, however, as we pass the 53rd anniversary of this decision, whether Gideon would be better off in the legal system that has been crafted in the wake of the case that bears his name. The nation, and Arkansas in particular, is in a legal crisis. In January of last year, the Arkansas Public Defender Commission stated that the average public defender in the state handled 537 clients, far above the American Bar Association’s recommendation that attorneys manage 200 misdemeanors or 150 felonies per year. In March 2015, a study found that in rural Arkansas counties, there were .44 lawyers per 1,000 residents, perilously below the national average of 4.11 lawyers per 1,000 residents.

Cleveland County had no lawyers at all. A Brennan Center for Justice study in 2012 found that public defenders are so overworked that they can only average a meeting of six minutes per client. Appointed lawyers have become placeholders in a system that was supposed to provide the poor with equal opportunity of justice.

When deciding Gideon, Justice Black noted that, “[A]ny person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided to him.”

Unfortunately, as the public defender’s office continues to be woefully underfunded in the current fiscal year, we as citizens of the state should take pause. As we watch our favorite police procedurals on television and hear that famous recitation, “You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you,” we should realize that we live in an age where those lines

are becoming more and more like those dramas: works of fiction. And should we not act, the right to counsel for the poor, for those most at risk of incarceration and those who stand to lose the most, will end up just as Mr. Gideon: buried in obscurity.

James Colston Fayetteville

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Absolutely despicable conduct by the charterists. They care nothing for the kids affected by this idiocy, they just want to own everything and everybody below their station. It is sad to see the billions of dollars spent on a concerted effort to continue and expand the divisions in our country rather than on positive steps to ensure the future of education for all. ozarkrazo Schools aren’t bad because of the “rich.” Schools are bad because the way children perform/act in school starts at home. Not at school. So all these inner city schools are filled with children that could not help being born with no dad, no mom, no discipline, etc. But the easy thing to do is “blame it on the rich.” Why not start holding parents accountable for their own children? The schools that you are whining about are a direct reflection of the community it serves.

Period. It all starts at home. It’s no one’s fault but the parents or lack thereof. Let’s start blaming the real people responsible instead of who you liberals think is responsible. anti liberal It’s beyond credulity that the Billionaire Boys Club cannot just create an alternative school system but do it with our tax dollars. Something constitutionally wrong with this picture.

JB Anti, how exactly do you propose we hold those parents accountable?

None of the eight different phone numbers on file are working, the emergency contacts do not answer, no one answers the door at home at 6 p.m., and DHS can’t track them down, either. So, even when and if DHS takes custody, then what? Struggling parents, often mentally ill even ... how are you going to force them into caring for their children? Will you move in with them? I bet you also love ASA! and his plan to starve essential services. Family supports, more resources for DHS, more reliable and safe foster homes, more tax dollars to help are what is needed.

How about we stop blaming struggling parents and start building healthy parents and children?

Yellowdogdaughter In response to the Arkansas Blog post, “Report: Tom Cotton to join meeting with Donald Trump”:

If Trump wants to curry favor with Cotton, he needs to memorize this sentence: “Under my administration, this country will take no shit off of anybody.” Cotton would wet his pants upon hearing those words and would follow Trump to the ends of the Earth.

Olphart If Trump picks Cotton as his VP, he better have two Secret Service agents assigned full-time to keep an eye on his back. Little Tom is far too ambitious for his intellect. couldn’t be better Establishment Republicans know it will be a matter of months before President Trump is impeached and they might be ok with Cotton and therefore support a Trump nomination. President Cotton would be as dangerous if not more than Trump. At least Trump will want to be liked. All Cotton cares about is killing the bad guys and punishing Americans he doesn’t like or care about.

Joshua Drake

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MARCH 24, 2016

5

WEEK THAT WAS

Quote of the Week: “The president told me several times he’s going to nominate a moderate, but I don’t believe him. He could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man.”

— Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch on March 13, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy that Senate Republicans have vowed to prevent President Obama from filling. On March 16, Obama did indeed nominate Garland, a centrist judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Hatch, who is a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters that morning “the right course of action is to wait until the next year’s election to consider a nominee.”

Public input: Who needs it?

On March 31, the state Board of Education will hold a public hearing on whether to allow the proposed expansions of two charter schools in Little Rock, eStem and LISA Academy. It’s a decision with huge consequences for public education in the city. But last week, in a surprise move, a member of the state board attempted to cancel the public hearing and push through the charter expansions.

Brett Williamson of El Dorado requested the state board take a vote to rescind its decision — made just one week before — to hold a final public hearing on the issue. Williamson told the Times, “I’m just supportive of charters, and I didn’t see any reason that it needed a review,” considering a panel within the Education Department had already recommended the expansions proceed. The public felt otherwise, however, as did many of his fellow board members, and after a flurry of objections, Williamson dropped the issue. (However, in the process of trying to cancel the hearing, he also ran afoul of the state Freedom of Information Act by attempting to conduct state board business by email.)

The ballad of John La Tour An outcry erupted last weekend over 6

MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

an incident at a Fayetteville restaurant in which a member of the City Council inexplicably asked an employee if she were a woman or a man and then informed her that he could “prove” he was a man.

On Friday, Fayetteville Alderman John La Tour, a tea party conservative elected in 2014 on the strength of his opposition to the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance protecting LGBT people, stopped by Arsaga’s at the Depot, a popular downtown spot known to be friendly to the LGBT community. By La Tour’s account, he was objecting to overly loud music by trying to make a joke: He asked an employee to dance with him, but first asked if she were a woman because, he said, “I don’t dance with men.” (The employee is, indeed, a woman.) “I’m a man and I can prove it,” he declared. A manager asked him to leave the restaurant, and La Tour then posted on his Facebook page that “Everyone who lives in Fayetteville, AR should never eat or treat themselves at any of Cary Arsaga’s establishments.”

Word of the incident spread quickly online (including rumors that La Tour had explicitly threatened to expose him-

self to the employee) and La Tour was bombarded with scorn. The alderman eventually backpedaled: After meeting with Cary Arsaga, he replaced his call for a boycott with a statement praising the restaurateur. La Tour stopped short of an apology, however, and as of Tuesday morning some 3,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling for his resignation.

Stephens brothers take on Trump Little Rock billionaire Warren Stephens and his brother, Jackson “Steve” Stephens, gave a total of least $3.5 million in February to fund the intra-party fight against Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, campaign finance filings show. Warren and Steve Stephens each gave $1.25 million last month to an antiTrump Super PAC run by the conservative Club for Growth, and Warren gave an additional million to a second group attacking Trump, Our Principals PAC.

What a run The end wasn’t pretty: The Little

Rock Trojans men’s basketball team exited the NCAA Tournament in the round of 32 after a double-digit loss to Iowa State. Nonetheless, it was a dream season for the Trojans and its everexpanding fan base. The team, at 30-5, won more games than ever before and finished with one of the best win-loss records in the country. Its comeback, from 14 points down with less than five minutes to go against Purdue in the round of 64 in the tournament, to send the game to overtime (it eventually won in double overtime), made for one of the best games of the tournament — no matter what happens going forward. Now, if the Trojans can just manage to keep first-year coach Chris Beard around a little longer, University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Jack Stephens Center might start drawing bigger crowds than UA’s Bud Walton Arena.

OPINION

Judicial politics: It’s time

T

he legislature will discuss judicial elections this year.

The major questions are related:

• •

Should we elect judges at all?

If judges are to be elected, shouldn’t we have more information about who pays to influence the outcomes?

The questions became high-profile thanks to two Arkansas Supreme Court races this year. Circuit Judge Dan Kemp defeated Associate Justice Courtney Goodson to fill the vacant chief justice seat in a campaign marked by extraordinary spending by Goodson herself (she loaned her campaign $500,000) and by a shadowy private group that spent hundreds of thousands on TV to trash Goodson. In the other race, another shadowy group with unidentified contributions ran dishonest TV ads against Clark Mason, defeated by former Republican

A quirk in the Constitution allows this to be referred to the ballot as early as this coming November. Some people prefer election. Funny how a Republican governor has also unsettled some past supporters of appointment. Some favor appointment, but they fear — with some reason — that the legislature might simply put an state Sen. Shawn open-ended enabling amendment on the Womack in a race ballot, with appointment details left to the legislature. It’s a recipe for disaster. for a vacant associSee how the legislature toyed with and ate justice seat. neutered a so-called ethics amendment Gov. Hutchinapproved by voters. son is among those MAX Sen. Hutchinson insists he won’t go said to be open to BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com along with anything less than a specific moving to appointproposal for voters. But the specifics of ment of appellate judges (the governor would be in control) that remain unclear for now. For his part, and also to do something about “dark he wants no committee to vet potential money” in judicial races. appointees for a governor. He favors givNow comes his nephew, Sen. Jeremy ing the governor total control, subject to Hutchinson (R-Little Rock), to confirm legislative confirmation, like the federal that the Judiciary Committee he chairs judicial system. He also favors a single has tentatively scheduled a meeting 12-year term for judges. There’d be no March 31 on both election of judges and additional terms and no retention eleccampaign financing. The date isn’t firm. tions at which voters could toss out a It might occur later in the spring. judge. To have retention elections would The hearings won’t be an amen cor- only bring elections and special interest ner for reform. Some influential peo- money back into play, he says.

Rep. Clarke Tucker will be on hand ple would like to send a constitutional amendment to voters for appointment, with his legislation — quashed by Repubrather than election of appellate judges. licans in 2015 — to require disclosure of

Ignoring the founders

B

efore Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell chose to deny President Obama his duty to appoint a Supreme Court justice, he might have asked himself the WWTFD question: What would The Founders do?

If he were still around, Justice Antonin Scalia, whose seat they are filling, might also have enlightened his party on what the original intent of the Constitution’s appointment and advise-andconsent mandate was, since originalism was Scalia’s claim to fame. The intent was not to consult with the voters before choosing a judge, as McConnell and most of the senators claim they are doing by ignoring the president’s appointment of Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland.

They say voters should have a voice in choosing the next justice by voting for a president and senators this fall.

Turning the matter of choosing a Supreme Court justice over to the voters, needless to say, is not really their object, nor is to preserve the court’s

conservative balance on big social issues like abortion and homosexuality.

Garland’s replacing Scalia would ERNEST not change that DUMAS balance. The court has ruled against the conservatives on those issues for many years, thanks to a string of Republican justices like Blackmun, Burger, Powell, Stewart, O’Connor, Stevens, Souter and Kennedy. Rather, their sole purpose is to deny any legacy to the country’s first African-American president. McConnell placed thwarting Obama over governing as the Senate’s primary function in his famous dictum after the 2010 election.

Every Supreme Court nominee for 140 years has received a hearing or a vote.

Since 1900, six justices have been confirmed in presidential election years. But since the Republicans insist that there first be a plebiscite on the Supreme Court,

that idea, silly as it is, should be accorded some analysis.

We happen to know what the founders meant when they prescribed that justices be chosen not by election, but by the president alone with the consent of the Senate. The remarkable Federalist Papers explained the rationale for the strong federal government that the new constitution established and for the Constitution’s component parts. Nothing is better elucidated than the role of the judiciary and how and for how long Supreme Court justices and other judges were to be chosen: lifetimes.

Alexander Hamilton did most of the analysis in six essays in which he explained why the president alone, not Congress or another body, should do it, notwithstanding the chance that the president could go astray by naming a crony or a family member. The Senate would be a check on the appointment of “an unfit character.”

It could reject the appointment and force the president to name another. Hamilton’s essays were directed at the anti-federalist criticism of lifetime appointments instead of popular elections for judges.

The Constitution’s framers deemed presidential appointments and Senate concurrence the best way to maintain a Supreme Court that was independent — that is, above political frays and immune

sources of money for electioneering ads.

As it now stands, ads that lack specific advocacy words (vote FOR or AGAINST, for example) are free from required disclosure of finances. Court precedent says more transparency is possible, though outlawing independent expenditures probably isn’t. Those who like secret financing schemes — particularly business interests — will fight to keep secrecy.

They’ll try to pretend they have a First Amendment right to secrecy. They do not.

Even a Scalia court has made that clear.

We are also likely to hear a proposal for public financing of judicial elections, perhaps funded by an additional fee on lawyers. Money could be raised privately, under this idea, if outside money surfaced in a race. To me, that sounds like a more complicated disease, not a cure. A judge is expected to make this proposal, in hopes of saving elections over appointments.

Arkansas has rarely had groundswells for better government. Though the timing seems better for a shot at judicial improvements this year, the competing interests could easily stymie all but continuation of the status quo. Status quo is better; however, than a Chamber of Commerce judicial branch that slams the courthouse doors shut to all but a favored few.

to the transitory passions of the people.

To remove the court even further from the passing whims of voters, the founders picked the Senate, elected every six years and not every two years like the House and then chosen by state legislatures and not by voters, to be a check on the president’s appointment of justices. The executive and the House were answerable to people at elections, but the Supreme Court should stand above politics. Although people may be chagrined by rulings, there must always be confidence that the court is acting upon the Constitution and interpreting statutes and executive actions fearlessly without regard to politics or what is popular. The republic depended upon that confidence.

We have now reached Hamilton’s feared state of “universal distrust and distress.” That’s what Chief Justice John Roberts was saying a few days before Scalia’s death when he deplored the political posturing of the Senate on the president’s judicial appointments.

Scalia had deplored it, too. Had the Senate in 1986 followed McConnell’s theory of waiting on the judgment of the voters in an election only two months away, it would have scorned Scalia. Democrats won the Senate elections in a landslide. www.arktimes.com

MARCH 24, 2016

7

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6102

SASNAKRA

ome days I wonder if I’m qualified of them did. Too to express opinions about Amerilate now. can politics anymore. See, I’m not Eric Sasson at forbes.com particularly angry, and I also doubt that expresses similar voters in general are any more worked up than usual. Voter outrage is mainly skepticism toward GENE a media trope. Even at Donald Trump the idea of angry, LYONS alienated Demorallies, there’s a whole lot of sheer enTRECNOC TIFENEB M A D Aand play-acting. t tIf e rpeople r a B are so sick and tired tertainment cratic voters. g n i r u ta e f K CNot IRBM A H make-believe outrage can’t r e b a B politicians, he wonders, that of establishment have actual, even deadly results. But does how come Hillary Clinton’s doing so well? anybody really believe Mexico will pay “The voter we almost never hear about,” for Trump’s imaginary wall? Not really, he notices, “... is the Clinton voter. Which but it makes people feel daring to play is surprising, since Hillary Clinton has “let’s pretend.” won more votes in the primaries than any Sure, it’s a presidential candidate so far. She has amassed M P 7 | 6election 1 L I R P A ,year, ya d r u taother S and people do get excited. However, peoover 2.5 million more votes than Sanders; ple also work themselves into temporary over 1.1 million more votes than Trump.” frenzies over the NCAABasketball TourIndeed Hillary’s lead over Bernie nament, but everybody shows up for work Sanders is far greater at this point in the after their team loses. Thankfully, for most cycle than Obama’s lead over her in 2008.

Americans, politics is a lot more like sports Despite his supporters’ near-heroic inabilthan civil war. ity to face the arithmetic, those are the Back during President Clinton’s first facts.

RA ,kcoR elttiL | DR nnelG lenoloC 00801 | RETNEC TNEVE XELPORTEM term I often suspected that what was Sasson continues: “We never hear that really bugging the Rush Limbaugh lisHillary Clinton has ‘momentum’ — what : t c at n o c n o i ta m r o f n i e r o m r o F ta e n i l n o s t e k c i t e s a h c r u P o c . t r a eso h r amuch @ d l e i f g ntime iw.eikciV . n o i tais d n uao f‘sizable t r a e h r a .w w w teners was that they mspent sheg r ohas delegate lead.’ No stuck in traffic. one this cycle has described Clinton supn o i ta d n u o F t r a e H s a s n a k r A t i f e n e b s d e e c o r p l l A Writing in bloomberg.com, Jonathan porters as ‘fired up’ — it’s simply not possible that people are fired up for Hillary.

Bernstein puts it this way: “My view is that No, what we gather about Clinton from Trump is doing well precisely because things aren’t particularly bad for the U.S. the press is that she can’t connect. She right now. In difficult times, voters take has very high unfavorable ratings. People their responsibilities more seriously, and think she is dishonest and untrustworthy. wouldn’t embrace the buffoonery of a She is not a gifted politician. She is a phony. reality-television star.”

Hated by so many.”

Following upon a posting by the Hated, but winning handily. How can invaluable Kevin Drum that shows job that be? Meanwhile, no less an authority openings and salaries rising, consumer than Jill Abramson, until quite recently optimism improving and gasoline prices the editor of the New York Times, has way down, Bernstein adds that as “the essentially conceded that the newspaObama years haven’t resulted in recession, per has never given Hillary Clinton an soaring inflation or a foreign misadveneven break.

In a remarkable interview in Politico, ture with major American casualties — in other words, anything that produces seriAbramson doesn’t quite admit that Timesous political reaction. created “scandal” narratives have been “Barring that, an entertainment version somewhere between wildly exaggerated of politics has some appeal. And Trump and pulp fiction. puts on a good show.”

But she does talk about how “we …

And people do like a show. Not for expect total purity from a woman cannothing was Trump inducted into the didate.” Abramson adds that “Where I Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and think Hillary Clinton faces … certainly Museum. Meanwhile, the feigned horror more of a burden is that the controverof establishment Republicans who sought sies she’s been in are immediately labeled, Trump’s approval even as he flogged the you know, ‘travelgate or ‘emailgate’ … [I] absurd fiction of President Obama’s birthf you actually asked people what about place in Kenya fails to convince. any of these controversies bothers them, they don’t know anything specific about Remember The Donald’s claim that any of them.” private detectives he’d sent to Hawaii Well, no kidding. would soon bring back shocking evidence In my experience of scandal monitorabout Obama’s birth certificate? Never happened, of course. Meanwhile, Mitt ing, that’s because there’s nothing specific Romney said not a perishing word. None to know.

DEGGULPNU

04$ : S T E K C I T

Charters not a choice for all

I

am a special education teacher in the Little Rock School District and a parent of a kindergartner at Gibbs Magnet Elementary School.

I love my job, I love my school and I love my community. As a public school teacher, I often find that my job extends beyond the responsibilities on my contract. I have visited the hospital to see children and parents who were ill. I have bought clothes, food, toiletries and supplies for children who needed them. I have spent countless hours outside of my classroom studying and practicing interventions that might fill in the gaps my students have when they come to me, so that every child I teach can succeed.

Last March, the state decided to take over the LRSD because it did not feel that the community-elected school board was capable of fixing the academic problems that existed in the district. I can only assume that the state felt it was more wellequipped to handle these problems.

I know that there are problems in the LRSD. I also have some good ideas about how to fix those problems. Our previous school board had some good ideas, too. Unfortunately, it appears the Arkansas Department of Education does not, as we have not seen any academic plan to improve the six distressed schools. In fact, if any plan has been created, I, as a parent and teacher, have heard nothing of it.

State board member Diane Zook recently requested more information about LRSD’s teacher absentee rates, referrals to alternative schools, graduation rates and response to intervention programs, but it seems to me that she should already know this information. Is the state not in charge of the Little Rock School District? Is it not the one who decided that we were not capable of turning the six academically distressed schools around? It disturbs me to hear members of the state Board of Education speak of the Little Rock School District as if it were a sinking ship that is bound to drown the thousands of students it serves. With rhetoric like that, coming from the very people who are in charge, it’s

no wonder we have thousands of students on a waiting list to leave.

So far, the CHANDLE best solution CARPENTER that certain members of the board have come up with to solve our problems is to “evacuate” the least vulnerable children from our district. I do not think that eStem and LISA are bad schools, but I do believe that they cater to and serve families with more opportunities. To be successful at eStem or LISA, a child needs to have a guardian who has successfully navigated the application process and who can provide daily transportation to and from school. To be successful at these institutions, a child cannot need access to in-depth special-education programs, nursing services, counseling services or school nutrition services because these institutions do not have to offer them.

I continually hear members of the board speak of expanding the charters as an issue of choice, but they are not a choice for students who are in poverty, students with moderate to severe disabilities, or students who need access to other of the above-mentioned programs.

Certain members of the state Board of Education need to quit talking about LRSD like it is going up in flames. I hate to break it to the board, but that house you think is on fire belongs to you, and the kids inside of it are your students. Allowing the expansion of these charter schools is just adding fuel to the flames. We need you to work with us to put out the fire, not watch us burn. No matter what you decide to do on March 31, my fellow teachers and I will continue to do whatever it takes to put out that fire and help our students rise from the ashes. Whether you support us or not, we have a responsibility to help all the children in this community, and so do you.

Chandle Carpenter is a teacher in the Little Rock School District and the parent of a child who attends Gibbs Elementary.

Bart Calhoun

Dustin McDaniel

Scott Richardson

Attorneys at Law 1020 W. Fourth St., Suite 410 Little Rock, AR 72201 (501) 235-8336

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pring break brings with it a need for cleanup and restarts and whatnot. Therefore, prescriptions are set forth herewith for Arkansas athletics in general: For Arkansas basketball, it’s time for Mike Anderson to take a cue from Bret Bielema, and not Houston Nutt, in terms of dealing with his hired hands.

The head coach’s loyalty to assistants Melvin Watkins, T.J. Cleveland and Matt Zimmerman is admirable enough, but what has it yielded? One NCAA Tournament appearance, no Sweet 16s and a forgettable two-game NIT stint over a five-season sample. The program is grounded in neutral at best, and clearly Anderson is being given the latitude to rebuild, but things are getting discouraging. Jimmy Whitt ended his forgettable freshman year with a thud, and now is rumored to be on the way out, and like it or not, the prospect of Moses Kingsley’s premature exit remains.

It’s desperation time, to be quite frank.

Nutt stayed beholden to mediocre staff members for far too long, then two losing seasons (2004-05) basically put him on the wrong end of an ultimatum that ended with Gus Malzahn’s hiring as offensive coordinator. We all know how that ended, but to Anderson’s credit, he seems to not be addled with Nutt’s limitless bounty of petulance and wrongheadedness. That may mean that, yes, you have to fire your nephew (Cleveland, whose expression has not changed since 2012) or a couple of well-tenured righthand men (Watkins has been alongside Anderson since 2007, and Zimmerman’s allegiance goes back even more years).

These are competent men who can and will coach elsewhere, and be successful, but the fit in Fayetteville is uncomfortable and threadbare at best.

Speaking of Arkansas football, where the support staff constantly evolves, housecleaning is less important than housekeeping. Bielema hit a minor jackpot when he secured former Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads as his new secondary coach, and the Reggie Mitchell hire from Kansas seems encouraging as well, but here’s a long-term theory: Bump all these guys up 20 percent or so if the Hogs hit double digits in wins this fall.

Even with so many proven commodities on their way to the NFL, the 2016 version of the Hogs still boasts an abundance of skill position and trench depth coming back, and Bielema’s singular admission in his introduction to Hog fans in Decem-

ber 2012 was that he wanted to find a program where he had the financial flexibility to hire and retain great BEAU staff. So far, he’s WILCOX done an unfathomably good job of assembling a cohesive staff, but the lure of other jobs has kept the door revolving. Incentivize this enough, and it stands to reason the carousel’s speed might taper.

On to baseball, which cruised nicely to a 15-3 start, then got dealt a bit of a dull whack to the gourd over the weekend in Columbia, S.C. The Gamecocks are, yet again, a Top 10 program with a wealth of talent, so there’s no shame in dropping three close games on the road, per se, but the Hogs have been in the rare position of being completely unfamiliar with that kind of lost weekend. Last year, you might recall that the team tanked in the first two weekends, with five losses in six games to Vanderbilt and LSU, before rolling through the rest of SEC play with a 16-7 mark and seven straight series victories.

So the spring break assignment? Get the starting pitching confident again. The week off affords some rest, but maybe there’s inherent beauty in getting swept right out of the gate. Baseball imparts its own unique demands on the team — no other sport plays 21 games in barely a month’s time, after all — and midweek tuneups don’t necessarily benefit the club at this juncture. What does help, however, is the fact that the schedule gets a lesser team to Baum Stadium than last year’s one-two gauntlet of the Commodores and Bayou Tigers. Auburn comes in at 10-10, and fresh off two losses in three games to Texas A&M. The Aggies rolled up a dozen runs in each of the last two games of the series, and while the Tigers boast a fair offense, the pitching is unsteady at the moment.

Dominic Taccolini and Keaton McKinney have theoretically gotten their worst starts out of the way early, too.

Both progressed last year as the season did, even with Taccolini battling injury late in the year. The staff still has great bullpen depth, and the lineup, though checked a bit by the Gamecocks, still looks dangerous.

Arkansas isn’t in bad shape in any of the three anchor men’s sports. Even the basketball program has some luster that can be rediscovered with a little elbow grease.

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THE OBSERVER

Yawp

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little noggin both the memory of slipping and your ability to spot an asshole when you see one. See what we mean? A rare and snotty mood. Grumbly, and not in the tummy like usual. Just angry. No real cause or cure, just mad. Mad about the price of tea in China, and China, and why anybody gives a damn about the price of tea in China. Mad that youth is wasted on the young. Mad that we’re mad. Mad that “Mad Men” is no longer on the air, and that Jon Hamm seems to be unable to make the leap to bigtime A-list Hollywood stardom, along with that redhead whose name we can’t remember and are too lazy to Google.

Starts with a “C,” seems like. Mad the “X-Files” TV reboot didn’t also whisk us back to twentysomething bong-hit bliss. Mad everything fun costs so much, and that everything worth seeing is so far away.

So then, a total war on happy! Relentless negativism, the glass neither halffull or half-empty but smashed in the fireplace after drinking the last swallow of whiskey out of it so fast that half the Don’t Care Juice wound up on our shirt. Mad! Two bum reruns of “The West Wing” and an empty jug away from standing on the lawn with our shirt off, shouting at traffic. That’s where we are.

Like we said, it’s a lot of little things.

Compounded and multiplied, swallowed as plain old life but transubstantiated in our guts into slights visited upon us by the universe, as if from jealous and angry gods. Pissed about death. Pissed about fragility. Pissed about Robin Williams, who died, who starred in a movie that first made us give a damn about Walt Whitman. And so, The Observer sounds our barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world, the last scud of day holding back for us, flinging our likeness after the rest, as true as any, on the shadow’d wilds.

If the past is any judge, however, this physician shall soon heal thyself, and we’ll be glad of it. The only prescription is sun. So come on, spring. Burn away this darkness and let us breathe again, just in time to melt in July.

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he Observer has been in a funk lately for a number of reasons: revulsions and slights, both foreign and domestic. We get that way most years as the winter drags on, once the tinsel and colored lights of Christmas drop into the rearview, soon after we come off the New Year’s Day hangover. The beginning of a new year is never quite a cause for celebration for Yours Truly, locked as we are as a people in the deep freeze of January.

Doesn’t quite feel like a new beginning when the trees are all gray and skeletal and the wind is hooting through the eaves, now does it? If The Observer was the Lord of All Mankind in Perpetuity, we’d skooch New Year’s Day right on up into March or maybe April. When the first dogwood blooms, then you may break out the champagne and party hats. Not before. We’d also make cookies good for you and Romaine lettuce deadly poison.

It’s probably better we’re not in charge.

But, like we said, it’s not just the lingering Winter of Our Discontent that has us in a pissy mood. It’s a lot of things, big and small. For example: That noise Velcro makes. Also: the stubborn unwillingness of Kum and Go stores to stock Coke Zero in their bladder-buster fountains, even though Coke Zero is clearly superior to its sister swill, an aging Tab competitor that tastes like it’s probably giving you some form of exotic tongue or esophagus cancer with every sip, and may well be doing exactly that. Eat a rutabaga sideways, Diet Coke.

Also: Donald Trump. ’Nuff said, but we’ll say more anyway: Only in a country as obsessed with Marlboro Man-meetsWrestlemania tough guy bullsqueeze as this one could an orange-haired reality TV clown rise to within snowball’schance-in-Havana distance of the Oval Office, based solely on a constantlyrepeated 10-word vocabulary: “I,” “my,” “great,” “terrific,” “Muslims,” “billion,” “build,” “wall,” “Mexicans” and “sue.”

Seriously, if you’re a Trump supporter, ask your doctor to check your skull for the soft spot where you whacked your head on the toilet after slipping in the tub, knocking right out of your pointy

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MARCH 24, 2016

11

Arkansas Reporter

THE

Puff, puff, pass?

Some fear dueling medical cannabis initiatives will lead to the failure of both at the ballot box.

BY DAVID KOON

T

he campaign for medical marijuana in Arkansas was a squeaker in 2012, with the outcome — and the availability of a medicine that supporters claim is vital for chronically ill patients — failing by less than 2 percent of the vote.

Since, then, “medijuana” has become more accepted. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have enacted medical cannabis laws, and four states and D.C. have legalized recreational marijuana. If either or both of two approved initiatives — one an initiated act and the other a constitutional amendment — manage to gather enough signatures to make the ballot, signs would seem to point to a win for marijuana as medicine in Arkansas in 2016, making us the first Southern state to approve medical cannabis. But the author of one of the measures cautions that fundamental differences between the two proposals, should they both wind up on the ballot, could lead to voter confusion and a situation where the supporter vote could be split, resulting in the failure of both. The author of the other proposal, meanwhile, says that his research suggests Arkansas voters simply won’t pass any initiative that includes a provision for patients to “grow their own.”

(Another proposal, the Arkansas Hemp and Cannabis Amendment, would establish the right to grow cannabis, but allow the legislature to determine rules for its use. It’s thought to be a longshot to gain enough signatures to make the ballot.)

Melissa Fults is campaign director for Arkansans for Compassionate Care, the group currently gathering signatures for the 2016 Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act. She said that a competing ballot initiative by Arkansas attorney David Couch doesn’t go far enough to ensure affordability and accessibility for lowerincome patients, primarily because it doesn’t include the ability of patients far from dispensaries to grow their own 12

MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

a designated caregiver.

“When you look at both initiatives out there, ours is clearly aimed at protecting patients and making sure patients have availability and affordability,” she said.

“To us, those are two of the main things.

We want people who sell the product to make money, but bottom line we want the patients to be able to afford it and to have access to it.”

AMENDMENT SUPPORTER COUCH: Says grow-you-own a weed law killer.

marijuana.

Arkansans for Compassionate Care recently announced that it has collected 68,000 raw signatures toward getting its proposal on the ballot, using only volunteers to gather signatures. Fults said the group has been collecting signatures since September 2014. In 2016, 67,887 verified voter signatures are required for an initiated act to make the ballot. The deadline to turn in signatures is the first week in July, but Fults said the group plans to turn in its petitions by the end of April.

Fults said the Compassionate Care initiative is more patient-friendly than the proposal by Couch by making medical cannabis both affordable and available.

The ballot initiative allows each licensed dispensary to set up both an attached grow center and an off-site cultivation center; caps the cost of patient licenses at $50; and allows any licensed patient who lives more than 20 miles from a dispensary to grow a limited number of cannabis plants or have them grown by

Couch’s proposed constitutional amendment stipulates four to eight designated cultivation centers, with limited grow by each dispensary and no provisions for patients to grow their own.

“The people that own the cultivation centers are going to make a killing,” Fults said. “There’s a maximum [licensing fee] for the dispensaries and the cultivation centers for their licenses, but there’s no maximum for patient licenses, and only 10 percent of the sales tax … will go to pay for the program. So that program has got to be paid for with license fees and penalties. With the limited number of cultivation centers and dispensaries and a very limited amount [or cost] for their licenses, the burden is going to fall on the patients to pay for the program.

It’s just not designed to protect patients, as far as I’m concerned.”

Fults stressed that even with her group’s 20-mile rule, the number of patients allowed to grow their own will be “very limited,” and the Compassionate Care proposal stipulates that the

cultivation by patients will be regulated under the same rules as cultivation by dispensaries, including being subject to random inspections by the state. While grow-your-own may have been a significant reason why the medical marijuana initiative failed — albeit narrowly — in 2012, Fults said perceptions of cannabis as a medicine have changed since then.

She said that if the Compassionate Care proposal were the only one on the ballot, it would pass easily in 2016. If both the ACC initiative and the one authored

by Couch are on the ballot, she believes both will fail.

“It’s been proven over and over and over, and even the national groups are having a coronary over it,” she said.

“What happens is that, when both of them get on the ballot, naturally the opponents are going to vote against both of them, straight down the line. With the people who are supportive, the ones who don’t know the difference will probably vote for both. … The ones that do know the difference, some will vote for David’s for whatever reason, and some will vote for ours. That will split the vote.”

Couch, who worked with Fults on the 2012 medical cannabis campaign, said that following the defeat in 2012, most supporters of the campaign met and agreed that grow-your-own should not be a part of their next run at an initiative.

When Fults’ group wouldn’t commit to that provision, they parted ways.

Couch said that multiple polls, including his own, show that while a clear majority of Arkansans are in favor of medical marijuana, they support it only if it is strictly regulated like a prescription drug.

“The compassion argument wins,” Couch said. “Jay [Barth] polled it at 80 percent. The U of A polled it, it was like 70 percent. I polled the same thing. I polled medical with grow, without grow and recreational. Honestly, there’s not much of a statistical difference between medical with grow-your-own and recreational [laws]. People basically see that as the same. It was polling in the mid40s.” Meanwhile, medical marijuana without a provision for grow-your-own, Couch said, polled at around 65 percent of likely voters. Couch said he believes large numbers of voters just don’t trust that patients and their designated caregivers who cultivate their own cannabis

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will discard the portion of their harvest that goes beyond the amount a patient would be legally allowed per month under the ACC proposal.

“In a perfect world, I would support Melissa’s concept 100 percent. I think people should be able to grow their own,” he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t believe the people of the state of Arkansas will support that.”

Couch said he looked at other states that successfully passed medical marijuana laws and tried to craft a plan like those, plans that would create a selfsupporting system and not require a big regulatory investment by the state. He said the state has estimated it would require 40 to 50 new inspectors at the state Department of Health to regulate grow-your-own, even if the number of growers was limited by the 20-mile rule in Fults’ proposal.

Couch disagrees with the idea that two proposals making the ballot will spell doom for both. Most supporters, he said, will vote for both, just to make sure one passes.

“I would think that anybody who is for [medical cannabis] would vote for both of them,” he said. “To me, that’s the more logical outcome. If you want to ensure that sick people get the medicine they need, then you’re going to vote for both of them.”

Couch said he has raised funds to hire signature collectors to gather the nearly 85,000 signatures needed to make the ballot, and is planning to roll out a voter-education campaign if his proposal makes the cut. He said he should have the signatures required to make the ballot within 60 days. He said the other benefit of his initiative is that, if passed, it will add an amendment to the state Constitution guaranteeing medical cannabis. “With two-thirds of the General Assembly, [Fults’ initiated act] can be changed or whatever they want to do,” Couch said. “The reason I decided to do a constitutional amendment this time is I just don’t trust the members of the General Assembly when — even if the people of Arkansas pass medical marijuana — with a two-thirds vote, they can make it illegal or put whatever restrictions on it.”

If both made the ballot and passed, the one that got the most votes would be enacted, Fults said.

THE

BIG PICTURE

Ask the Times: How does public education work in Central Arkansas?

Q.

I’m a parent in the Little Rock School District and I’m completely confused by the current issues facing the educational system and how they potentially affect my daughter. Who exactly is the state Board of Education, who do they report to, and what decisions do they make? Who runs the Pulaski County Special School District? The LRSD? What about charter schools? It would be really great to get an organizational chart, or an infographic that maps out different entities in Pulaski County, how they work together, and who is accountable for whom.

— Adelia Kittrell

4. SCHOOL DISTRICTS ARE SEMI-AUTONOMOUS entities: They are governed locally, but still must follow state laws and regulations. The Arkansas Department of Education is the state-level administration that enforces those rules for districts (and charter schools). The Education Department monitors schools’ financial health, academic performance and compliance with a galaxy of standards on everything from teacher credentials to standardized testing. It is headed by the Education Commissioner, who answers directly to the governor.

5. THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION has nine members, each appointed by the governor. Because the governor cannot unilaterally remove board members, the body is theoretically independent. The state board establishes statewide education policy and has the ability to take over a district in academic or fiscal distress — or to return a district to local control. However, the law establishes a complex relationship between the state board and the Education Commissioner. The state board cannot fire the commissioner (though it must approve the hiring of the commissioner) and the commissioner has sole authority over some matters within the department.

3. CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE PRIVATE NONPROFITS funded by public money; they compete with traditional public school districts for students. A charter school is run by a superintendent or CEO who answers to a board of directors — but a charter school’s board is not elected by the public. Instead, the Education Department and the state board are responsible for holding charter schools accountable. If a charter gets into academic or fiscal trouble, the state board can revoke its charter, eliminating the school.

1. THE NORTH LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT is currently Pulaski County’s only K-12 public education entity under local control. In a traditional school district like the NLRSD, voters elect a school board, which sets policy and hires a superintendent to administer the district, much as a company’s board of directors hires its CEO. Although the Education Department monitors the NLRSD for compliance with regulations and law — as it does all school districts — the state plays no direct role in its governance.

DIRECT CONTROL (ability to fire) OVERSIGHT, BUT NOT DIRECT GOVERNANCE POWER OF APPOINTMENT

2. THE ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS in both the Little Rock School District and the Pulaski County Special School District have been dissolved by the state Board of Education. The PCSSD was taken over by the state in 2011 due to financial troubles (“fiscal distress”) and the LRSD was taken over in January 2015 after being declared in “academic distress.” State takeover is an extraordinary measure that removes control of the district from local voters and passes it to the Education Commissioner, who effectively acts in the capacity of a school board — including hiring, firing and directing the superintendent. Only the state board can reinstate local control to a district under takeover. On March 10, the state board voted unanimously to restore local control to the PCSSD upon the election of a new school board this fall. www.arktimes.com

MARCH 24, 2016

13

HOW ABUSE BEATS UP THE BRAIN UAMS neuroscientists see the scars; perhaps repairs, too.

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

T

he number of children in Arkansas and the nation who have been subjected to sexual abuse is appalling, if not surprising to the professionals who work with such children every day. Based on historical studies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says one in four girls and one in six boys will experience some form of sexual abuse by the age of 18. In Arkansas, reported incidents indicate that 14 children per 1,000 suffer from some form of maltreatment, such as neglect or physical abuse, and of that number, 22 percent will have been sexually abused. This compares to a national rate of 9.1 children per 1,000; nearly one in 1,000 children nationally have suffered sexual abuse.

The typical victim of sexual abuse that Stacy Thompson, director of Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas, sees is a girl 9 years old or younger who’s been molested by someone she knows or even loves: a family member, or a stepfather, or a coach, or a minister.

The abuse may have taken the form of fondling, oral sex or rape. It could have happened even without touching, such as a “sexted” picture gone viral — something Thompson said is on the rise — or a pornographic image shown to a child.

Such trauma can have long-lasting ill effects on a child’s life. Children who have been abused may turn to drugs, and the physical repercussions of abuse include heart disease, cancer, even autoimmune diseases.

But research and therapy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences suggest that children who’ve suffered at the hands of abusers need not lead lives defined by their pain. Therapy can help them change the way they think, creating not just behavioral changes but changes in the way their brains are wired. Brains, it appears, are altered by trauma, but can possibly be healed.

UAMS’ Helen L. Porter and James T. 14

MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

Dyke Brain Imaging Research Center, in the Psychiatric Research Institute, has since its creation in 2009 focused on addiction and the brain. Dr. Clinton Kilts came to UAMS from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta as founding director of the brain imaging program, which introduced advanced technology into the work done in UAMS’ Center for Addiction Research, created in 2004. That technology is the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner, which allows neuroscientists to look at activity in the brain.

The neuroscientists in the research center are now using imaging to study the impact of trauma on the structure and function of the brain. Dr. Joshua Cisler, a Ph.D. psychiatric researcher, has focused his studies on how the adolescent brain changes in response to trauma and whether one can predict how well a young patient will respond to therapy.

In the blood flow of a child’s brain, Cisler can see the scars of abuse. ***

C

onsider this child, an amalgam of patients such as those seen

by UAMS therapists, who we’ll call Clara. Clara was both physically and sexually abused. Her stepfather, who moved in with her mother and brother when she was 7, beat her with a broom handle. Her mother began to beat her as well. When Clara turned 9, her stepfather began to abuse her sexually. Eventually the brother reported the father to authorities, and the children were removed to the home of an aunt and uncle, who sought help for Clara.

If Clara were cocooned in the research center’s fMRI scanner, the blood flow in her brain — lit by radio waves and magnetism — might show Cisler this: The connection between her hippocampus and prefrontal cor-

MIND READER: Dr. Josh Cisler and UAMS employee Jasmine Medley illustrate how the fMRI scanner at the Brain Imaging Research Center on the UAMS campus is used.

tex, parts of the brain believed to help control emotion and memory, and her left amygdala, which processes emotion and helps identify important things around us, is weak. What that means for patients like Clara, Cisler believes, is that the normal brain balance that would keep the amygdala in check is malfunctioning.

That disconnect is brought on by the stress of repeated abuse, stress that bombards the brain with the hormone cortisol. When we sense danger, Cisler explained, our bodies produce cortisol to allow us “to stay in a preparedness mode,” so we can act quickly to protect ourselves. But if the stress is prolonged,

the cortisol begins to do damage to neural pathways, so that the “preparedness” effect is lost. The overproduction of cortisol shrinks the neuronal branches in the parts of the brain that help us exercise control, like the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, and expands them in areas where emotion is experienced, like the amygdala. Cisler likens the action to a river that is flowing so hard and fast that it overcomes a weakened dam. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex can no longer ameliorate the emotions, making the child who has been subject to high levels of stress hyperemotional.

In Cisler’s work — with both vol-

TRYING TO HEAL: PRI psychologist Kramer (above), BIRC director Kilts.

unteers and patients at the Psychiatric Research Institute and girls from other therapeutic facilities (see sidebar for volunteer opportunities) — he’s looked at decision-making in the brains of abused vs. nonabused girls.

In one task, subjects are given hypothetical money to lend to three computer girls. (A mirror placed in the fMRI allows the subjects to see a computer on which the girls appear.) One of the computer girls can be expected to give the money back half the time, one will give the money back 80 percent of the time and the third will return the loan only 20 percent of the time. Subjects have 48 encounters with the girls,

thus learning who is likely to return the money and who is not: The task is to figure out which of the three girls is the most trustworthy.

Here’s a twist: Sometimes the computer girls do not act as expected. A girl who has been giving the money back does not; or one that has not been giving the money back does. Cisler looks at the brain’s response to these unexpected results. (What he’s seeing is the change in oxygenated blood flow in the brain, a proxy for the neuronal response.)

Say a child like Clara was in the fMRI scanner. The girl who has been returning Clara’s money four out of five times does not. But Clara’s brain does

not react to this unexpected outcome.

There’s no flash of activation in what Cisler called the “salience network,” the parts of the brain that coordinate when we identify something as important. In girls who have been sexually assaulted, the brain doesn’t “snap to attention,” as Cisler put it, when one of the computer girls acts out of character.

As a result, the abused adolescent is less likely to be able to identify the most trustworthy girl. The difference between the abused child and the nonabused child is significant, and girls who’ve suffered the most abuse have the hardest time telling which of the girls is trustworthy.

Cisler likened these signals that

something is not right to hearing fire alarms that go off all the time: You learn to ignore them.

Girls who have been abused might learn to ignore social danger signals and are thus more likely to be victimized again.

Teresa Kramer, a Ph.D. psychologist at the Psychiatric Research Institute at UAMS who leads the ARBEST program (Arkansas Building Effective Service for Trauma), says Cisler’s research may explain why the method PRI therapists use in treatment offers a path to recovery. That therapy is Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which has been described by researchers as the “gold standard” in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in abused children and adolescents.

Children who’ve been abused may suffer symptoms of PTSD: flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, nightmares. Some, even young children, may exhibit inappropriate sexual behaviors. Some may self-medicate with drugs. The goal of TF-CBT, a 12- to 16-week treatment that involves both the child and the nonabusive parent or guardian, is to show the child “how to keep her whole identity from being wrapped around the trauma,” Kramer said. It is similar to treatment for PTSD in war veterans, who are sometimes exposed to virtual simulations of their traumatic memories to help desensitize them.

Therapists first work with patients to develop trust and introduce relaxation techniques. Then the patient is asked to tell the story of her trauma.

The story is not a forensic one, as described by an observer, Kramer said, but a narrative that will show how the child perceived the trauma. The patient — who may take some coaxing to acknowledge what has happened — is asked to tell who she is, what her life was like before the trauma, what her home was like, and, then, what happened. The narrative can take any form, Kramer said — some patients will write, some will draw, some will use rap songs or drama.

The idea is to relive the trauma until the memory no longer causes high anxiety, and to erase the child’s wrongthinking, such as “It was my fault,” “I shouldn’t have done …,” “I’m a bad person,” “I’m the reason my family is torn apart.”

Therapists work with the nonabusive parent or guardian to deal with what has happened. The child will eventually present the trauma narrative to the parent; the therapists prepare the caregiver to hear the recital of the www.arktimes.com

MARCH 24, 2016

15

HOW ABUSE BEATS UP THE BRAIN

Girls who have been abused might learn to ignore social danger signals and are thus more likely to be victimized again.

trauma without overreacting.

When therapeutic goals are reached, “we want children to feel like they’ve accomplished something,” Kramer said.

“So when their treatment is through, we graduate them. We line the halls and applaud, and the children get a certificate,” Kramer said.

Clara found it hard at first to talk about what had been done to her. Eventually, however, she was able to create the narrative to describe how the abuse made her think and feel.

With the help of the therapist, Clara also began to see a connection between the abuse she suffered and her problematic behavior: For example, because her stepfather called her “ugly,” she sought attention or compliments from anyone.

That meant she got involved in what her doctor called “high-risk relationships.”

The therapy also helped her feel closer to her aunt and accepting of the limits, like curfew, in her new home.

Her doctor said she felt more positive about herself, which meant she made healthier decisions. By the end of treatment, she was thinking about the future, not the past, and making new friends who were not involved in risky behavior. ***

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MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

nfortunately, the TF-CBT therapy has its limits: It has been shown to work in only two-thirds of the patients at the PRI, Cisler said. He wondered, is it possible to predict who will benefit from the therapy by looking at their brains?

To test the hypothesis that he could see a difference, Cisler worked with 34 abused adolescent girls who had come to the PRI for therapy. The girls’ brains were scanned before and after they had had 12 sessions of TF-CBT therapy. Researchers looked at how the girls’ amygdalae (both right and left) reacted when the girls were shown faces expressing no emotion and faces showing fear. The fearful faces are themselves frightening.

When the results of those scans were compared with the clinical results posttherapy, the researchers discovered that girls whose amygdalae activated only at the sight of fearful faces — apparently discerning threat from nonthreat — were those who also showed the greatest reduction in their PTSD symptoms from their therapy.

But girls whose amygdalae showed reaction to both neutral and frightened faces, who appeared to fear both expressions before therapy, did not seem to benefit as much from TF-CBT. The post-therapy fMRI scans showed a change in the brains of girls who did well with TF-CBT, as if the therapy was actually causing a change in the neural pathways. Are the girls’ PTSD symptoms reduced because the therapy is actually rewiring the brain?

“We are on the cusp of understanding the effects of trauma on brain development,” Kramer said. ***

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HOW ABUSE BEATS UP THE BRAIN

S

ome of the children who have volunteered for Cisler’s research come from Youth Home Inc., which provides residential treatment for clients ages 11 to 17. Cisler’s work is “much needed,” Peggy Kelly, chief clinical officer at Youth Home, said, especially in that it shows the connec-

tion between trauma and substance abuse. “We are thrilled [researchers] are putting together the connections of trauma and addiction and how those two correlate,” Kelly said.

Kelly, who came to Youth Home from Atlanta a year ago, says she sees a need in Arkansas “for education and

awareness. … People still have such a stigma attached to addiction and mental illness. They don’t see it as a brain disorder, but a willpower issue. … This imaging is critical to prove to people that it is a physiological problem we are trying to address.” Kelly said Youth Home is seeking grants to present such

information to schools and families. ***

A

ddiction causes multiple changes in the brain: from volume and shape to cognition, decreases in the release of neurotransmitters and

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MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

HOW ABUSE BEATS UP THE BRAIN

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these tasks and nonaddicted people is such that Kilts can identify which is which by looking at the way their brains are behaving during the tests.

Addiction, Kilts said, is “one of the few diseases that rob you of function in the organ necessary to getting help — the brain.” But the brain, once thought “immutable,” Kilts said, has the ability to reorganize throughout one’s life, “to erase the footprint left by the trauma.”

In adolescents, for every year that you can delay drug use, Kilts said, the risk of addiction drops 5 percent.

But treating trauma-related disorders, like addiction, is difficult. Kilts hopes that brain-imaging research will show ways to train functions of the brain to allow one to inhibit the impulse to use drugs. “I’m interested in the behavior you don’t express,” Kilts said, the desire not to use drugs.

Like Cisler, Kilts hopes the research going on at the BIRC will show ways to retrain areas of the brain — to restore salience in the traumatized and perhaps fend off the desire to abuse drugs or repair the addicted brain.

Other ongoing studies in the BIRC look at how the brain responds while participants recall traumatic experiences; family decision-making and adolescent PTSD; suicidal thoughts; and how depression or drug use interferes with infant caregiving.

Kilts noted particular interest in the work of colleague Dr. Lisa Brents, a molecular pharmacist who, with the Women’s Mental Health Program, is conducting studies of depression and drug misuse in postpartum women, and how these problems impact the brain representation of maternal care.

“We are training the next generation of clinical neuroscientists to do much more” to advance the study of the brain, Kilts said. “We are creating a group that thinks differently,” to study addiction and abuse in new ways that will translate to the treatment.

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their receptors, and alterations in the patterns of connectivity, the “salience network.”

In his work, Brain Imaging Research Center director Kilts is trying to answer the question, does addiction represent a pre-existing brain state?

Do some people have a susceptibility to addiction? Or is it an acquired disorder? Kilts believes addiction is caused by both a pre-existing brain state and acquired changes by drug misuse. He also believes it’s possible that the brain can be retrained to control the strong impulse to use drugs, and hopes that early intervention in younger, at-risk individuals can prevent the acquired brain state of addiction and thus its development.

Addicts have trouble with impulsivity. The drive to use drugs or alcohol is so strong that few “perceive a need for help or treatment,” Kilts said; addiction “creates a motivational structure” all its own.

Much addiction research has centered on “delayed discounting” — the addict’s inability to choose a greater reward over a lesser one if the greater one cannot be achieved instantly.

Another of the tests PRI researchers use to study impulsivity and addiction is the “stop signal” task. Subjects are asked to tap whenever a letter comes up on a computer screen. However, if the letter has a circle around it (the signal to stop) they are asked to stop the tap response. While the task is going on, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is mapping activity in the brain to detect what aspects of brain function are failing the addict and, in comparison, how the healthy brain works to control impulsive behavior.

Addicts have trouble stopping the tendency to respond when they see the letter with the circle around it, Kilts said. Their ability to stifle impulses — to not take the drink, to not use the drug, to not respond to the stop signal — is impaired. The difference between addicted individuals who perform

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VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT The Helen L. Porter and James T. Dyke Brain Imaging Research Center is seeking volunteers for its research on adolescent girls. The center is seeking females ages 11 to 17 who have no trauma exposure and are not engaged in drug use as well as those who do have a history of physical or sexual abuse, with or without drug use. Adolescent drug users or those with other psychiatric disorders, such as depression or behavioral problems, are also eligible. The BIRC will provide compensation for time and travel, usually $100 for the adolescent and $40 for a caregiver who comes with them. For more information, call Gayle Pipkin at 526-8311.

arktimes.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT DAVID KOON AT DAVIDKOON@ARKTIMES.COM Pub or Perish is a related event of the Arkansas Literary Festival. www.arktimes.com

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Arts Entertainment AND

I

WHERE’S GARY BUSEY? Searching for insanity at the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

MARK WAGNER

HAM AND BACON: Gary Busey fires the starter pistol; Grand Marshal Kevin Bacon beads up for Hot Springs parade.

MARK WAGNER

BY HEATHER STEADHAM

20

MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

love crazy like Oprah loves bread.

And for weeks, there’s only been one thing on my mind: meeting the living embodiment of insanity that is Gary Busey at the First Ever 13th Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Hot Springs.

Yes, the procession is every bit as zany as its name. Back in 2003, when Steve Arrison, CEO of Hot Springs’ Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, was imbibing some adult beverages with a group of friends at a German pub at Spencer’s Corner, the subject arose that Hot Springs was woefully lacking in that it had no St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Arrison recalled that “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” had declared nearby Bridge Street the world’s shortest street in everyday use, and so the idea of the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade was born.

But that’s not the only tradition that pervades this peculiar parade. Every year you can just about count on green Irish wolfhounds, marching Irish Elvis impersonators, and, since George Wendt filled the role in 2005, a Celebrity Grand Marshal.

But this year — ah, the leprechauns must be smiling at me! — we were granted more than a mere single Celebrity Grand Marshal. This year, we got three celebrities: the Grand Marshals were the Bacon Brothers — Michael and Kevin — and the Official Starter of the parade was none other than actor, musician, pitchman and Hollywood mystic Gary Busey. Busey’s reputation precedes both him and Kevin Bacon, and, quite probably, all 10 of the previous World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade’s Celebrity Grand Marshals combined. With Ruth Carney, the mayor of Hot Springs, so clearly being off her rocker (in 2011 she “joked” about getting snipers to “eliminate some of the tourists” and just last week quoted Hitler when questioning previous parade attendance figures), my cray-dar was beeping like an FCC-censored broadcast of an unscripted Busey rant.

Busey was specifically chosen because, as Arrison says, “He sort of fits the parade. He’s zany. Quirky.” When I ask how I can meet up with Busey — or at least Arrison — Arrison tells me he will be near the stage in the mid-afternoon, or at the Blarney Stone for the Kissing Contest at 4:30 p.m. Sounds to me like a place Busey would be.

I leave for Hot Springs about noon to make sure I have a decent place to park. On my way into town, I follow a 16-wheeler with a decal showing Jesus to the left and sin to the right, and sure enough, we eventually have to part ways, it headed to the left and me headed to the right. My radio plays “Hotel California,” and my mind begins to form questions like Are Gary Busey’s teeth really THAT big? And What will he say to kick off the parade? And No really, how could his teeth possibly be that big?

After I arrive, I amble down to the far end of Bridge Street, where the stage for the Bacon Brothers has been set up.

Kevin is actually onstage for the sound check, and a small crowd of 33 (I do a quick head count in fear of getting the number wrong and facing the wrath of the Hitler-quoting mayor) has gathered in front of the stage. But Kevin is just up there, tuning his guitar, singing into his microphone, acting like a musician. This is so not what I came for.

The nearby side streets are not yet blocked off, and with every black Cadillac-y SUV with tinted windows that drives by, my eyebrows raise and my calves tense. Could Busey be inside? If I could find Arrison, maybe he could set me up with some one-on-one time.

I head to a nearby merchandise tent, where I could buy leg-warmers, crowns festooned with shiny shamrocks, or neon green shirts that proclaim, “Even a parade is better with Bacon.” The real attraction here, though, is the exclusive Busey-ism that Gary himself concocted for today: I.R.I.S.H., to the man with the teeth, means, “INDEPENDENT. ROWDY. INDOMITABLY. SPIRITED. HUMANS.” This is printed on a shirt.

A lady in a green feather boa guides me back to the stage where I run into Arrison. Dressed in a windbreaker and ball cap, Arrison is the least outlandishly dressed person here. He instructs his assistant to issue me a press pass, and directs me to Transportation Plaza, the staging area for the parade.

“Do you think everybody’s there?” I ask, with only one body in mind.

“It’s just 40 minutes before the parade, so I’d think so,” he says, and that’s all I need. I hoof it like the Clydesdales Arrison’s trying to secure for next year’s parade.

On the way, I see a tottering, whitehaired guy, but as he’s not talking to him-

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A&E NEWS self, I figure it’s not Busey. At a clearly roped-off area behind which begins a long line of parade entries, a nice lady in an orange security shirt stands with a clipboard. Her name is Leslie.

“There’s 43 floats this year,” she tells me. “You’re welcome to go in.”

So I do. And I see the Marching Irish Elvises; I see Robin Hood-looking characters and the Wednesday Night Poetry folks and the Arkansas Department of Correction float with its X-wing fighter.

But where is Gary Busey?

I make it to the final float, number 43 — the Fun City Irish Chorus — and they are singing a lovely four-part harmony rendition of “Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah,” when I see it: a trailer off on its own, about 50 feet away. From afar, I see a rainbow arching over a seat, clearly made for a VIP. On the rainbow is written, in white block letters, STARTER. I head over, and a delightful child is dressed as a leprechaun, just poised to throw candy or necklaces or some such gratuities.

“Is this your first time in the parade?”

I ask him.

“Nope,” he said. “But it’s my first time as a leprechaun.”

“Do you always walk with the Starter?” I ask.

His mom approaches. “With Startek,” she clarifies. “Yes. He always works with Startek.”

Oh, how the hopes can affect the eyes! This is not Gary Busey at all. I return to the orange-shirted Leslie, and ask her if she happens to have any insider info on Busey’s whereabouts.

“No,” she says and sighs. “I mean, he’s not in the car, right?” And she gestures directly to her right.

“No,” I say and sigh, as if I know. I follow that arm gesture up one short block and there is the official starter car for the First Ever 13th Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It’s plastered on a magnet right on the side.

At 5:55 p.m. — with a parade start time of 6:30 and a rumored launch from this point of 6:10 — Busey has still not shown. I’m beginning to wonder if my waiting here will cause me to miss the parade when none other than the former First Bubba, Roger Clinton, walks up and starts to wait with the small crowd that has gathered around the starting car. At 6:18, word circulates CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

LOOKING AHEAD IN the Arkansas Times Film Series: On April 19 at Riverdale 10 Cinema, we’re screening William Friedkin’s 1977 cult classic “Sorcerer,” starring Roy Scheider and soundtracked hypnotically and brilliantly by Tangerine Dream. Friedkin’s follow-up to the massively successful “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” “Sorcerer” is a much stranger and more ambitious film, influenced — the director has claimed — by Werner Herzog and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Overlooked by many critics at the time, Roger Ebert judged it one of the top 10 films of 1977, and its reputation has grown over the years — Quentin Tarantino named it among his 12 favorite films in 2012 and Stephen King placed it at No. 1 on a list of “20 movies that never disappoint.” Screening will be at 7 p.m.; tickets are $7.50.

THE FANTASTIC CINEMA & Craft Beer Festival of the Little Rock Film Society, highlighting the best in independent genre film (sci-fi, horror and fantasy), returns this year April 7-10 at Riverdale 10 Cinema. Individual tickets cost $10, day passes are $20, “film fanatic” passes (allowing access to all screenings) are $40 and VIP passes (which include priority seating, plus all panels, parties and the filmmaker lounge) are $100. More information about ticketing (and the lineup) is at fantasticcinema.com.

RAPPER BIG PIPH’S LATEST ambitious project is an album in the form of a specially designed interactive mobile app (available for iOS and Droid), “I Am Not Them: The Legacy Project,” each track of which will include a corresponding music video that will add up to an overarching narrative. The album-app will be released via the Apple Store and Google Play on Tuesday, April 12; a percentage of the proceeds will go to the charity Global Kids Arkansas.

OPERA ITHACA, AN OPERA company based in Ithaca, N.Y., has announced the world premiere of “Billy Blythe,” the opera based on the childhood of Bill Clinton and composed by Arkansas country singer-songwriter (and, of course, opera composer) Bonnie Montgomery. While portions of the opera have been produced in the past, this is the first time the work will be fully staged by a professional opera company. See it in Ithaca at the Kitchen Theatre, April 8-10.

AT THE

FOLLOW YOUR ART

MUSEUM SCHOOL

Photograph by Bryan Clifton

CLASSES START MARCH 28 • • • • •

Jewelry Drawing Printmaking Woodworking Painting

• • • • •

Ceramics Photography Fused Glass Workshops And more!

REGISTER TODAY AT arkansasartscenter.org/art-classes 501-372-4000 • 501 East 9th Street • Little Rock, AR 72202 www.arktimes.com

MARCH 24, 2016

21

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK, LINDSEY MILLAR AND WILL STEPHENSON

THURSDAY 3/24-SATURDAY 3/26

‘BILL CLINTON HERCULES’

7 p.m. Thu.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sat. Arkansas Repertory Theatre. $25.

Following last month’s “An Illiad,” The Rep continues its inaugural Black Box Season — oneman shows staged at the theater’s new space, The Annex — with “Bill Clinton Hercules,” which imagines the 42nd president delivering a “fantasy TED Talk.” In the process, The Rep says, the play “explores the future of democracy, plus Clinton’s dreams, regrets, hopes and passions.” Written by Rachel Mariner and Guy Masterson, it stars Bob Paisley, and is loosely inspired by Seamus Heaney’s

FRIDAY 3/25 play “The Cure at Troy,” which the playwrights noticed on a list of Clinton’s 20 favorite books, an inclusion they found telling. As Masterson said in an interview with the Kansas City Star, “While Bob obviously carries a striking resemblance to Bill and they both have charisma and charm, this is not a straight impersonation. It’s a postulation on what Bill might say if he was completely honest. He realizes how far from his ideal character he’s allowed himself to become.

He’s realized that maybe the world isn’t what he wanted it to be. And he takes some of the blame for himself.” WS

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH LUNCHEON

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

Free.

Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the surgeon general under President Clinton and former head of the Arkansas Department of Health, and other African-American health professionals will take part in a panel discussion about women’s health and their own experiences at Mosaic Templars.

Others on the panel are Dr. Anika Whitfield, a podiatrist; Kameelah Harris, director of WOW-Fitness; and Nicolle Fletcher, doula and owner of Birth By Design. Quantia “Key” Fletcher will moderate. Space is limited; reserve by calling Brian Rodgers at 638-3636. LNP

FRIDAY 3/25

BRIAN WHELAN, THE SALTY DOGS 9 p.m. White Water Tavern.

Brian Whelan spent four years as a multi-instrumentalist in Dwight Yoakam’s band before going out on his

own. Lest you read that and want to lump him into the Americana genre, he has a new song called “Americana” with the lyric, “you look great but you sound like shit.” “It’s sad,” he told the Houston Press, “but that

whole Americana thing is so full of people who spend more time on their outfits and their beards and their PR and their networking than they do on their music. It’s just a comment on mediocrity.” Instead, look for Whelan

to play rock ’n’ roll with a little bit of twang and a lot of big power-pop hooks. There’ll be some covers, too. In other words, he’ll be a perfect match for Little Rock’s honky-tonk heroes, The Salty Dogs. LM

FRIDAY 3/25

CHRIS MAXWELL

10 p.m. South on Main. $10.

ARKANSAS SUMMER: Chris Maxwell returns to Little Rock for a performance at South on Main, 10 p.m.

Friday, $10.

22

MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

In the 1980s, Chris Maxwell’s band The Gunbunnies were pioneers of a Little Rock music scene that barely existed.

Because of that, they tried their luck elsewhere. They were named the “Best Undiscovered Band” at New York’s CMJ in 1986, and soon afterward released an album on Virgin Records produced by Jim Dickinson, “Paw Paw Patch.” And that was pretty much it for the band that Times editor Lindsey Millar once called “the spark that ignited our modern music scene.”

They changed labels — moving to Warner Brothers — and cut demos for a follow-up album that wouldn’t see the light of day until 2009. The band languished. “We already have Elvis Costello and the Replacements and don’t need another,” Maxwell remembers the label’s staff claiming at the time. He eventually formed another band in New York, Skeleton Key, and embarked on a successful career producing music for TV (“Bob’s Burgers,” “Inside Amy Schumer,” etc.) and for other artists. On March 4, Max Recordings released Maxwell’s long-awaited solo debut, “Arkansas Summer,” a triumph for a musician the Austin Chronicle once described as “Little Rock’s finest export since Pharaoh Sanders.” A moving collection of 11 songs, gorgeously produced and compellingly performed, the record comes with an endorsement from the MacArthur “Genius” Grant-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem, who writes, “Chris Maxwell musically channels the heart of Americana-pop — Big Star, Freedy Johnston, Wilco and the like — in crafting a song-cycle as personal as home movies with X-rays included. A beautifully poised grown-up album in an age that still coughs one up from time to time.” WS

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 3/24

TUESDAY 3/29

NICK SCHIFRIN

5 p.m. Sturgis Hall, Clinton School.

Free.

The journalist Nick Schifrin was a student at Columbia University on Sept. 11, 2001. He reported on the World Trade Center attacks for the student newspaper, but what he remembers most about that week was a lecture on Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” that a professor gave on Sept. 13, the theme of which was the dangers inherent in pursuing revenge at all costs. A decade later, as a correspondent for ABC News, Schifrin

was the first American reporter to arrive at Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. His team aired the first videos from inside the building, and, as he later wrote in a much-lauded essay for Foreign Policy, he thought of the Shakespeare lecture as he reported the story. “The United States has made many of the same mistakes that ‘Titus Andronicus’ and his fellow tragedians made,” Schifrin wrote, “prioritizing revenge and killing the enemy over helping the local populations; choosing allies who help pro-

duce short-term gratification (security gains) but long-term trouble; refusing to truly engage with a population that seemed so different from themselves.” He should know: As a foreign correspondent, he’s reported from more than 30 countries since 2007, interviewing the Dalai Lama during the 2008 Tibet uprising; covering the death of Nelson Mandela; and reporting on wars and conflicts in Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, Crimea and Nigeria. He’ll speak about his career Tuesday at the Clinton School for Public Service. WS

TUESDAY 3/29

TYRONE JAEGER

7 p.m. Oxford American Annex.

Free.

Tyrone Jaeger is a professor of English and creative writing at Hendrix College and the author of the short-story collection “So Many True Believers,” published last month. Lauren Groff, author of last year’s National Book Award-nominated “Fates and Furies,” called Jaeger’s new book “gentle and melancholy, a story collection linked like a set of Christmas lights, a series of bright bulbs glowing against the cold and dark night.” Writer Mark Richard called it a “wonderful book of songs from a single musical; heartbreak songs, songs of wonder and disbelief.” As he told the Times in an interview in February, “The stories in ‘So Many True Believers’ explore how belief, no matter how misguided or ill-conceived, allows people to endure. Belief is tied to mystery, or suggests mystery, and in a world where information about anything is instantly at our fingertips, mystery is sometimes in short supply. We need more mystery. We’re better people when we bathe in mystery — really, what else is there?” The book’s official launch, with a reading and book signing, is Tuesday at the Oxford American Annex, adjacent to South on Main. WS

The Ron Robinson Theater screens the original “Jurassic Park” at 7 p.m., free. Comedian Andy Woodhull is at the Loony Bin at 7:30 p.m., $8 (and at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, $12).

Critical-favorite Little Rock doom metal band Pallbearer plays at Revolution at 9 p.m., $8.

FRIDAY 3/25 Carolyn Lukensmeyer, executive director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, gives a talk at the Clinton School for Public Service’s Sturgis Hall at noon. Food 4 Thought, a benefit for the city’s homeless population, starts at the River Market at noon. Nashville indie rock band Moon Taxi plays at Revolution with The Lonely Biscuits, 9 p.m., $15. Foul Play Cabaret presents its burlesque show at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 9 p.m. Local alt-rock groups CosmOcean and Becoming Elephants play at Vino’s at 9 p.m., $6. El Paso alt-country band The Dirty River Boys plays at Stickyz, 9 p.m., $8 adv., $10 day of.

SATURDAY 3/26

AMERIPOLITAN: Austin legend Dale Watson shares a bill with Bonnie Montgomery at the White Water Tavern at 9 p.m. Wednesday, $10 adv., $12 day of.

WEDNESDAY 3/30

DALE WATSON, BONNIE MONTGOMERY

9 p.m. White Water Tavern. $10 adv., $12 day of.

Austin country legend Dale Watson grew up outside of Pasadena, Texas, and spent years as a mercenary songwriter before hitting it big (in Austin terms) in 1995 with “Cheatin’ Heart Attack.” That album took aim at the country establishment with a track called “Nashville Rash” (“You can’t grow when you rip the roots out of the ground/Looks like that Nashville rash is getting round”), and Watson has been a honky-tonk stalwart and vocal critic of the genre’s commercial front ever

since. “I think what’s coming out of the industry has gotten watered down quite a bit,” he told NPR last year. “To say that I’m country music is misleading to people in the mainstream, [with] what people see on ‘American Idol’ and hear on mainstream radio.” His solution has been to forge his own genre, Ameripolitan, which attempts to preserve the mutant strands of Western swing and Outlaw Country, etc., that he believes have been lost. To that end, since 2014 he’s spearheaded the annual Ameripolitan Music Awards, which this year gave the “Best Outlaw Female” award to Little Rock’s own Bonnie Montgomery, who will share a bill with Watson Wednesday night. WS

Amonkst the Trees, Census, Smoke Signals and Awaiting Ezkaton play at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 9 p.m. Memphis roots-rocker John Paul Keith plays at the White Water Tavern at 9:30 p.m., $7. Stephen Neeper & The Wild Hearts play at Stickyz with The Federalis, 9:30 p.m., $6.

WEDNESDAY 3/30 The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Quapaw Quartet gives a free performance at the Capital Hotel at 5:15 p.m. Singer-songwriter Mark Currey performs at the Afterthought, 5:30 p.m. Progressive bluegrass group The Yonder Mountain String Band plays at Fayetteville’s George’s Majestic Lounge, 8 p.m., $25. The Meshugga Klezmer Band, the renowned local ensemble single-handedly holding down the Central Arkansas klezmer scene, plays at South on Main, 8:30 p.m., $10. Sibling folk-rock duo The Oh Hellos plays at Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $12 adv., $15 day of.

www.arktimes.com

MARCH 24, 2016

23

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

and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 501-2449690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. LGBTQ/ SGL Youth and Young Adult Group, 6:30 p.m.

800 Scott St. Women’s History Month Luncheon. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 11:30 a.m. 501 W. 9th St. 501-683-3593. www.mosaictemplarscenter.com.

THURSDAY, MARCH 24

MUSIC

7 Toed Pete (headliner), Trey Johnson (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

Ben Lewis. Shoog Radio presents. The Joint, 8 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-3720205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

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

Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana.

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

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Open Jam. Thirst n’ Howl, 8 p.m. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

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

Pallbearer. Revolution, 9 p.m., $8. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new.

RockUsaurus. Casa Mexicana, 7:30 p.m. 7111 JFK Blvd., NLR. 501-835-7876.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

Andy Woodhull. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $8.

10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

#ArkiePubTrivia. Stone’s Throw Brewing, 6:30 p.m. 402 E. 9th St. 501-244-9154.

FILM

“Jurassic Park.” Ron Robinson Theater, 7 p.m., free. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www.cals.lib. ar.us/ron-robinson-theater.aspx.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn Park. 1:30 p.m., $2.50$4.50. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-6234411. www.oaklawn.com.

FRIDAY, MARCH 25

LECTURES

Carolyn Lukensmeyer. A talk by the executive director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse. Sturgis Hall, noon.1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys. edu.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn Park. 1:30 p.m., $2.50$4.50. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-6234411. www.oaklawn.com.

BENEFITS

Food 4 Thought. A benefit for the homeless.

River Market, noon, donations. 400 President Clinton Ave.

KIDS

THICKER THAN WATER: Sibling folk-rock duo The Oh Hellos perform at Revolution at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, $12 adv., $15 day of.

Elephants. Vino’s, $6. 923 W. 7th St. 501-3758466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

The Dirty River Boys. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $8 adv., $10 day of. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz. com.

Foul Play Cabaret Burlesque. Maxine’s, 9 p.m.

700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Moon Taxi, The Lonely Biscuits. Revolution, 9 p.m., $15. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-8230090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new.

Route 66. Agora Conference and Special Event Center, 6:30 p.m., $5. 705 E. Siebenmorgan, Conway.

Salsa Dancing. Clear Channel Metroplex, 9 p.m., $5-$10. 10800 Col. Glenn Road. 501-217-5113. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

The Salty Dogs with Brian Whelan. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www. whitewatertavern.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com.

Upscale Friday. IV Corners, 7 p.m. 824 W. Capitol Ave.

COMEDY

Andy Woodhull. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., $12. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

“Little Rock and a Hard Place.” An original production by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

DANCE

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

Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center, 8-11 p.m., $7-$13. 12th and Cleveland streets. 501221-7568. www.blsdance.org.

Contra Dance. Park Hill Presbyterian Church, 7:30 p.m., $5. 3520 JFK Blvd., NLR. arkansascountrydance.org.

EVENTS

28th Annual Community Easter Sunrise Service.

First Security Amphitheater, 7 a.m., free. 400 President Clinton Ave. LGBTQ/SGL weekly meeting. Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL

MUSIC

All In Fridays. Envy. 7200 Colonel Glenn Road.

501-562-3317.

Almost Infamous (headliner), Richie Johnson (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m.

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

Chasing Pictures. George’s Majestic Lounge, 10 p.m., $5. 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.

479-442-4226.

Chris Maxwell. South on Main, 10 p.m., $10.

1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. southonmain.com.

CosmOcean, The Inner Party, Becoming 24

MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

THURSDAY: CRAFT BEERS

10% OFF Including Growlers

2516 Cantrell Road Riverdale Shopping Center

366-4406

“Schoolhouse Rock.” Arkansas Arts Center, 7 p.m., $12.50. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www. arkarts.com.

SATURDAY, MARCH 26

MUSIC

Amonkst the Trees, Census, Smoke Signals, Awaiting Ezkaton. Maxine’s, 9 p.m. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com.

Eye for a Lie, 90 lb Wrench, Paralandra.

George’s Majestic Lounge, 8:30 p.m., $5. 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-442-4226.

Indie Music Night. Revolution, 9 p.m. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www. rumbarevolution.com/new.

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

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

501-492-9802.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Moon Song, William Blackart, Construction of Light. Vino’s, $6. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

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

Stephen Neeper & The Wild Hearts, The Federalis. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9:30 p.m., $6. 107 River Market Ave. 501-3727707. www.stickyz.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com.

Thread (headliner), Ben Byers (happy hour).

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

COMEDY

Andy Woodhull. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., $12. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn Park. 1 p.m., $2.50-$4.50.

2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411. www.oaklawn.com.

SUNDAY, MARCH 27

MUSIC

Irish Traditional Music Session. Hibernia Irish Tavern, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road.

501-246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

EVENTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn Park. 1:30 p.m., $2.50$4.50. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-6234411. www.oaklawn.com.

SPORTS

MONDAY, MARCH 28

BOOKS

LECTURES

QC:

Live: 1.875" x 5.25"

CW: CD: AD:

Trim: 2.125" x 5.5" Bleed: none Closing Date: 3/18/16

Pub: Arkansas Times

© 2016 ANHEUSER-BUSCH, BUDWEISER® BEER, ST. LOUIS, MO

FILM

Nick Schifrin. Foreign correspondent with ABC and PBS who has reported from more than 30 countries. Sturgis Hall, 5 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys. edu.

“Farming in Arkansas: Crops, Costs and Challenges in 2016.” A talk by Randy Veach, president of Arkansas Farm Bureau. Sturgis Hall, noon. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

“Working Across Sectors for Downtown Revitalization.” A panel discussion. Sturgis Hall, 6 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-

PM:

EVENTS

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

“Bikes vs. Cars.” A new documentary by Fredrik Gertten. Riverdale 10 Cinema, 7 p.m. 2600 Cantrell Road. 501-296-9955.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

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

Open Mic. The Lobby Bar. Studio Theatre, 8 p.m. 320 W. 7th St. Richie Johnson. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

Supersuckers, Jesse Dayton. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $10 adv., $15 day of. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www. stickyz.com.

PO:

COMEDY

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

Artists for Recovery. Located in the Wesley Room, a secular recovery group for people with addictions, open to the public. Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, 10 a.m. 1601 S. Louisiana.

MUSIC

AM:

MUSIC

All Night Stations, The Hacking, Recognizer.

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

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

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

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

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

Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton.

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

Job/Order #: 279609 QC: cs

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

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

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

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

TUESDAY, MARCH 29

Brand: Bud Not Ponies Item #: PBW20167305

EVENTS

683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

MUST INITIAL FOR APPROVAL

“Little Rock and a Hard Place.” An original production by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

LECTURES

NOW TWO CONVENIENT LOCATIONS Every Day LAGAVULIN 16 YEAR $93.99 TALISKER 10 YEAR SINGLE-MALT $65.99 CHIVAS REGAL 12 YEAR $34.99 CHATEAU STE. MICHELLE EROICA RIESLING $19.99 LUNA ACRISP CHARDONNAY $13.99 RED DIAMOND WINE $7.99

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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

Tyrone Jaeger. Oxford American, 7 p.m. 1300 Main St.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30

MUSIC

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

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. Capital Hotel, 5:15 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-3747474. www.capitalhotel.com.

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

Dale Watson, Bonnie Montgomery. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Drageoke with Chi Chi Valdez. Sway. 412 Louisiana.

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

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

GROW grow LOCAL ARKANSAS TIMES

www.arktimes.com

MARCH 24, 2016

25

MOVIE REVIEW

Filmmaking under quarantine Three new HBO documentaries explore the Ebola crisis.

BY SAM EIFLING

DAVID DARG AND RYOT FILMS/COURTESY OF HBO

I

n late 2014, postings and wordof-mouth offerings for journalism jobs to cover the Ebola crisis in West Africa began popping up.

Tellingly, one of the stipulations was that if you were to assist on-site with producing a documentary, you’d have to be available for a 45-day quarantine upon your return to the States. News coverage was fast out of Sierra Leone and Liberia and Guinea, which together suffered some 28,000 cases and 11,000 fatalities during the epidemic (which, though contained, still smolders; four Ebola deaths were reported in Guinea in mid-March of this year). But the more thorough or independent documentaries were, by dint of the conditions, more time-intensive.

This month HBO released companion short documentaries that illuminate the conditions and the fallout from the height of the outbreak. (Easiest way to watch them is online, in the documentaries section of HBO GO or HBO NOW.) “Ebola: The Doctors’ Story,” directed

by Steven Grandison, and “Orphans of Ebola,” by Ben Steele, are both productions for HBO, which the network has packaged with Oscar nominee “Body Team 12.” The director of that short,

utes to watch, so long as you don’t take cry breaks. For the time-pressed, favor the 12-minute “Body Team 12,” narrated by its protagonist, Garmai Sumo. She’s a Red Cross worker on a crew that goes house-to-house in Liberia to truck out the corpses of Ebola victims, over the yells and threats of grieving relatives.

She is an uncommonly brave and compelling center to the tale, and the camera follows her team — mummified in yellow plastic suits and aprons and goggles, like lanky Minions — through alleys,

DEALING WITH EBOLA, UP CLOSE: Documentary “Body Team 12” available through HBO.

David Darg, edited the film during self-imposed quarantines in his home, checking in with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention twice a day to make sure he wasn’t going to be bleeding from his eyes.

Yet in all three documentaries, the filmmakers all but melt away as they put you in harrowing proximity to the people who were living through, and dying from, the epidemic. As a troika, these films will take you about 80 min-

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into homes, to do the dangerous, taboo labor as a stand for her country against the disease. (She has an 8-year-old son who calls her “Ebola hero” when she comes home from work.)

Steele likewise cast “Orphans of Ebola” brilliantly, singling on the journey of a 12-year-old named Abu, one of the 20,000 children who lost a parent to Ebola. In all, eight members of Abu’s family, including both his parents, succumbed; over the four-month

shoot, you can see the toll it takes on the sensitive, jocular boy, as when he and his adopted brother Abdul contemplate their shared, lonely fates as motherless children. “The one that loves you most is gone,” Abu tells Abdul. “The one that loves you more than anyone is gone.

When your mama dies.”

Even as “Ebola: The Doctors’ Story” guides us through a Doctors Without Borders field hospital, putting us in near-direct contact with dying patients via a small camera on a doctor’s goggles, it can’t reach that level of heartbreak.

It brings the disaster into a different sort of focus: As we make the rounds over weeks with a visiting emergency doctor, people simply drop and drop and drop — in beds, on the ground, in the shower, sometimes in a blink. Still, hope emerges from the carnage; treatment and care in the hospital increases a patient’s chance of survival from 30 percent to 45.

The three films, taken together, offer a wide view of the consequences of the disease, through sickness and death and survival. They’re courageous films, about people in real peril making sacrifices. This is the hallmark of excellent crisis coverage: Getting close enough to a subject to make the numbers recede to abstraction. The real tragedy of the Ebola outbreak isn’t thousands of people sickened: it’s a single 12-year-old boy missing the person who loved him most in the world. There’s no quarantine from that sort of sorrow. We come dangerously close as viewers in all of these films to trespassing on strangers’ grief. But they make implicit that the next outbreak on this scale demands we not look away.

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SPRING 2016 Creative Non-fiction Writing for Veterans Class The free class is designed to provide a creative community for veterans and their spouses who are interested in writing about personal experiences stemming from military services.

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The six week class will meet on Thursdays from 6 -7:30 p.m. at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History: 503 E. 9th St, LR, 72202, beginning on April 7, 2016.

To register for the class, please email Dr. Rachel Miller rmmiler@littlerock.org or call 501.376.4602.

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MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

In The River Market District | 501.324.2999 | sonnywilliamssteakroom.com

Free Valet Parking

AFTER DARK, CONT. Mark Currey. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 5:30 p.m. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

Meshugga Klezmer Band. South on Main, 8:30 p.m., $10. 1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. southonmain.com.

The Oh Hellos. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $12 adv., $15 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-8230090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new.

Open Mic Nite with Deuce. Thirst n’ Howl, 7:30 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

RockUsaurus. Senor Tequila, 7 p.m. 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-224-5505.

Yonder Mountain String Band. George’s Majestic Lounge, 8 p.m., $25. 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-442-4226.

COMEDY

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

Steve Hirst. The Loony Bin, March 30-April 2, 7:30 p.m.; April 1-2, 10 p.m., $8-$12. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

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

POETRY

Wednesday Night Poetry. 21-and-older show.

Kollective Coffee & Tea, 7 p.m., free. 110 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-321-0909. maxineslive. com/shows.html.

BOOKS

James Conroy. Author of “Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 1865.” Sturgis Hall, 6 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

ARTS

THEATER

“Bill Clinton Hercules.” Arkansas Repertory Theatre, March 24-26, 7 p.m.; also 2 p.m. March 26, $25. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www.therep. org.

“Into The Woods.” The Studio Theatre, through March 26: Thu.-Sat., 7 p.m., $20-$25. 320 W. 7th St.

NEW GALLERY EXHIBITS, EVENTS GALLERY 221 & ART STUDIOS 221, Second and Center streets: “William McNamara,” watercolors, March 26-May 21, reception 4-8 p.m. April 16; work by area artists Tyler Arnold, Amy Edgington, EMILE, Kimberly Kwee, Greg Lahti, Sean LeCrone, Mary Ann Stafford, Cedric Watson, C.B. Williams, Gino Hollander, Siri Hollander, and artisan jewelry

by Rae Ann Bayless. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 801-0211.

BENTONVILLE CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way: “Dim the Lights,” “The Wild Angels,” the Open Road Film Series, with local filmmaker Dwight Chalmers, 7-8:30 p.m. March 24; “Kaisa

Bathuli: Route 66,” lecture by manager of the National Park Services’ Route 66 Corridor Presentation Program, 7-8 p.m. March 31; “The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip,” 100 images by 19 photographers of America from 1950 to today, including Robert Frank, Ed Ruscha, Garry Winogrand, William Eggleston, Joel Meyerowitz and others, through May 30; “Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention,” painting by Samuel F.B. Morse on loan from the Terra Foundation, through April 18; American masterworks spanning four centuries in the permanent collection. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed., Fri.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Sat.-Sun., closed Tue. 479-418-5700.

EL DORADO SOUTH ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, 110 E. 5th St.: “Due South,” paintings by William Dunlap, through April, coffee and donuts with the artist 10 a.m. April 30, “Due South” dinner that evening with the artist 6:30 p.m., $50; “The Polaroid Show,” large format photographs by Lisa Burton Tarver, through April 7 and April 22-30, lobby gallery. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Mon.-Fri. 870-862-5474.

ONGOING GALLERY EXHIBITS ARGENTA GALLERY, 413 Main St., NLR: “Tell Your Secrets,” paintings by Katherine Strause, through April 9. 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 258-8991.

ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORP., 200 River Market Ave., Suite 400: “Complete Spaces,” paintings by Matthew Lopas. www.arcapital.com.

ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “Dorothea Lange’s America” and “Industrial Beauty: Charles Burchfield’s ‘Black Iron,’ ” through May 8; “Miranda Young: A Printed Menagerie,” museum school gallery, through May 29; 46th annual “Mid-Southern Watercolorists Exhibition,” through April 17; “Admiration,” painting by William Adolph Bouguereau, on loan from San Antonio Museum of Art, through May 15; “Life and Light: “Nathalia Edenmont: Force of Nature,” 10 large-scale photographs, through May 1.

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

BOSWELL MOUROT FINE ART, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Survey: Space and Form,” new work by Sheila Cotton, Winston Taylor and LaDawna Whiteside, through April 9. 6640030.

BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Twists and Strands: Exploring the Edges,” ceramics by Barbara Satterfield and jewelry by Michele Fox; “Jeanfo: We Belong to Nature,” sculpture; “Painting 360: A Look at Contemporary Panoramic Painting,” Underground Gallery, through April 30; “Photographic Arts: African American Studio Photography,” from the Joshua and Mary Swift Collection, through March 26. 9 a.m.-6 p.m.

Mon.-Sat. 320-5790.

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “Beyond the Photographs,” paintings by Daniel Coston, show through May 7. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 224-1335.

CHROMA GALLERY, 5707 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by Robert Reep and other Arkansas artists. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 664-0880.

CORE BREWING, 411 Main St., NLR: “Salud!

A Group Exhibition,” through May 20. corebeer.com. www.arktimes.com

MARCH 24, 2016

27

Dining

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

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

WHAT’S COOKIN’ SEKISUI SUSHI BAR and Hibachi Grill, opened by the Chi Family in the early 2000s on Shackleford Road, is under new management. John Park, who also can be found handling duties behind the sushi bar, is the new owner. Park has introduced sushi specials at half price on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as well as a $5.99 hibachi lunch special daily that comes directly out of the kitchen for diners who don’t have the time to sit and watch the hibachi show at the regular grills.

DINING CAPSULES

AMERICAN

BEST IMPRESSIONS The menu combines Asian, Italian and French sensibilities in soups, salads and meaty fare. A departure from the tearoom of yore. 501 E. 9th St. Beer and wine, all CC. $$. 501-907-5946. L Tue.-Sun., BR Sat.-Sun. CAJUN’S WHARF The venerable seafood restaurant serves up great gumbo and oysters Bienville, and options such as fine steaks for the non-seafood eater. In the citified bar, you’ll find nightly entertainment, too. 2400 Cantrell Road. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-5351. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. CAMP DAVID Inside the Holiday Inn Presidential Conference Center, Camp David particularly pleases with its breakfast and themed buffets each day of the week. Wonderful Sunday brunch. 600 Interstate 30. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$.

501-975-2267. BLD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. CAPERS It’s never been better, with as good a wine list as any in the area, and a menu that covers a lot of ground — seafood, steaks, pasta — and does it all well. 14502 Cantrell Road. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-868-7600. LD Mon.-Sat. COPPER GRILL Comfort food, burgers and more sophisticated fare at this River Marketarea hotspot. 300 E. 3rd St. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-3333. LD Mon.-Sat. CRACKER BARREL OLD COUNTRY STORE Home-cooking with plenty of variety and big portions. Old-fashioned breakfast served all day long. 2618 S. Shackleford Road. No alcohol, all CC. 501-225-7100. BLD daily. 3101 Springhill Drive. NLR. No alcohol, all CC. 501-945-9373.

BLD daily.

CRUSH WINE BAR An unpretentious downtown bar/lounge with an appealing and erudite wine list. With tasty tapas, but no menu for full meals. 318 Main St. NLR. Beer and wine, all CC. $$. 501-374-9463. D Tue.-Sat. DAVE’S PLACE A popular downtown soupand-sandwich stop at lunch draws a large and diverse crowd for the Friday night dinner, which varies in theme, home-cooking being the most popular. Owner Dave Williams does all the cooking and his son, Dave also, plays saxophone and fronts the band that plays most Friday nights. 201 Center St. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$. 501-372-3283. L Mon.-Fri., D Fri. IZZY’S It’s bright, clean and casual, with snappy team service of all the standbys — sandwiches and fries, lots of fresh salads, pasta about a dozen ways, hand-rolled tamales and brick 28

MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

FULLY STUFFED: The burrito supreme comes with tasty Mexican rice.

Prime time pozole Super 7 serves up delicious and authentic Mex.

F

or those of us who grew up on Browning’s Mexican food in the 1960s, marveled when Juanita’s introduced us to fajitas and Blue Mesa to white cheese dip in the 1980s and somehow still think Casa Manana and Senor Tequila are “authentic Mexican,” it’s nice to get tips about restaurants where the patrons are working-class folks for whom Spanish is the primary or only language, where the signs are in Spanish and the TV blares Mexican soap operas or music videos.

We’ve ventured to Southwest Little Rock to a couple of great Mexican eateries, and recently we were counseled to try Super 7, which is just south of Kanis on John Barrow, just a couple of minutes off the well-beaten Interstate 630 path. As far as square footage goes, Super 7 is about equal parts basic grocery store and restaurant, but we figure the restaurant generates upward

of 75 percent of the revenue.

Super 7 is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week and has an all-day all-you-can-eat buffet (which closes at 8 p.m.). Ask an Arkie gringo what he might expect of such a feed trough and he might say tacos, enchiladas, maybe even fajitas, plus guacamole and a vat of cheese dip. Not so much at Super 7, where the buffet is more of a Mexican home-cooking offering: three meats, some veggies, even a salad bar. Most of the workers lunching at Super 7 were opting for the instant gratification and unlimited quantities of the buffet ($9.99 weekdays and $10.99 weekends).

We enjoyed the very thin, very hot complimentary salsa as we pondered the large menu. We were intrigued by the caldos section; caldo is Spanish for soup, but the Super 7 menu translated it as “Mexican stews,” which

fits. We opted for the pozole ($8.99); its rich broth had a nice sheen provided by dozens of hunks of pork, some with small bits of fat attached and all 100 percent tender. The hominy was flavorful and al dente. It was a fabulous dish in every way, served with chopped onion, cilantro, lime and three hard corn tortillas.

Our buddy opted for the burrito supreme ($7.50), an eight-inch tortilla stuffed with fajita-style beef vs. the expected ground beef — a nice upgrade — with a smaller quantity of beans and cheese. Topped with white cheese dip, the burrito was served with standardissue refried beans and the fluffiest, most tender Mexican rice we’ve had.

The only culinary bummer was the flan ($1.99), served in a plastic drink cup and grainier than it should have been.

We took our time eating and soaking up the atmosphere. We were sorry the jukebox was broken (or at least unplugged) because we would have pumped a few bucks into it to be exposed to some new music. We walked the aisles of the store, and like with the buffet, what was offered surprised us. There were a few specialty items, but most was just general stuff: grape jelly, sugar, vegetable oil, other dry goods, laundry detergent.

We can’t imagine we’ll ever shop at Super 7, but we’ll certainly be back to explore the restaurant menu more broadly. If the carnitas, lengua torta, tamales and enchiladas are on par with the pork/hominy stew and burrito, then Super 7 will vault to the top of the list of our favorite Mexican spots.

Super 7

1415 John Barrow Road 501-219-2373 QUICK BITE Thirsty in the area of John Barrow and Kanis? You might want to pop into Super 7 for a cold beer. Domestics are $2.50, and for another dime you can get a frostycold Mexican cerveza. Let’s see … Bud Light $2.50 … Pacifico $2.60. Talk about a no-brainer.

HOURS 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily OTHER INFO All credit cards accepted.

BELLY UP

HOPE THIS HELPS.

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

DINING CAPSULES, CONT.

BARBECUE

Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom 4305 Warden Rd (501) 812-6262 www.oldchicago.com

CHATZ CAFE ‘Cue and catfish joint that does heavy catering business. Try the slow-smoked, meaty ribs. 8801 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$. 501-562-4949. LD Mon.-Sat. CORKY’S RIBS & BBQ The pulled pork is extremely tender and juicy, and the sauce is sweet and tangy without a hint of heat. Maybe the best dry ribs in the area. 12005 Westhaven Drive. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-954-7427. LD daily. 2947 Lakewood Village Drive. NLR. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-753-3737. LD daily, B Sat.-Sun. WHOLE HOG CAFE The pulled pork shoulder is a classic, the back ribs are worthy of their many blue ribbons, and there’s a six-pack of sauces for all tastes. A real find is the beef brisket, cooked the way Texans like it. 2516 Cantrell Road. Beer and wine, all CC. $$. 501-664-5025.

LD daily 12111 W. Markham. Beer and wine, all CC. $$. 501-907-6124. LD daily. 150 E. Oak St. Conway. No alcohol, all CC. $$. 501-513-0600.

LD Mon.-Sat., L Sun. 5107 Warden Road. NLR. Beer and wine, all CC. $$. 501-753-9227.

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

501-614-6682. LD Tue.-Sat., BR Sun. DUGAN’S PUB Serves up Irish fare like fish and chips and corned beef and cabbage alongside classic bar food. The chicken fingers and burgers stand out. Irish breakfast all day. 401 E. 3rd St. Full bar, all CC. $-$$. 501-244-0542.

LD daily.

GEORGIA’S GYROS Good gyros, Greek salads and fragrant grilled pita bread highlight a large Mediterranean food selection, plus burgers and the like. 2933 Lakewood Village Drive. NLR. Full bar, all CC. $-$$. 501-753-5090. LD Mon.-Sat. HIBERNIA IRISH TAVERN This traditional Irish pub has its own traditional Irish cook from, where else, Ireland. Broad beverage menu, Irish and Southern food favorites and a crowd that likes to sing. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road.

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

501-227-7272. LD daily (close 5 p.m. on Sun.) 6100 Stones Road. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$.

501-868-8226. LD Mon.-Sat.

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BANGKOK THAI CUISINE Get all the staple Thai dishes at this River Market vendor. The red and green curries and the noodle soup stand out, in particular. 400 President Clinton Ave. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$. 501-374-5105. L Mon.-Sat. CHI’S CHINESE CUISINE No longer owned by Chi’s founder Lulu Chi, this Chinese mainstay still offers a broad menu that spans the Chinese provinces and offers a few twists on the usual local offerings. 5110 W. Markham St. Beer, all CC. $-$$. 501-604-7777. LD Mon.-Sat. CRAZY HIBACHI GRILL The folks that own Chi’s and Sekisui offer their best in a three-inone: tapanaki cooking, sushi bar and sit-down dining with a Mongolian grill. 2907 Lakewood Village. NLR. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-8129888. LD daily.

OSAKA JAPANESE RESTAURANT Veteran operator of several local Asian buffets has

brought fine-dining Japanese dishes and a well-stocked sushi bar to way-out-west Little Rock, near Chenal off Highway 10. 5501 Ranch Drive. $$-$$$. 501-868-3688. LD daily.

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

501-224-4300. LD daily.

✁

oven pizzas. 5601 Ranch Drive. Beer and wine, all CC. $$. 501-868-4311. LD Mon.-Sat. LITTLEFIELD’S CAFE The owners of the Starlite Diner have moved their cafe to the Kroger Shopping Center on JFK, where they are still serving breakfast all day, as well as plate lunches, burgers and sandwiches. 6929 John F. Kennedy Blvd. NLR. No alcohol. 501-771-2036.

BLD Mon.-Sat., BL Sun. MAGGIE MOO’S ICE CREAM AND TREATERY Ice cream, frozen yogurt and ice cream pizza. 17821 Chenal Parkway. No alcohol, all CC. $. 501-821-7609. LD daily.

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

MCBRIDE’S CAFE AND BAKERY Owners Chet and Vicki McBride have been serving up delicious breakfast and lunch specials based on their family recipes for two decades in this popular eatery at Baptist Health’s Little Rock campus. The desserts and barbecue sandwiches are not to be missed. 9501 Baptist Health Drive. No alcohol, all CC. $. 501-340-3833. BL Mon.-Fri. MOOYAH BURGERS Kid-friendly, fast-casual restaurant with beef, veggie and turkey burgers, a burger bar and shakes. 14810 Cantrell Road, Suite 190. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$. 501-8681091 10825 Kanis Road. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$.

501-313-4905. LD daily.

OLD MILL BREAD AND FLOUR CO. CAFE The popular take-out bakery has an eat-in restaurant and friendly operators. It’s selfservice, simple and good with sandwiches built with a changing lineup of the bakery’s 40 different breads, along with soups, salads and cookies. 12111 W. Markham St. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$. 501-228-4677. BL Mon.-Sat. BR Sun. RED DOOR Fresh seafood, steaks, chops and sandwiches from restaurateur Mark Abernathy.

Smart wine list. 3701 Old Cantrell Road. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-666-8482. BL Tue.-Sat. D daily. BR Sat. RENO’S ARGENTA CAFE Sandwiches, gyros and gourmet pizzas by day and music and drinks by night in downtown Argenta. 312 Main St. NLR. Full bar, all CC. $-$$. 501-376-2900. LD Mon.-Sat.

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MARCH 24, 2016

29

DINING CAPSULES, CONT.

.

N W O D EAT

B U O Y A T’S A B

I

X GELA NI CHEF AN ER CAFÉ RT

THE QUA

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

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

501-372-7866. D Tue.-Sat. SHOTGUN DAN’S PIZZA Hearty pizza and sandwiches with a decent salad bar. Multiple locations, at 4020 E. Broadway, NLR, 945-0606; 4203 E. Kiehl Ave., Sherwood, 835-0606, and 10923 W. Markham St. Beer, CC. $-$$. 501-2249519. LD Mon.-Sat., D Sun. VINO’S Great rock ‘n’ roll club also is a fantastic pizzeria with huge calzones and always improving home-brewed beers. 923 W. 7th St. Beer and wine, all CC. $-$$. 501-375-8466.

LD daily.

ZAZA Here’s where you get wood-fired pizza with gorgeous blistered crusts and a light topping of choice and tempting ingredients, great gelato in a multitude of flavors, call-your-

own ingredient salads and other treats. 5600 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer and wine, all CC. $$-$$$.

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

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

LATINO

CANTINA LAREDO This is gourmet Mexican food, a step up from what you’d expect from a real cantina, from the modern minimal decor to the well-prepared entrees. We can vouch for the enchilada Veracruz and the carne asada y huevos, both with tasty sauces and high quality ingredients perfectly cooked. 207 N. University.

Full bar, all CC. $$$. 501-280-0407. LD daily, BR Sun. TACOS GUANAJUATO Pork, beef, adobado, chicharron and cabeza tacos and tortas at this mobile truck. 6920 Geyer Springs Road. No alcohol, No CC. $. LD Wed.-Mon. TAQUERIA EL PALENQUE Solid authentic Mexican food. Try the al pastor burrito. 9501 N. Rodney Parham Road. Beer, CC. $-$$. 501-3120045. Serving BLD Tue.-Sun.

WORK DOWNTOWN? TRY SNAP FITNESS.

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KES ALL A T 1 / MPETE O C $125 S F / E H M C P 6 L 21 / 6 I RLD R P A THE WO , ROUND S A M THURS O R F S DEMO WINES E SKILL

& KNIF AILS • E COCKT PLATING R • U G T A ENCH, IN N T S SIG ERN, FR ER TA H E T B U IT BAGS D O E S BREW N APPÉT IONS: O T B A T ROCK & S MICROS E LITTLE EUVR E PULL / O ’ IN 0 D 3 W S I• R HO 00 RIES HEAVY TE: 130 ECTIONE INSTITU N, CONF T N IO E S U M F E G LATIN Y MANA SPITALIT O H & S RY ART CULINA MASTER CHEF SPONSORS:

VICTORY BUILDING • 1401 W. CAPITOL • 501-246-8266

WORK OUT WITH AN EXPERT Kathleen Rea specializes in helping men and women realize their physical potential, especially when injuries or just the aches and pains of middle age and more discourage a good work out. With a PH.D. in Biomedical Engineering, Kathleen understands how your body works and how to apply the right exercise and weight training to keep you fit and injury free. Workout in the privacy of a small, well equipped gym conveniently located in Argenta with one of the state’s best private trainers. For more information call Kathleen at 501-324-1414.

MEDIA SPONSORS:

CHEF de CUISINE SPONSORS: HILAND DAIRY / ALLEGRA PRINTING / GLAZER’S / CWP PRODUCTIONS WINE PULL SPONSOR: O’LOONEY’S SOUS CHEF SPONSOR: CAPITAL HOTEL CULINARIAN SPONSORS: COCA-COLA UAMS / ARKANSAS SOYBEAN BOARD / WESTROCK COFFEE / CONGER WEALTH MANAGEMENT / SIMMONS BANK YAYA’S EURO BISTRO / FIRST ARKANSAS BANK & TRUST / MARK FONVILLE PHOTOGRAPHY / HANK’S FINE FURNITURE LEGACY TERMITE & PEST CONTROL / SUSAN CONLEY / MITCHELL WILLIAMS LAW / VENTURA FOODS ARVEST / ARKANSAS CRAFT DISTRIBUTORS / SUBWAY / TIPTON & HURST

For more info, visit www.pulaskitech.edu/diamondchef or call 501.812.2387.

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MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

REGENERATION FITNESS KATHLEEN L. REA, PH.D.

(501) 324-1414 117 East Broadway, North Little Rock www.regenerationfitnessar.com Email: regfit@att.net

WHERE’S GARY BUSEY, CONT. through our little group that Busey has just woken up back at his hotel room. At 6:21, Busey arrives in a black Chevy Suburban with tinted windows and Roger Clinton says in my general direction, “They say he’s having a panic attack.”

But he exits his Suburban clad in khaki pants, navy windbreaker, his hair a tornado, and fist-pumps to the crowd.

He gets in the convertible quickly and, already significantly late, takes off to drunken cries of “Busey!” Standing in the remaining exhaust fumes, one particularly inebriated fairy maiden in shamrock tights and glitter wings mumbles, “He acknowledged me.”

I walk — not all that quickly — to the parade route, and beat the entire procession by a good five minutes. The parade starts late indeed. Gary delivers a coherent, uninteresting speech, fires an almost inaudible starter pistol, and walks the 98 feet of Bridge Street instead of riding in his specially chosen convertible. At the end of the route, he climbs back into the car next to his pretty blonde wife, and they ride another four or five blocks down connecting Malvern Avenue, throwing thick green beaded necklaces to the crowd. I follow them, picking up the necklaces he and his wife aren’t able to throw far enough to reach past the parade barriers.

At the end of the barriers, Busey and his wife get out of the convertible and head for the suburban. His wife smiles at me, but Busey doesn’t look at me once. I wonder if it’s too late to score some time with the Bacons, and I head back to the parade.

Walking through the parade backward, I pass Irish belly dancers and see that the Irish Elvis impersonators have put up a sign proclaiming “Elvis for Mayor.” It starts to rain. No one leaves.

There are thousands, I dare say, in this crowd, and every one of them must be at least a little bit insane to stand in this weather for this lunacy.

Busey may have brought the most anticipated crazy to the table, but today, it wasn’t the actual best. It turns out that on this most ridiculous of days, the Busey spirit really resides in the lady in the green feather boa, in the drunk fairy, in partially Irish store-bought redheaded me. And even though I’d like to say that the mayor is the craziest of all, I am forced to confront the inalienable truth that the insanity of Busey really lives in each and every one of us, just waiting for the right occasion to rear its smiling face.

And for the record? Yes, his teeth really are that big.

ARKANSAS TIMES MARKETPLACE HOUSE CLEANING SERVICES. EXPERIENCE A CLEAN AND REFRESHING HOME.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

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TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.375.2985

ARKANSAS TIMES

For a free quote call

(501) 749-4222

There’s never any obligation

City of Little Rock

CAREER FAIR Saturday, April 2 • 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Statehouse Convention Center

Visit with City of Little Rock representatives from:

Join our City family & receive these benefits:

YOU LOVE GEORGE JONES …

CONSIDER THIS PILLOW BIT.LY/GJONESPILLUH MOATS

• Competitive Compensation • Paid Health, Dental & Vision Insurance • Nine Paid Holidays • Great Retirement System

- Police Department - Fire Department - Parks & Recreation - Little Rock Zoo - Public Works - & all other departments

View all job opportunities & apply online at lrjobs.net

EOE

www.arktimes.com

MARCH 24, 2016

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Ride the ARKANSAS TIMES

BLUES BUS

APRIL 16, 2016

TO THE JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL IN CLARKSDALE, MS

IT'S ALL ABOUT

THE DELTA!

Enjoy small stages with authentic blues during the day and at night venture into the surviving juke joints, blues clubs and other indoor stages.

Reserve your seat by calling 501.375.2985 or emailing Kelly Lyles at kellylyles@arktimes.com

$125

PRICE INCLUDES: + + + + +

Round-trip bus transportation Live blues performances en route Adult beverages on board Lunch at a Delta favorite Wristband for the nighttime events

BUS TRANSPORTATION PROVIDED BY ARROW COACH LINES BUS LEAVES AT 9 A.M. FROM IN FRONT OF THE PARKING DECK AT 2ND & MAIN STREETS IN DOWNTOWN LITTLE ROCK AND RETURNS LATE NIGHT. The Arkansas Times Blues Bus is a related event and not affiliated with Juke Joint Festival or the non-profit Clarksdale Downtown Development Association.

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MARCH 24, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES