Arkansas Times - May 12 2016

NEWS + POLITICS + ENTERTAINMENT + FOOD / MAY 12, 2016 / ARKTIMES.COM

LIFE SAVER

In 1990, Eric Camp tested positive for HIV. He spent the next 15 years fighting AIDS in Arkansas’s schools, churches and communities.

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MAY 12, 2016

3

COMMENT

Feeling unwelcome It was our first night in Bentonville.

My family and I had finally moved here after a weeklong drive from Virginia.

Here we were. Bentonville, Arkansas.

I’m no stranger to living in the South. If a state has ever seceded, I have probably lived there. From Alabama to Virginia to Georgia to Louisiana to Arkansas, I have strong roots across the Deep South. I feel most at home in places where I fall asleep to the thick buzz of cicadas and Southern hospitality is more than an idiom.

Being from the South is important to me; it’s where I’ll always feel most connected.

I’m also no stranger, of course, to the Confederate flag. But there was something different about the one I saw that night in Bentonville. It was larger than you’d expect and a surprising take on the original with “The South Will Rise Again” emblazoned upon it.

And that’s when, somewhat to my surprise, I realized that I felt unsafe. I may be a Southerner, but I am brown, too. As a Latino, I’ve always straddled a confusing divide between being a proud Southerner and my experiences with racism.

Despite the fact that people of color from the South, including Arkansans just like you and me, can feel unwelcome and threatened in their own state by the Confederate flag, their communities have yet to recognize this and continue to accept displaying it.

After the controversy in South Carolina last year about the Confederate flag flying over the Capitol, Southerners have finally started to engage in conversations about whether having this flag, with its historical associations to slavery, is appropriate. Yet in Arkansas the flag has remained popular. Last summer during the controversy, KTHV, Channel 11, reported that one Little Rock flag store, Arkansas Flag and Banner, sold so much Confederate flag merchandise that they ran out.

I understand the reasoning of those who support the Confederate flag.

They say that focusing on just a flag is missing the larger issue, that the flag did not lead to the deaths of anyone.

And many worry about erasing history from textbooks and the public consciousness.

The trouble is that no matter what you personally believe, for people of color it represents fear and hatred and bigotry. We are not advocating 4

MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

for whitewashing history; we want to feel safe in our communities. Flying the Confederate flag alongside the Arkansas and American flag is counterintuitive. If we really want to show our Arkansas and American pride, we have to think about whether our pride for Arkansas can coexist with a pride for the failed Confederacy that was built on racial oppression.

The real Arkansas, the one I know, is dynamic and multicultural and recognizes the past while looking to the future. This is an Arkansas it’s easy to

feel proud of.

Sadly, people will not see this Arkansas in other parts of the country if they only see us as Southerners entrenched in a debate over an outdated flag. When students at my university in New York City learn I call Arkansas home, I hear these responses: “Arkansas? I’m so sorry.”

“Ew, I don’t even know where Arkansas is.”

“Why? It’s awful down there.”

Sure, there’s an annoying element

of East Coast elitism here, but as a proud Southerner it also pains me that Arkansas is consistently seen as so culturally backwards. These disparaging comments about my state bother me, but at the same time so does the troubling presence of Confederate flags back home. I end up feeling stuck. New York City doesn’t offer me the childhood comforts that Arkansas does, but I also love New York City because it makes me feel accepted. The truth is that I still don’t believe Arkansas completely cares for my body as a brown man.

Yet Arkansas could.

We, Arkansans of color, are here.

We are part of this community and this history, too. We can acknowledge the past without supporting racism. We can recognize how Arkansas was once a slave state, and celebrate the positive parts of its history and identity, without having to display the Confederate flag. We can honor Southern heritage without keeping a tie to slavery. We can move forward and create a new Arkansas that embraces people of color and accepts this multicultural reality.

I do not want to be ashamed to be from Arkansas any longer. I do not want to feel unsafe walking in my own neighborhood. Would you?

Andrew Suarez Bentonville

Universal health care While most middle-class Americans are glad that poor and working class Americans now have access to health insurance, we don’t like the fact that we have to pay the price in order to maintain high profit margins for private insurance providers.

For example, I now must pay $263 out-of-pocket for a prescription medication for which I once paid a $10 copay. Granted the cost of the medicine goes down once I meet my deductible for the year, but it’s nowhere near $10.

Also, my deductible is $2,000, and I’ve yet to meet it since Obamacare went into effect. So, I must settle for a less effective over-the-counter medication.

I realize that Obama’s health care law didn’t require insurance companies to jack up prices. This was a response by private providers to compensate for smaller payments received through federal funds for medical services for those qualifying for the exchange.

So again, why does the middle class have to pay for this? Why can’t we have

ARKANSAS TIMES a health care system that puts people’s health above profits? We need universal health care in this country.

Richard Hutson Cabot

Tweet

From the web: Rep. Charlie Collins of Fayetteville has established himself as a one-man death panel.

William Dale Varner, 86, died in a veterans’ home while his nurse took a lunch break. His family is seeking $250,000 from the state Claims Commission.

While there is no evidence that Collins actually knew Varner, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette quoted Collins as saying Varner had lived a “pretty full life” and that Collins “wondered whether perfect care at the time would have extended the man’s life ‘another hour, day, week.’ ” The Republican Death Panel has spoken: It was time for Varner to die.

The Republican Death Panel has spoken: There is no need for “perfect care” in nursing homes. Go head, take a lunch break. That old guy was going to die anyway, eventually.

Varner’s obituary noted that he served as a Navy gunnery officer on a destroyer in the Atlantic during World War II. It also says he served in the Korean War as a naval officer on a destroyer that took part in many battles in Wonsan Harbor, and his ship was part of the longest ship-to-shore bombardment in naval history.

Collins is a 1985 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the Navy until the mid ’90s. He was some kind of desk jockey “analyst.” There is no mention in any of his biographies that he served in naval combat during the Gulf War, which occurred while he was in the Navy. Gulf War combat service is the kind of thing a puffed-up Republican would splash all over his biography. It is conspicuously absent from Collins’ resume.

The Republican Death Panel has spoken: A veteran who served his country in battle has died of negligent health care and his family is owed nothing.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

(Runner-up for Worst Person in the World is Sen. Missy Irvin, who “described the claims made by the attorneys of Varner’s family as ‘questionable.’ ” On what grounds are they “questionable”? The Honorable Missy does not say.)

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MAY 12, 2016

5

WEEK THAT WAS

Quote of the Week 1: “It is up to Arkansas to stop the Donald Trump show. The next generation of conservatives cannot allow Donald Trump to take everything we stand for and throw it away.”

— Gov. Hutchinson on Feb. 27, a few days before Arkansas’s primary election. Like most of the state’s Republican leaders, Hutchinson backed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, but Trump prevailed in Arkansas on March 1 — as he now has nationwide.

Quote of the Week 2: “I do not agree with everything Mr. Trump has said nor have I endorsed every policy he’s announced, but I do believe the Republican Party’s fiscally conservative approach to government and the values we stand for are far greater than what the other side has to offer the American people. Those are the reasons why I will support the nominee of the party in November.”

—Gov. Hutchinson last Wednesday, falling in line behind the presumptive Republican nominee after Trump’s last two rivals — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — bowed out of the GOP primary.

Little Rock settles suit over Ellison shooting Last week, the city of Little Rock agreed to a settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit over the 2010 shooting death of Eugene Ellison by two offduty police officers. The case had been set to go to trial on May 9; at the last minute, the city agreed to pay $900,000 and deliver a formal apology to Ellison’s family. It will also erect a memorial bench in memory of

the slain 67-year-old. Separately, Big Country Chateau Apartments — which employed the two officers as private security — settled with the Ellison family in April for an undisclosed amount.

The suit was brought by Troy Ellison, the victim’s son, who also happens to be a lieutenant for the LRPD. On Dec. 9, 2010, LRPD officers Donna Lesher and Tabitha McCrillis were working off-duty security at Big Country Chateau when they noticed the door to Eugene Ellison’s apartment was ajar.

According to their account, they entered the home to check on Ellison’s welfare; he told them to leave and supposedly became combative. He was unarmed. At the time Lesher shot Ellison in the chest, she was standing on the balcony outside his door with McCrillis and two other officers who had arrived as backup.

An internal investigation followed, which was speckled with irregularities.

NRA endorsement OK (but not very useful) A judicial discipline panel found last week that ArkanTroy Ellison and Mary Williams

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MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

sas Supreme Court Justice Boeckmann is accused of giving Courtney Goodson broke favorable treatment to young no rules when her cammale defendants in return …thousands of paign used an endorsefor naked or suggestive ment from the National photographs, thousands which were found Rifle Association in her of which were found on on his computer. unsuccessful race for his computer. According chief justice this year. In to a letter from the panel response to an anonymous on judicial discipline, in many complaint, the Judicial Discipictures the young men are naked pline and Disability Commission said and “bending over after an apparent the NRA endorsement — featured prompaddling.” A criminal investigation into Boeckmann’s misconduct continues. inently in Goodson’s campaign advertising — was nonpartisan and therefore kosher according to its rules. For once, though, the NRA’s candidate lost: Goodson was beaten by Circuit Judge Dan Kemp on March 1. (Kemp had his own Kenneth Starr, the former Whitewashady ally in the form of an out-of-state ter prosecutor who is now president of Baylor University, is under fire for his dark money group that purchased hunhandling of rape allegations at the Bapdreds of thousands of dollars in TV ads smearing Goodson.) tist school. Despite at least eight alleged sexual assaults involving football players — two of whom have been found On Monday, Joseph Boeckmann, a guilty by juries and sentenced to prison district judge in Cross County, resigned — Starr’s administration has issued only his position and agreed to never again tepid responses, according to recent serve in public office following a monthsreporting by the Dallas Morning News. long investigation into an array of lurid Quite a contrast from his days investisexual allegations. Among other things, gating the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

And speaking of sexual misconduct …

May it please the court

OPINION

A charter school fix

E

vents last week provided still more evidence that the Walton education agenda is being imposed on the state of Arkansas through the Hutchinson administration and its unaccredited education commissioner, Johnny Key. Key insists Baker Kurrus’ opposition to charter school expansion had nothing to do with his firing as Little Rock school superintendent and replacement

by Mike Poore, superintendent in Bentonville. Already, we had contrary evidence. Kurrus spoke against the eStem and LISA Academy expansions March 31. Barely six days later, Kurrus had been fired/non-renewed effective June 30 and Poore had been offered the job. The charter expansions were approved. Key has publicly said that he disagreed with Kurrus on charter schools. He could do no other. He was a staunch backer of the Walton Family Foundation’s charter and school “choice” legislation when he was a state senator.

The smell got much riper last week.

The stench came from Little Rock Preparatory Academy. It has survived

as a charter school despite abysmal performance. Its elementary school students score far lower than EVERY MAX elementary in the BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com Little Rock School District, according to the latest school report card. Its middle school students score lower than every Little Rock middle school, save one that is a single point behind on a 200-point scale.

Now Johnny Key is waiving the rules so that Little Rock Prep can have a hurryup expansion, with apparent financial backing from the Walton fortune. The back story: Last August, a corporation that uses the same post office box as Walton Enterprises, KLS LLC, bought the former Lutheran High building on West Markham, just up from ritzy Park Plaza, for $4.25 million. In September, a lawyer incorporated a nonprofit called Arkansas Charter Partners. It is a nonprofit affiliated with the national charter school management corporation, Exalt, which

The myopic GOP

T

he Republican “leadership,” represented most conspicuously by House Speaker Paul Ryan and the party’s past four presidential candidates, are flummoxed — astounded! — by the popularity of Donald Trump with a segment of the party they pretend not to have known even existed.

After Ted Cruz and John Kasich surrendered to the inevitable, the leaders proclaimed that they would not put up with Trump as head of the party, setting off a storm of media speculation that the GOP was emulating its great predecessor, the Whig Party, which disintegrated over slavery and immigration in the election of 1852.

It won’t happen. At the convention, nearly all of them, including Ryan, will come around for a show of euphoria over Trump, fake though it will be. They must.

Ryan, heeding the trumpets of the entire conservative intelligentsia, from George Will to Ross Douthat, said that without backtracking from Trump he could not give even lip service to a nominee who doesn’t share the core values the party has promoted since Ronald Reagan: lower and lower taxes for the rich and corporations; free trade; puni-

tive social policies against women and sexual minorities; bigger defense and smaller social spending; and a ERNEST militant stance DUMAS toward those who do not follow U.S. interests in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Pacific.

Trump has flouted all those sacred principles at one time or another and even said good things about Planned Parenthood.

But, unless Trump tells Ryan to step down as convention chairman, look for this scene on the last night of the convention: Trump and Ryan standing shoulder to shoulder, arms raised in victory, in a confetti-littered convention hall.

Though the party establishment and all but one of his colleagues in the Senate despised him, Cruz represented those values more than anyone in the race, but he did not gather even a third of the votes in the primaries. So the party, as Douthat and David Brooks say, should consider whether those goals are really what they should proclaim for the party. Polls have long suggested not. Most Republicans,

draws payment in state money for oper- — of course — the old Lutheran campus.

It says it wants to serve its low-income ating Little Rock Prep.

In March, East Harding Construc- minority students better — by moving tion started work on the old Lutheran from amid many of them in Southwest campus, still owned by the Bentonville Little Rock to an affluent part of town.

LLC, for Arkansas Charter Partners. The Note: It will also get its middle school construction company is headed by Van much closer to Little Rock elementaTilbury, a former Little Rock Chamber of ries — Brady and Williams, for example Commerce chairman who joined other — serving lots of poor black kids and doing chamber members in urging state take- quite well by them, with scores exceedover of the Little Rock School District. He ing those at Little Rock Prep. They could acknowledged to me that he was work- feed and boost Little Rock Prep’s middle ing on a school project not yet approved. school.

The Waltons backed the Little Rock Little Rock Prep will get its expedited district takeover because they had a plan hearing May 18. You do the math: Walto turn over the entire district to pri- ton investment; Tilbury’s pre-approval vate school management companies, but contract; Key’s influence on his departtheir legislation failed. They continue ment staff; the Walton influence through to move piecemeal. Kathy Smith is the Hutchinson appointees and Walton head program officer for the Waltons’ friends on the state board of education. school takeover agenda in Arkansas. The It adds up to a done deal. same KLS LLC providing a building for If so, it means Johnny Key and the Little Rock Prep bought a former school Hutchinson administration will reward facility in North Little Rock for future a failing charter school while punishing charter school use. Kathy Smith signed progress in the Little Rock district by those papers. firing a successful superintendent. The April 7, the day after completion of the Waltons will land another blow to the Kurrus ouster, Little Rock Prep asked Little Rock School District by siphoning Johnny Key for the waiver of charter off more students. Remember this when school rules. Rather than wait until Octo- Walton-paid mouthpieces like Gary ber, it asked approval now of a 120-seat Newton of the Arkansas Learns charter expansion and move to a new facility at school lobby tout “school choice.”

for example, say the rich should pay higher taxes, a stance sometimes taken

by Trump when he is not proposing a huge cut for them.

For all the leaders like Ryan and Cruz who say Trump is not a true modern conservative, there are the Bruce Bartletts, who contend that he is, which is the problem. Bartlett, a Reagan adviser and Bush I treasury deputy, wrote in April that he had voted for Trump, counting on the certainty of his defeat in November: “[T]he Republican Party is sick. It’s dying. It just doesn’t know it.

Anything that speeds up its demise is to the good, because then it can reinvent itself and return as something healthy … . Trump is a symptom of a disease of rampant stupidity, pandering to morons, bigots and racists and all the stuff that defines today’s Republican coalition.”

Only a giant Democratic victory could turn the GOP around.

If that were so, he should have wished for a Cruz nomination, for while Hillary Clinton is likely to win decisively and Democrats may take the Senate, demographics and the primary turnout suggest that Cruz would fare worse. Demographics, not Trump, are the party’s biggest electoral problem, followed by myopia. That is the party leaders’ failure to understand

Trump’s strategic advantage over all his opponents, the triumph over inconsistency.

All his primary opponents except Rand Paul deferred to Trump in the early going because, like the party’s leaders, they assumed that his campaign would collapse under the weight of bold inconsistency. He championed a woman’s right to choose whether to carry a fetus to term and then said the government should punish them if they didn’t; he favored heavy taxes on the rich but proposed a giant tax cut for them; he claimed to have opposed Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq but research showed that he actually had praised it; he criticized Barack Obama for not taking bold action against adversaries around the world, but then suggested abandoning U.S. allies and encouraging them to develop nuclear arsenals to protect themselves; he denounced trade agreements and promised a trade war with China, but said he loved free trade.

His life a reality show, Trump understood what none of his party’s elite did, which is that disaffected masses, who think things are going badly for them because a black man is leading the country to ruin, distill from all the political rhetoric only what suits them. They hear what Trump says that they like. The rest is chatter. www.arktimes.com

MAY 12, 2016

7

Silly season

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F

or a man with a satirical turn of mind, presidential election years can be trying. Apparently your humble, obedient servant here isn’t angry enough to participate fully in the festivities.

Everywhere you turn, people are shaking their fists in each other’s faces.

On television and online that is. Most days, it’d be a good idea to don a crash helmet before opening Facebook. And the summer bickering season has hardly begun. These are mostly Republicans and Democrats fighting among themselves. The main event has yet to come.

Elsewhere, people go about their normal daily activities with seeming equanimity — although there’s been a marked increase in convenience store parking space shootings, actually. But I digress.

Chez Pazienza recently described a mob of Bernie Sanders backers who disrupted a recent Hillary Clinton campaign event in Los Angeles. According to one witness, “[t]hey were cussing at people, calling women whores, and telling people to kill themselves. They were shouting in children’s faces, blowing sirens in their ears, and making them cry.”

Such antics would be hard to believe had Pazienza not posted video clips. Asked

by Rachel Maddow to disavow such behavior, Sanders basically ducked the question. And this is the Hippie Party.

On college campuses, Clinton supporters complain they’re called “evil,” poor things.

Do you suppose they require “trigger warnings”?

At such times I’m reminded of Jonathan Swift’s timeless satire of the root causes of political fanaticism. Writing roughly 300 years ago in the wake of the English Civil War, Swift concocted an imaginary religious sect called “Aeolists.”

(Aeolus was the Roman god of wind.)

His target was anybody who claimed to be “inspired,” or as he saw it, filled with hot air.

“Words are but wind,” Aeolists believed, “and learning is nothing but words; ergo, learning is nothing but wind.” Swift depicted true believers “linked together in a circular chain, with every man a pair of bellows applied to his neighbour, by which they blew up each other to the shape and size of a [barrel] … . When, by these and the like performances, they were grown sufficiently replete, they would immediately depart, and disembogue for the public good a plentiful share of their acquirements into their disciples’ chaps.”

Has a more apt description of can-

didate Donald Trump’s cult of personality ever appeared? Is there nothing the man could say GENE that would give LYONS his enraptured supporters pause? As Paul Waldman notes in the American Prospect, he’s a one-man tidal wave of disinformation.

“First, there’s the sheer breadth and character of his falsehoods. Absurd exaggerations, mischaracterizations of his own past, distortions about his opponents, descriptions of events that never occurred, inventions personal and political, foreign and domestic, Trump does it all … . There has simply never been a candidate who has lied as frequently, as blatantly, and as blithely as Trump.”

Trump outdid even himself on “Meet the Press” last Sunday, disemboguing a couple of thunderous falsehoods in our collective faces. First, he allowed as how he means to stop undocumented immigrants from voting in U.S. elections.

Informed by Chuck Todd that they’re already prevented by law from doing so, Trump said, “You have places where people just walk in and vote.”

If he could document even one such polling place, that would be newsworthy. But of course Trump cannot. Then he claimed the U.S. is “the highest-taxed nation in the world,” he claimed. That one the interviewer unaccountably let go.

Actually, U.S. tax revenue ranks near the bottom of the developed world as a percentage of GDP — just above South Korea, Chile and Mexico. Corporate tax rates are theoretically high, but as most people know, loopholes are so plentiful that few companies pay the full bill.

U.S. tax revenue per capita ranks nearer the middle of industrialized nations. As conservatives never tire of pointing out in other contexts, most countries in the European Union pay twice as much as Americans.

But then, why bother? Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler recently devoted column to debunking Trump’s epic falsehoods. Some of them are downright funny.

No, Vladimir Putin never called Trump a “genius.” He called him “flamboyant.” Only Trump, of course, would seek the Russian strongman’s approval.

But do such considerations matter to the man’s encircled supporters, each with a bellows discreetly inserted?

I don’t believe they do.

1964 redux

B

ased on my own experience, the Museum of the Moving Image’s “The Living Room Candidate” can keep political geeks pacified for hours on end. That collection of campaign advertisements includes hundreds of presidential television spots dating back to 1952, when Dwight Eisenhower became the first national candidate to invest a chunk of his campaign spending on television ads. The most famous of the ads included in the collection (or infamous, depending on your point of view) is the 1964 “Daisy” ad, which was developed for Lyndon Johnson’s general election campaign. In the ad — which scholars of both film and politics have analyzed in excruciating detail for a half-century — the image of a young girl counting petals pulled from a flower morphs into that of a mushroom cloud as a nuclear weapon goes off. The implicit object of the attack was GOP nominee Barry Goldwater, who had suggested that the nuclear bomb was “merely another weapon.”

Johnson’s campaign advertising strategy for 1964 — the first election cycle in which television ownership was nearly

universal in the United States — was developed by Doyle Dane Bernbach, the innovative “Mad Men”JAY era advertising BARTH firm. The “Daisy” ad aired as a paid advertisement only once, but was repeated innumerable times for free in news coverage of the campaign. “The Living Room Candidate” also shows a variety of other ads developed by Doyle Dane Bernbach that are less known today, but were on the cutting edge of the times. With only a couple of exceptions, the ads for the Johnson/Humphrey ticket were attack ads that either employed Goldwater’s own words — advocating that Social Security be made voluntary or wishing “we could just saw off the Eastern Seaboard and let it float off to sea”) or criticisms of Goldwater by his fellow GOP partisans. The ads helped to cement the notions that Goldwater was well out of the political mainstream and lacked the temperament to be president.

On the day after Donald Trump

became the presumptive presidential nominee of the GOP, Hillary Clinton’s campaign changed the subject from its own loss to Bernie Sanders in Indiana’s primary by rolling out ads that strongly echoed the Johnson/Humphrey ads of from a half-century ago. In one of Clinton’s web ads, “the most vulgar man to ever aspire to the presidency” is criticized by numerous fellow GOP partisans in colorful language, closing with Jeb Bush’s diagnosis that “he needs therapy.” Another web-based ad other uses Trump’s own controversial statements as an indictment on his candidacy.

Every 1964 Johnson ad concluded with the tagline “Vote for President Johnson on November 3rd” and the voice-over “The stakes are too high for you to stay home.” As the greatest risk to her candidacy is low turnout among voters who have turned out in strong numbers for President Obama and Bernie Sanders but lack enthusiasm for Clinton, an updated version of the messaging about Goldwater will also be the takeaway of the messaging about Trump during a Clinton general election campaign.

Almost every ad between now and November run by the Clinton campaign and its allied groups will focus on motivating voters to the polls because of the

fears of a Trump presidency. Obama’s 2012 ad attacking Mitt Romney’s business practices voiced over by Romney’s off-key singing of “America the Beautiful” showed that a creative television advertisement still has a strong impact in an era of online content. Moreover, the Clinton campaign — staffed heavily by former Obama staff — will combine this time-tested technique with the power of targeted social media communications.

Thus, Latino voters will be bombarded with ads featuring Trump’s attacks on Mexicans, women will be targeted with ads featuring Trump’s own words about women (Arkansas Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Conner Eldridge’s ad last week is a preview of such efforts). Parents concerned about issues of war and peace and Trump’s own loose talk in apparent support of nuclear proliferation will have a 2016 version of the “Daisy” ad appear on their Facebook pages.

In a fast-changing political environment, political consultants often make a big mistake when they simply repeat the techniques of the past campaign. However, when running against an opponent like Trump, failing to employ the techniques that have worked so well for a half-century would be political malpractice.

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Arkansas Reporter

THE

More Medicaid mess at DHS Calls daily about loss of coverage.

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

P

eople on Medicaid — including ARKids patients, private option patients or people on original Medicaid — are again having problems getting coverage because of state computer problems.

The Department of Human Services knows there’s a problem, but can’t estimate its magnitude, spokesperson Amy Webb said.

The Arkansas Times first contacted DHS in March to ask about problems with ARKids enrollees losing coverage. Since then, however, the Times has learned that the problem is not just with ARKids patients, but Medicaid-insured people in general. Though she couldn’t say how many people are affected, Webb did say that calls from people having trouble with coverage have been coming in daily since the Times first contacted her.

Webb confirmed that the problem lies in the agency’s computer system where eligibility data is input. She said software was sometimes not properly transferring data to the Medicaid Management Information System that health care providers use to check on patients’ insurance, but that the agency’s technicians haven’t been able to uncover the flaw.

Problems in the eligibility system can stem from inaccurate data coming from the federal program, casework errors or system errors, Webb said.

“There are a lot of people who are getting the care they need; the system is working for them,” Webb said, noting there are around 1 million people in the state’s Medicaid system. But she says the agency is aware that people are having problems and are frustrated.

The problems are not just the transfer of data to the MMIS system, Webb says, but the system’s “functionality” in its ability to handle federal and state 10

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eligibility rules.

“We have put in some additional measures to try to mitigate it until we can fix any system issues,” Webb said.

Gov. Hutchinson has directed DHS to pause in the development of the eligibility system until the state works out its Medicaid reforms. Once the reforms are in place, a request for proposals for a “system integrator” will be issued, Webb said.

Peggy Kelly the clinical director at Youth Home, a Little Rock mental and behavioral health provider where adolescents are treated in both in- and outpatient settings. Kelly called the insurance situation “dire” in early April. It’s better now, she said; Youth Home is now seeing a “steady pace” of activations and deactivations. There are 18 or 19 outpatients that Youth Home can’t see because they’ve lost coverage, Kelly said, and around five inpatients. For now, Youth Home is covering the inpatient costs, with the expectation that the facility will be reimbursed.

One of Kelly’s biggest concerns is that adolescents with mental illness cannot fill their prescriptions.

Ricky King, a father of two children who were issued Medicaid cards in August, said that’s his eldest daughter’s situation. She was prescribed two psychotropic medicines, but pharmacies say she’s not covered. He said Medicaid covered one month at Youth Home but not the following months, and that there is no way he can pay the bill.

King said his daughter “dwindled off” the drugs, and has had no bad reaction yet.

King said he was recently informed

by Youth Home that DHS has said the problem with her coverage was that she had no Social Security number on file.

But that was just an excuse, King said: “They [DHS] wouldn’t have issued me a

HOPING TO BE REIMBURSED: Youth Home is covering costs for residents whose insurance is unsettled for the time being.

card if I didn’t give them a Social Security number.”

King, who said he has called DHS almost weekly since January and who has also called the governor’s office, said he continues to be told her information is not being recognized by the Medicaid management system. “If you talk to DHS, they say she’s insured, but if you talk to her doctors, they say no,” King said. “I just pray nothing happens that she doesn’t get hurt.”

King’s younger daughter, meanwhile, has had no trouble getting covered when she’s been to the doctor, he said.

Mena resident Ricky Bagwell called the Times in April to say he’d mailed three renewal forms to DHS for his son, who was at Youth Home, and when he got no verification of enrollment, went in March in person to fill out new paperwork at the DHS office in Mena.

A month later, he said, he tried to check on his son’s coverage, but was told at the Mena office that they didn’t have access to the data. Youth Home, however, told him his child was not covered.

At DHS spokesperson Webb’s request, this reporter provided Bagwell’s information to her. “It was a miracle,” Bagwell said last week. Almost immediately after Webb received the information, “[DHS] called me and told me at first that they had everything and were going to send me a form to fill out.

An hour later they called back and said, ‘We’ve got everything we need, your son has insurance.’ … . It was very weird.” He said the insurance was also upgraded

from ARKids B, which requires a copay, to ARKids A, which does not.

Because of new requirements in the Affordable Care Act, all enrollees in ARKids had to re-enroll by March 30 this year and had to provide tax information for the first time. Because of the change — re-enrollment previously was done on a 12-month basis — DHS put notices out about the change starting in mid-2015 and distributed flyers in English and Spanish to libraries, childcare centers, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the state Health Department and other agencies. It also created radio ads, informed legislators and included information in the agency’s Connect Care newsletter that goes to all families. The agency sent a third and final mailing in January, this time to 42,000 families that had not renewed.

Webb said DHS anticipated there would be some glitches because of the new re-enrollment deadline and at one point predicted that 100,000 children covered under the program would lose their insurance. In April, DHS put the final number at 54,116, Webb said. It’s not known if that includes families now having trouble getting coverage who believed they were insured.

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THE ARKANSAS HIGHWAY AND TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT’S WEBSITE detailing its 30 Crossing project THE to widen Interstate 30 (search connectingarkansasprogram. com) includes 3D videos showing various “8-Lane” and “6-Lane with C/D (collector/distributor)” designs. If you PICTURE pause the “split diamond” simulations as they show President Clinton Avenue routes under the interstate, you can see what the park will look like: four or five rows of piers, seven across, supporting the interstate.

The clearest image comes at 6 minutes and 22 seconds into the “6-Lane with C/D” simulation.

BIG

WHAT 10 LANES MEAN

Ben Browning, AHTD design-build project manager, said the images show the “worst case scenario” — meaning what it would look like if the AHTD could not afford to build the interstate engineered with fewer piers.

A post of the images on the Improve 30Crossing Facebook page was ridiculed for showing grass

growing in the shadow of the interstate.

The park that would be created from President Clinton Avenue to Third Street by the “split diamond” design has changed the minds of many people who were once opposed to the “6-Lane” plan (which is really 10 lanes, since the C/D lanes number four), including the Cromwell architectural

firm, the Downtown Little Rock Partnerhip, design collaborative StudioMAIN and downtown developer Rett Tucker.

Browning said the width of the interstate at President Clinton Avenue would be 230 feet and around 39 feet high. It’s even wider over Third Street, as the C/D lanes begin to separate into exits ramps.

Here are some other things that are 230 feet wide:

The B36!

The great temple of Artemis, the fertility goddess, in Ephesus

The Door to Hell in Derweze village in Turkmenistan

The third lock of the Panama Canal

The Metropol Parasol in Seville, Spain The Champs Elysees

y.

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African American Art from the Permanent Collection of the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas

Reception & Book Release for Here. African American Art from the Permanent Collection

May 12, 5–7 p.m.

Book Discussion 5:30 | Gallery Talk to follow Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas 701 S. Main Street | Pine Bluff | asc701.org Free event sponsored by Simmons Bank 12

MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

Write-in writer

T

he real Observer is sick today, and is looking for a stand-in. Us other Observers in the office don’t really like to stand in, because the real Observer is such a good writer. Which got us to thinking about the Readers’ Map of Arkansas.

The Readers’ Map contains 462 names of writers who have a connection to Arkansas through birth or career.

They are listed, along with one of their published works, but not in alphabetical order: That makes you read the whole list if you’re looking for someone (though you can cheat on the website, arkansasreadersmap.com).

So the real Observer was in the minor Observer’s office the other day studying the map. I had to tell the real writer that his name does not appear because, though his fiction is published, it appears in compilations, like “New Stories from the South” and Crazy Horse and Glimmer Train, rather than a whole book.

The real Observer, who returned to Arkansas after getting his M.F.A. at the Iowa Writers Workshop (“All children born in Arkansas are born with boomerangs on their asses; no matter how far they go away, they always come back,” he said in a Hillbilly M.F.A. interview), once wrote a Christmas story for the Arkansas Times about a little boy born with a birthmark that looked like Jesus.

It was absolutely a classic piece of writing, a tale that ranks right up there with any short story you want to compare it to. Here’s an excerpt:

“Even though I’m Baptist with some Pentecostal on my Daddy’s side, doing the things me and Honey did in front of the Virgin Mary can really tear you up in hindsight, especially given how it all turned out.

Personally, I believe that any woman who could go through being knocked up by God deserves some respect. It’s hard enough when the father is in jail halfway across the county, so I can only imagine what it’s like being pregnant by God, Him off somewhere, taking care of all the fish in the sea and all the birds in the blue sky and everything that creepeth and runneth and swimmeth.

“But, to get to my point: Contrary to

what has been said, I can wholeheartedly attest to the fact that my baby Jimmy was made just like every other baby all the way back to the beginning of time, which is to say: The Old Fashioned Way. Same thing with how he was born. When Jimmy came out, he was screaming to beat the band, and looked just like any other baby. You couldn’t tell there was anything different about him until they rolled him over.

“It’s one of those trick-of-the-eye things, you know?

“At first, it looks like a big birthmark — which is, they tell me, exactly what it is. It’s almost like it doesn’t want to be seen. But when you hold him out at arm’s length, and turn your head just right, it falls together, and there, before you — right in the middle of his back but a little off-center, from his shoulder down to the top of his butt — is the prettiest picture of Jesus you ever seen. And not some Andy Gibb-looking Jesus, either.

This is him looking the way you know he had to look coming from where he did in the world, with a wide, soft face and eyes dark as the bottom of a well. The first one to see it was an El Salvadorian nurse who was hosing Jimmy off in a sink. Her face went pale and her eyes went wide, and then she backed away, crossing herself and mumbling in Spanish, until her ass hit a tray of instruments and they went into the floor with a clatter like the end of the world.”

You want to keep reading, don’t you?

Check out the Times’ archives, Dec. 24, 2009.

This isn’t the only great story the real Observer has written. So I’m thinking I’m going to take my Readers’ Map of Arkansas and write the real Observer’s name on it, and “Jesus on his back” next to it. And whenever I see a Readers’ Map of Arkansas, I’m going to whip out my pen and sneak it in. Maybe I’ll write it diagonally, down the blue of the Arkansas River. Or just up the side.

I know they had to draw the line somewhere, the folks who put the map together. The poster is oversized as it is. It’s a great thing. But it’s missing the real Observer’s name, and this minor Observer, is going to smuggle it in. Mike Trimble’s name, too.

Public defender As the AIDS epidemic tore through Arkansas in the 1990s, educating the public and fighting for the sick became the life’s work of Eric Camp and his fellow activists in the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network.

BRIAN CHILSON

BY BENJAMIN HARDY

The year was 1990 and Eric Camp was 26 years old when one evening he ran into an old lover — a one-night stand, really — at Discovery, the Little Rock nightclub. “It was a fundraiser — an AIDS benefit,” Camp recalled recently. “And this guy, this one-night stand, as I call him, he came and hugged me and said, ‘I have AIDS, and I didn’t know.’ ” Camp got tested for HIV; it came up positive. These were

O

nly a couple of weeks after his diagnosis, a clock ticking in his head, Camp determined to sound the alarm to as many young people as possible while he still had the strength to do so. He approached a local group called the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network, or RAIN, which had organized a small cadre of fiercely committed HIV-positive Arkansans to speak to teenagers about the epidemic’s toll. Although the state legislature had recently mandated sex education in Arkansas — the result of Dr. Joycelyn Elders’ pioneering work as director of the state Health Department under then-Gov. Bill Clinton — most schools were woefully unequipped

the years in which there was no medically sanctioned treatment for the disease and essentially no hope of long-term survival. An HIV diagnosis could take years to develop into full-blown AIDS, but once that occurred, the average life expectancy was around 11 months. By 1992, AIDS would become the No. 1 cause of death for U.S. men ages 25 to 44, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

to educate kids about the disease.

At the time, public misconceptions ran rampant, from the belief that HIV could be spread through water fountains and handshakes to the myth that heterosexual transmission was impossible. As the death count rose nationwide (and in Arkansas), so did the urgency of the RAIN volunteers’ mission.

Camp and others visited over a hundred school districts around the state in the early ’90s, reaching tens of thousands of junior high and high school students in mass assemblies.

“We were going into schools at a time when they didn’t have the curriculum and were kind of hitting the panic

ERIC CAMP: For a decade and a half, he was on the front lines of the fight against HIV/ AIDS in Arkansas.

button,” Camp said. “Early on, you could hear a pin drop. Kids faced their fears. They could look somebody in the eye and see what they were afraid of. Because you had people with lifethreatening illnesses talking to them in a school assembly, they knew that something was up, that you needed to pay attention. So the reception was pretty good.”

Camp was a natural fit. Young, articulate and charismatic, he could captivate a high school audience.

He had a background in journalism (before he became too sick to hold a full-time job, he worked at KARNFM and the Arkansas Radio Network), which gave him an edge in www.arktimes.com

MAY 12, 2016

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public speaking. But just as crucial was the fact that Camp, with his South Arkansas accent and strapping good looks, didn’t fit anyone’s stereotype of an AIDS victim. At a time when homophobia was the unquestioned norm almost everywhere, RAIN activists knew that anything hinting of sexual difference would be a nonstarter in rural Arkansas schools.

“I was drawn into that [work] because, strangely enough, they were looking for people who didn’t fit the gay role,” Camp said. “Back then, other [HIV-positive] people wanted to do it, but you ran into trouble if you seemed remotely effeminate. Parents would be up in arms. I would tell people my story without using pronouns that would cue them into the fact that I was gay — ‘I had a one-night stand with a sweet lookin’ young thing’ — and they could relate to that. It was about trying to present a story that kids could relate to.”

It’s worth pausing to consider just what it meant for a young HIVpositive gay man, recently sentenced to a terrifying death, to devote his remaining years to saving the lives of kids in Bible belt towns across 1990s Arkansas. Camp was not closeted — he was involved in gay activism in Little Rock before his diagnosis and later helped to cofound the “Queer Frontier,” a radio program on KABF-FM, 88.3. He’d suffered the psychological crucible of growing up gay in a small Southern town: Raised in a thoroughly Southern Baptist home in Magnolia, he had twice attempted suicide as a teenager while grappling with his attraction to men. But faced with the rising tide of AIDS and grasping the urgency of the threat it posed, Camp returned to small town high schools like the one he’d graduated from — and, by necessity, elided his sexuality to do so.

“It’s just what we had to do,” he said. “It’s the only way we could get in the schools.”

Other compromises were necessary as well. To gain approval from administrators, RAIN had to stress abstinence education. Nonetheless, Camp was able to smuggle in some basic information about safe sex, too.

“I had a partner at home, and the only reason he never got infected was condom use, which he insisted on. So, it was my responsibility to talk about condoms. Of course you couldn’t put 14

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ARKANSAS TIMES

them on a banana or anything, but you could tell [students], ‘It has to be latex, you have to only use waterbased lubricants, you can’t store them in a wallet or a glove box.’ Things like that. I talked about condoms in

some remarkable places — Searcy High School.”

Even minimal talk of protection led to controversy. “We had a time with the Catholic Church; they weren’t happy with my condom stuff. And the

FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT: Camp with Overtis Harris, who died in 1996.

Family Council. They came to one of our school meetings and did an expose — warning people that ‘They come in saying “abstinence” but then they talk condoms, too.’ ” Nonetheless, churches were an

integral part of RAIN’s mission. The organization was founded in the late ’80s by Trudy James, a hospital chaplain who had just finished an internship at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Its mission, James told the Times, was “to see if there was any way for churches to become part of the solution [to the AIDS crisis], because churches in Arkansas — and in general across the South — were a part of the problem.” Over the next decade, RAIN grew into one of the state’s most prominent AIDS outreach groups, and Eric Camp remained at the forefront of its work.

“He’s a hero,” James said of Camp.

“Some parents would refuse to let their children come to our presentation, but I feel like we saved a lot of kids in Arkansas by convincing them that unsafe sex could result in AIDS.” (It didn’t hurt, she added, that “Eric was so incredibly handsome … and so all the little high school girls would just fall in love with him” when he spoke.)

Camp was one of many activists working with RAIN’s school program.

Today, however, he’s one of the very few left alive.

“The original RAIN school speakers were Ron Amberson of Hot Springs, Debbie Bell of Newport and Mitch Cory and Joe Terry of Little Rock,” Camp said. “They were great speakers, and crossed racial and gender divides — but they were all very sick, which led to the need for new speakers, especially as demand grew.

“There was Overtis Harris — he did a lot of work in the African-American community. A great guy; he had a booming bass voice that would’ve been great for the radio. Ricky Moix was disowned by his parents, and he let kids know even Momma may not be there for you if you get this virus.

Blaine Hollensworth was still a teenager when he was diagnosed. … He wouldn’t have looked out of place sitting in the bleachers with the audience.”

Then there was Brenda Snell and her infant, Stephen, both of whom had AIDS. “They really hit home with junior high and high school girls. …

That little baby would grab the microphone and coo …,” he said, his words trailing off.

From a video clip dated Jan. 23, 1993, filmed on a handheld camcorder: Camp, Snell and a third speaker sit

behind a folding table in the middle of a gym at Heber Springs Middle School. After a RAIN worker delivers an informational talk, Camp hands Snell the microphone and she rises to address the students, her baby cradled in one arm.

“I have HIV, and when I found out, I felt like I was already in my grave,” she says steadily. “I found out after Stephen was born. … We didn’t know at first what he had. They had other viruses they were diagnosing him with, but after about six weeks they finally decided he had full-blown AIDS.” Snell had contracted the virus from Stephen’s father, who hadn’t known he was infected.

“When I told my family about it, I was all but abandoned. The only person who would come around me was my sister. … If not for [RAIN] I might just commit suicide. It would be the easy way out. You don’t know who you can trust to tell. You don’t know how they’ll react. Some people are so crazy, they may try to burn your house down.”

Snell died in 1997, Stephen earlier the same year. Most of Camp’s other fellow travelers with the RAIN school program didn’t live to see the end of the decade. Those days are marked only by Camp’s small collection of videos, a handful of Polaroids and far too many yellowing obituaries clipped from the newspaper.

The organization’s work extended beyond the schools, as did Camp’s.

“We would take people with us to churches to disabuse them of the notion that there weren’t people with AIDS in Arkansas,” Trudy James said.

“He was willing to put himself out there.” Camp helped recruit “care teams” for RAIN — groups of volunteers drawn from sympathetic congregations to essentially perform hospice care for the very sick, an especially crucial service at a time when AIDS patients such as Brenda Snell were sometimes shunned by family and friends. He helped organize retreats for the sick and dying; the annual gatherings would attract AIDS patients from small towns around Arkansas who often hid their illness for fear of being ostracized.

James also recalled Camp leveraging his professional expertise into advocacy. “There was, early on in the ’90s, a statewide conference for journalists and they had not addressed

In contrast to the early years of the epidemic, HIV now disproportionately affects minority communities, particularly African Americans. Today, the infection rate is six to seven times higher among blacks than it is among whites.

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GONE TOO SOON: Brenda Snell and her son, Stephen, at a RAIN Assembly in 1993.

AIDS by and large. They invited Eric and me to come and do a presentation, and we did. Many of them came up afterwards and were just astounded — that we would talk so openly about it, and that there was so much AIDS in Arkansas. He was just so credible to people.” Camp also produced multiple AIDS-related programs on AETN. Though Camp developed AIDS not long after testing HIV-positive, he remained healthy enough to stay active throughout the decade in both AIDS advocacy and gay and lesbian activism. But, as he buried friend after friend who succumbed to the disease, he focused mostly on the former. “I kind of had to make a choice, and I felt the need was greater for AIDS work,” he said.

“I struggled with depression a lot, so it was a way of fighting through some of that,” he said. “There were only a handful of people with HIV who were really willing to be public at the time, so there was plenty of demand for that kind of work. Whenever I had the energy and the strength to go do something, I’d do it.” *** Then things began to change. By 1997, the CDC found AIDS-related deaths had declined by over 40 percent from the previous year as a new generation of antiretroviral drugs became available.

“It was too good to be true,” Camp recalled. “You lived in a state of pretty much hopelessness. … And then there was hope. You could see what was happening with friends who were on their deathbeds, and all of a sudden they could get up and start living normal lives. It was a Lazarus effect.”

Yet the emergence of effective treatments also created an urgent new front in the fight. Many dying patients couldn’t afford the drugs, considering their annual cost could reach $50,000.

Although Congress authorized federal

AIDS funding in the form of the Ryan White CARE Act, it wasn’t sufficient to cover every patient, and many states like Arkansas weren’t contributing matching money. Camp himself was one of those with access to medication paid for with Ryan White funds, but other Arkansans were not so lucky.

“We had a waiting list for HIV medication when the drugs became more effective. People had no access to them, and so people were dying because they didn’t get their drugs,” Camp said. “You were left at the mercy of trying to get free ones from drug companies, which were reluctant to do so.” In response, Camp founded the Arkansas AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) Working Group, an effort to prod the state into providing the money necessary to clear the waiting list.

“I just worked within the system that was there. RAIN’s care teams … were looking for ways of helping, [so I] taught them how to write letters,” he said. Though state government wasn’t terribly receptive to the suffering of AIDS patients — Mike Huckabee had said on the 1992 U.S. Senate campaign trail that officials should “isolate the carriers of this plague” — Camp ceaselessly lobbied Arkansas to help pay for lifesaving medication for its citizens.

In 2001, the legislature and then-Gov. Huckabee finally agreed to provide $660,000 from the governor’s discretionary fund to help fill the coverage gap. Camp believes the decision was prompted by research showing that wider drug availability would slow the virus’ spread.

“Once they realized that having people in treatment rendered them far less infectious, they began to realize that it was a matter the state needed to invest in. That’s what it took. We could ask for all the compassion that we wanted, but they were looking for … a public health reason why the state should contribute money. And that turned out to be it.”

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Nonetheless, the one-time infusion of state money was not sufficient to provide drug coverage to all lowincome Arkansans, and so a couple of years later Camp made the decision to stop taking drugs himself for about two years as an act of protest.

It was a controversial step among the community of AIDS advocates. “People thought I was crazy — that I was trying to be a martyr or something.

But being off meds didn’t necessarily mean death,” he said. “Part of it, honestly, was I felt like you need a break from these medications from time to time, because they do damage to your liver.” (Today’s HIV drugs are much less toxic than they once were, and health care professionals generally urge HIV positive people to stay on their prescriptions unless a doctor says otherwise.)

Camp said he went off his medication partly to draw public attention to the waiting list issue but primarily because doing so would allow another person on the list to get treatment.

Camp was especially disturbed that the waiting list was being addressed on a first-come, first-served basis.

“They weren’t evaluating people as to need,” he said. “A pregnant mother delivering a newborn baby with HIV — who’s to say I needed it worse than they do? That’s the way I looked at it.

I got sicker, but I just felt like it was the moral and right thing to do. … It freed up a slot for somebody else.”

“You lost a whole generation of folks in their 20s — folks who didn’t have a chance to live their lives.”

*** Camp retired from activism in 2006, utterly exhausted after 15 years of illness and nonstop advocacy. “I’m an introvert, and needed my life back.

Plus, because of better medications, the sense of emergency and crisis had subsided,” he said. “I felt like I’d served my purpose.”

In the decade since, the nature of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. has changed dramatically. Drugs have

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MAY 12, 2016

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ON THE ROAD: (Clockwise, from upper left) Eric Camp, Gina Palmer, RAIN worker Patty Briseldon, Brenda and Stephen Snell, and Ricky Moix.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

improved to the point where HIV has become a manageable chronic illness for most Americans, said Dr. Naveen Patil, the medical director for the Infectious Disease Branch at the Arkansas Department of Health.

The older generation of antiretrovirals “had to be taken around the clock — 20 or 25 pills in a day. Some were very toxic,” Patil said. “Now, drug companies have combined three or four different medications into a single pill, which people can take and have their virus suppressed. Patients are much more compliant, because we see fewer side effects.”

CDC guidelines now recommend treatment as soon as a person is diag-

nosed with HIV, meaning patients can receive care long before they develop AIDS. And between Ryan White funding and expanded insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the drugs generally are available to those who need them, at least in Arkansas. The state’s waiting list has been clear for several years.

“If a 20- or 25-year-old person is diagnosed today, we’d expect them to live the same 75 years” as an uninfected person, Patil said, unless they stop treatment. “People no longer die of HIV [in the U.S.] unless they choose to die.” (Globally, it’s a different story: “35 or 40 million have the disease and don’t have access to good medication,” Patil said.)

Still, HIV isn’t going away in the U.S. An estimated 1.2 million Americans are infected with the virus, according to the CDC. There are 5,456 HIV-positive Arkansans known to the state Health Department, but many more are undoubtedly undiagnosed.

“Nationally, a quarter of [HIV positive

people] don’t know they have HIV,” Patil said.

There are also worrying national trends reflected in the state. “Recently, we’ve seen an uptick in [infection] among youth — the group ages 15 to 24,” said Arrie Morris, surveillance program manager for the Infectious Disease Branch. “Roughly some 26 percent of new reports [in Arkansas] were in that age group.” Although men who have sex with men are still at highest risk, heterosexual women have seen an increase in infections.

And in contrast to the early years of the epidemic, HIV now disproportionately affects minority communities, particularly African Americans.

“Among blacks, the infection rate is six to seven times that of whites,” Morris said; Patil attributed the gap to poverty, lack of access to health care and social stigma. In 2014, the state’s overall HIV/AIDS incidence (the number of new HIV infections reported, plus HIV diagnoses newly progressed to AIDS) was 429, the highest in a decade.

ARKANSAS TIMES

BLAINE HOLLENSWORTH: Diagnosed as a teenager.

If anything, those trends point to the wisdom of what Camp has been preaching since the 1990s. “I’m still a proponent of comprehensive sex education in schools, because [kids] aren’t getting it at home, and they’re not getting it at their churches. AIDS may not be the last fatal sexually transmitted disease; it just happened along [when it did],” he said. He’s not a believer in abstinence-only education, but he does think teenagers should be taught to limit their number of sexual partners and to wait longer before having sex. “Those are still good ideas — for mental and emotional health if nothing else,” he said.

In 2014, Camp married his partner, Michael Hastings, and they continue living in Little Rock today. The public’s evolution on same-sex marriage is a development that Camp never expected to see in his lifetime, he said.

But if the face of AIDS has changed drastically since the 1990s, so has the cultural climate toward LGBT Americans, even in Arkansas.

Back when he was first diagnosed, Camp made the choice to prioritize AIDS work above gay activism “because people were dying. It seemed more pressing.” It turns out, however, that over the course of a decade and a half of community outreach through RAIN and other AIDS organizations, “the education [on LGBT issues] was done along the way. I think that’s part of what helped change things. … I think the people who came out along the way slowly educated the public.” It was an unimaginably steep price to pay.

“I miss all the old people who are gone. You lost a whole generation of folks in their 20s,” he said quietly, “folks who didn’t have a chance to live their lives.” For Camp, those years were marked by a constant refrain of grief that’s inconceivable for most of us raised in this country. Imagine, over the course of one’s 20s and 30s, losing not two or three friends to random tragedy, but an entire community, person by person. Camp keeps their memories and stays grateful: After all, he was supposed to be dead 20 years ago.

“I never thought I’d live to see the 2000s,” he said. “So it’s all gravy now.”

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RED, WHITE & GRAPE The Arkansas Times’ wine festival returns.

BY KENNETH LIPSMEYER

W

ine lovers, unite. The Arkansas Times’ annual Celebrate the Grape Wine, Food & Jazz Festival returns at 6 p.m. Friday, May 20, to the Argenta Plaza (Sixth and Main streets in North Little Rock), with more than 300 wines to sample. Arkansas Ale House, Arkansas Fresh Cafe, Kent Walker Artisan Cheese, Graffiti’s, Whole Hog of North Little Rock, Two Sisters Catering and SO Restaurant-Bar will provide the food; The Funkanites and DJ Joshua Asante, of Amasa Hines and Velvet Kente, will provide the music. Tickets are $30 in advance or $40 at the door. Buy them at bit.ly/grape16. Proceeds benefit the Argenta Arts District.

LIGHT & FRUITY WHITES

DRY WHITES

WINE, GRAPE, REGION DOMAINE AND ESTATES, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 1 Santa Margherita, Pinot Grigio, Veneto, Italy Conundrum white, Blend, California Acrobat (King Estate), Pinot Gris, Oregon Poema white Macabeo, Muscat, Catalunya, Spain Decoy white, Sauvignon Blanc, Sonoma County, Calif.

Mer Soleil, Chardonnay, Santa Barbara Calif.

Acrobat (King Estate), Pinot Noir, Oregon Sassoregale (Santa Margherita) Sangiovese, DOC, La Maremma, Tuscany Cono Sur Bicicleta Pinot Noir, Chile Poema red Garnacha, Tempranillo, Cabernet, Catalunya, Spain Decoy red Blend (Merlot, Cabernet, Zinfandel), Sonoma County, Calif.

La Vieille Ferme Rose, Cinsault, Grenache, Sirah, Vin de France DOMAINE AND ESTATES, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 2 Frisk Prickly Riesling, Alpine Valley, Riesling, Victoria, Australia North By Northwest Riesling, Horse Heaven Hills, Wash.

Seven Daughters, Moscato, California Ferrari-Carano Pinot Grigio, Russian River Valley, Calif.

Hahn Winery Pinot Gris, Monterey County, Calif.

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The festival will let you discover new wine regions, growers and even new grapes; if you don’t know now what style of wine you love, you will after the festival. It would be difficult to taste all 300 wines, so to make things a bit easier, we have created a color-coded system for you to identify wines by style, and wines are listed by name, style and source.

When it comes to remembering new wines, your cell phone can help. Just take lots of selfies of you and your new wine friends. Here are a few deserving of special attention: A longtime favorite of mine, Cline Cellars, has long promoted heirloom grape varieties, including some long-

OAKY WHITES

Hanna Winery, Sauvignon Blanc, Russian River Valley, Calif.

Cline Cellars, Sonoma Coast Estate, Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, Calif.

Cline Cellars, Cashmere red, Mourvedre, Syrah, Grenache, Contra Costa County, Calif.

Ferrari-Carano Siena, Sangiovese Sonoma County, Calif.

The Federalist, 1776 Zinfandel, Zinfandel, Lodi, Calif.

North By Northwest red blend, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, Wash.

Boneshaker, Bruella Vineyard Zinfandel, Lodi, Calif.

DOMAINE AND ESTATES, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 3 Geyser Peak Winery, Moscato, California Greywacke, Sauvignon Blanc, Wairau, Marlborough, New Zealand Carne Humana Proprietary white Sauvignon, Semillon, Chardonnay, Napa Valley, Calif.

Livio Fellug, Pinot Grigio, Friuli Colli Orientali, Italy Silverado Vineyards Estate, Chardonnay, Carneros, Calif.

Flowers Vineyard and Winery, Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, Calif.

Elouan Pinot Noir, Oregon A to Z Wineworks, Pinot Noir, Oregon Veramonte red blend, Merlot, Cabernet, Syrah, Cab Franc, Central Valley, Chile Cote Mas Rouge Intense, Rhone blend, Pays d’Oc, France Cote Mas Rose Aurore, Rhone blend, Pays d’Oc, France

forgotten vineyard patches of Zinfandel and Mourvedre. Cline’s Cashmere red is based on the Rhone-style wines of southern France. As the name implies, Cashmere red is soft, subtle and warm.

It offers moderate levels of acidity with generous alcohol and a ripe, round tannic structure. Fruit forward in style, look for black plum, leather, sweet-spice and flowery flavors with a nice smooth finish.

Since the vintners’ return to Chile in the 1990s, the Huneeus family has brought its tremendous resources from years in the California wine industry, where it established a swath of luxury brands and quality wines such as Quintessa, Faust, Flowers and others. Its Veramonte is an ultramodern winery in a land of great history and tradition. The 120 acres of organic vineyards are part of a vast 10,000 acre parcel, over 90 percent of which is reserved as a green space — another signature of the Huneeus family.

Try the Vermonte Red Blend Merlot. This inexpensive wine is complex with aromas of ripe fruit, blackberry,

LIGHTER REDS

vanilla and black pepper. The merlot offers vibrant acidity with moderate, balanced alcohol, dusty tannin, and a fullbodied style. It’s a suitable partner to charred steak or grilled lamb.

Fans of New Zealand wines are in luck at the festival. There is a bumper crop of vibrant, aromatic, in-your-face Sauvignon blancs from Marlborough to sample. Wines from the land of the Southern Cross rarely disappoint. As you sample Matua Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand), look for a concentration of flavors, minerality and a complex lingering finish.

Point North is an extension of the Sean Minor brand and a return to the Northwest for Minor, who worked at the King Estate Winery in the 1990s. Only one wine is released: the Oregon Pinot Noir. It offers complex aromas of strawberry, pepper and mushroom, with dark earth and sweet spice. On the palate, it is refreshing with generous acidity and moderate tannins. Medium-bodied, this wine is dry with a nice, clean finish.

SMOOTH, RIPE REDS

Silverado Vineyards Estate, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Calif.

HAWK DIVISION, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 1 J Vineyards and Winery, Pinot Gris, California Apothic white, Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Grigio, California Columbia Winery, Chardonnay, Columbia Valley, Wash.

Enda Valley Vineyard, Chardonnay, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

MacMurray Ranch,, Pinot Noir, Central Coast, Calif.

Edna Valley Vineyard, Pinot Noir, Edna Valley, Calif.

Edna Valley Vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, Calif.

Carnivor Cabernet Cabernet Sauvignon, Lodi, Calif.

Columbia Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley, Wash.

Apothic red, Zinfandel, Merlot, Sirah, Cabernet, California Apothic Crush, Blend, California HAWK DIVISION, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 2 Starborough, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Cloudy Bay, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Newton Red Label, Chardonnay, Napa Valley, Calif.

William Hill Estate Chardonnay, North Coast, Calif.

Talbott Kali Hart, Chardonnay, Monterey, Calif.

BOLD REDS

Tallbott Kali Hart, Pinot Noir, Monterey, Calif.

Newton Red Label, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Calif.

William Hill Estate, Merlot, Central Coast, Calif.

William Hill Estate, Cabernet Sauvignon, North Coast, Calif.

Louis M. Martini, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, Calif.

Louis M. Martini, Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, Calif.

Alamos, Malbec, Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina HAWK DIVISION, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 3 Eppa SupraFruta Sangria red, Blend of Organic fruit juices and wine, California Eppa SupraFruta Sangria white, Blend of Organic fruit juices and wine, California The Crossings Awatere Valley, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Joseph Carr, Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, Calif.

Josh Cellars, Chardonnay, California The Calling Dutton Ranch, Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, California Josh Cellars, Pinot Noir, California The Calling, Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, California The Calling Rio Lago, Cabernet Alexander Valley, California Joseph Carr, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Calif.

Ruta22, Malbec, Mendoza, Calif.

EAGLE DIVISION, GLAZERS OF

ARKANSAS, TABLE 1 Canoe Ridge The Expedition, Pinot Gris, Columbia Valley, Wash.

Luna Vineyards, Pinot Grigio, California The Dreaming Tree, Sauvignon Blanc, Sonoma County, Calif.

Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley, Calif.

Nobilo, Chardonnay, Marlborough, New Zealand Luna Vineyards aCRISP Chardonnay, Chardonnay, California Meiomi, Chardonnay, Monterey, Sonoma, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Manuscript Limited Edition, Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, Calif.

Saved red blend, Merlot, Malbec, Syrah, Zinfandel, California Franciscan Estate, Merlot, Napa Valley, Calif.

Tom Gore Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, California Ravage Dark Rich and Audacious, Cabernet Sauvignon, California EAGLE DIVISION, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 2 Marco Negri Moscato d’Asti DOCG, Moscato, Asti, Piedmont, Italy Taken Wine Co. Available Pinot Grigio, Pinot Grigio, Puglia, Italy Terra d’Oro, Chenin Blanc/Viognier, Clarksburg/Amador, Calif.

Trinchero Family Estate Mary’s Vineyard, Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley, Calif.

Taken Wine Co. Complicated Chardonnay, Chardonnay, Sonoma

County, Calif.

Folie a Deux, Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, Calif.

Primarius, Pinot Noir, Oregon Kenwood Vineyards, Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, Calif.

PS Match Rosso Sweet red, Sangiovese blend, Italy McWilliam’s Hanwood Estate Shiraz, Shiraz, South Eastern Australia Waterbrook, Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, Wash.

Joel Gott, Merlot, Paso Robles, Napa, Lodi, Calif.

EAGLE DIVISION, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 3 Chateau St. Michelle Harvest Select Sweet, Riesling, Columbia Valley, Wash.

Columbia Crest H3, Sauvignon Blanc, Horse Heaven Hills, Wash.

Antica, Chardonnay, Napa Valley, Calif.

Anew Rose, Syrah and Sangiovese Rose, Columbia County, Wash.

Rodney Strong, Pinot Noir, Russian River, Calif.

Torres 5G Cinco Garnacha, Garnacha, Campo de Borja, Aragon, Spain Tenet Wines Le Fervent, Sirah, Costieres de Niemes, France Antinori IL Bruciato, DOC Cabernet, Merlot, Sirah, Bolgheri, Italy Torres Sangre de Toro, Tempranillo DO La Mancha, Spain Intrinsic Wine Co., Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, Wash.

Rodney Strong, Cabernet Sauvignon,

Alexander Valley, Calif.

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars ARTEMIS, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Calif.

FALCON DIVISION, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 1 Charles Krug Winery, Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley, Calif.

Virginia Dare Winery Two Arrowheads, Viognier, Roussanne (Rhone blend), Paso Robles, Calif.

Virginia Dare Winery The White Doe, Chenin Blanc, Viognier, California Marc Mondavi Divining Rod, Chardonnay, Santa Lucia Highlands, Calif.

Bonterra Organic Vineyards, Chardonnay, Mendocino County, Calif.

1000 Stories Zin Bourbon Barrel Aged, Zinfandel, California Marc Mondavi Divining Rod red blend, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Cabernet, Lodi, California Virginia Dare Winery Lost Colony red blend, Sirah, Malbec, Cab Franc, Sonoma County, Calif.

Virginia Dare Winery Manteo red blend, Sirah, Petit Verdot, Cabernet, Sonoma County, Calif.

Bonterra Organic Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendocino, Lake, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Charles Krug Winery, Merlot, Napa Valley, Calif.

Bonterra Organic Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendocino, Lake, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Divining Rod, Marc Mondavi, Cabernet

Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, Calif.

FALCON DIVISION, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 2 Mezzacorona Estate, Pinot Grigio, Adige, Trentino, Italy Cliffhanger Vineyards , Pinot Grigio, Trentino, Italy Matua, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand La Crema, Monterey, Chardonnay, Monterey, Calif.

La Crema, Willamette Valley, Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon La Crema, Monterey, Pinot Noir, Monterey, Calif.

Cliffhanger Vineyards Proprietary red blend, Teroldego, Lagrein (Northern Italian), Trentino, Italy Saltram Wine Estates Pepperjack Barossa red, Shiraz, Cabernet, Barossa Valley, Australia Stemmari Baci Vivaci Lightly Sparkling, Grillo (Southern Italian grape), Ragusa, Sicily, Italy Stags’ Leap Winery, Petite Sirah, Napa Valley, Calif.

19 Crimes red blend, Cabernet, Shiraz, Victoria, Australia 19 Crimes Cabernet, Cabernet Sauvignon, Victoria, Australia FALCON DIVISION, GLAZERS OF ARKANSAS, TABLE 3 Pacific Rim Sweet Riesling, Riesling, Oregon Chateau St. Jean Bijou (Jewel),

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MAY 12, 2016

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Chardonnay, California B.R. Cohn Silver Label , Chardonnay, Carneros, Calif.

Hope Family Wines Treana, Chardonnay, Central Coast, Calif.

Chateau St. Jean Bijou Rose California Sledgehammer Wines, Pinot Noir, California Francis Ford Coppola Voltre Sante, Pinot Noir, California 1000 Stories Zin Bourbon Barrel Aged, Zinfandel California Hope Family Wines Liberty School, Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, Calif.

Sledgehammer Wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Northern California B.R. Cohn Silver Label, Cabernet Sauvignon, North Coast, Calif.

Chateau St. Jean, Cabernet Sauvignon, California Sterling Vineyards Napa Appellation, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Calif.

MOON DISTRIBUTORS, TABLE 1 Quady Winery white Electra Moscato, Orange Muscat (Moscato), California Cavazza, Pinot Grigio, Veneto, Italy 13 Celsius, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Sean Minor Wines, Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, Calif.

Underwood Wines in a Can, Pinot Noir, Oregon Sean Minor Wines, Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, Calif.

Sean Minor Family of Wines, Point North Pinot Noir, Oregon

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MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

Sean Minor Family of Wines H. Mynors, Zinfandel, Sonoma, Amador, Lodi, Calif.

Barossa Valley Estate GSM blend, Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre, Barossa Valley, Australia Barossa Valley Estate Shiraz, Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia Sean Minor Nicole Marie red blend, Merlot, Zinfandel, Petit Verdot, Napa Valley, Calif.

Sean Minor Wines Four Bears, Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, Calif.

MOON DISTRIBUTORS, TABLE 2 Quady Winery red Electra Moscato, Black Muscat (Moscato), California Hugues Beaulieu, Picpoul, France Anne Amie Vineyards, Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley, Ore. Underwood Wines in a Can, Pinot Gris, Oregon Cupcake Vineyards, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Benziger Family Winery, Chardonnay, Sonoma County, Calif.

Anne Amie Vineyards Wine Maker’s Selection, Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon Palazzo Maffei Conte di Valle, Superiore, Corvina, Valpolicella Ripasso, Italy Broquel Trapiche Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina Michaeal David Winery Freakshow, Cabernet Sauvignon, Lodi, Calif.

Benziger Family Winery, Merlot, Sonoma County, Calif.

Benziger Family Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, Calif.

MOON DISTRIBUTORS, TABLE 3 Salt of the Earth Moscato Rubino, Black Muscat, Musca,, Canelli, California Maryhill Winery, Riesling, Columbia Valley, Washington St Urbans-Hof URBAN Riesling, Riesling, Mosel, Germany Oyster Bay, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Chloe Wine Collection, Pinot Grigio, Valdadige DOC, Italy Butternut, Chardonnay, California Chloe Wine Collection, Pinot Noir, Monterey County, Calif.

Parducci Wines, Pinot Noir, California Michael David Winery 7 Deadly Zins, Zinfandel, Lodi, Calif.

Maryhill Winery, Merlot, Columbia Valley, Wash.

Parducci Wines True Grit Reserve Cabernet, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendocino County, Calif.

Montebuena Cuvee KPF, Tempranillo, Rioja, Spain MOON DISTRIBUTORS, TABLE 4 Flip Flop Wines Fizzy Sangria (in cans), Wine and fruit blend, California Salt of the Earth Flore de Moscato, Orange Muscat, California Masi Masianco Pinot Grigio, Verduzzo Delle Venezie IGT, Italy The Seeker, Pinot Grigio, Veneto, Italy The Seeker, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Gazela Vinho Verde white, Alvarinho (Albarino), Vinho Verde, Portugal

Vinum Cellars, Chardonnay, Monterey County, Calif.

Frank Family Vineyards, Chardonnay, Carneros, Calif.

Frank Family Vineyards, Pinot Noir, Carneros, Calif.

Love Noir Vineyards, Pinot Noir, California Dusted Valley Wines Boomtown, Merlot, Columbia Valley, Wash.

Insurrection Wines, Shiraz/Cabernet, Southeast Australia CENTRAL DISTRIBUTORS, TABLE 1 OLD WORLD Leonard Kreusch Wines Pflucken Sweet Riesling, Riesling, Mosel, Germany Leonnard Kreusch Wines Pflucken Dry Riesling, Riesling, Mosel, Germany Principessa Gavi, Cortese, Gavi DOCG, Italy Cantina Zaccagnini, Pinot Grigio, Colline Pescaresi, Abruzzo, Italy Vionta white wine, Albarino, Rias Baixas, Spain Nicolas Potel Pouilly Fuisse, Sauvignon Blanc, Pouilly Fuisse, Loire Valley Cantina Zaccagnini Rose, Montepulciano (rose), Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Italy Nicolas Potel Bourgogne Rouge, Pinot Noir, Burgundy, France Banfi Chianti, Sangiovese, Chianti Classico, Italy Abbeycourt, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Cotes du Rhone, France Domaine Laroque, Cabernet Franc, Carcassone, France

CENTRAL DISTRIBUTORS, TABLE 2 NEW WORLD New Harbor Winery, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Cigar Box, Chardonnay, Central Valley, Chile Emiliana Organic Vineyards Natura Rose, Syrah, Cabernet, Merlot, Rapel Valley, Chile Sibaris Undurraga Gran Reserva, Pinot Noir, Leyda Valley, Chile Peumo Vineyard Marques de Casa Concha, Carmenere, Cachapoal Valley, Chile Trivento Amado Sur, Malbec, Syrah, Bonarda, Tupungato-Maipu, Mendoza Trivento Gold Reserve Malbec, Malbec, Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza Belasco de Baquedano Lllama Old Vine Malbec, Malbe Alto Agrelo Valley, Lujan de Cuyo Cigar Box, Malbec, Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza Cigar Box Reserve, Cabernet, Maipo, Chile Penfolds Bin 8, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, South Australia Penfolds Bin 9, Cabernet Sauvignon, South Australia CENTRAL DISTRIBUTORS, TABLE 3 NEW WORLD - CALIFORNIA Chamisal Vineyards (Un-oaked) Stainless, Chardonnay, Edna Valley, Calif.

Reaper, Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, Calif.

Matchbook Wine Company, Chardonnay, Dunnigan Hills, Yolo, Calif.

Force Of Nature, Chardonnay, Santa Maria Valley, Calif.

Niner Wine Estates Jespersen Ranch, Pinot Noir, Edna Valley, Calif.

Replica, Pinot Noir, California Noble Vines 667, Pinot Noir, Monterey County, Calif.

Bogle Vineyards, Petite Sirah, California Peachy Canyon Incredible Zin, Zinfandel, California Gnarly Head Wines Authentic Black, Petit Sirah blend, Lodi, Calif.

Round Pond Kith and Kith, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Calif.

Three Pines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, Calif.

Three Pines Black Granite, Red blend, Paso Robles, Calif.

Force Of Nature, Tempranillo, Paso Robles, Calif.

Force Of Nature, Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles, Calif.

Noble Vines 337, Cabernet Sauvignon, Lodi, Calif.

CENTRAL DISTRIBUTORS, TABLE 4 GRAPE BUYS! MYX, Moscato MYX, Moscato and coconut MYX, Moscato and peach Lady Lola, Pinot Grigio/Moscato, IGT Sicily, Italy Sarocco Moscato d’Asti, Moscato Asti, Piedmont, Italy Stella Rosa Peach Stella Rosa Berry St. James Blackberry St. James Peach St. James School red

St. James Velvet red St. James Pink, Pink Catawaba St. James Cherry St. James Strawberry NATURAL STATE DISTRIBUTORS Tintero Moscato d’Asti Sori Gramella, Moscato, Piedmont, Italy Indigenous Selections Pinot Grigio IGT, Pinot Grigio, Della Venezie IGT, Italy MoMo Seresin Estate, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Calera, Chardonnay, Central Coast, Calif.

Sivas Sonoma, Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, Calif.

One Time Spaceman Moon Duck, Rhone blend, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre Paso Robles, Calif.

McNad Ridge Wine Co., Zinfandel, Mendocino County, Calif.

Domaine Bousquet Premium Rose, Malbec, Cabernet, Tupungato, Mendoza, Argentina DE NUX DISTRIBUTORS Raptor Ridge, 2014 Pinot Gris Willamette Valley, Oregon Apaltagua Reserva, 2014 Chardonnay, Curico Valley, Chile Chateau de Berne Impatience Rose, 2015 Grenache, Cinsault, Provence, France Apaltagua Reserva, 2014 Pinot Noir, Curico Valley, Chile Tercos, 2015 Bonarda, Mendoza, Argentina Ricardo Santos, 2013 Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina Kopke 10-Year-Old Tawny Port Douro Valley, Portugal GLIDEWELL DISTRIBUTORS Chateau Moncontour Vouvray Demi Sec, Chenin Blanc, Loire Valley, France Santa Barbara Canyon Chardonnay (92%), Moscato (4%), Santa Barbara County, Calif.

Jovly Chinon Rouge, Cabernet Franc, Loire Valley, France Antares Winery Inspired, Malbec, Napa Valley, Calif.

Witchery Wine Oakville, Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville, Napa Valley, Calif.

Witchery Wine Spring Mountain, Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain, Napa Valley, Calif.

Witchery Wine Reserve Proprietors blend, Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, Cab Franc, Napa Valley, Calif.

VINO OF ARKANSAS Primaterra, Pinot Grigio, Delle Venezie IGT, Italy Huntaway Reserve, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand Maldonado Farm Worker, Chardonnay, Napa Valley, Calif.

Notorious Pink La Vie en Rose, Grenache Rose, IGP Pays de l’Herault, France Campus Oaks Old Vine Zinfandel, Zinfandel, Lodi, Calif.

Stonecap Wines Estate Grown, Syrah, Colombia Valley, Wash.

Stonecap Wines Estate Grown, Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley, Wash.

Goose Ridge Vineyard G3 red blend, Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, Malbec, Colombia Valley, Wash.

CUSTOM BEVERAGE Robertson Winery, Gewürztraminer, Robertson, South Africa Charles Smith Kung-Fu Girl, Riesling, Colombia Valley, Wash.

Charles Smith Vino, Pinot Grigio, Colombia Valley, Wash.

Charles Smith Eve, Chardonnay, Colombia Valley, Wash.

Charles Smith Velvet Devil, Merlot, Colombia Valley, Wash.

Charles Smith Boom Boom, Syrah, Colombia Valley, Wash.

Charles Smith Chateau Smith, Cabernet Sauvignon, Colombia Valley, Wash.

Vigilance Winery and Vineyards, Sauvignon Blanc, Red Hills, Lake County, Calif.

High Valley Vineyards, Chardonnay, High Valley, Lake County, Calif.

Vigilance Winery and Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Hills, Lake County, Calif.

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ARKANSAS

Join us as we e salute Arkansas’s v veteran small businesss owners.

After taking care of the important b business of protecting our country, many veterans found Arkan nsas to be the perfect place to open a business of their own. A And with close to 25,000 veteran-owned small businesses in n ou our state alone, it’s easy to see the positive impact that starte ed with their service to our country continues in our communities today.

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★★★

CELEBRATING VETERANS IN SMALL BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURSHIP PLAYS SPECIAL ROLE IN MANY VETERANS’ PASTS, FUTURES

BY DWAIN HEBDA

T

he American entrepreneur is the bedrock from which our nation draws its physical and economic sustenance. More jobs and economic strength have been generated on Main Street by smalland medium-sized businesses than through any other segment of the American economy.

Given the nature of the business world, it would seem one for which veterans are uniquely suited. Setting goals, identifying objectives, hard work and mobilizing others to collective success are as fundamental on the battlefield as the board room.

However, as with many aspects of returning to civilian life, the transition is often not as smooth as it would appear to be. As Shaun So, veteran and consultant, writes for Forbes magazine: “I’ve been interacting with veterans from all over the country that are at various stages in the entrepreneurial ventures. Many ask advice on how to get their own startup off the ground and what things they can do to enter this wildly unstructured world of entrepreneurship. I stress ‘unstructured’ because I’ve found that the only fixed rules of entrepreneurship are state and federal laws; other than that, anything goes.

“Operating in an unstructured environment is different for us military folk. We may enjoy our freedoms; however, we’re so ingrained with process and procedure that we’re often unaware of how regimented we are. Just ask any military person for directions. Do they point with their index finger? No, they’ll hold their hand with their fingers together, their thumb tucked to the side and throw their arm in a direction with the hand acting as a spear point. That’s what we do.”

Add into this mix the physical, emotional and mental wounds many veterans bring home with them and the equation becomes decidedly more complex. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are more likely to be unemployed than the civilian population, and often suffer higher rates of divorce, depression and suicide than previous generations (although, to be fair, many veterans of earlier conflicts operated in a time before post-traumatic stress disorder was widely in the public consciousness).

Fortunately, there are many outlets and opportunities today for service men and women to re-enter society as entrepreneurs in the field of their choosing. In the field of agriculture, organizations such as Farmer Veteran Coalition introduce veterans to agricultural work, Congress granted new avenues to startup capital through the 2014 Farm Bill, and many states have adopted the marketing campaign “Homegrown by Heroes” to help vets market their goods.

The U.S. Veterans Administration devotes an entire portal to entrepreneurship and, in partnership with BusinessUSA, connects vets to best practices, information, resources and guidance for starting their own business. The Small Business Administration likewise directs dedicated resources specifically to helping returning veterans tackle this next chapter in their lives. The list of similarly focused state- and university-affiliated programs is long.

It should be noted that little, if any, of this was in place when many of our trailblazer veterans came home. Yet come home they did to farms and small towns, main streets and public office. The yield of their service was a stronger Arkansas — and nation — in more ways than one.

It’s not an easy road, of course, but as Al Hodge, executive vice president of lending for Arkansas Capital Corporation Group noted, military service provides key elements that most veterans can apply to great effect in establishing and growing their own business.

“Veterans have a loyalty to a mission and a strong work ethic that isn’t found in typical civilian culture,” he said. “They quickly discover that others do not share this disciplined attitude in the workplace and, as a result, a farm or a business that is owned and managed by a veteran has a higher success rate than others.”

It is to our collective shame that not all were hailed as they should have been when returning at points during our history, but the steps that have been made since those days demonstrates how far we have come as a people and a republic. Arkansas Times is today singularly privileged to profile a few of these heroes in the pages that follow.

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CELEBRATING VETERANS SI ★★★

JIM CAMP’S COMPANY SWEEPS WHILE EVERYONE ELSE IN TOWN SLEEPS BY KIMBERLY DISHONGH O

ne man’s trash, can, indeed, be another man’s treasure. Jim Camp has made it his successful business to clean up other people’s messes.

Camp started sweeping parking lots for his brother’s business in his hometown, Paragould, back in 1971, but joined the Air Force in 1975 after that business struggled.

He was a statistician in the communications squadron, having done basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and completed tech school in Chanute, Ill. He managed to switch his order to report to Luke, Ariz., after his tech training with someone who had orders for Little Rock Air Force Base, and he moved back to Arkansas for his tour of duty, during which he took care of missile silos, running analyses on equipment to determine when to pull and replace parts to keep the machinery operational at all times.

He managed an apartment complex to supplement his military pay, and when he got out of the service in 1979, he went to work managing a restaurant.

“The hours were from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. and I decided that wasn’t for me,” he says.

That’s when he pulled from his earlier experience with his brother’s company to start his own.

“I decided to make a little extra money by buying a sweeper and sweeping some parking lots. I’ve always been really good

about taking care of my money. So I saved up and bought a used sweeper and started sweeping. The business has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and ended up where we are today.”

Camp is the owner of C&C Commercial Cleaner Inc., which has over 250 clients in Central Arkansas and more in Jonesboro, including big-box stores, hospitals and shopping centers.

“I enjoy what I’m doing,”he says.“We’re cleaning up after people.

We end up emptying trash cans and we blow out some corners.

But when I get done I can look at it and see that, ‘Hey, that’s clean.’”

Tidy lots make customers happy, which makes his services

an easy sell.

“What do people see first when they come onto your property? Your parking lot. There has to be curb appeal,” says Camp.

Camp’s sons, Tim Camp and Chris Camp, helped him when they were younger and now they manage his Jonesboro operation.

Most of the cleaning C&C does happens between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m, while businesses are closed. Camp hired a foreman to oversee that part of the operation several years ago, though he still gets back in the driver’s seat when an emergency rises. He jokes that his wife, Diana, hates his cell phone, because when it rings in the middle of the night he usually has to get up and go.

“I can still sweep a parking lot,” he says. “ Camp began his business with a small brush machine that he had to load onto a trailer, haul to a job site, unload to operate and then reload to start the process over for another client. He bought his first truck-mounted sweeper in 1980. He now owns 17 sweeper trucks.

He attributes much of his business success to good intentions, hard work and his heavenly maker.

“Do a good job at a fair price and you will have all the business you want, and of course I put a lot of this to the good Lord taking care of me,”he says.“I wouldn’t have any of this if He hadn’t got me.”

★★★

NAVY LESSONS CONTINUE TO SHAPE TOMMY CLEMENTS’ LIFE IN BUSINESS BY DWAIN HEBDA O

f all the education Tommy Clements received both in and outside of the U.S. Navy, where he served as a nuclear submarine officer, the most enduring lessons were also the simplest.

“First and foremost is integrity with regard to pretty much everything you do, and second is training,” said Clements, 46. “With those two things, you can really work yourself into or out of very difficult situations without damaging materials and hurting people.”

Although two of Clements’uncles were Naval Academy graduates and career officers, his own decision to enter the service didn’t come until well into college and then not by original design.

“I’m the product of a pure cold call from a recruiter,” he said. “He was calling a list of students who were technical majors with grade point averages above a certain level. There was a sense of service that probably was somewhat instilled by my family, but it was also the opportunity to put myself in a leadership role early in my career.”

Clements’ Navy hitch started when he was still a junior electrical engineering student at Mississippi State University.

“I joined through an officer program for nuclear trained officers that was open starting in my junior year,” he recalls. “My only real

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job responsibility was to complete school in a designated period of time and make no less than a B in any of my tech courses.”

From there he crisscrossed the country, with stops at various training programs including nuclear power school in Florida, submarine training school in Connecticut, prototype school in South Carolina and being assigned to the USS Alabama (SSBN731) in Washington state.

“Seven moves in six years or six moves in seven years, I forget which one it was,” he said dryly.

Along the way, he also developed valuable leadership skills, something that has proven invaluable in the business world. Today, as CEO of Arkansas Automatic Sprinklers, he draws upon his leadership and team-building skills daily, running a company that employs 175 and conducts business statewide.

“A common misconception, particularly about military officers that leave the military and go into the civilian world, is that they are strictly dictatorial leaders, and there’s no collaborative capability instilled in them,” he said. “That, I would say, is a huge misrepresentation, particularly of today’s military. You learn to get the buy-in from your team members and the importance of that in getting them to actually execute on a plan.

“If they don’t believe in the plan, the odds of them executing it are very low, whereas, and I saw it time and time again, if you get your employees involved in the planning and the organization of the task at hand and they buy into it, they typically give some of the best feedback. They are personally invested at that point; they’re not just doing it because they were told to do it, they were told that the mission needed to get accomplished and they were honestly asked, ‘How do we do this?’”

S IIN SMALL BUSINESS ★★★

EX-GREEN BERET MASON STILL PROTECTING AMERICA THROUGH BUSINESS BY DWAIN HEBDA S

ince the age of 11, Richard “Ash” Mason wanted to be a Green Beret, because even at that tender age, he could see the good that the elite corps did around the world, executed to the highest degree.

Entering the Army in 1988, he eventually realized that dream and found the experience lived up to its billing “I loved it,” said the 47-year-old from El Dorado. “Special forces, Army Green Berets are a phenomenal institution. I miss it.”

During his active duty, Mason was deployed to multiple spots around the globe, including Central America, South America and Southeast and Central Asia.

“Just about everywhere,” he said.

Following his active duty, he did a stint in the National Guard, during which he started to ponder life after the service.

It was during this time, in 1996, that the idea for his company was born, and 20 years later he’s still playing a role in keeping America safe at home and abroad through his company, Direct Action Resource Center.

“Direct Action Resource Center is a service provider to the United States government where we work with the United States military in every branch in specialized operations,” he said. “On our law enforcement side we have SWAT team programs. We even have civilian programs for qualified civilians.”

From its headquarters and training facility in North Little Rock, DARC conducts live-action specialized training for tactical urban training, mission-critical skills for special forces teams preparing for high-risk operations, and advanced law enforcement tactics.

The company’s client list spans the country, some of which bring DARC’s expertise to its international operations as well.

“The primary function of DARC is as a training company,” Mason said. “We provide everything from initial training to advanced training for different entities. We also do consulting;

people need us to come in and evaluate things or start things.

It’s a whole spectrum of services.”

Mason said the nature of his work and the fact that many of his clients are men and women in uniform meant the transition from the military world to the world of business wasn’t particularly difficult.

“I deal with people in uniform on an almost daily basis, so I’m still connected [to military life],” he said. “But what’s interesting now, 20 years later, is I have people coming through DARC that are young enough to be my children.”

Such is not to say the road of business ownership has not had its share of potholes. Mason said while the work and the clientele were familiar, the rules and red tape that come with entrepreneurship were not. Here too, he credits his military training as one component of his being able to adapt, adjust and move forward.

“You get some really resilient people who wear uniforms,” he said. “And of course special forces, Green Berets, there’s a lot of flexibility and tenacity, grit, whatever you want to call it. And culture-wise, quitting is just not an option.

“I’ve been educated on business basically the hard way. I’ve made a lot mistakes — a lot of mistakes — but it’s been really rewarding. It’s been a fun ride.”

★★★

MATHEWS: SUCCESS LIES IN DOING THE LITTLE THINGS RIGHT, ON TIME, EVERY TIME BY DWAIN HEBDA G

iven everything Chris Mathews has accomplished, the most important element of his success may surprise you.

“Getting up in the morning and making your bed,” he said.

“It’s the first thing you do every day that is a completed task. It’s a great start to the rest of your career to begin each day getting something done right and on time, then keep doing it all day.”

Mathews came from modest beginnings, in a northern suburb of Chicago. Of limited education themselves, his parents were determined things would be different for their five children.

“We didn’t have a lot of money, but our aspiration was to go off to college,” he said. “I had gone off to college for two years out of high school and financially and for other reasons, it was very difficult.

“When I got drafted in summer of ‘69, I actually welcomed the opportunity to let the Army take responsibility for the roof over my head, three meals a day and for me to focus on growing up out from under the peer pressure and all the other outside pressures of the late ’60s.”

Mathews excelled, being selected for the Army’s leadership school and spending 13 months in Vietnam with the Signal Corps. Upon being discharged, he returned to his hometown where he worked days and finished up his business administration degree at night.

He arrived in Arkansas in the 1990s when the company he was working for was enticed to Little Rock. Over time, he made connections in the Little Rock business community and ultimately chose to settle down, and with his wife, raise three sons here.

He bought his first company, National Custom Hollow Metal Doors & Frames, manufacturer of custom, fire-rated steel doors and frames, in 2007; and his second, Maple Leaf Awning and Canvas, in 2012. He is also completing his second year as chairman of the board of directors for the Little Rock Port Authority, an entity that oversees two active river ports, short-line railroad and 40 businesses that employ 3,300, representing more than

$5.1 billion in economic impact since 2005.

“What both of these purchases had in common is, the owners were baby boomers who were looking for a way to pass their businesses on and they had no exit strategy of their own,” Mathews said. “They had no family and no key employees they could pass it on to. We were interested in building products and I had a built-in exit strategy with my boys who were interested in helping me carry on these businesses.”

Today, two of Mathews’ sons are actively involved in dayto-day operations, and while they didn’t follow in their father’s military footsteps, they’ve learned from him the same lessons for success he gained during his service years.

“The military gave me experience and skills to earn opportunities on my own, through little other influence except for a willingness to learn, study and practice self-discipline,” he said.

“It gave me the confidence and the understanding of how important it is to take responsibility for yourself and to do your best work every day.

“For a guy like me, coming from relatively low-middle class, oldest of five kids, parents didn’t even have a high school education, to ultimately own my own businesses and have sons that are successful in their own lives, I believe I have passed these same important lessons from my service on to them as well.”

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CELEBRATING VETERANS SI ★★★

FOCUSING ON A HIGHER POWER HAS PROPELLED BILL MCCAULEY FORWARD BY KIMBERLY DISHONGH B

ill McCauley might hold the keys to The Bug Man, but he says his business belongs to a higher power.

“I knew the business would never be mine. It would always belong to the Lord,” he says. “On March 1, 1976, the day I started the business, I was by myself and I went up to Pinnacle Mountain with my Bible. I climbed Pinnacle and I got down on my knees and I prayed and I asked the Lord to bless me and I asked the Lord to take care of me and to guide me. When I came down from Pinnacle, I didn’t think or feel — I knew — that the company would be a success. I didn’t know how it would happen. But it came true.”

McCauley started the business a few years after he finished his military service.

He joined the U.S. Navy Reserve as an 11th grader, completing boot camp in San Diego between his junior and senior years in high school. In January 1959, he went aboard the aircraft carrier USS Independence and sailed out of New York Harbor.

“Back when I was 18 years old, all of us had to go into the military. I had a choice between going into the Army and going into the Navy,” he says.

He thought he might die in the service, he explains, and he chose to spend what might be his last days on a clean ship with plenty of food and water rather than in a muddy foxhole.

He was a machinist’s mate on the ship.

“Most work was below deck, but my job assignment was the steam catapult,”he says.“We were right below the flight deck. Our job was to keep readings on the steam and make sure the pressures and everything were working good. When they were flying planes they didn’t want us messing with the catapults, and so we could go up on the catwalk and watch the planes. I got a bird’s-eye view of the whole operation all the time. It never got boring to me to watch the planes come in and land and take off. I have the greatest respect for the Navy pilots. They risked their lives every time they landed and every time they took off.”

He wears hearing aids today because of all the time he spent around the planes without ear protection, but he’s grateful for the chance he had to serve.

“Military was a really good experience for me. It taught me discipline,” he says. “It taught me how to work with other people, it taught me a lot of things and I’m very grateful for it. I had a very rich experience in the military.”

When he got out of the service, he worked in a few jobs before deciding to go to college at age 30. His wife, Sonja, also went to

college while their three children went to school. McCauley got an accounting degree; Sonja’s is in dietetics.

He went to work for a pest control company in Mississippi. The owner of that business gave him advice when he decided to come back to Arkansas and open one of his own.

“He said, ‘Now Bill, when you start your business, don’t try to spread out everywhere.

Just build you a good business in a large metropolitan area and stay with that, don’t try to expand,” he says.

That’s what he’s done. His daughter Becky Cranford is running it now. His daughter Beth Davis owns The Bug Man in Searcy. His son, Mike McCauley, owns McCauley Services in Benton.

“We try to treat customers the way we want to be treated.

Do right. Be fair,” says McCauley. “The business has done well. We are a cash-free business, which means we don’t have debt, so our business can operate a little bit better.”

The best advice he can offer to up-and-coming business owners is to bow to a higher power.

“Remember, the business is never yours,” he says. “Life is just a blink. Committing your life to the Lord helps you make better decisions.”

★★★

BRUCE MCFADDEN HAS MADE STEADY IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY BY KIMBERLY DISHONGH B

ruce McFadden found a niche in meeting unique construction needs and used innovative methods to weather a recession that toppled many of his clients and competitors.

McFadden started his company, Improved Construction Methods, in 1970 after he completed a graduate degree at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., plus five years with an Arkansas highway contractor McFadden served in the Army National Guard while he was a student at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and reported for duty daily during the Central High Crisis and four years in the Air National Guard as a civil engineering officer.

He married his high school sweetheart, Anita, in 1958, and when he finished his sophomore year as a pre-engineering major at ASU the newlyweds loaded up a U-Haul and left for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he studied civil engineering.

McFadden graduated with honors in 1960 and went to work for the Corps of Engineers, working as an inspector during the early part of construction on Beaver Dam. “After four years with the government, I knew I wanted to be in private enterprise and I wanted to get a graduate degree in civil engineering construction,” says McFadden. “When I went by to see the head of the department at Fayetteville and tell him what I was wanting to do, he said, ‘Well, Bruce, with your grades and all, you need to make contact with Stanford University.”

He was too late in the application process to get into Stanford the first year.

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“The next year I got this nice letter in the mail saying, ‘You have been awarded a full fellowship to Stanford University,’ paying tuition and books and giving us $300 each month to live on. So once again we hooked up to a U-Haul trailer,” he says. “We had a good year out there with good professors and students from all over the world.”

At the end of a five-year stint with Bituminous Inc., owned by the McNulty family of Pine Bluff, he was ready to go out on his own. He started with manhole forms invented by an El Dorado sewer worker.

“Monolithically cast, they had already started having trouble with manholes leaking and all that,” he says. “These lightweight forms you could stand them up and pour the base and the walls all at one time, with no joints, and it just gave you a superior structure to the way they had been doing it. That was the product that got us kicked off. But the more we did it the more we realized that we needed to be pushing a whole bunch of other products.”

It hasn’t always been easy.

“We developed from about a $100,000a-year business in 1970 to about $20 million one year and $19 million in 2006 and 2007,” he says. “When the recession hit it just killed us for about four or five years, but we made it through all that and we’re back to $12 million a year and making a profit.”

His sons Mark and Chris are running the Arkansas operation for him now. His son Greg is retired from the company.

And another son, Clay, lives in San Diego.

McFadden was recently inducted into the Arkansas Construction Hall of Fame.

“Employees own 20 percent of the company already, and now that the market has turned back around, we’re going to try to figure out a way to sell them the rest of our stock over the next three or four years,” says McFadden.

McFadden plans to retire soon, but he will remain involved in the company.

“My sons are here and these other guys and gals are just like my youngsters, too,” he says. “It’s just like family. So I’m going to be on the board as long as they need me or as long as they want me to.”

S IIN SMALL BUSINESS ★★★

VET GOES FROM PUBLIC HOUSING TO SBA BUSINESS OF THE YEAR BY DWAIN HEBDA D

epending on how you look at it, Wade Radke was either the least-likely candidate for the military or the one for whom the military reserved its best, most transformative work.

“I was born to a single mom, no dad, Section 8 housing, welfare, the whole scene,” he said. “Didn’t have discipline or structure, didn’t really know where I was going. “ After eight elementary schools, four high schools and, he said, “dropping out of a few colleges, I was really good at that,” Radke found himself in an Oklahoma flight school when he made a life-changing decision.

“I decided that if I’m going to fly, I should try to fly in the Air Force,” he said. “I went to the military at 23 and it was a rude awakening for me in the sense of the discipline and the structure.”

Once the shock wore off, Radke found military regimen the right tonic for getting his life in order. He learned and advanced quickly, eventually serving eight years including time in U.S. Air Force Special Operations (AFSOC).

By 2005, with three college degrees and the end of his hitch in sight, Radke and his wife, Gina, had already decided they would be entrepreneurs when a unique opportunity presented itself out of the blue.

“I had a chance to meet my biological father and so I flew out [to California] and met him,” he said. “It turns out my grandfather

was in the Air Force, was an engineer, an entrepreneur and a pilot. He had just recently passed, unfortunately, so I never met him, but he had started a business that was now this fledgling family business.

“Gina and I knew we wanted to be in business for ourselves and so it was either gonna be a Papa John’s, a Tropical Smoothie or an aerospace business. And against her best wishes, we

decided on the aerospace because I just had this thing I just couldn’t shake about it.”

The Radkes bought the product line and quickly found out just how different business ownership was from anything they’d ever undertaken.

“The first year we did $10,000 in sales, for the whole year, and that didn’t cover anything,” Radke remembers. “We were just bleeding money out of our savings and our investments.”

Help came via an invitation by the state’s Department of Economic Development, which brought the Radkes along with a couple of other Arkansas companies to a national corporate aviation trade show.

“We met Gulfstream Aerospace there, and when we met them, I mean, things happened,” he said. “We were able to connect with them and the rest is history.”

Radke’s company, Galley Support Innovations, now designs and manufactures all interior hardware for Gulfstream’s newest aircraft and has expanded into interior hardware for trains and yachts. The company employs nearly 30 in its Sherwood facility.

In March, Gina and Wade were named 2016 Arkansas Small Business Persons of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration, advancing them to consideration for the national SBA award later this year.

★★★

FOR DAVID TOWNLEY, BUSINESS IS ALL ABOUT FAMILIES BY KIMBERLY DISHONGH D

avid Townley didn’t envision moving back to his home state when he left for the U.S. Naval Academy 22 years ago. There’s no oceanfront in Arkansas, after all.

Now that he’s here, he wants there to be a party in every backyard, and he sells the goods to make that happen at Townley Pool and Spa in Little Rock.

“We’ve done pool chemicals, we’ve done service, we’ve done hot tubs, and we’re still doing all of those things, but I want to expand and what I tell people now is that we just want people to have fun in their backyards,” he says. “We’ve got Yeti coolers, and we’ve got these Grill Dome ceramic cookers. It’s a passion of mine because I like cooking. I like to experiment with different seasonings and different flavors, so I can talk to people about barbecue for hours and hours just like I can talk to them about their pool water or their hot tubs. It’s all about getting together with your family at your place. That’s really grown in the last three years — that side of the business has just exploded.”

Townley’s mother, Tracye Townley, started the business in 1986.

“They wanted that American dream of family time and being at home and wholesome entertainment and they thought we needed a swimming pool, so they had a pool built. Well, back in the day, builders were interested in building and there wasn’t anybody there to help them take care of their pools and teach them how to take care of their pools,” he says.

She did some research and learned how to care for her pool

and then realized there was a business opportunity in doing the same for others.

His dad, Larry Townley, left his architectural firm to help with Townley Pool and Spa, and David Townley often did his homework in the back office and helped out with running water samples and carrying out packages throughout junior high and high school.

Townley was commissioned an ensign and was assigned Naval Aviation after graduating from the Naval Academy. He flew the C-2A Greyhound to and from aircraft carriers in the fleet and then transitioned to a flight instructor in Corpus Christi, Texas. He still serves in the Naval Reserve as a Blue & Gold Officer helping Arkansas students achieve appointments to Annapolis.

Five years ago, he and his wife, Amie, returned to Arkansas

so he could take over the family business.

“So the funny thing is, here I am president and CEO, and I’m the new guy,” he says.

The people who work for him have been employed there for 15-26 years.

“What makes my business is my people. I wouldn’t have a business if it wasn’t for my people,” he says.

“That’s who I entrust 100 percent. I don’t have to worry about them, I don’t have to micromanage them. I know they will take of my customers and that my customers will then, in turn, patronize my business. It’s awesome.”

Townley started a website for the company and created a social media presence for it, as well. His Facebook feed is filled with pictures of his wife and children — Madolyn, Sadie and Cohen — and with pictures of the mouthwatering grilled feasts he’s prepared for his family using the seasonings, sauces and grills he sells in the store.

“That’s where I try to make a continuing niche,” he says. “It’s just, from day one, been all about the service and how can we put our arm around the customer and give them the same things that we had growing up. We excel at the service side. We want to get to know our customers and we want to know their pools and we want to know how they’re cooking their barbecue. It’s not a transactional business. It’s a relationship business and that’s hugely important to me.”

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT www.arktimes.com www.arktimes.com

MAY 12, 2016 MAY 12, 2016

29 29

Arts Entertainment AND

ARIAS FOR ALL ASO, Opera in the Rock present ‘La Boheme.’

I

f Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” is the operatic equivalent of Heidegger, Bjork or Richard Hugo, then Puccini’s “La Boheme” is Springsteen. It’s Banksy. It’s Woody Guthrie. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt temptation when passing a neon payday loan sign, anyone who’s carefully rationed her prescribed medication to delay yet another costly co-pay, anyone who’s ever purchased a gallon or two of gas to push through until the paycheck clears.

This Friday and Sunday at Pulaski Technical College’s Center for the Humanities and Arts, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will collaborate with Little Rock’s sole opera company, Opera in the Rock, to present Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece for the 99 percent, fully staged and sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Although Arkansas history is decorated with opera stars who have launched international careers for themselves in one niche or another — Mary Lewis, Robert McFerrin Sr. (father of Bobby McFerrin, of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” fame), Marjorie Lawrence and, more recently, Barbara Hendricks, Sarah Caldwell, Bonnie Montgomery and Kristin Lewis — Little Rock itself has never had a longstanding love affair with the medium, at least not one that was financially tenable. Operagoers here tend to sate themselves with their George Solti recordings at home, by visiting the Met simulcasts at Breckenridge Village movie theater, or by indulging in the occasional trip to Eureka Springs’ Opera in the Ozarks (a training ground for burgeoning singers) or to such farflung places as Tulsa, Dallas or Memphis.

As a result, promising singers tend to drift elsewhere, where the musical landscape is lush enough to support them, and the whole cycle is perpetuated.

Recognizing an abundance of talent here, Arkansas Symphony conductor Philip Mann and Opera in the Rock artistic director Arlene Biebesheimer sought to give performers a space to cre30

MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

ate this unique art form for the Central Arkansas audience they hoped would materialize. Materialize they did, in droves: Both evenings of the collaboration’s inaugural production in January 2015 at the Albert Pike Masonic Temple were sold out. The two-night run of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” directed by the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s Bob Hupp, used the stunning hand-painted backdrops and immaculately cared-for costumes furnished by the Freemasons themselves, and established momentum for a second project.

Unlike “The Magic Flute,” though, there are no out-of-state ringers for “La Boheme.” The cast is entirely made up of Arkansans (either natives or transplants from elsewhere), and lest that fact gives you even a sliver of doubt as to the level of talent involved, consult with anyone who heard the production’s leading lady, Maria Fasciano-DiCarlo, sing Brahms’ “Ein deutsches Requiem” with the symphony in February.

Though this is Fasciano-DiCarlo’s first full performance as “La Boheme’s” heroine, Mimi, the soprano is no stranger to Puccini. Her interpretation of Cio-Cio San in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” was heralded by the San Francisco Examiner as “most memorable ... utterly fearless,” and those of us who have heard her gala performances with Opera in the Rock have collectively swooned over her magnificently controlled pianissimos and her glorious, soaring lyricism in arias like “I Want Magic” and “Un bel di.”

Fasciano-DiCarlo will star opposite her husband, Vernon DiCarlo, whose warm, rich tenor held the lead in ASO/ Opera in the Rock’s “The Magic Flute.”

Asked about the onstage romance with her off-stage spouse, FascianoDiCarlo described the intensity of the moments between Mimi and her boyfriend, Rodolfo: “To have these intimate moments on stage with someone you have that real-life feeling about, someone you have an intimate connection

BRIAN CHILSON

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

THE BOHEMIAN: Maria Fasciano-DiCarlo stars opposite her husband, Vernon DiCarlo, in Puccini’s romantic opera.

with, it allows you to express these big, romantic things, like ... .” Flipping through her musical score, she finds a particularly devastating passage in the libretto that demonstrates her point, when Mimi, bedridden with tuberculosis, is reliving the first time she and Rodolfo met: “Are they gone? I was pretending to sleep so I could be alone with you. I have so many things that I want to say to you, or just one, but it’s as big as the sea, as deep and infinite as the sea: You are my love and my whole life … .”

Here’s the thing about “La Boheme,” though, despite being one of the most frequently performed operas ever written, some level of distaste for the work persists among opera highbrows. Perhaps it’s fatigue, a variation on the reaction one feels when the opening riff of an otherwise phenomenal classic rock song peels out, having been drained of its ability to properly blow your mind (see: “Lonely Is the Night,” “Stairway to Heaven.”) Daniel Foltz-Morri-

son, who will sing in the production’s chorus, describes the phenomenon of “regieoper,” German for “director’s opera,” a word that describes directors, perhaps suffering from this very same ennui, going to extremes to reinterpret a classic work in an attempt to offer something new. He assures us we are in no danger of seeing, say, Musetta (Ekaterina Kotcherguina) as Madonna, or the chorus clad in spiked leather: “We’re presenting this piece in a traditional way.

The regie approach wants to combat the impression that opera is a static art, but we’re not competing [with other opera companies] here, and sometimes it’s easier to break the ice with some level of familiarity.”

Perhaps, though, it has something to do with the seemingly timeless tension between the opera’s lionhearts and the benefactors who so often foot the production bill. “La Boheme” poignantly romanticizes the starving artists who, in the opera’s opening scenes, burn

A&E NEWS SOUL SINGER LEON BRIDGES’ transition from washing dishes back home in Fort Worth, Texas to a Grammy nomination (and a performance in front of President Obama) is chronicled in a 22-minute documentary released yesterday

by Squarespace, and the film’s opening scenes (beginning at around the 3:30 mark) will look familiar to those of us who have spent an evening or 50 at the venerable White Water Tavern. Leon’s crew, directed by Danny Clinch, is seen walking up from the bar’s parking lot, shooting some manner of brown liquor

at the bar, and reliving the first time they played there to a sold out crowd on a Monday night, well before the rest of the world had caught on. Leon poses against the jukebox and cuts a rug by the pool tables upstairs, sliding smoothly in front of a mosaic of phrases scrawled on the walls in chalk: “Bernie 2016,” “Et tu, brute,” “I got tits,” “Alex & Jason,” “Levy rats.”

THOSE OF US WHO SPENT multiple weeks in the late ’90s with Erykah Badu’s “4 Leaf Clover” or “Apple Tree” roll-

ing through our heads on a loop were thrilled to hear last Friday that the soul pioneer would be paying a visit to Verizon Arena at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 11.

Comedian Ricky Smiley will host. Tickets, which range from $69.50 to $99.50, go on sale May 13 via ticket master or the Verizon box office.

ANOTHER ITERATION OF KABF’S Shoog Radio comes to an end: Aaron Sarlo, whose enthusiasm for Arkansas music is boundless (and whose digital collection of Arkansas bands is so big

it should be documented and copied for posterity), has left the building. Sarlo said he’s developing a new show that is “part music, part comedy, and all Aaron.”

The two-hour spot on Tuesdays from noon-2 p.m. will miss him sorely, but all’s not lost: host Kara Bibb and founding sister Cheyenne Matthews are holding down the fort, playing a solid two hours of Arkansas music, doing live in-studio interviews and, of course, aptly remembering exactly when to push the mute button, so as to remain in the good graces of the FCC.

ROCK CANDY

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

Rodolfo’s manuscript to keep warm, and get the landlord drunk enough to distract him from the rent payment he came to collect. (If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because “La Boheme” was the inspiration for Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Rent.”)

Foltz-Morrison describes the central tragedy of the opera in language that sounds painfully contemporary: “The story is relevant: insufficient access to health care for impoverished populations. I mean, Mimi is dying of a treatable disease, and it’s not a coincidence that she’s low-income.” FascianoDiCarlo calls it “a very human piece.

These are all relatable characters, and these are things we’ve all experienced, when your rent is due, you don’t have a whole hell of a lot, but you’re trying to make your way in a difficult economic climate.”

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 13, and 3 p.m. Sunday, May 15, at Pulaski Tech’s CHARTS, 3000 Scenic Drive in North Little Rock. “La Boheme” is directed by David Malis (director of opera, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville), conducted by ASO’s Maestro Philip Mann on Friday and by ASO Associate Conductor Geoffrey Robson (also serving as assistant musical director and chorus master) on Sunday. In addition to the DiCarlos, the cast includes Ekaterina Kotcherguina as Musetta, Benjamin Cox as Marcello, Matthew Carey as Coline, Ronald W. Jensen-McDaniel as Schaunard, Ferris Allen as Alcindoro, Mathew Lyon as Benoit, Matthew Tatus as Parpignol, a chorus of 16 singers and a children’s chorus of 12.

Buy one. Get one free.

When you buy a home in Chenal Valley, you’ll be amazed at what comes with it.

For starters, you’ll be just a stone’s throw from The Promenade, voted Arkansas’ #1 Shopping & Dining Destination for the last three years. From fashion to home décor, cozy lunches to a movie and popcorn, a home in Chenal Valley puts you right in the heart of it all. In fact, the neighborhoods of Chenal Valley bring to life everything you could dream of in a community. To begin your search for a new lot, or home go to Chenal.com and see how life happens here.

Life happens here.

www.arktimes.com

MAY 12, 2016

31

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

THURSDAY 5/12

DOGTOWN FILM SERIES: ‘WAR EAGLE, ARKANSAS’

7 p.m., Argenta Community Theater, $5.

Shot entirely in Northwest Arkansas on a budget of barely over $1 million and written by Little Rock’s Graham Gordy, “War Eagle, Arkansas” portrays a symbiosis between two young men struggling to develop a sense of direction in a small town in rural Arkansas, and the ways in which the security of their friendship is strained by the symptoms of growing up — the introduction of an appealing girl, the promise of a college scholarSON VOLTAGE: Alt-country star Jay Farrar plays South on Main.

JAY FARRAR

8 p.m., South on Main, $25-$35.

For devotees of Son Volt, Jay Farrar’s recent re-release of the album “Trace” on the 20th anniversary of its debut is a history: It traces Farrar’s songwriting back to its origins. The 37-track anthology is decorated with unreleased demo tracks for songs that are now considered alt-country anthems, as well as a live performance recorded at Greenwich Village’s The Bottom Line and several

FRIDAY 5/13

2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT

THURSDAY 5/12

ship. Inspired by a real-life friendship between Vincent Insalaco III and Tim Ballany, the movie grasps at expressing the nuance of what we often reductively call “disability.” The film won Best Picture at the Breckenridge Film Festival, the Hollywood Film Festival and California Independent Film Festival when it premiered in 2007, and is the second in a series of classic films to be shown at the black box theater on Main Street as part of the Dogtown Film Series, an almost-monthly series (they’re taking a pass in July, during the summer production of “La Cage aux Folles”) that will run through the remainder of the year. SS

Downtown. 5-8 p.m.

songs from Uncle Tupelo, the group that preceded Son Volt (and whose tumultuous dissolution resulted in bandmate Jeff Tweedy’s forming Wilco). Farrar is on tour in support of the retrospective album, and brings his travelogue-style honky-tonk to South on Main. Rumor has it he’s been playing alongside Son Volt’s original pedal steel player, Eric Heywood, on his latest dates, and that the duo captivated audiences at January’s 30A Songwriter’s Festival. SS

Arkansas Capital Corp., the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Butler Center galleries, the Cox Creative Center and Matt McLeod Fine Art Gallery will stay open after hours for the monthly trolleyassisted art stroll. Virmarie DePoyster, Heidi Hogden, Logan Hunter and Anna Sheals are showing work in an exhibition called “Naturals” at the Capital Corp.; Robert Lemming and Louis Watts are the featured artists at HAM, where Marchese Hendricks will

been tampered with by external processes. That is to say, nobody has come along and carbonated or pasteurized it — its fizziness comes only by way of the CO2 produced by the lusty interaction of sugar with the yeast that resides in the beer naturally, the way beer was made before industrialization reared its homogenizing head. This can have some wonderful effects on the finished product. The beer, not having been robbed of its natural vitamins and minerals,

can take on all sorts of flavors you’d never get from regular kegged or bottled beer. These nuances can come from the vessel itself, or from some ingredient the brewer introduces. Common firkin additions include fruits, spices, liquors, herbs and coffee. However, the antiquated process also makes the ale impractical to preserve for long periods of time, much less to transport for mass consumption. Fortunately, these casks won’t travel far. Tickets to the inaugural

perform live music and Bubba’s Brewing Co. will serve up suds; music by DJ Harlem Jones will fill the Butler Center galleries, where the shows “Culture Shock: Shine Your Rubies, Hide Your Diamonds,” “Twists and Strands” and “Jeanfo” continue. Paintings by Jude Harzer, sculpture by Wayne Salge and jewelry by Sage Holland will be among the works at McLeod, and Cox Creative Center is showing “Little Rock Young Artists.” To hear music by The Salty Dogs and down a brew from Stone’s Throw Brewing, head over to the Old State House Museum. LNP

FRIDAY 5/13

ARKANSAS TIMES FIRKIN FEST 6 p.m., Argenta Plaza, 520 Main St., $35 adv., $40 day of.

If consistency and predictability characterize the world of mass-produced domestic beers (or “flavored water,” as they are referred to on the menu of Hot Springs’ Steinhaus Keller), a firkin is its direct opposite. Like a temperamental heirloom sourdough starter, beer cask-conditioned in a firkin has not

Firkin Fest in Argenta will get you access to the 15,000-plus samples of beer from 17 breweries (including novel varieties like an elderflower IPA, a peanut butter mocha brown ale and a grapefruit radler), food from eight local restaurants and music by Fellowship Hall Sound artists Isaac Alexander and Jason Weinheimer. The tapping of a firkin is an evanescent thing, a fleeting moment, a foamy ephemera — be there. SS

PRESENTED BY

June 3-5, 2016 • Advance tickets on sale now at RiverfestArkansas.com!

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MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

IN BRIEF

FRIDAY 5/13

GOOD TONE: A.J. Hayes (second from left) and her Shreveport bandmates coming to White Water.

SATURDAY 5/14

SERATONES

9 p.m. White Water Tavern. $7.

Mere days after Fat Possum records drops “Get Gone,” the Seratones’ highly anticipated debut album, the quartet will throw down at the White Water Tavern, and despite the fact that these SXSW darlings will no doubt look as cool as the other side of the pillow, their sound is drenched in sweat. Frontwoman A.J Haynes’ vocal tremolo is to die for, and

despite being able to create a thick wall of sound, the band also leaves enough space in its groove for you to feel the hefty, syncopated offbeat that makes it so contagiously danceable. It evokes the best bits of hard-driving rock bands like J. Roddy Walston and the Business, and makes you feel like things could veer toward the sacred or bizarre at any moment — perhaps a result of these longtime friends’ shared crawls through the weirder musi-

cal corners of their native Shreveport, La. The Uh-Huhs will get things shaking, and two of its members will do doubleduty with Bombay Harambee, whose set is sure to show off plenty of the smart stuff that fills their Western-pulp styled pop-punk album, “Goldmine.” Do your wallet a solid and heed the warning on the show’s event page: “This will likely be the last time you can catch the Seratones anywhere for a mere $7.” SS

mances Saturday at the corner of Sixth and Main in Argenta will help fund September’s Legends of Arkansas concerts, a marathon of music that will celebrate the embarrassment of riches we’ve got in our state’s collective discography. Sarah Cecil, a preteen with an undeniable knack for acoustic guitar and vocally difficult cover songs, will perform, and agile bassbaritone songwriter Brian Nahlen will join Devlin with sweet, sunny tunes that will make the whole affair feel straight

out of a storybook. Ghost Bones takes the stage, too, showing us what you get when a bunch of kids from Hot Springs rips into tight B-52’s-style noir with a Juliette Greco lookalike at the helm. Food trucks will be out in force, and some independent entrepreneurs will be vending (or hyping) their creations. The event is sponsored by 107 Liquor, so intoxicants will be well represented, too: Post Winery and a bevy of local breweries will have provisions on hand. SS

play of Indian culture, which too often gets relayed to our senses as a distilled version of itself: Bollywood, mehndi tattoos, saag paneer. After all, India is nearly five times bigger than Texas (and almost four times as populous at the U.S.), and consequently its traditions vary widely across its regions. The pappadams, vindaloo and korma may be presented at Indian restaurants as one kind of cuisine,

but they all hail from different places, just as sarees are draped differently in Karnataka from the way they are in bustling New Delhi. If you feel you’ve got a long way to go in understanding India’s multiplicity, you’re not alone, and this is a prime opportunity to broaden your idea of what it means to say something is “Indian.” There’ll be food and goods for sale and performances until 7 p.m. SS

SATURDAY 5/14

LEGENDS IN ARGENTA

4 p.m. Sixth and Main streets, North Little Rock. $5.

One might contest the propriety of using the word “legend” to describe folks who are still active on the artistic scene, whose careers we don’t yet view in the retrospective mirror, but when the lineup includes Mulehead and Nick Devlin, the word seems entirely appropriate. These folks helped shape the Little Rock music scene as we know it, and their perfor-

SUNDAY 5/15

INDIAFEST

11 a.m. River Market pavilions. Free.

If the photos from Little Rock’s first Indiafest in 2015 are any indicator of what awaits attendees this year, it will inspire the same loyalty that created the logistical need for a “drive-thru” line at the annual Greek Food Festival. Over 5,000 people showed up last year to experience the multidimensional dis-

The Weekend Theater continues its run of Shirley Lauro’s “A Piece of My Heart,” a series of vignettes about six unsung women serving as nurses or entertainers during the Vietnam War, 7:30 p.m., $12-$16. Up-and-coming jazz pianist and pipe organist Alex Gilson plays the 13th concert in an annual series celebrating the life of longtime Henderson State University professor of Organ, Robert Young Ellis, 8 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, free.

On the heels of Opera Ithaca’a debut of her opera “Billy Blythe” (and some time in the studio creating a new album with her “peace-lovin’ outlaw” trio, Wildflowers Revue), Bonnie Montgomery takes the small-but-mighty stage at the White Water Tavern. 9:30 p.m., $7. Lively soul singer Bijoux, who’s nearly as much fun to watch on stage as she is to hear, performs at South on Main, 10 p.m., $15. An experimental duo lauded as “Fort Worth’s own horror soundtrack,” Pinkish Black, comes to Vino’s with Color Design, Seahag, and Hexxus, 8:30 p.m., $8.

SATURDAY 5/14 Fans of sonic landscapes best enjoyed with cannabis, take note: Houston psych-rockers Jody Seabody and the Whirls come to Maxine’s in Hot Springs with Little Rock’s The Rios, whose sleepy, trippy melodies recall the deliciously wavy sounds of early Ween. The Izm opens, 9 p.m., $5. South Main’s Vintage Market pops up at Bernice Garden monthly during the summer, where all treasures must be either upcycled or over 20 years old, and “unique, esoteric, wacky, fun, high-quality and clean,” 9 a.m., free. The Arkansas Association of Black Professionals hosts The Black Food Festival, spotlighting local African-Americanowned businesses around the state, 11 a.m., Philander Smith College, free. The ALS in Wonderland Foundation throws a fashion-oriented soiree every year to foster awareness of the disease (sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s), and proceeds go to help ALS patients acquire and maintain much-needed medical equipment, like wheelchairs and wheelchair ramps, van shuttle services and communication devices. This year’s throwdown features jazz combo TP and The Feel, 7 p.m., Albert Pike Masonic Center, $75-$150.

SUNDAY 5/15 The Carroll and Madison County Library Foundation presents the 11th Annual Books in Bloom Literary Festival on the lawn of the 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa in Eureka Springs, noon, free. A polished collective of musicians, including Charlie Askew, Genine Perez, Gary Esco and Lucious Spiller, reprises last year’s tribute to Prince in “Purple Rain: Revisited,” 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., Rev Room, $5-$20. www.arktimes.com

MAY 12, 2016

33

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

THURSDAY, MAY 12

MUSIC

DeFrance. The Joint, 7:30 p.m. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. 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.

Jaded (headliner), Jason (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Jay Farrar. South on Main, 8 p.m., $25-$30. 1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. southonmain.com.

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

JJ Grey & Mofro, Ben Miller Band. Revolution, 8 p.m., $25 adv., $28 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com.ew.

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.

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

Sean Kent. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $8. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

The Second City: Hooking Up. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., $35.

601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www.therep.org.

EVENTS

Artosphere “Spin.” Theatrical tribute to the bicycle. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m.; May 13, 8 p.m., $8. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

FILM

“The Graduate.” Ron Robinson Theater, 7 p.m., $5. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www.cals.lib. ar.us.on-robinson-theater.aspx.

“War Eagle, Arkansas.” Argenta Community Theater, 7 p.m., $5. 405 Main St., NLR. 501-3531443. argentacommunitytheater.org.

FRIDAY, MAY 13

MUSIC

All In Fridays. Envy. 7200 Colonel Glenn Road.

501-562-3317.

The Big Dam Horns. The Joint, 9 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Bijoux. South on Main, 10 p.m., $10. 1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. southonmain.com.

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

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

Crisis (headliner), Greg Madden (happy hour).

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

Dylan Earl & the Post County Westerns, William Blackart, Amy Jo Savannah. Maxine’s, 9 p.m., $5. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www. maxinespub.com.

Marquis and the Mood. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 9 p.m., $10. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

Pinkish Black, Colour Design, Seahag, Hexxus.

Vino’s, 8:30 p.m., $7. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

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.

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

Trey Johnson. Kent Walker Artisan Cheese, 6 p.m. 323 S. Cross St. 501-301-4963. www.kentwalkercheese.com.

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

COMEDY

Sean Kent. The Loony Bin, through May 14, 7:30 p.m.; through May 14, 10 p.m., $8-$12. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

The Second City: Hooking Up. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., $35.

601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www.therep.org.

EVENTS

Artosphere: Circa’s Carnival of the Animals.

A circus act inspired by Camille Saint-Saens.

Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $10. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

Fresh Fish Season 2 Finale Weekend.

Glitterrock’s official drag queen talent competition, featuring guest judge Willam Belli of

RuPaul’s Drag Race. Sway, 8 p.m. 412 Louisiana St. Artosphere “Spin.” See May12.

SATURDAY, MAY 14

MUSIC

Foul Play Cabaret. The Joint, 8 p.m., $10. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Four on the Floor, Critical Mass. Vino’s, 8:30 p.m. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Hardy Winborn Experience. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 9 p.m., $7. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

Here Come The Mummies, The Big Dam Horns.

Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $20 adv., $25 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com.ew.

Jody Seabody and The Whirls, The Rios, The Ism. Maxine’s, 9 p.m., $5. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.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.

Mark Currey. Kent Walker Artisan Cheese, 6 p.m. 323 S. Cross St. 501-301-4963. www.kentwalkercheese.com.

Mountain Sprout. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $10. 107 River Market Ave. 501372-7707. www.stickyz.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.

Raising Grey. Cajun’s Wharf, 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Seratones, The Uh-Huhs, Bombay Harambee.

White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $7. 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.

COMEDY

Sean Kent. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m, $12. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-2285555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

The Second City: Hooking Up. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., $35.

601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www.therep.org.

EVENTS

Fresh Fish Season 2 Finale Weekend. See May 13.

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

Historic Neighborhoods Tour. Bike tour of

LECTURES

“The Mid-Century Modern Building Campaign of North Little Rock Mayor Casey Laman.”

Brown Bag Lunch Lecture. Old State House Museum, noon. 300 W. Markham St. 501-3249685. www.oldstatehouse.com.

BENEFITS

Red Jacket Ball. A benefit for City Year Little Rock. Statehouse Convention Center, $200. 7 Statehouse Plaza.

34

MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

KENDALL-JACKSON Chardonnay

12.99

Sale Valid 5/12 - 5/18

SUNDAY, MAY 15

MUSIC

Al White. Kent Walker Artisan Cheese, 3:30 p.m. 323 S. Cross St. 501-301-4963. www.kentwalkercheese.com.

Artosphere: The Okee Dokee Brothers. Walton Arts Center, 4 p.m., $8. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

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

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

The Purple Rain Revisited Experience 2016.

Revolution, 5:30 and 9 p.m., $5. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com.ew.

Radio Birds. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $7 adv., $10 day of. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

COMEDY

The Second City: Hooking Up. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 7 p.m., $35. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www.therep.org.

EVENTS

Artists for Recovery. Recovery group for people with addictions, Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, 10 a.m. 1601 S. Louisiana St. Bernice Garden Farmer’s Market. Bernice Garden, 10 a.m. 1401 S. Main St. www.thebernicegarden.org.

MONDAY, MAY 16

MUSIC

Artosphere: Chapel Concert, The Barefoot Movement. Sassafras Springs Vineyard, 6:30 p.m., $10. 6461 E. Guy Terry Rd., Springdale.

479-530-0912. ssvwinery.com.

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.

TUESDAY, MAY 17

Vintner’s Reserve

$

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

Legends in Argenta. Featuring live music by Mulehead and Ghost Bones; performances

by Arkansas Circus Arts and magician Paul Prater; local craft beer and food trucks and more. Argenta Farmers Market, 4 p.m., $5. 6th and Main St., NLR. 501-831-7881. www.argentaartsdistrict.org.rgenta-farmers-market.

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

MUSIC

2516 Cantrell Road Riverdale Shopping Center

366-4406

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.

COMEDY

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

EVENTS

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

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18

MUSIC

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

Artosphere: Chapel Concert, The Dover Quartet. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 7 p.m., $10. 224 N. East St., Fayetteville.

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

Dave Matthews Band. Verizon Arena, 8 p.m., $45.50-$75. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-9759001. verizonarena.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.

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

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.

COMEDY

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

The Sandman. The Loony Bin, May 18-21, 7:30 p.m.; May 20-21, 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.hows.html.

ARTS

Rebecca M. Stalcup, artistic director presents

Peter Pan Flying effects provided by ZFX, Inc.

© copyright Lyuba Bogan 2016. All Rights Reserved.

Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501372-4782. 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.

Muuy Biien, Ghost Bones. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8:30 p.m., $7 adv., $10 day of. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www. stickyz.com.

Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton.

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

ARKANSAS F E S T I VA L BALLET

THEATER

“La Boheme.” A joint performance by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Opera in the Rock. Pulaski Technical College, Fri., May 13, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., May 15, 3 p.m., $25-$50. 3000 W. Scenic Drive, NLR. TheatreSquared: “Murder For Two.” Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, through May 29: Wed.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., Sun., 2 p.m., $10-$45. 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville. 479-4435600. theatre2.org.

“A Piece of My Heart.” The Weekend Theater, through May 21: Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m., $16. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. www.weekendtheater.org.

NEW IN THE GALLERIES CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “Black Box,” paintings by Kae Barron, opening reception 6-8 p.m. May 13, show through July 2. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 224-1335.

RED DOOR GALLERY, 3715 JFK, NLR: Work by new artist Jeff McKay; also work by C.J. Ellis, TWIN, Amy Hill-Imler, Ellen Hobgood; new glass by James Hayes and ceramics by Kelly Edwards. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 753-5227.

STATEHOUSE CONVENTION CENTER: 14th annual “Empty Bowls,” fundraiser auction of bowls and other items to benefit Arkansas Foodbank, 6-9 p.m. May 13, $75. Call 569-4329 or dwood@arkansasfoodbank.org for information.

WILLIAM F. LAMAN LIBRARY, 2801 Orange St., NLR: “Inked Arkansas,” exhibition of work by Arkansas printmakers Melissa Gill, Catherine Kim, DebiLynn Fendley, Kristin DeGeorge, Warren Criswell, Daniel Adams, David Warren, Nancy Dunaway, Neal Harrington and Tammy Harrington, through July 1. Reception 6-8 p.m. May 27.

771-1995.

Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre May 20-22

TICKETS > ArkansasDance.org

501-227-5320

info@arkansasdance.org

7 P.M. TUESDAY, MAY 17

$7. 5 0

RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA 2600 CANTRELL RD

BENTONVILLE CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way: “Distinguished Speaker Series: Thom Mayne,” winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, 7-8:30 p.m. May 12, $8 ($10 nonmembers), reserve at 479-657-2335 or online; “The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip,” 100 images by 19 photographers of America from 1950 to today, through May 30; 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.: “Common Ground,” paintings

by Rebecca Thompson, through May 26, reception 6 p.m. May 13. 870-862-5474.

501.296.9955 | RIVERDALE10.COM ELECTRIC RECLINER SEATS AND RESERVED SEATING www.arktimes.com

MAY 12, 2016

35

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’ TACO BEER BURRITO, a new restaurant and taproom from the team behind Blue Canoe Brewing, has opened at 419 E. Third St., in the former home of Brown Sugar Bakeshop, next to Blue Canoe. The beef, chuck roast and chicken that feature in the burritos and tacos are slow-cooked for six to eight hours in Blue Canoe beer.

Key lime pie and plantains served with Loblolly ice cream are the dessert offerings. Margaritas on tap come in classic lime, strawberry lime, coconut pineapple and peach mango varieties. The hours currently match the brewery’s: 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. The phone number is 503-1821.

IT’S THE BUSY SEASON for food and drink events and festivals: From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 12, the Park Hill Business and Merchant Association hosts its third Patio on Park Hill event at the Lakehill Shopping Center (on JFK Blvd. between E and I streets and across from Park Hill Elementary School). The entry fee is $1 (kids under 12 get in for free). There’ll be music from DeFrance, Federalis and Jeff Coleman and The Feeders and craft beer. Food trucks the Black Hound BBQ, The WunderBus, Southern Gourmasian, Slader’s Alaskan Dumplings, Katmandu Momo, Hot Rod Wieners, Loblolly Creamery and Brown Sugar Bakeshop will also be there.

From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, May 13, Arkansas Times and the Argenta Arts District are teaming up for the inaugural Arkansas Times Firkin Fest, a celebration of unique craft beer. Tickets ($35 in advance, $40 at the event) include (besides beer) food from Arkansas Ale House, @ the Corner, Cafe Bossa Nova, Damgoode Pies, Old Chicago Pizza, Skinny J’s and Zaffino’s by Nori and music by The Libras and Isaac Alexander.

The inaugural Black Food Festival, presented by the Arkansas Association of Black Professionals, will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 14, at Philander Smith College. Vendors include Brown Sugar Bakeshop, The Veg, K Hall and Sons and Philly Phresh Water.

LOOKING AHEAD: The International Greek Food Festival returns to Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church May 20-22. At 6 p.m. Friday, May 20, there’ll be more than 300 wines to sample at Arkansas Times Celebrate the Grape at Argenta Plaza in North Little Rock.

Buy tickets for $30 in advance (bit.ly/ grape16) or $40 at the door.

36

MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

A STAR: The All-American pizza is a Grady’s standout.

A new Grady’s It’s just as good as the original.

F

or 35 years, the owners of Grady’s Pizza and Subs stayed tucked away in a strip center on 12th Street, a couple of blocks east of where Mississippi dead ends, serving up excellent pizza, subs and salads.

But Grady’s shook things up a couple of weeks ago, opening a second location at 10901 Rodney Parham, on the Shackleford side of the Kmart parking lot that once housed Lone Star Steakhouse and, more recently, Ponchitos Mexican Grill.

Wisely, Grady’s owners didn’t stray from the formula that has been successful since 1981. The new Grady’s only improves on the original: The new spot is larger, brighter and, while not fancy, it’s a bit more upscale. This Grady’s is

more easily accessible to West Little Rockers. Rather than just beer and Sutter Home labels, there’s a full bar and a nice selection of beers and wines. The menu is like the original with six pasta dishes added. At the 12th Street location your only option is to pick your pasta, sauce and meat for a mix-andmatch dish.

Grady’s skews toward St. Louis-style Italian, so in that spirit we started with the toasted ravioli ($4.75 for six). They were crisp and filled with gooey mozzarella. The homemade marinara was exceptionally fresh and tasty. We could have gone after it with a spoon.

Grady’s makes its soups and chili daily, and we ordered both — a bowl of

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ST. LOUIS STYLE: The toasted raviolis.

chicken noodle soup ($4.95) and a cup of chili that paired with half a homemade meatball sandwich for $7.95 as one of the “meal deals.” The soup’s broth was rich and filled with oodles of thin noodles and small shreds of chicken breast.

It was hearty and tasty.

The chili was standard issue with chunky ground beef, plenty of beans and lots of tomato. It’s nothing special, but we still finished it. The half sandwich included two plump meatballs — not overly herbed or spiced, but good — on a basic hoagie roll with that fabulous marinara. It would have benefitted from more mozzarella.

Grady’s offers plenty of predetermined ingredient selections on its pizza, or you can build your own. And there are almost limitless choices when you factor in size (11-, 14- or 16-inch); crust (traditional, seven-grain whole wheat and gluten free [11-inch only; add $1.25]); sauce (homemade red sauce, alfredo, Mama Rosa, olive oil and garlic, salsa, sour cream or barbecue), and cheese (premium mozzarella or Steve’s St. Louis blend of cheeses).

We went for a 14-inch All-American (ground beef, pepperoni, purple onion and fresh mushrooms) on traditional crust with the homemade red sauce and Steve’s blend of cheeses. It was $16.95, and though the menu didn’t mention it, we saw that we were charged an additional $1.50 for the Steve’s cheese — a blend of mild cheddar, Swiss and pro-

BELLY UP

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

Grady’s Pizza and Subs 10901 N. Rodney Parham Road 904-2822

QUICK BITE One of the major upgrades at the new Grady’s is the full bar and a particularly nice selection of wines. On-tap choices include J Winery Pinot Gris and Simi Cabernet Sauvignon, two outstanding Napa Valley choices served at a bargain price — $6.50 for the J and $6 for the Simi.

HOURS 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

OTHER INFO Credit cards accepted, full bar.

volone that is featured on Imo’s pizzas in St. Louis. The blend is gooier and runnier than traditional mozzarella and somewhat resembles cheese dip. We liked it. The crust was crunchy around its edge and a bit thicker on the bottom.

The chicken pesto linguini ($10.95) featured about half a breast’s worth of thin, very tender slices that had plenty of Italian herbs applied. The pasta was cooked just right, but wasn’t dosed with much pesto at all. Instead it had a distinct black pepper punch. Fresh spinach and tomatoes provided additional flavor.

It came with a decent house salad and garlic bread.

Grady’s makes its two desserts fresh daily and serves them up at bargainbasement prices — $3 for a slice of lemon ice box pie and $3.25 for a slab of St. Louis gooey butter cake. (You can get a

almost no room between the front doors and the hostess stand, and it must get really cramped when there’s a crowd.

Some of the decor is clearly left over from the steakhouse days, such as the corrugated tin on the short walls between tables. The neutral tan and green color scheme is punctuated with

several framed posters and photos from Arkansas and St. Louis. There is a mixture of booths and tables and plenty of seats at the long bar.

Given that the original Grady’s is still thriving after 35 years and the new spot only improves on that model, we see a bright future for this location.

The cast of Hooking Up With The Second City. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

whole one for $12 and $15, respectively).

The lemon pie incorporates whipped cream into the filling, which rides high on a graham cracker crust. The gooey butter cake is so sweet, so buttery, so good. We wish we had another slab right now.

When you walk into Grady’s there’s

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MAY 12, 2016

37

MOVIE REVIEW

A civil war with pathos New Marvel blockbuster exceeds predecessors.

BY SAM EIFLING

WEE

)

BU

R

K

RG E

a 30-minute slow simmer in the first half — but is ultimately as exciting as anything from the previous “Avengers” installments, with some actual pathos stitched in.

There’s also a hell of a lot of movie here. It’s almost two-and-a-half hours long, with a cast that includes all the non-Hulk Avengers, plus a new SpiderMan (Tom Holland, a promising Peter Parker redux) and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman, formerly Jackie Robinson of “42”). You’ve also got Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier, a nighinvincible mercenary killer who goes way back (like, a hundred years) with Captain America himself (Chris Evans).

With the Winter Soldier behind a heist

(S

B

y all appearances, “Captain America: Civil War” looked like a magnificent mess as it was coming down the pike. The 13th Marvel Cinematic Universe film, with a cast that included heroes from nearly all the predecessors, was always doomed to be a yearbook collage come to life. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo, back from the dour if well received “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” were again at the helm, along with a cast of action figures made from actors. What they and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely managed to construct, though, feels like one of the strongest entries in the genre. It’s overwhelming, ambitious and complex — and suffers from

ROCK

in Lagos that the Avengers foil but that leads to bystander deaths, the team has to reckon with the collateral damage trailing them around the globe. The State Department and the U.N. want to cork up the Avengers’ power, and send them into crises only on an ad hoc basis. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), shaken by survivor stories, sees this as the way forward, as do Black Widow, War Machine and Vision. But ol’ Cap doesn’t want a committee to put the brakes on crime fighting, and he’s committed to trying to bring in the Winter Soldier his own self. Falcon, Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch agree. Thus, factions arise from the political impasse, and factions lead to whiz-bang fisticuffs.

Take two steps back, though, and it starts looking like a real parable. Thirteen years after anyone articulated the Bush Doctrine, here’s a movie perfect for 13-year-olds that spells it out in accessible terms. If you’re the strongest force on the planet, and you perceive threats that only you can quash, should you wait for anyone to give you the go-ahead? In 2003 America the country said, definitively, and to its deep regret, that the answer is yeah, we’ll kick an ass whenever we see the back

MARVELOUS: Heroes spar in “Civil War.”

of pants. And America the Captain, in “Civil War,” determines much the same thing. Iron Man in this polarity winds up being, say, France, but in a way that will have you wondering what France would do the next time Ultron tries to kill everyone on the planet — wait for roll call?

Admittedly, this analogy falls apart when comparing, say, the decision to invade Iraq on trumped-up pretenses and the decision to protect New York City from a wormhole Thanos opened

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38

MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

ARKANSAS TIMES MARKETPLACE ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTOR

to dump Chitauri warriors and flying trilobite monsters into midtown Manhattan. And yet, the tension is strong enough to hang a pretty ripping summer tentpole blockbuster on.

Netflix’s serial TV hit “Jessica Jones” last fall reckoned with many of the same themes; there, people had become embittered toward superheroes because of the calamities they seemed to invite.

Vision, who as a hyper-intelligent sentient A.I. endowed with weird cosmic powers ought to know better, makes a version of this argument in “Civil War” as well. Maybe the great power the Avengers possess invites challenges, he says. What if power itself, then, invites these disasters?

It’s easy to write this off as facile, which it is, but “Civil War” was already pushing the boundaries of too damn long and doesn’t need to skirt off into “Frost/Nixon” conversations. In truth, the comic book universe does operate the way Vision suggests: These fantastic stories about super, heroic people, need villains as fuel, ergo, writers tend to orient villains as a response to heroes. But in the real world, things tend to work in the reverse: Everyone’s pretty much content to do his or her own thing until villainy happens of its own accord, and we figure out ways to respond to it. We hire cops, we file lawsuits, we report, we put ourselves in harm’s way. A hero without a foil is just a citizen.

To its credit, “Civil War” stops shy of making any final pronouncements on which faction should rule. Instead, it sticks to solid action sequences (creating more Ant-Man fans along the way) and after some soul-searching and facepunching by Cap and Iron Man, drops everyone into more miserable states than they began. It’s gritty, ambivalent and at times harrowing, befitting a serious kids’ movie that tries to reckon with the America in its title.

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a non-profit advocacy organization, seeks an Administrative Director. Hours are 30 to 40 hours a week depending on applicant’s needs. Bachelor’s degree with experience in daily operations of a nonprofit including book-keeping and database management. EOE. Send cover letter, resume, and references to cneal@aradvocates.org or 1400 West Markham St., Ste. 306, Little Rock, AR 72201.

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

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

May 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 2016 A powerful true drama of six women who went to Vietnam $16 Adults • $12 Students, Seniors & Military (Active, Retired & Veterans) 7:30 pm Fridays and Saturdays For more information contact us at 501.374.3761 or www.weekendtheater.org

Call Cindy Greene Satisfaction Always Guaranteed

MOVING TO MAC

www.movingtomac.com

cindy@movingtomac.com • 501-681-5855

1001 W. 7th St., LR, AR 72201 On the corner of 7th and Chester, across from Vino’s.

Support for TWT is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the DAH, and the NEA.

www.arktimes.com

MAY 12, 2016

39

FRIDAY, MAY 20 | 6-9 P.M. at the ARGENTA PLAZA

WINE

RAIN OR SHINE

FOOD

JA Z Z

CATERED BY

for a

TASTE OVER 300 WINES

SPRING EVENING

5 tents serving wines from all over the world.

with

THE FUNKANITES w/ DJ Set by Joshua Asante of Amasa Hines & Velvet Kente

Make plans to attend this enjoyable spring evening event celebrating Wine, Food & Jazz in the beautiful Argenta Arts District.

Go To:

Purchase tickets early: $30, $40 at the door

http://bit.ly/grape16

for tickets!

Print your tickets and present at the door.

40

MAY 12, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES