Arkansas Times - May 14, 2015

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BEST T S E F E H OF T Our picks for must-see movies at the Little Rock Film Festival, including the documentary “Uncertain.”

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COMMENT

Maltreatment of imprisoned mothers On the front page of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Arkansas page last week, we learned about the settlement of a lawsuit brought by women who were pregnant and incarcerated in the Pulaski County jail and were forced to deliver in the jail (with one delivering in the transport to the hospital). The amount of the settlement is not disclosed, but what is disclosed is the inhumane manner in which these women were treated, during their pregnancies and at the point of labor and birthing. The description says so much about the attitude of the guards and the medical staff. Their mocking and careless disregard of the safety of these women and their infants should enlighten all of us to the quality of those we assign to serve in our jails and prisons. I do not need any further evidence of the cruelty and demonization of the people who we incarcerate.

Are their newborns not as valued as newborns in the free world? The devaluation is certainly evidenced in these cases. And in a jail setting, these women may be innocent for all we know but cannot make bail. I am truly sickened, and I want our community to speak up loudly and clearly that we intend for the treatment to be appropriate for all of the mothers during pregnancy and thereafter. Our society cannot survive when we allow such abuse.

Dee Ann Newell Little Rock

Pro Bernie Good news! Sen. Bernie Sanders is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. With this, Hillary’s coronation by corporate media has hit a beautiful bump in the road. The reality is that like Republicans, Hillary and Obama are professional politicians with no real principles, who will take money from corrupting sources and say anything to obtain power.

Once in power, they cannot be trusted to do anything they said in their campaigns.

That is not leadership! Bernie is a sincere leader with principled positions that may be uncomfortably true, but are the needed medicine.

As in previous elections, Hillary and “top tier” Republicans are the media-declared “serious” candidates because they raise millions from Wall Street and other ultrawealthy interests. And of course, Wall Street does not donate for charity. They absolutely expect and are surely promised returns on their investments.

Please go to opensecrets.org to see the vast oceans of Wall Street cash in which these politicians bathe. Like Obama and Republicans, Hillary has taken many legal bribes from corporations like Citigroup, 4

MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, 21st Century Fox, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, among others. Bernie has not.

Although Bernie is wrong on the important issue of Israel, like 99 percent of our Congress, he is right about virtually every other important issue. The most important issue, deeper even than economics, is saving and improving our democracy in the face of complete oligarchy, or rule by the richest few. We cannot solve any problems economic, environmental or peace-wise without functional democracy. On this, Bernie is the most powerful elected advocate for

democracy we have.

The logic becomes that if Bernie is elected and can help save and improve democracy, we could then elect leaders that are badass on every issue like Congressman Dennis Kucinich was. Currently, if you are like Kucinich, your opponent gets massive corporate funding for your defeat; ultimately he was gerrymandered out of office.

With galactic cajones, Bernie correctly stands up for the democratic socialism that has helped make Scandinavian countries wonderful.

Bernie has said he will release “very specific proposals” to raise taxes on the super-

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rich and corporations, serious healthcare reform toward single-payer Medicare for all, and tuition-free college education. He has also consistently opposed all job and environment killing “free” trade agreements like NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Obama and Hillary support, and he supports stringent regulations of Wall Street.

The core of his campaign is on economic inequality and corruption of democracy by the billionaire and millionaire class. Bernie asks: “Is it morally appropriate that 99 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent ... and the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent ... [while] our democracy [is] being destroyed when one family can spend $900 million to buy elections?”

The reality is that the Democratic and Republican parties have shifted to the right, especially since Reagan. The Republicans have become purely a party for the oligarchs, and most top Democrats have become right wing on core economic policies, much more so than Republican President Eisenhower.

Hillary Clinton once said there is a “vast right wing conspiracy.” Ironically, she and Obama are a part of this conspiracy.

Obama’s TPP, Obamacare, illegal NSA surveillance and Wall Street bailouts are right-wing corporatism. Obama’s corporatist anti-environmental policy is exemplified in his Cushing speech: “I’ve (opened) up millions of acres for gas and oil ... more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore ... quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high ... added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.”

Moreover, Bill Clinton’s NAFTA, WTO, 1999 removal of Depression Era banking regulations, social welfare cuts, and the 1996 Telecommunications Act were also right-wing corporatism.

Hillary will be virtually identical to Obama and Bill. They are decent on some social policies that do not threaten the economic interests of their wealthy campaign financiers.

However, on fundamental economic policies, they are barely different from Republicans. Hillary will give a little lip service to inequality and democracy, but once elected, like Obama, she will very weakly do anything for the people, and work much harder for her wealthy masters.

The only way to defeat Wall Street candidates is if poorer — people do something. I just donated at BernieSanders.com and urge everyone else to do likewise. Thanks to people like us, Bernie Raised $1.5 million on day one, more than any Republican, with the average donation under $50.

In the altered words of Bernie, “A political revolution is coming! Don’t underestimate us!”

Abel Tomlinson Fayetteville

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EYE ON ARKANSAS

WEEK THAT WAS

Quote of the Week:

JEFF AMANN

“What I ask people who think that insurance is the answer: Is there any evidence that shows that improves health care?”

— State Sen. Jim Hendren (R-Gravette), a co-chair of the Health Reform Legislative Task Force, in an interview televised last weekend in which he signaled his continued disdain for the private option, the Medicaid expansion program now providing health insurance to well over 200,000 Arkansans.

Hendren said the federal cash infusion provided to Arkansas by the Medicaid expansion is distortionary: “Anytime you begin to manipulate the market, you’re asking for trouble.”

THE SHINE-ING: Photo by Jeff Amann from our Eye On Arkansas Flickr page of shoe shiner Russell Steed, who sets up shop in front of the men’s clothing store Barakat Bespoke on President Clinton Avenue.

So: A state taxpayer giveaway to land a project funded through billions in federal defense spending. Might Hendren support a little market manipulation in this context?

Let’s not make a deal

Welfare for Lockheed Martin While Sen. Hendren argued against government interference in the purity of the marketplace, his uncle, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, made plans to use public money to attract an expansion of defense contractor Lockheed Martin in South Arkansas.

Hutchinson announced this week that he was calling a special session of the legislature to consider issuing economic development incentives under Amendment 82 to help Lockheed secure a massive contract with the U.S. Department of Defense. The contract is to build the next generation of all-purpose light vehicles for the Army and Marines — they’re to be the successor to the military’s Humvee — and if awarded to Lockheed, the company says it plans to expand its current facility in Camden by almost 600 positions.

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U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton continued his trademark grandstanding on foreign policy, casting the only vote against a bipartisan bill to give more congressional oversight over nuclear diplomacy with Iran. The bill passed 98-1 after Cotton’s attempts to force amendments to the bill failed, thus driving Democrats away from negotiations that may have given Senate Republicans a tougher bill in the end.

Many of his fellow Republicans were not pleased with the tactics.

Eureka turns out As the Arkansas Times headed to press this week, Eureka Springs was voting on an ordinance that would forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The early voting numbers were encouraging: By the eve of the election, 425 early votes had been cast.

In comparison, about 320 people in Eureka voted early in the 2014 general election last November. High turnout should bode well for proequality forces.

Supreme Court dawdles again While municipal anti-discrimination measures make halting progress around the state — Hot Springs passed an employee protection ordinance last week that’s similar to Little Rock’s, although neither goes nearly as far as Eureka’s — the Arkansas Supreme Court continues to delay ruling on the question of same-sex marriage.

Last week, the court reached a decision in a secondary case related to the original marriage case that will have the practical effect of drawing out the decision even longer. The legal ins and outs are convoluted, but the court’s intent is crassly transparent: Delay answering the marriage question in the hopes that a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court will take the controversial decision out of the state’s hands.

Adventures in veterinary medicine In Mountain Home, veterinarian Sara Sexton removed 16 live, gnawedupon rifle rounds from the stomach of Benno, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois. The dog found the .308 caliber ammunition in a bag by his owner’s bed and devoured a double handful of the cartridges; he’s expected to make a full recovery after the operation.

In reporting on the story, the Baxter

Bulletin helpfully printed a list of other items that Benno has eaten over the years, including a TV remote, a bra and a piece of wall.

$15,000 and a glass door The Maumelle City Council voted last week to settle a sexual harassment complaint by two employees against City Clerk Joshua Clausen, who they alleged touched them and made inappropriate remarks. Clausen, an elected official, was asked by Mayor Mike Watson to resign. He declined. Instead, the city is settling the complaint by paying $15,000 and replacing Clausen’s office door “with a door that has a large glass panel.”

OPINION

Hall out of touch on Jenner

BY ANDREA ZEKIS

A

rkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist and sportswriter Wally Hall would like to say his recent column, “Bruce is Her Name, Greediness Is His Game,” is about the money-grabbing moves of an athlete 40 years away from his days of glory.

Hall is much too out of touch to comment on this issue. Bruce Jenner, who is still going by Bruce and has not indicated a change of pronoun, is still very much relevant in today’s culture, mainly due to his reality star status from “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and related projects. Jenner is 65, well beyond the age when the majority of athletes retire, and his career path is not uncommon to those looking beyond their athletic days.

There are numerous prominent athletes who have moved onto high-profile nonsports related ventures from hosting talk shows, to pitching products in commercials, to running for political office. Bruce Jenner earned significant money from being part of a reality program; what is the difference?

But Jenner came out as a transgender woman, and the stereotype of a transgender woman and the stereotype of an Olympic athlete could not be further apart. But Bruce Jenner is not a stereotype — he is a human being. Jenner shared with ABC’s Diane Sawyer and an international audience a very personal story, the same sort of story that puts other transgender people at risk of losing the support of family, friends,

God won’t win it for Bro.-Gov. Huck

M

ike Huckabee may have hit upon the right strategy for the early presidential sweepstakes by blending religious fanaticism and a weird (for a Republican) progovernment populism, but the old preacher’s calculations may look a little too, well, calculating.

It may be too much conniving even for the fervid evangelicals who are supposed to be once again the biggest clot of voters in the Iowa Republican caucuses, where Huckabee either gains escape velocity or collapses. His old adversary in the Arkansas GOP, Asa Hutchinson, is riding to the rescue to give him an early Arkansas primary, but no one is going to give any credence to another Arkansas favorite-son promotion.

A few analysts who watched Huckabee’s send-up at Hope last week thought he might have found a way to separate himself from what may be the biggest throng of Republican presidential candidates ever by combining religious malice with a defense of the big liberal social programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the last of which he had expanded at great expense as governor of Arkansas and pronounced his greatest triumph. No other Republican wannabe takes that tack. Huckabee

ridiculed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s suggestion that the Social Security retirement age be ERNEST raised and pledged DUMAS as president to veto the current Republican bible, the Paul Ryan budget, because it moved toward privatizing Medicare and Social Security.

Huckabee saw how Republicans abandoned Texas Gov. Rick Perry in 2012 when he denounced Social Security as a Ponzi scheme and how old folks turned out screaming at town hall meetings in 2009 and 2010 after all the TV commercials and fliers told them Obamacare was going to destroy their Medicare. (It actually expanded Medicare and extended its solvency.)

But in most of the old Republican sanctuaries, Huckabee’s early performance merited mostly contempt and ridicule. George Will reviewed his religious scaremongering, economic nostrums and John C. Calhoun notions about the Constitution and called him “appalling.” The right-wing Wall Street Journal editorial page saw no good in either Huckabee’s defense of

their employer and their faith communities when they share it. Even with his celebrity and financial status, Jenner can face discrimination for something so important to his identity: who he is as a person.

In a state like Arkansas, where transgender people lack legal protections in housing, employment, education and health care, stories like Jenner’s allow for people to see the humanity and dignity of transgender people. The interview allowed for many late-night conversations that Friday night among families, probably including some about their loved ones coming out as transgender. Jenner’s story provided common ground and experience to hopefully keep a family from being ripped apart by fear and lack of empathy. There are people who would prefer transgender people be invisible — in fact, a majority of Americans do not know a transgender person — but thousands of people in this state likely tuned in to see someone who they have watched for years share something intimate about himself. More people know now a transgender person because

of Bruce Jenner.

Just because Bruce Jenner is transgender doesn’t mean he should disappear from television. Before they come out, transgender people often find extraordinary ways to cope and live with what they are feeling inside to survive; some transgender women had very masculine jobs, joined the military and started loving families like Jenner did.

Now at 65, Jenner should be able to still pursue his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as much as anyone else in this country. I know in my heart and my soul I am a transgender woman and proud to be one; being transgender shouldn’t have to determine what I end up creating out of my life.

Hall’s column had everything to do with Bruce Jenner’s gender identity and his pretending otherwise is just an attempt to make the real Bruce Jenner invisible again.

Andrea Zekis is executive director of the Arkansas Transgender Equality Coalition.

old socialist government programs, his attacks on banks or his screeds against the dark forces that were about to outlaw Christianity and jail divine men like him.

“We believe in political redemption,” the WSJ said, “but Mr. Huckabee is already back at the same old stand.”

Some, like Ron Fournier, the former wire reporter who covered him as governor, resurrected the sleaze and greed that characterized his 10 years as governor — Fournier said Huckabee used the governor’s office as a personal ATM — and his hawking medical quackery for profit.

Being for government this time, unless it has something to do with Barack Obama, actually was a no-brainer. The rich guys at the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity spoiled his bid in 2008 by debunking his claims about being the antigovernment, antitax candidate and of forcing tax cut after tax cut down the throats of Democratic legislators in Arkansas. They published his record of tax increases — more than any governor in Arkansas history — and vast expansion of the state government.

They are at it again, so why not just take ownership of your record and set yourself apart from the rest? There are Republicans — maybe most of them — who enjoy all those programs.

But the perils of making yourself THE Christian candidate are the same as they have always been. It gives you an advantage in the Iowa caucuses where only a handful of people vote and in some

Southern primaries, but it has never been a token to the presidency, even for the prairie populist William Jennings Bryan, who was God’s and the Democratic Party’s candidate for president three times.

Huckabee’s second coming, this time as God’s avenger, resurrected Barry Goldwater, the father of modern conservatism and the Republican candidate for president in 1964. His warnings about people like Huckabee were circulating over the Internet as Huckabee kicked off his campaign at Hope. Goldwater, the former major general and author of “The Conscience of a Conservative,” never minced words.

In 1994, when Huckabee was getting his start in politics, Goldwater talked about preachers like Pat Robertson who seek political power by claiming to be on a mission from God. Goldwater had been shunning them as a senator, warning Ronald Reagan in 1980 about lining up with the likes of Rev. James Robison, the Texas televangelist who had mentored young Mike Huckabee.

“Mark my word,” Goldwater said, “if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.” www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

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Bigots can speak, and so can their critics

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t’s still a radical document, the U.S. Constitution, no part of it more so than the First Amendment. Almost everybody’s for freedom of speech, particularly for themselves and people who agree with them. However, the part about no establishment of religion vexes True Believers of every persuasion. How can government possibly remain neutral in matters of faith?

But what really confuses people is an episode like the recent failed terrorist attack in Garland, Texas. Does our commitment to freedom of expression require that we condemn Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, the two self-proclaimed ISIS jihadists who got themselves shot to death during an abortive attempt to massacre participants in a well-publicized contest to draw ugly cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad?

Absolutely it does. Those two murderous dimwits got exactly what they came looking for. Although nobody’s saying so, something tells me the police officer who took them down wasn’t just the average traffic cop. That fellow would have been all over TV by now. This guy has remained anonymous.

Amateurs are ill-advised to get into gun battles with professionals.

But are we therefore also required to admire Pamela Geller, co-founder and president of Stop Islamization of America, the organization that sponsored the cartoon contest? No, we are not. The right to free speech does not include the right not to be criticized.

I’m glad nobody shot her. However, Geller’s actions were deliberately and characteristically provocative, coarse and contemptuous of others’ beliefs; in short, the very definition of bigotry.

In the final analysis, those actions are also damaging to this country’s ability to prevail in its long twilight struggle with radical Islamic terrorism.

The amazing thing is how observers find this hard to see. Writing in his Washington Post media column, the normally sensible Erik Wemple takes issue with Gellar’s critics. “And who’s being treated as the public enemy on cable?” he asks incredulously. “The woman who organized a cartoon contest.”

I’m pretty sure Wemple would take a different view of a Stormfront competition to caricature GENE the ugliest hookLYONS nosed rabbi.

But hold that thought.

“To her enduring credit,” Wemple adds, “Fox News’s Megyn Kelly has been screaming all week about the folly of the ‘too-provocative’ crowd.”

Indeed she has. Interestingly enough, Kelly’s antagonists include Fox News luminaries Bill O’Reilly and Donald Trump, along with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, CNN’s Jake Tapper, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush and others Wemple characterizes as “folded into a crouch of cowardice and rationalization.”

Megyn Kelly’s thunderous rebuttal to O’Reilly was couched in melodramatic terms Geller herself would find appropriate: “You know what else the jihadis don’t like? They hate Jews.

Should we get rid of all Jews? That’s the path we’re going to go down catering to the jihadis. There’s no satisfying them.”

Holy false dichotomies, Batman!

So the choices are deliberately offend the religious sensibilities of millions of peaceable Muslims or get rid of Jews?

This kind of black and white thinking is pretty much the stock in trade of propagandists like Geller intent upon persuading Americans that not only ISIS and Al Qaeda extremists but Islam itself and Arabs in particular are terrorist enemies of the United States. All Arabs, everywhere.

The problem, argues former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, is that the worldwide battle with Islamic fundamentalism “can’t be won without Muslim allies — loyal U.S. citizens who report suspicious activities; allies and proxies who fight against violent Islamism; hundreds of millions of people around the world who repudiate Salafism by the peacefulness and tolerance of their daily lives.

“When Americans engage in highprofile, attention-seeking acts of blasphemy, they are not joining U.S. military CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

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ARKANSAS TIMES

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DRIVERS PLEASE BE AWARE, IT’S ARKANSAS STATE LAW: USE OF BICYCLES OR ANIMALS

Every person riding a bicycle or an animal, or driving any animal drawing a vehicle upon a highway, shall have all the rights and all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle, except those provisions of this act which by their nature can have no applicability.

OVERTAKING A BICYCLE

The driver of a motor vehicle overtaking a bicycle proceeding in the same direction on a roadway shall exercise due care and pass to the left at a safe distance of not less than three feet (3’) and shall not again drive to the right side of the roadway until safely clear of the overtaken bicycle.

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Eulogy

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he Observer was not prepared for how attached we became to that cat over the years — haughty rival for Spouse’s affections, who spent the first years of his life avoiding Yours Truly like week-old leftovers, only emerging to sharpen his claws on something we liked better than him: the leather cigar chair, the bookbag we carry to all our reporting gigs, the footstool, The Observer’s own manpaw, dangling enticingly from the edge of the bed while The Observer slept. Like most of us who are worth a damn, though, he mellowed with age.

He was Spouse’s cat, really, christened Mister Kitty, latest in a long line of questionable cat names on her part: Fluffy Tail, Fluffy Booty, and then Mister Kitty, even though we had suggested a cartoon hotel register full of perfectly good names: Monkey and Duke and Goose, Mule and Herbert and Bill Clinton. It’s a good thing we had a stake in naming Junior, we told our lovely bride, or the poor lad would have been named Mister Baby for all time. The Honorable Chief Justice Mister Baby.

Mister K, as we said, started out standoffish and weird, skittish and antisocial, but he came around. He was odd, even for a cat. He came home with us on New Year’s Day 13 years ago, a few months after we bought The Observatory on Maple Street. There he has remained, lord of 1,100 square feet, eventually growing to baby panther size, belly pendulous as a Bengal tiger’s, head that filled two hands, black velvet lump of love to trip over in the dark, the Barry White of all catdom. He couldn’t purr, so he sort of grunted his approval. Held court from beneath the Winter Palace of faux greenery and lights and baubles that his Subjects erected in his sole honor every year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Never lost his love of lying on newspapers, a habit he gained in the joint, where the folks at the shelter had given him the equally questionable name of Nightmare.

Lazy? Oh, so lazy. But it is a cat’s life. Also: loyal; beautiful; living alarm clock; sole witness to three robberies;

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dedicated nursecat to the sick, sad and drunk; avid spectator of the Tomcat Wars that have raged for years in our backyard and sideyard, Mr. K safely ensconced behind glass but always fascinated with the difficult and dangerous life he had been spared when The Man and The Lady and The Baby Who Magically Became a Man chose him, solely because he was the only cat at the shelter who even acted as if we existed. He was, as we were prone to say to him as he peered through the shades, too pretty for the streets. The Hard Kitties, with their gnawed ears and broken tails, would have eaten him alive. We also said, however, that there was some dog in him, the only cat we’ve ever known who could be patted on his haunches like a pooch without starting an international incident, who invited gentle tail pulls and tummy rubs. Add to that the fact that he outweighed all other contenders by a good 10 pounds, and maybe he could have held his own, not that we would have ever allowed him to find out. He was, as we’ve said, too pretty for that rough business.

Other than infrequent trips to the vet in which he clutched the carpet of the car, yowling like he was being sent on a moonshot, a nervous night in a hotel while the air was out one August, and one answered Call of the Wild in which he zipped out the open door, only to be found an hour later, filthy and damp, having squeezed under the door of the shed, Mr. K never left The Observatory in all these years. With Yours Truly and Spouse having spent our entire married life until then in student housing and animals-verboten apartments, he was the first shared pet of our relationship. Junior was young enough when we got him that he can’t remember a time without Mr. K under foot. And then: the sneak thief of sickness. A stubborn refusal to eat or drink. And then: one last moonshot, calm this time. And then: the needle stick, a last inch of discomfort.

And then: the air goes out slow, like a deflating balloon.

As we said: The Observer was not

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 39 www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

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Arkansas Reporter

THE

IN S IDE R

Last week, a hearing officer assigned to hear two financial securities cases related to former Arkansas Treasurer Marsha Shoffner issued a final order on the matter of Steele Stephens, the broker at St. Bernard Financial Services of Russellville who bribed Shoffner to obtain a higher volume of the state’s bond business.

The final order by hearing officer Jack Pruniski requires Stephens (no relation to Stephens, Inc. investment house) to pay a $20,000 fine and formally revokes his registration as a securities agent in Arkansas as of June 20, 2013. It’s not much of a penalty: His registration was already effectively revoked, and the fine is far smaller than it could be. The Arkansas Securities Department was reportedly seeking up to $150,000 in fines against Stephens.

There was no doubt that Shoffner directed business to Stephens in part because he slipped her cash to do so.

But the Securities Department had also alleged that the financial trades Stephens made with the state’s money were bad in and of themselves. Pruniski concluded that was not the case.

The order says, in part, “this conclusion is based upon the limited number of sales before maturity/call, the determination by the St. Bernard Compliance Department that the transactions were suitable and the sophistication level of the Arkansas Treasurer’s Office.

Based on this information, Stephens had reasonable grounds for believing that the recommended transactions were suitable for Arkansas Treasurer’s Office.”

Because Stephens cooperated with the FBI in the sting operation that eventually led to Shoffner’s arrest, he was immune from prosecution in the subsequent investigation of the state treasurer. He also wasn’t required to pay back commissions he’d received on the bond transactions.

The other securities complaint related to the Shoffner scandal was resolved in March with a similarly small settlement of $25,000. That complaint was against St. Bernard itself, Stephens’ former employer. Robert Keenan, head of St. Bernard, said that Thursday’s ruling was further vindication of what he has claimed from the beginning: Steele Stephens’ shady dealings with Shoffner were confined

BRIAN CHILSON

Shoffner broker slapped on the wrist

TIM HOWARD: His new guilty verdict should soon set him free.

What went down in Ashdown Puzzling over Tim Howard’s retrial.

BY MARA LEVERITT

B

y midnight the courtroom felt drained. Both sides could take some satisfaction in the verdicts — though only some — and emotions, though strong, were muted.

Tim Howard hoped the jury would find him not guilty. Prosecutors wanted him sentenced to life without parole.

At the end, jurors split the baby. Arriving at what attorneys on both sides deem an apparent compromise, they did find Howard guilty but gave him a sentence that will soon set him free.

It worked like this: The jurors found Howard guilty, but of the least possible charges. They then sentenced him to a total of 38 years for the crimes.

State law requires Howard to serve half of that sentence, 19 years. Typically, a good prison record, which he’s maintained, would cut that time in half as well. When the Arkansas Department of Correction reviews Howard’s new sentence, probably within a matter of weeks, they are expected to calculate he needed to serve a total of less than 10 years — seven years fewer than he’s already spent in prison.

So this was almost a U-turn for Howard, who, in this same courtroom in 1999, had

heard himself sentenced to death. Now, standing to hear himself found guilty, of two second-degree murders and a seconddegree attempted murder, with a sentence that amounted to “time served,” he looked exhausted and numb.

For the victims’ families, who have believed for nearly two decades in the justness of Howard’s original sentence, the verdict rendered the night of May 8 in the Little River County Courthouse must have seemed all but incomprehensible.

But there it was: After 10 days of testimony, hundreds of exhibits and nine hours of deliberation, one thing was clear: A divided jury had labored hard to deliver a verdict that offered a semblance, if only that, of justice.

The timeline to this confusing moment can be traced to late in the 20th century, when methamphetamine buzzed into Arkansas. We don’t know who brought the drug here. All we know is that by the mid-1990s, meth was epidemic, and it was worst in the state’s rural dry counties — counties like Little River.

Howard used meth. The couple Howard was charged with killing used it. Many of the witnesses who appeared at the trial —

both for the state and the defense — were using meth back then, or using and selling it, too.

We know that on a bitter cold day in December 1997, police found Brian Day shot, his wife, Shanon Day, strangled, and their infant son, Trevor, left for dead in a zipped duffle bag.

We know that, long after Howard’s conviction for the murders two years later, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that he might require a new trial because key evidence available to the state had not been provided to his attorneys.

Such withholding of evidence would violate what’s known as the Brady Rule, a requirement that prosecutors disclose all pertinent evidence the state has obtained.

So the Supreme Court sent his case back to Circuit Judge Charles Yeargan, who had officiated at Howard’s trial.

In 2013, Yeargan ruled that a Brady violation had occurred. He ordered Howard’s convictions vacated. Legally, that made Howard innocent again, but though he was taken off death row, he went straight to the Little River County Jail because Bryan Chesshir, the current prosecuting attorney, opted to recharge him.

Chesshir said he would not seek the death penalty this time for Howard. Still, there was nothing easy about preparing to retry a case this old.

As Chesshir, who was not involved in the original trial, observed: “Eighteen years later, it’s just a hard row to hoe.”

Patrick Benca, Howard’s current attorney, found the run-up to the trial hard, too.

He argued in a couple of pretrial motions that prosecutors still were not providing the evidence Brady required.

Yeargan, as he muttered often during the new trial, was ready to “move on.” He denied Benca’s motions, saw a jury seated, and, on March 26, commenced Howard’s retrial.

This observer found it a murky affair, a puzzle missing too many pieces. Nevertheless, having attended it throughout, I offer a half-dozen points that were proven, to me at least, beyond a reasonable doubt: Two young people were murdered, their baby almost was, and items were sent to the crime lab.

Chesshir and Al Smith, his deputy prosecutor, put horrific photos of Brian and Shanon Day’s bodies on a courtroom projector for jurors, members of the victims’ families, and everyone else present to see — several CONTINUED ON PAGE 38

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ARKANSAS TIMES

THE

BIG PICTURE

The Endangered Eight plus one The Arkansas Historic Preservation Alliance has selected its Endangered Eight list of Arkansas properties for 2015 and added a new category, the Watch List, for Worthen Bank Building (KATV), which faces an uncertain fate thanks to Little Rock Technology Park plans. Here are the eight places that without attention could disappear from the state’s historic portfolio and more information on the Worthen building.

Bondi Brothers Commercial Block Clarendon (Monroe County) Built 1904 When this two-story, 12,000-square-foot Italianate building went up, it served a prosperous Clarendon, providing space for merchants in this river town. The building i s one of the few of such significance left in Clarendon and was slated for demolition until the Moore family stepped in and purchased it. The Alliance says it will need “resources, perseverance and imagination” to be preserved.

Brittnum Boarding House Little Rock (Pulaski County) Built 1913 The Little Rock City Board of Directors voted last Tuesday to tear down this structure, built as a private residence but transformed into a boarding house that catered to African-American blue collar workers and in the 1960s offered a temporary home to black Arkansas Traveler baseball players. The city did not enact an emergency clause, which means the building won’t be demolished for 30 days. The Alliance says it “is included on this year’s listing because it represents a class of structures about which questions of significance, integrity and rehabilitation potential are unanswered; bulldozer blades and wrecking bars guarantee that they will remain so.”

First Presbyterian Church Nashville (Howard County) Built 1912 This wood-frame Victorian “Carpenter Gothic” structure at Second and Hempstead streets features “exposed interior Gothic beams, clear-finished bead board ceilings, wainscoting, a four-square Victorian bell tower, High Gothic bronze door hardware, heart pine flooring and intricately cut Florentine glass windows.” It was a church from 1912 to 1975 and a museum for a time after that. There are rehabilitation plans, but, the Alliance says, “tangible support from the Nashville community is needed to ensure that First Presbyterian’s future is assured.”

Pine Bluff Historic Commercial District Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) Early 20th century Pine Bluff’s commercial district is literally collapsing as old buildings give way. If not rehabilitated, the Hotel Pines and the African-American Masonic Temple could follow. Photographers and architectural students have brought attention to the plight of the Hotel

Pines, designed by noted Arkansas architect George Richard Mann (designer of the state Capitol) and built in 1912. It was at the time one of the finest hotels in Arkansas. It closed in 1970 and its interior of marble and stained glass has been left to disintegrate. The building is for sale. The four-story brick Masonic Temple, which dates to 1904 and was once the largest building in downtown Pine Bluff, played a big role in the state’s African-American history, once housing the first black-owned bank. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Lee Theater Little Rock (Pulaski County) c. 1940 The Lee Theatre, at West 13th and Pine streets, was built in 1940 as a onescreen movie theater on the site of an earlier theater in 1940. It had 700 seats on the first floor (whites only) and 200 in the balcony (for African Americans). The hall was once painted in five shades of blue. Outside, its art moderne white stucco façade featured glazed tile and porcelain enamel copings.

According to cinematreasures.org, it was operated in the 1940s by Paramount Pictures and was still open in 1950.

Once, Little Rock and North Little Rock had 19 independently operated theaters. The Lee is one of only three that remain and the only one built before World War II. Springfield/Cadron Creek Bridge Cadron (Conway County) Erected 1874 This bowstring truss bridge once connected Des Arc, on the White River, with the former seat of Conway County, Springfield, and is the oldest surviving highway bridge in Arkansas. The bridge, on the Faulkner County-Conway County line, was bypassed in 1991; since then, vandals have set fire to the bridge timbers and the stonework has begun to fail.

State National Bank of Foreman Foreman (Little River County) c. 1940 The successor to another bank built as early as 1908, the Art Deco/ Mediterranean Foreman bank still contains its decorative tile, its original teller stations and their glass inserts, and two vaults. Outside, however, the brickwork is in poor condition and the rear wall has a hole in it, now covered in plywood.

James Horn Williams (WilliamsHoward) House Luxora (Mississippi County) c. 1849 CONTINUED ON PAGE 35

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INSIDER, CONT. to the bribes, not anything to do with how the bond business itself was then conducted.

“You have heard me say all along that there was nothing wrong with the bond business that St. Bernard did with the Arkansas Treasury,” Keenan said, noting that federal financial regulators had looked at the deals and found them to be suitable. “The only problem was Steele Stephens giving money to Martha Shoffner.”

Senator criticizes closed hiring of Kurrus

In his one week on the job, new Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus has already struck a more open and inclusive tone with parents and teachers. That’s good news, but there’s reason for skepticism — not necessarily because of Kurrus himself, but because of how he came into the job.

On Tuesday, State Education Commissioner Johnny Key hired Kurrus as superintendent with virtually no prior notice. Although Kurrus has been intimately involved in the district for decades, he has no professional background in education, which meant the hiring required a waiver of rule and statute from the State Board of Education. This was accomplished at a special meeting of the state board that was announced barely 24 hours in advance, and with no evident solicitation of input from anyone in the community.

In a Facebook post, State Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock) said of the decision, “When something happens that quickly, you know it’s a done deal that’s been determined by, in this case, people with power and privilege — privilege so normal to those with such standing, it never occurred to them that just maybe it would have been a good idea if there had been more transparency and some meaningful inclusion of the community south of I-630 before simply deciding who would be the next superintendent of LRSD. Having good intentions does not excuse exclusion of those not a routine part of the power circle.”

Elliott said she believes Kurrus is committed to the city and the schools, but “no matter how difficult it is, no matter how messy it is, we’ve got to have some community engagement. ... We can’t have a messiah attitude about knowing what’s best for people without including them.” www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

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FILM FOR THE PEOPLE The Little Rock Film Festival returns for year nine with a new director.

and bronze ($60) passes. Those passholders who get a card stamped at 10 screenings or more will be upgraded to gold passholders on Saturday, which

BY LINDSEY MILLAR allows them to attend the gala, where he base formula for the Little ning documentary filmmaking brothers there will be all-you-can-eat crawfish, free beer and live bluegrass from the Rock Film Festival has always who co-founded the festival along with band Runaway Planet. been the same: Treat filmmakers Owen Brainard and Jamie Moses, have like celebrities — wine them, dine them, added new wrinkles: moving to venues “Every year we have so many people who love the movies at the festhrow parties for them, shuttle them downtown in order to make the festival tival. They’re at the first screening around in a car service — and they’ll more walkable; focusing on the South tell their friends. That positive word of with a special prize (this year the award and at the last screening. It’s lovely to see. We wanted to find a way to honor that sort of patron,” Gentry said.

Another avenue for people to watch movies without investing in a pass: The Clinton School of Public Service is screening seven documentaries from Thursday until Saturday, all of which are free if room remains after passholders have been seated (there usually is).

But those who choose to buy passes (available at festival venues or at littlerockfilmfestival.com) will find plenty of value. More than 100 films will screen throughout the week, most with filmmakers in attendance for post-screening Q&As. Acclaimed filmmaker Robert Greene, whose film “Actress” (which played at last year’s LRFF) was one of the best reviewed and most arresting films released last year, returns this year to program the cinematic nonfiction block; he’ll moderate a number of discussions with filmmakers as well.

Then, of course, there are the parties, for which the fesGABE GENTRY: The new Little Rock Film Festival director has established a rewards program that provides a path for people who watch a lot of movies to go to the gala celebration. tival is so well known. At 10 p.m. Thursday, KABF FM, 88.3, hosts a “Summer of ’85” dance screen. They’ll include the top narparty featuring the biggest hits from is called the Arkansas Times Best Southmouth will help the festival land films and filmmakers that a midsized festival ern Film Award), and establishing a cinrative feature, documentary feature, 30 years ago at Good Food By Fernin a midsized city wouldn’t otherwise ematic nonfiction category to highlight cinematic nonfiction film, audience eau in North Little Rock. Friday is the favorite, Southern film, world short annual party on the Junction Bridge get. Timing helps, too: The LRFF has documentary films that defy convention, with video and music provided by VJ always fallen soon after Sundance and often blurring the line between reportand film made in Arkansas. g-force. It runs from 9 p.m. until midSXSW and just weeks after Tribeca, so age and fiction.

Those who’re only interested in seeing the best of the fest can purchase night. There are after-parties at Crush it’s in position to show the best of those This year’s new addition? The hiring a one-day ticket for $20. Meanwhile, Wine Bar and The Joint in North Little fests first. The better the program, the of a festival director, the first the LRFF more people come out to watch movies. has had since 2011. Local filmmaker Gentry says he’s most proud of the Rock from 11 p.m. until 2 a.m. Saturdevelopment of a cinephile card, a day’s gala at the Old State House kicks Along the way, LRFF artistic direcGabe Gentry took the position earlier rewards program for festivalgoers who off at 8 p.m. Individual tickets to all tor Brent Renaud and executive director this year. A filmmaking collaborator Craig Renaud, the Peabody Award-winwith the Renauds, Gentry is also well purchase the lower tier silver ($150) the parties are available at the door.

BRIAN CHILSON

T

versed in all aspects of the festival (he’s also, in full disclosure, a close friend of mine). He attended each of the previous eight festivals, either as a paid passholder, a filmmaker or a volunteer. So far, under his leadership, the LRFF has focused on its audience.

This year, the annual gala (sponsored by the Arkansas Times) is happening on Saturday evening, rather than Sunday as in years past. On Sunday, the winners in each category will

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MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

‘UNCERTAIN’

TEN TO WATCH AT THE LITTLE ROCK FILM FESTIVAL Add ’em to your list.

BY BENJAMIN HARDY, DAVID KOON, LINDSEY MILLAR, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK AND WILL STEPHENSON

‘Uncertain’ Directed by Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands

T

he setup for “Uncertain” almost seems too neat: The future of Uncertain, Texas, a tiny east Texas hamlet (pop. 94) near the border of Lou-

isiana, is — you guessed it — uncertain.

The prospects of three Uncertain residents who represent three generations?

Also uncertain. The fate of Caddo Lake, a sportsman’s paradise that’s historically been the town’s reason for existence?

Uncertain, too. Since 2006, the lake has been increasingly overrun by invasive vegetation, especially the giant salvinia,

a South African plant that covers waterways and prevents necessary sunlight and oxygen from reaching fish, insects and native plants. Directors Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands frame the town’s existential crisis in the background of finely composed character studies. Henry is a 74-year-old fishing guide who’s dating a younger woman

who may only care about his money.

Wayne is an obsessive boar hunter and ex-con, who, as a felon, is only able to hunt thanks to a Texas law that allows him to use rifles made before 1899. Zach is a diabetic twentysomething who lives aimlessly in a dilapidated home. Their stories unfold in a way that feels natural, but — thanks to dips into the past and present developments — builds dramatically. Meanwhile, the cinematography, especially of the lake and its ghostly fog and soaring cypress trees, is as beautiful as I’ve seen in years. 3:15 p.m. Thursday, Butler Center, with directors Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands. LM

‘Breaking the Monster’

Directed by Luke Meyer As a former metalhead, I give four Dio horns way, way up for “Breaking the Monster,” a doc about the unlikely metal band Unlocking the Truth, three African-American kids from New York who live the dream of landing a $1.8 million record deal with Sony, playing Coachella and opening for their idols like Motorhead and Metallica. Did I mention they did it all before graduating from middle school? Alec Atkins, Malwww.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

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ARKANSAS TIMES

‘BREAKING THE MONSTER’

colm Brickhouse and Jarad Dawkins started out shredding the faces off of grateful passersby on street corners in Brooklyn. Soon, though, their talent landed them on the fast track to stardom.

As seen in the documentary, though, once the Money Men get involved, what had been a labor of love becomes more of a plain ol’ job, with the three transformed from fairly normal kids into commodities who aren’t even allowed to ride a skateboard for fear they’ll injure a valuable finger, wrist or arm. That said, their collective joy while onstage is a thing to behold, and “Breaking the Monster” isn’t without its lighthearted moments. The irony of their wizened old manager arguing with lead vocalist Brickhouse over his Coke consumption (that’s Coca-Cola, of course) during a recording session won’t be lost on anyone with even a passing knowledge of the history of rock ’n’ roll. In the end, “Breaking the Monster” turns out to be a vibrant sonic meditation on high-decibel rock, the spooky beauty of witnessing born talent, and the shiny, sharp-toothed machines designed to mulch artistic passion into cold, hard cash. 1 p.m. Thursday, Ron Robinson Theater with director Luke Meyer and 8 p.m. Friday, Ron Robinson Theater with a concert by Unlocking the Truth

and director Luke Meyer on hand. DK

‘How to Change the World’

Directed by Jerry Rothwell How to change the world? Answer 1: Plant a mind bomb. That is how a group of guys from the counter-culture of Vancouver brought worldwide attention to the cause of environmentalism back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, starting with a protest of the United States’ nuclear program. With no seagoing experience, they convinced a fishing

‘HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD’

boat to take them and their protest to the island of Amchitka in the northern Pacific, where the U.S. was to test a five-megaton atomic bomb. They didn’t make it to Amchitka, and they didn’t stop the bomb, but with the film they took and the attention they drew to themselves they set off a chain reaction — a mind bomb, journalist Bob Hunter called it — of public awareness of threats to the natural world. This bandanawearing, LSD-dropping and nonstop cigarette-smoking crew, led by former Vancouver journalist Hunter, ended up founding Greenpeace and illustrated

that just by showing up they could change bad policy. Some of the greatest footage here is of their attempt, from dinghies and a fishing boat, to stop a huge Russian whaler — a floating abattoir with blood gushing from its bilge pumps — from taking whales. Here is footage both devastating, recording the kill of a whale pup taken illegally; to humorous, as three guys in a Zodiac dinghy and various musical instruments attempt to lure the whales in with their songs; to incredible, as one filmmaker in a rocky rubber boat captured the Russians firing a harpoon just over the heads of protesters and into a whale they were seeking to protect.

The larger tale of “How to Change the World” — which at its most basic is a biopic of Hunter — is how a small group coalesced over a cause, became famous and eventually fractured over dissention in tactics and money and who could rightfully call themselves Greenpeace, told with contemporary interviews of the founders and the invaluable film shot in the ’70s. 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, Clinton School of Public Service, both followed by a discussion with cinematographer Ron Precious. LNP

‘Western’ Directed by Bill and Turner Ross “Western,” a documentary showing as part of the festival’s cinematic nonfiction program, is a strange, vivid and personal depiction of the small border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, which lies across the Rio Grande from its Mexican sister city Piedras Negras. The film is populated by deserts, heat lightning, fireworks, parades, bullfights, drab office buildings and the most minor of everyday moments and gestures — all given equal priority in its immersive, panoramic structure. It’s the third in an idiosyncratic trilogy of Americanathemed documentaries by Bill and Turner Ross, brothers and co-directors originally from Ohio and now based in New Orleans, affiliates of the filmmaking collective Court 13. The Ross brothers spent over a year in Eagle Pass to make the film, which compellingly borrows the cinematic grammar of fiction filmmaking toward nonfiction

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ends, and their dedication is apparent — how else could they have captured the enormity of the place, its struggles and memorable characters? 12:30 p.m.

Friday, Ron Robinson Theater and 3 p.m. Saturday, Ron Robinson Theater, both followed by a conversation with filmmaker and cinematic nonfiction programmer Robert Greene and producer Michael Gottwald. WS

‘Peace Officer’ Directed by Brad Barber and Scott Christopherson One of the things pushed to the fore by the unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., is the disturbing image of armor-clad police in Army surplus war machines, facing down crowds

in black, performing his own exhaustive investigations into SWAT-related deaths. 8 p.m. Friday, Clinton School of Public Service with director Scott Christopherson. DK

‘(T)ERROR’ Directed by Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe Look on the bright side: The fact that a documentary like “(T)ERROR” could be made at all, the fact that filmmakers Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliff haven’t been whisked away to Guantanamo under cover of night, is testimony that the rule of law still constrains federal policing. “(T)ERROR” is a look at the inside of a counterterrorism sting, princi-

5:30 p.m. Friday, Clinton School of Public Service, followed by a conversation with filmmaker and cinematic nonfiction programmer Robert Greene and director Lyric Cabral. BH

‘7 Chinese Brothers’

Directed by Bob Byington “7 Chinese Brothers,” a low-key indie-comedy character study named for an R.E.M. song, stars Jason Schwartzman as a heavy-drinking burnout named Larry who gets fired from his job at a restaurant and spends much of the movie talking to his dog, a pug named Arrow. It’s another successful (and, in some ways, similar) independent venture for Schwartz-

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ARKANSAS TIMES

him). The film, which premiered at SXSW, also stars Olympia Dukakis and TV on the Radio front man Tunde Adebimpe. 10:30 a.m. Friday, Ron Robinson Theater and 9 p.m. Thursday, Ron Robinson Theater, both followed by discussions with director Bob Byington. WS

‘White God’

‘WHITE GOD’

of American civilians. A little closer look finds that the militarization of American police has been an issue for a long time, with heavily armed SWAT teams and no-knock raids employed to take down not just hostage takers and drug kingpins, but also everything from low-level weed dealers to old ladies selling beer on Sunday. In the documentary feature “Peace Officer,” directors Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber examine the issue of militarized police and the questionable use of SWAT through the story of law enforcement veteran William J. “Dub” Lawrence. As the sheriff of Utah’s Davis County, it was Lawrence who established the county’s SWAT team. Twenty years later, a sniper with the team Lawrence founded ended a suicidal standoff with Lawrence’s sonin-law by shooting the young man in the head, even as his family pleaded to be allowed to reason with him. The event turned the likable Lawrence into a one-man crusade against Utah’s men

‘TURBO KID’

pally through the eyes of “Shariff,” an aging ex-con and former Black Power militant turned confidential informant for the FBI. His mission is to befriend Khalifah Al-Akili, a young, white Pittsburgh resident and convert to Islam who displays an equal fondness for Osama bin Laden and petty theft. “(T)ERROR” shows us just how aggressively the FBI pushes the envelope on entrapment as it pursues homegrown Islamic extremists, whether their designs of violent jihad are real or imaginary. Some reviewers have criticized the film for a relative lack of action through the first twothirds of the narrative, and it’s true that an awful lot of sequences progress solely via the exchange of text messages. In a way, though, that’s the point. We enter the narrative expecting a cat-and-mouse game of intrigue, and end up with something very different: a muddled profile of two tattered, compromised souls caught within the gears of a defective system.

man, following his 2014 role in Alex Perry Ross’ “Listen Up Philip” — in its review of the newer film, Consequence of Sound designated him the “master salesman of the disenfranchised.” Here, he sips tequila out of a Big Gulp, half-heartedly gets a job at a Quick Lube and repeatedly disappoints his grandmother (“Why are you alone, for chrissakes?” she asks

Directed by Kornél Mundruczó Fans of “The Warriors,” “Planet of the Apes,” J.M. Coetzee and “Homeward Bound” will find much to admire about the Hungarian dog epic “White God,” which the New York Times called “a fierce and beautiful parable” and which the director John Waters, in an interview with the Arkansas Times, called the best film he’d seen all year. The film’s protagonist is a very likeable dog named Hagen, who is separated from his owner due to a dystopian state policy involving the taxation of mixed-breed pets. Hagen endures a series of trials before falling in with a raucous pack that runs wild, seeking revolution in the streets of Budapest. The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, is visceral and violent — in the service of animal rights — and has emerged as a rare runaway success in the U.S. foreign cinema market. 2 p.m. Sunday, Ron

‘7 CHINESE BROTHERS’

There are good movies. There are bad movies. And then there are those movies that are so bad they actually manage to be good ... if you’re willing to just relax and roll with the corniness of it all. Such is the case with the neo-retro (is that a word?) post-apocalyptic gorefest “Turbo Kid.” The film features a plot that seems ripped from the fantasies of Napoleon Dynamite: In the nuclear-blighted wastelands of 1997, our hero, The Kid, is tooling along on his bitchin’ BMX bike

when he finds a souped-up Nintendo Power Glove (remember those?) that shoots C-grade special effects. He then sets out to save a friend from the clutches of the warlord Zeus, who — wouldn’t you know it — is the very person who killed The Kid’s parents.

Set to a rad synth soundtrack and clearly meant to evoke the same cringetastic reaction as looking at old photos of yourself wearing a Swatch watch and Flock of Seagulls haircut, “Turbo Kid” is a pitch-perfect and oh-

so-earnest homage to the “kid saves the world” sci-fi films of the 1980s, with a heaping handful of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers thrown in. If you’ve got a sense of humor, a stomach for low-grade gore, and a Reaganera childhood, this SXSW Audience Award winner might be the spin on the wayback machine you’ve been looking for. 7 p.m. Sunday, Ron Robinson Theater, with directors Anouk Whissell, Francois Simard and YoannKarl Whissell. DK

Robinson Theater. WS

‘Cartel Land’ Directed by Matt Heineman A few hundred miles south of here is an imaginary line in the desert that divides the almost ridiculously prosperous United States of America from the often incredibly impoverished country of Mexico. The politics and realities of that border — and the rotten fruit of America’s seemingly limitless appetite for every kind of drug — are up for consideration in the superb documentary “Cartel Land,” from director Matthew Heineman. A film that asks the viewer to walk the gray line between the law and true justice, “Cartel Land” tells the story of two demon-haunted men: American Tim “Nailer” Foley, and Mexican Dr. Jose Mireles. Foley, a military vet and former addict, heads a heavily armed group of volunteers who patrol Arizona’s desolate Altar Valley; a superhighway for human trafficking and cartel-linked drug smuggling where the U.S./Mexico border seems about as porous as a screen door. On his own crusade against some of the same foes is Mireles, a dashing physician in the Mexican state of Michoacan who rises to lead the state’s vigilante Autodefensas after it becomes clear the corrupt local police and military won’t protect citizens from the powerful Knights Templar cartel. While that all sounds fairly righteous, it’s clear by the end of “Cartel Land” that neither man heeded the old advice about monster-fighters taking care to avoid becoming the monsters they seek to slay. 3 p.m. Saturday, Clinton School of Public Service. DK

Advantage Chenal Valley.

However you spin it, Chenal Valley is the perfect place to live and play. From state-of-the-art tennis facilities and 36 holes of championship golf, to the laid-back neighborhood parks and pools, every day feels like getting away. Best of all, Chenal Valley is the perfect balance of spoiled and unspoiled.

Surrounded by wonderful amenities and cradled by natural landscapes, the neighborhoods of Chenal Valley bring to life everything you could dream of in a community.

Visit Chenal.com and see how life happens here.

‘Turbo Kid’ Directed by Anouk Whissell, Francois Simard and Yoann-Karl Whissell

Life happens here.

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MAY 14, 2015

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Blood and grit The Ross Brothers documentary observes the modern lives behind myth of the West.

BY DAVID RAMSEY

How did y’all end up making a film down on the border?

Turner Ross: We decided on the spur of the moment that we wanted to make a nonfiction Western, really not necessarily even knowing what that meant. I think it comes from this built-in mythology of our own, watching B Westerns with our dad as kids, and also being American boys in a world that has very much embraced that ethos, that look, that cultural backdrop that is the cowboy and the Wild West. It’s a genre that speaks to so many things and it can be so many things, so we thought, 20

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ARKANSAS TIMES

well, if you go out and seek out the modern iteration of that — the modern frontier, those landscapes, those archetypes, the silhouettes that you expect — what do they look like multidimensional?

Probably the best way to seek out that

How did you find Chad Foster?

TR: After we found the location and started doing basic research about the region and history, Chad Foster keeps popping up — he’s been on [national television], he’s testified in front of Congress, he sued the federal government. I said, well, that’d be a good point to start at. This mustachioed man in a cowboy hat who’s

I thought that was a fascinating modern twist on the Western. The obvious thing to do was make an updated Western with drug cartels as the new black-hat villains, but this look at modern cowboy life concludes that the bad guys are far more diffuse.

The cowboys in the movie and their way of life are threatened by the drug dealers, but also by the fence and the bureaucrats who would enforce it. The actual cowboy, Martin Wall, who has true grit to spare, is powerless against faraway forces he can’t fully reckon.

TR: You can seek out these archetypes and you can find them but they’re more multidimensional than the straightforward portrayal might give off. You can have the big brash cowboy but he’s vulnerable. Certainly within their own human lives, there is that. But they speak to a greater thing. It’s not black hat/white hat, it’s not Mexico vs. America, it’s not an easy story, there is no right and wrong, there is no truth, there are no answers. It is muddled and gray and it is this liminal world. You’re in this place that isn’t easily discernible one way or the other.

VICTORIA WILL

B

rothers Bill and Turner Ross make documentaries, but that word doesn’t quite cover what they’re up to. Probably the best way to put it is that their patient, lovingly observed depictions of everyday life feel like movies: The Ross Brothers have a distinctive visual and rhythmic style that charges and complicates the stories they tell. They are both impressionistic artists and deadpan reporters — as if they’re documenting the quotidian filtered through a dream.

Their last film, the gorgeous “Tchoupitoulas,” which also played at the Little Rock Film Festival, followed three young brothers on a dusk-til-dawn night out in New Orleans. Their latest film, “Western,” which plays at 12:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m.

Saturday at the Ron Robinson Theater, depicts a year in the border towns of Eagle Pass, Texas, and Piedras Negras, Mexico, during a period of increasing violence from the drug cartels. Mayor Chad Foster and cattleman Martin Wall cut the figures of classic Western archetypes but face modern challenges, as faraway political pressures to tighten the border threaten the way of life in two communities that have long been intertwined.

This being a Ross Brothers film, there’s no simple political point or narrative thread. As storytellers, they are drifters, as interested in a snippet of conversation behind a window as high drama at a bullfight. They have an instinct for making quiet moments speak volumes — their heavy lifting is implied. I can’t think of anyone in any form doing better observation of life and lives.

I spoke with the Rosses by phone last week. I was drinking coffee; they were drinking beer.

tropes, the white-hat hero is mostly fighting bureaucrats in Washington.

Chad Foster has true grit, but his core skill is diplomatic rather than violent.

TR: That archetype of the sheriff in the past was someone who was there to be the pillar of his community, to defend his community from change and danger and uphold a way of life. You can’t do that in a dusty street with a six-shooter anymore. It turns out it’s a guy with a pen and a microphone.

Bill Ross: Generations ago he might have been on the edge of town when the construction crews are trying to come in and standing his ground. But those days are over.

the fact that their patriarch, Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, he’s celebrated on both sides of the border, he cuts this iconic Gary Cooper-esque figure and wanted to introduce us to that world.

THE BROTHERS: Turner (left) and Bill Ross.

story and let that story tell itself was to go to the frontier, to go to the borderlands, to go and see those communities and the ways in which they work together. In scouting the border, with so many different iterations of the border towns, we eventually landed in Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras. The communities face each other on the border and visually tell a story — two towns looking at each other across the Rio Grande. That coupled with

out there fighting to keep his community from dividing. I cold-called him and he said, “Yeah, come on down.”

You say he’s out there fighting, but one of the interesting things about the film is that you focus on the mayor, not the sheriff. Bureaucracy (and politics) are both the enemy and the weapon to fight that enemy. For all the allusions to gunslinging and good vs. evil Western

You document the slice-of-life feeling of everyday life, but the visual language of the film is heavily influenced by classic Western films, B Westerns, maybe horror movies, too. Did that just come naturally out of what you were shooting? Or were you binge-watching Westerns?

BR: I’d say it’s a combination. That landscape that you’re in, I think, sort of tells you how to shoot it. It’s a big, flat landscape. But, of course, it’s like Turner was saying, you have those images in your head because you’ve seen them all your life.

Also, we’re doing our research and watching countless movies and papering our walls with stills from films. When Chad is standing out at a rodeo, the scene calls for it, but you just sort of know because of

everything stored in your head.

TR: We love that aesthetic and those images are great. Certainly we’re fond of them and that’s part of the impetus. But also, it’s called “Western” for a reason. The whole conceit of the film is matters of perspective. You create images, you even give off a title that calls certain things to mind and then you have to confront them and see how you deal with the reality or perceptions.

We hope that we’ve portrayed something that confronts the easiness of these archetypes that we’ve built. You speak in that visual language, you speak in the language of the genre — because it makes you comfortable and it makes you uncomfortable.

the same as the previous two films. It’s just as manufactured. With “Tchoupitoulas” it was so heavily constructed that it called attention to itself. The approach is the same: trying to understand a place in the world and trying to understand the people that are in that place.

TR: And letting the story tell itself, being present enough that you allow the story to come to you. We couldn’t create these things. As much of a construction as they are, all of these things happened, these people’s lives happened, and they gave us the fodder for this stuff.

These are also always creative conversations. We’re working within an art form. You can’t lose the art of it. It’s what makes it interesting and beautiful.

Yeah — it looks like and feels like you’re watching a Western, but then a good bulk of the film is presented almost like Frederick Wiseman [the documentary filmmaker famous for his observational style]. Watching real, everyday rhythms within the conceits of the Western genre complicate the ways you think about both.

TR: That’s the basic premise. We’re presenting something that is usually fictionalized. If you create a Frederick Wiseman world [depicting] the myth of the West, it’s no longer myth — it’s people’s lives. When you start to project these things on actual human characters whose lives had existed prior to the film and exist long after, there are no nice bows you can put on that. It becomes abstract — it becomes something you have to take away and think about by yourself. It’s not resolved by the film.

It’s more of an open-ended thing.

How do these issues play out in terms of your depiction of the violence that happened during that year in that community? The violence from the drug cartels happens in the background in the film.

BR: I think we were doing it in a way that was natural to our feelings and the feelings of the characters. It is this thing that is just outside of your view. You hear about it, you read about it, but maybe you’re not experiencing it right up front. So it’s this looming fear. We felt that. I remember leaving there after 13 months and I was driving back to New Orleans, and I just felt this weight come off. So I wanted to frame the film like that — this encroaching thing where it was constantly in the back of your head.

Our intention was not to infiltrate the cartels but to tell it from the people’s perspective. And it’s always there but it’s not often that it’s on your doorstep.

But we did watch a lot of horror movies as well. There are great lessons to be learned. We were watching “The Fog,” a film that was the first film that I remember absolutely terrifying me, staying up for a week after seeing it and that film is just about a fog rolling into town.

TR: And actually, I never wanted a payoff at the end of [“The Fog”], it kind of broke my heart when you actually see these red-eyed beings. I loved the tension. It was scarier not knowing, it was scarier not seeing. We were certainly influenced by that kind of thing.

“Western” is programmed as “creative nonfiction” at the LRFF. This is what I love about your work: the way that dreamy impressionism shades your observational reporting. In “Tchoupitoulas” it was a narrative conceit; with “Western” it’s the genre frame. It seems like initially you’re just showing up and seeing what happens, but are you also thinking about these creative flourishes?

TR: Yeah, it’s our mental framework, it’s the kind of conversations that we have while we’re shooting. It’s the backstory, the research, the sort of aesthetic concerns that we use as backdrop for our shooting. It’s not a free-for-all — it’s always very intentional what we’re after. You allow yourself to be present.

You’ve figured out what you’re after or how you’re going to capture what you’re after — and then you go and allow it to speak to you.

BR: But, you know, the approach is

On the opposite spectrum, I was impressed that “Western” managed to depict things that are inherently dull — bureaucracy, political machinations, office work — without becoming a dull film.

BR: Sure, that’s certainly another thing while editing. Each scene needs to move. You need to pay your respects to how things actually work. But yeah,

that stuff is inherently dull. You do need to see the process and we tried to select scenes that showed how the wheels turn, showed how things function, but also have something else to further the story and make it interesting.

You don’t ground your audience in the narrative facts of the case in the way that documentaries typically do.

There’s not much context. Was that a process that came organically for y’all? Do you ever hear complaints about that?

BR: I recall at Sundance a guy stood up, it wasn’t even a question, he just stood up and said, “I could have used some more pie charts in this thing.”

TR: Life doesn’t usually come at you in pie charts. Which is the way that I describe what we do. We’re after capturing this experiential truth the way that you might receive life in a normal way. You don’t always know all of the answers, you often just encounter humans and experiences and environments and have something you have to process yourself. We’re distilling that [in the film] so an audience can also experience that. I hope we’re creating a sort of abbreviated version of an experiential truth.

BR: Those are the films that I like.

That you as a viewer have to argue with the film a little bit and do the work and put the pieces together. That’s not a knock on films that spoonfeed you along, I can appreciate those films as well, but the films that really stick with you are the ones that you have to paint the picture that you want to see.

TR: If you actually have to interact with it, it becomes a part of your life because you have had to do some thinking or feel something.

Tell me a good story from shooting that didn’t make it into the film.

BR: One night, pretty early on — this was when the guys from the ranch were still looking at us like city slickers. To sort of test us they took us out hog hunting one night and they said that we had to kill a hog. They routinely do this — there are these huge boars that fuck up the property and they go out and kill these things. So this was the night that Turner and I had to prove ourselves.

TR: There comes a time …

BR: I think with everybody that we shoot with, it’s not always this dramatic, but there comes a time where they’re feeling you out and you have to prove yourself in a way. In this case, it was the middle of the night, and we’d been drinking Coors Light all day with these guys and popping Mexican diet pills,

which is basically speed. We’re pretty high and the dogs start barking, and that means there’s a hog to be killed. And one of the ranch hands gives me this huge knife, and he said, “All right, you gotta get it.” So filled with adrenaline (and those other chemicals) I stabbed the thing and killed it.

TR: He ran up into a cactus patch in the middle of the night, with a pack of rabid dogs baying down a 315-pound wild boar.

BR: After that, they were like, all right. By the time the sun starts coming up, we had taken so many pills and CONTINUED ON PAGE 39

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GOT AN OPINION? IT’S TIME TO CHOOSE THE BEST OF ARKANSAS.

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HOT FILM: The 11-minute short “Pyro” was expertly crafted by a high school student.

Homegrown Arkansas-made films in the limelight at LRFF.

BY DAVID KOON

T

he growth that Arkansas’s still fledgling film scene has enjoyed over the last half-dozen years owes quite a bit to the Little Rock Film Festival. Since the inception of the LRFF, festival organizers have been committed to giving some much-needed big screen time to the state’s homegrown crop of flicks, often affording films made by locals on weekends and shoestring budgets equal billing with mainstream films that go on to win national and international awards. Getting that fix from a big-screen audience every year can be the difference between a hobbyist who makes a few shorts and a diehard filmmaker who goes on to achieve cinematic glory.

This year’s LRFF features over two dozen films that were shot right here in Arkansas, from student shorts to fulllength features. Gerry Bruno, a Little Rock filmmaker who has made several

let us

narrative shorts in the state, helped select the Arkansas-made films for the festival. Having worked in local film for several years now, the New Jersey native said it’s clear that the state’s film community has matured considerably in a short amount of time.

“People are taking more risks than before,” Bruno said. “Now, you can get a bunch of equipment for so much less money, and a lot of people actually have their own equipment. You can shoot a film on a [Canon] 5D or 7D [camera] and make it look great. The films are becoming bolder and more ambitious.

The stories are getting more involved.”

Bruno said there are several standouts in the Arkansas-made category.

One of his feature-length favorites is “The Grace of Jake,” by director Chris Hicky. It’s the story of an ex-con musician who goes home to a tiny Arkansas town to find his father and seek revenge.

Bruno said that in addition to beautiful cinematography, the film works because of great acting talent. “You can tell when you get good casting,” he said. “Everybody in that film is really excellent. The film is good, but the acting is outstanding.”

Bruno had several favorites among the LRFF’s expansive blocks of Arkansas-made short films. One that he particularly enjoyed is “Pyro,” a haunting 11-minute short by director Cole Borgstadt. The film is about two brothers — one who is a pyromaniac — dealing with the loss of their parents. Bruno said the most surprising thing about the film is that Borgstadt, who also has another short in the LRFF called “Go to the Ball with Me, Jenny,” is a student at Fayetteville High School.

“Man, I’m telling you, I really thought he was a seasoned filmmaker,” Bruno said. “The depth of the characters, the depth of the story, the quality, it just felt like somebody who had been making films for years and years.”

Another short that Bruno liked is the horror film “The Whisperers,” by director Jason Miller. A mind-bending tale about two young brothers whose home is invaded by a terrifying evil,

the film features Arkansas actors Dean Denton and Paige Martin Reynolds.

Both have worked with Bruno in the past. “ ‘The Whisperers’ was really well done,” he said. “Paige and Dean don’t have big roles in it, but seeing them on camera is nice. They just fit so well together.”

Another of Bruno’s faves is “Spoonin’ the Devil” by director Michael Carpenter, a longer short starring Arkansas actress Natalie Canerday — perhaps best remembered as the mother of young Frank in “Sling Blade.” The film is about a woman who drags her niece along on a road trip to scatter her late husband’s ashes. “Boy, it is so hard to take your eyes off [Canerday],” Bruno said. “She just commands the screen.

I just love watching her.”

Watching the films for the LRFF, Bruno said, gave him a new appreciation for just how vibrant the film community is in Arkansas. As technology advances and becomes more affordable, that vibrancy can only grow.

“People understand how to frame a shot,” he said. “They understand how to tell a story visually. Technology makes it more manageable. The technology makes it a little easier.”

Rock

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2015 LITTLE ROCK FILM FESTIVAL SCHEDULE Films, directors, running times at the Bill and Margaret Clark Room, 3rd floor of Ottenheimer Hall in the River Market; the Butler Center in the Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.; Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave.; the Scottish Rite Temple, 712 Scott St.; the Joint, 301 Main St.; the Clinton School of Public Service, 1200 President Clinton Ave.; and others as noted.

Thursday, May 14 12:30 p.m. “Made in Arkansas” 4. Five short films: “The Tricycle,” dir. David Bogard; “What Was Lost,” dir. Romello W illiam s; “O verg row n,” dir. Br uce Hutchinson; “Pyro,” dir. Cole Borgstadt; “ T h e S p a c e St a t i o n,” d i r. M i c h a e l Sutterfield. 76 mins. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

1 p.m. “The Chinese Mayor,” dir. Hao Zhou. 89 min. Butler Center.

1 p.m. “Breaking a Monster,” dir. Luke Meyer. 93 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

3 p.m. “M a d e i n A r k a n s a s” 1. Si x short films: “Loser,” dir. Andrew Lisle; “Forsaken,” dir. Krisha Mason; “Monotony Broken,” dir. J.C. Cocker; “Stranger Than Paradise,” dir. Johnnie Brannon; “Rites,” dir. Cody Harris; “The Dealer’s Tale,” dir.

Justin Nickels. 75 min. The Joint.

3 p.m. World Shorts: “Comes and Goes.”

Seven short films: “TOUGH,” dir. Alfonso Johnson; “How to Stand Up for Yourself,” dir. Sarah Hanssen; “Marathon,” dir.

Lauren Smitelli; “La Reina,” dir. Manuel A b r a m o v i c h; “ T h e A r t o f R i c h a r d Thompson,” dir. Bob Burnett; “Mr. Gold,” dir. Brian Carlson; “Papa Machete,” dir.

Jonathan David Kane. 92 min. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

3:15 p.m. “Uncertain,” dirs. Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands. 82 min. Butler Center.

3:15 p.m. “Krisha,” dir. Trey Edward Shults.

83 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

4 p.m. Filmmaker welcome reception at the Thea Foundation. With music by The Late Romantics. Open to sponsor, filmmaker, press and gold passholders. 401 Main St., North Little Rock.

5:30 p.m. “Barge,” dir. Ben Powell. 75 min.

Butler Center.

5:30 p.m. “How to Change the World,” dir. Jerr y Rothwell. 110 min. Clinton School of Public Service.

5:30 p.m. “Funny Bunny,” dir. Alison Bagnall. 85 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

5:30 p.m. “Made in Arkansas” 5. Seven short films: “Not Interested,” dir. Matt Foss; “Southern Pride,” dir. Nick Lane; “The Making of ‘Sensitivity Training’,” dir.

Tanner Smith; “The PaperBoy,” dir. Thien Ngo; “ ’Twas the Night of the Krampus,” dir. Donovan Thompson; dir. “I Hate Alphaman,” dir. Hunter West; “VampireKilling Prostitute,” dir. Jordan Mears. 76 min. Theater at the Scottish Rite Temple.

5:30 p.m. Civil Rights Movement shorts past and present. Three short films: “Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot,” “Road to Little Rock” and “Code Oakland.” 90 min. The Joint.

5:30 p.m. World Shorts: “Some Lives.”

“The Resort,” dir. Shadae Lamar Smith; “Chute Fighter,” dir. Laurel Parmet; “Tom in America,” dir. Flavio Alves; “Lay in Wait,” dir. Jonathan Ade; “Elgin Park,” dir. Danny Yourd; “The Murder Ballad of James Jones,” dir. Jesse Kreitzer; “Write with Me …,” dir. Hannah Leshaw. 94 min.

Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

‘GOD BLESS THE CHILD’: Director Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck will be on hand at 3 p.m. Friday at the Ron Robinson Theater to talk about his fiction film about five siblings left to their own devices one summer day.

8 p.m. “Crocodile Gennadiy,” dir. Steve Hoover. 100 min. Clinton School of Public Service.

8 p.m. “H.,” dirs. Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia. 97 min. Butler Center.

8 p.m. “Made in Arkansas” 2. Seven short films: “MatchMaker,” dir. Robin Sparks; “Hush,” dir. Kenn Woodard; “Dim the Lights,” dir. Dwight Chalmers; “The Pop N’ Lock,” dir. Jadon Barnes; “Rapture Us,” dir. Levi Agee; “The Ask,” Edmund Lowry; “Contact,” dir. Alexander Jeffrey.

71 min. The Joint.

8 p.m. “Made in Arkansas” 6. Six short films: “Go to the Ball with Me, Jenny,” dir.

Cole Borgstadt; “Sassy & the Private Eye,” dir. Tanner Smith; “Simple,” dir. Scott McEntire; “The Whisperers,” dir. Jason Miller; “Stay a While,” dir. Michael Kelley; “Perfect Machine,” dir. Jarrod Paul Beck.

76 min. Theater at Scottish Rite Temple.

8 p.m. World Shorts: “This Life.” Five short films: “The Suburbs Go on Forever,” dir. Mark Day; “The Youth,” dir. Dehanza Rogers; “The Way Things Are,” dir. Guy Nemesh; “unmappable,” dirs. Diane Hodson and Jasmine Luoma; “Stella Walsh,” dir. Rob Lucas. 94 min. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

9 p.m. “7 Chinese Brothers,” dir. Robert Byington. 76 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

10 p.m. K ABF Radio “Summer of 85” Vinyl Dance Party. With DJ Michael Schaeffer. Open to filmmaker, sponsor, press, gold, silver and student passholders or $10 at the door. 180 min. Good Food by Ferneau, 521 Main St., North Little Rock.

Friday, May 15 10 a.m. “Made in Arkansas” 6. Six short films: “Go to the Ball with Me, Jenny,” dir. Cole Borgstadt; “Sassy & the Private Eye,” dir. Tanner Smith; “Simple,” dir.

Scott McEntire; “The Whisperers,” dir.

Jason Miller,” “Stay a While,” dir. Michael Kelley; “Perfect Machine,” dir. Jarrod Paul Beck. 76 min. The Joint.

10:30 a.m. “The Hanging of David O. Dodd,” dirs. Huixia Lu and Will Scott.

55 min. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

10:30 a.m. “I Am the People,” dir. Anna Roussillon. 111 min. Butler Center.

10:30 a.m. “7 Chinese Brothers,” dir.

Robert Byington. 76 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

12:30 p.m. “Tired Moonlight,” dir. Britni West. 76 min. Butler Center.

12:30 p.m. “Western,” dirs. Bill Ross and Turner Ross. 92 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

12:30 p.m. “Made in Arkansas” 3. Five short films: “Undefeated,” dir. Nathan Willis; “Little Brother,” dir. Eric White; “S p o o ni n’ t h e D ev il,” d i r. Mic ha e l C a r p e n te r ; “M e re d i t h,” d i r. S c ot t Eggleston; “The Town Where Nobody Lives,” dir. Al Topich. 75 min. The Joint.

12:30 p.m. World Shorts: “Adventure.”

Seven short films: “Twelve Traditions,” dir.

Jonathan Cuartas; “The Other Side,” dir.

Scott Brown; “Dust,” dir. Mike Grier; “Big Boy,” dir. Bryan Campbell; “The Answers,” dir. Michael Goode; “September Sketch Book,” dir. Ronnie Cramer; “Spearhunter,” dir. Adam Rof fman. 93 min. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

2:15 p.m. Panel discussion: Making million-dollar films for thousands.

Directors Robert Byington (“7 Chinese Brothers”), Kent Osborn (“Uncle Kent 2”) and Dan Schechter (“Suppor ting Charac ters”) discuss working with a modest budget. 45 min. Ron Robinson Theater, second floor.

3 p.m. “Sweaty Betty,” dirs. Joe Frank and Zack Reed. 94 min. Butler Center.

3 p.m. “God Bless the Child,” dirs. Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck. 94 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

3 p.m. “Made in Arkansas” 5. Seven short films: “Not Interested,” dir. Matt Foss; “Southern Pride,” dir. Nick Lane; “The Making of ‘Sensitivity Training’,” dir.

Tanner Smith; “The PaperBoy,” dir. Thien Ngo; “ ’Twas the Night of the Krampus,” dir. Donovan Thompson; dir. “I Hate Alphaman,” dir. Hunter West; “VampireKilling Prostitute,” dir. Jordan Mears. 76 min. The Joint.

3 p.m. World Shor ts: “Some Lives.”

“The Resort,” dir. Shadae Lamar Smith;

‘BARGE’: Director Ben Powell captures the daily lives of the men who live and work on barges on the Mississippi River.

“Chute Fighter,” dir. Laurel Parmet; “Tom in America,” dir. Flavio Alves; “Lay in Wait,” dir. Jonathan Ade; “Elgin Park,” dir. Danny Yourd; “The Murder Ballad of James Jones,” dir. Jesse Kreitzer; “Write with Me …,” dir. Hannah Leshaw. 94 min.

Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

5:30 p.m. “(T)ERROR,” dirs. Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe. 93 min. Clinton School of Public Service.

5:30 p.m. “Crocodile Gennadiy,” dir.

Steve Hoover. 100 min. Butler Center.

5:30 p.m. “Applesauce,” dir. Onur Tukel.

91 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

5:30 p.m. “The Grace of Jake,” dir. Chris Hicky. 90 min. The Joint.

5:30 p.m. World Shorts: “One, Two.” Six short films. “Biscayne World,” dirs.

Ahol Snif fs Glue, Michael Arcos and Ellen Hertzler; “one hitta quitta,” dir.

Ya’Ke Smith; “Boxeadora,” dir. Meg Smaker; “Day One,” dir. Henry Hughes; “Hunter’s Fall,” dir. Peter J. McCarthy; “Bookin’,” dir. John Kirkscey. 91 min. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

8 p.m. “Uncle Kent 2,” dir. Todd Rohal.

73 min. Butler Center.

8 p.m. “The Phone in the Attic,” dir. Jim Long. 97 min. The Joint.

8 p.m. World Shorts: “Comes and Goes.”

Seven short films: “TOUGH,” dir. Alfonso Johnson; “How to Stand Up for Yourself,” dir. Sarah Hanssen; “Marathon,” dir.

Lauren Smitelli; “La Reina,” dir. Manuel A b r a m o v i c h; “ T h e A r t o f R i c h a r d Thompson,” dir. Bob Burnett; “Mr. Gold,” dir. Brian Carlson; “Papa Machete,” dir.

Jonathan David Kane. 92 min. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

8 p.m. “Peace O f f ice r,” dir s. Scot t Christopherson and Brad Barber. 109 min. Clinton School of Public Service.

8 p.m. “Breaking a Monster,” dir. Luke Meyer. 97 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

With a post-screening concert by the film’s subject, Unlocking the Truth.

9 p.m. Tale of Two Cities Junction Bridge Party. With VJ g-force. Free to sponsor, filmmaker, press, gold, silver and student passholders. Tickets also available. 180 min. Junction Bridge.

11 p.m. Junc tion Bridge Af ter-Party at Crush. Open to sponsor, filmmaker, press, gold, silver and student passholders. 180 min. Crush Wine Bar, 318 N. Main

St., North Little Rock.

11 p.m. Junction Bridge After-Party at The Joint. With live music from The Big Dam Horns. Free to sponsor, filmmaker, press, gold, silver and student passholders. Tickets also available. 180 min. The Joint.

Saturday, May 16 10 a.m. “H.” dirs. Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia. 97 min. Butler Center.

10 a.m. “Made in Arkansas” 6. Six short films: “Go to the Ball with Me, Jenny,” dir.

Cole Borgstadt; “Sassy & the Private Eye,” dir. Tanner Smith; “Simple,” dir. Scott McEntire; “The Whisperers,” dir. Jason Miller,” “Stay a While,” dir. Michael Kelley; “Perfect Machine,” dir. Jarrod Paul Beck.

76 min. The Joint.

10 a.m. World Shorts: “This Life.” Five short films: “The Suburbs Go on Forever,” dir. Mark Day; “The Youth,” dir. Dehanza Rogers; “The Way Things Are,” dir. Guy Nemesh; “unmappable,” dirs. Diane Hodson and Jasmine Luoma; “Stella Walsh,” dir. Rob Lucas. 94 min. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

10:30 a.m. “Barge,” dir. Ben Powell. 75 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

12:30 p.m. “Uncle Kent 2,” dir. Todd Rohal.

73 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

12:30 p.m. “Sweaty Betty,” dirs. Joe Frank and Zack Reed. 94 min. Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack.

12:30 p.m. “Made in Arkansas” 5. Seven short films: “Not Interested,” dir. Matt Foss; “Southern Pride,” dir. Nick Lane; “The Making of ‘Sensitivity Training’,” dir.

Tanner Smith; “The PaperBoy,” dir. Thien Ngo; “ ’Twas the Night of the Krampus,” dir. Donovan Thompson; dir. “I Hate Alphaman,” dir. Hunter West; “VampireKilling Prostitute,” dir. Jordan Mears. 76 min. The Joint.

12:30 p.m. “The Hunting of the President” with dir. Harry Thomason and author Gene Lyons. 89 min. Clinton School of Public Service.

12:30 p.m. World Shorts: “Adventure.”

Seven short films: “Twelve Traditions,” dir.

Jonathan Cuartas; “The Other Side,” dir.

Scott Brown; “Dust,” dir. Mike Grier; “Big Boy,” dir. Bryan Campbell; “The Answers,” dir. Michael Goode; “September Sketch

Book,” dir. Ronnie Cramer; “Spearhunter,” dir. Adam Rof fman. 93 min. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

1 p.m. “The Hanging of David O. Dodd,” dirs. Huixia Lu and Will Scott. 55 min.

Butler Center.

2:30 p.m. Panel discussion: “Cinematic Non-Fiction: Art Against Expectations in Nonfiction,” Filmmaker and Little Rock Film Festival programmer Robert Greene moderates with journalist Eric Hynes, filmmakers Luke Meyer (“Breaking a Monster”), Joe Frank and Zack Reed (“Sweaty Betty”) and Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe (“(T)ERROR”). 45 min. Ron Robinson Theater, second floor.

3 p.m. “Western,” dirs. Bill Ross and Turner Ross. 92 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

3 p.m. “Cartel Land,” dir. Matt Heineman.

98 min. Clinton School of Public Service.

3 p.m. “God Bless the Child,” dirs. Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck. 94 min. Butler Center.

3 p.m. “M a d e i n A r k a n s a s” 1. Si x short films: “Loser,” dir. Andrew Lisle; “Forsaken,” dir. Krisha Mason; “Monotony Broken,” dir. J.C. Cocker; “Stranger than Paradise,” dir. Johnnie Brannon; “Rites,” dir. Cody Harris; “The Dealer’s Tale,” dir.

Justin Nickels. 75 min. Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack.

3 p.m. “Made in Arkansas” 4. Five short films: “The Tricycle,” dir. David Bogard; “What Was Lost,” dir. Romello Williams; “Overgrown,” dir. Bruce Hutchinson; “Pyro,” dir. Cole Borgstadt; “The Space Station,” dir. Michael Sutterfield. 76 mins.

The Joint.

3 p.m. World Shorts: “Explore.” Six short films: “Swimming in Your Skin Again,” dir. Terence Nance; “Beach Week,” dir.

David Raboy; “The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano,” dir. Joshua Sef tel; “Displacements,” dir. Manuel Alvarez Diestro; “Pequeño bloque de cemento con pelo alborotado conteniendo el mar,” dir. Jorge Lopez Navarrete; “When I Write,” dir. Colin Wheeler. 96 min. Bill and Margaret Clark Room.

5:30 p.m. “(T)ERROR,” dirs. Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe. 93 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

5:30 p.m. “How to Change the World,” dir.

Jerry Rothwell. 110 min. Clinton School of Public Service.

5:30 p.m. “Applesauce,” dir. Onur Tukel. 91 min. Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack.

5:30 p.m. “Funny Bunny,” dir. Alison Bagnall. 85 min. Butler Center.

5:30 p.m. “Made in Arkansas” 3. Five short films: “Undefeated,” dir. Nathan Willis; “Little Brother,” dir. Eric White; “S p o o ni n’ t h e D ev il,” d i r. M ic ha e l C a r p e n te r ; “M e re d i t h,” d i r. S c ot t Eggleston; “The Town Where Nobody Lives,” dir. Al Topich. 75 min. The Joint.

8 p.m. Awards gala. With all-you-can-eat crawfish, drinks and music by Runaway Planet. Open to sponsor, filmmaker, press, gold, silver and student passholders. Online tickets available, too. 180 min.

Old State House Museum.

10:30 p.m. Awards gala after-party. With music by Collin vs. Adam and Mainland Divide. Open to sponsor, filmmaker, press, gold, silver and student passholders. Tickets also available at the door.

Sunday, May 17 11 a.m. Golden Roc k Document ar y Feature Winner and World Shor ts Narrative Winner. Butler Center.

11 a.m. Golden Rock Narrative Feature Winner and World Shorts Narrative Winner. Ron Robinson Theater.

2 p.m. Made in Arkansas grand prize winners. Butler Center 2 p . m . “ W h i t e G o d ,” d i r. K o r n é l Mundruc zó. 121 min., Ron Robinson Theater.

4 p.m. Panel discus sion: “Music in Independent Film Production.” With music supervisor Joel C. High, Arkansas Film Commissioner Christopher Crane and others. 45 min. Ron Robinson Theater, second floor.

4:45 p.m. Arkansas Times Best Southern Film Prize Winner. Butler Center.

4:45 p.m. Cinematic Non-Fiction Grand Prize Winner. Ron Robinson Theater 7 p.m. “Turbo Kid,” dirs. Anouk Whissell, François Simard and Yoann-Karl Whissell.

89 min. Ron Robinson Theater.

www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

25

Arts Entertainment AND

TEC PETAJA

my affection for it. In fact probably being away from it has always made me appreciate it more. I love the people. I love the food. I never wanted to let those connections drift away because they’re very much a part of who I am. Even out here, the friends I am the closest to are the friends who have come at some point with me to Arkansas because I feel like you don’t really know who I am unless you understand that part of me. It’s in no way a chore. I’m happy to come home always. Excited to come home in a few days.

STEENBURGEN: Coming home to raise money for worthy causes after a really big year.

Mary does it all Mary Steenburgen talks about being busier than ever before, the intersection between her songwriting and acting careers and her love for Arkansas.

BY LINDSEY MILLAR

A

t 62 — nearly 40 years after she first became a star opposite Jack Nicholson in 1978’s “Goin’ South” — Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen is amid something of a career renaissance. She’s booking roles on some of the most acclaimed shows on TV (including “Justified,” “The Last Man on Earth” and “Orange Is the New Black”), starring in promising upcoming indie films and writing songs on contract with Universal Music. This despite the fact that Hollywood — or really the entertainment business generally — typically has no use for women

very far past the age of 40.

Meanwhile, Steenburgen, a Newport native who grew up in North Little Rock, continues to be closely engaged with Arkansas. She and her husband, Ted Danson, are co-owners of South on Main (with Steenburgen’s niece, Amy Kelley Bell, and her husband, chef Matt Bell).

In March, she wrote a letter distributed by the Human Rights Campaign decrying the last legislative session’s discriminatory HB 1228.

This week she comes home to participate in “Into the Blue,” a fundraiser for the Thea Foundation on Wednesday,

May 13, and provide the entertainment on Friday, May 15, at South on Main for a fundraiser for the Oxford American, a magazine on whose board she sits.

The event at South on Main, billed “Mary & Friends,” will find Steenburgen and her Nashville songwriting pals Matraca Berg, Kim Carnes, Greg Barnhill, Shawn Camp, Shelly Colvin and Jeremy Spillman performing together and solo and talking about how the songs came to be. The night includes food by chef Bell, cocktails by bartender David Burnette and a range of auction items.

Tickets are $200 and available on oxfordamerican.org or by calling 501-3740000, ext. 206.

The interview that follows has been edited for length and clarity.

I think a lot of people leave Arkansas and say, “good riddance,” but you’ve always maintained a relationship with the state.

I’m kind of a selfish person. I do it simply because I really enjoy coming there. I love Arkansas; I’ve never lost

It helps to have a great restaurant that you co-own that you can bring people to and eat at yourself.

I’m proud of that. It’s hard to do that. I remember from my waitressing days watching restaurants try to make it and fail. We knew we were taking a chance, but we really believed in Matt and his cooking and really believed in the Oxford American and saw great potential in the partnership of bringing really interesting artists and music there.

I found that concept very inspiring. It was something we decided to take a chance and do, and I’m really happy that we did because we’ve already had some really wonderful experiences there.

You’ve been a longtime Oxford American board member, so it makes sense that you’re headlining Friday’s fundraiser, but you could probably get a big crowd just for a meet and greet with you and Ted. Instead, you’re putting on a big production.

I’m guessing you’re going to the trouble because it’s fun for you?

Increasingly I’ve been involved in music for the last eight years or so. I write music for Universal. That brought me to Nashville, where I was so privileged to write with some of the best writers in Nashville. They would invite me to these writers’ rounds. I found that such a fascinating format for music because you hear the songwriter talk about what inspired them to write the song, when they wrote the song and how they did it. The song is so much more meaningful to you when you hear it.

The second I started going to those in Nashville, I thought we need this in Little Rock. Oxford American celebrates not only music, but the written CONTINUED ON PAGE 35

26

MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

ROCK CANDY

Lend Me Your Eyes

Check out the Times’ A&E blog

An adventure in collaborative curating between UALR and Art Connection

arktimes.com

A&E NEWS HOT SPRINGS NATIVE BILLY BOB Thornton will narrate a new documentary about the role of Hot Springs in the development of baseball’s spring training.

The film, to be called “The First Boys of Spring,” will see its debut in Hot Springs on Oct. 10 on the opening night of the 2015 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Emmy winner and University of Arkansas journalism professor Larry Foley will direct, with actor Peter Coyote and Arkansas Razorback basketball coach Mike Anderson providing voiceovers.

Hot Springs was instrumental in the early days of baseball, especially when it came to establishing the need for spring training. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the Chicago White Stockings (later the Chicago Cubs) first came to Hot Springs in March 1886, a move that allowed the team to train rigorously prior to the start of the season. Seeing the positive results of training in a warmer climate after a long winter off the field, other ball clubs soon followed suit and started spring training in Hot Springs, including the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Boston Red Sox, the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Highlanders, which later became the Yankees. That brought many giants of the sport to town for business and pleasure, including Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Al Simmons and Babe Ruth.

Today, the city features a “baseball trail” with markers commemorating over two-dozen baseball-centric events that happened in Hot Springs.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT Little Rock announced May 11 that the Windgate Charitable Foundation has awarded the university a $20.3 million grant to construct and equip a new 71,636 square-foot visual arts building. The new facility will be located at 28th Street and East Campus Drive.

This news came the same day as a report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that UALR is planning to cut $2.4 million in spending as part of a restructuring plan that began in 2013 amid a decrease in enrollment.

MARTI AND KELLY SUDDUTH of Bentonville have given $1 million to the Walton Arts Center’s expansion campaign, which will add 30,000 square feet to the Fayetteville arts center. The addition includes an expanded atrium lobby that will connect to Dickson Street, renovation of the Starr Theater and new offices.

www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

27

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY DAVID KOON, LINDSEY MILLAR, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK AND WILL STEPHENSON

FRIDAY 5/15

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, 5/15-5/17

THE TEMPTATIONS

GREEK FOOD FESTIVAL

7 p.m. Oaklawn. $25-$35.

To say The Temptations are appearing in Hot Springs this weekend is to speak the whole truth in legal terms and a partial truth in everyday terms. Of the group, a sharply dressed vocal quintet from Detroit who defined the sound of Motown (and of ’60s R&B), only one living original member remains: Otis Williams, a 73-yearold baritone nicknamed “Big Daddy.” The rest of the lineup has been filled out with competent and even brilliantly talented singers, most of whom joined in the late ’90s.

There is an exception, however, and he is Dennis Edwards. Edwards, who replaced the great David Ruffin in 1968, is in large part responsible for the band’s inspired turn toward psychedelic soul in the years that followed (“Cloud Nine,” “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World is Today),” etc.). In other words, he did the impossible — putting his stamp on a legacy that seemed already so enshrined and immortal as to be immovable. As a solo artist, Edwards also went on to make one of the most incredible pop songs of 1984, “Don’t Look Any Further,” which lent its instantly recognizable bassline to Eric B. & Rakim’s “Paid in Full,” Lil Wayne’s “Way of Life,” and several other great rap songs.

It was also the basis for an episode of “The X-Files,” which had something to do with God and hypnotism. Edwards will be there this weekend, and so you should be, too. WS 28

MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church.

Forget the bundt cakes! It’s baklava you want, and plenty of it, at the annual big fat Greek Food Festival. Head out to the Greek Orthodox church at 1100 Napa Valley Drive to feast on souvlaki, gyros, Greek pizza, fried squid, fried

cheese, you name it, all in the name of charity. Besides the food, there will be things to buy in the Old World Market, like Russian nesting dolls, ceramics, jewelry and more, and you can cool off by taking a tour of the church. The top musical act is Heather Batchelor (8:15 p.m. Friday) and there will be dancing and more dancing by Greek, Indian, Irish and Middle Eastern groups and

Mexican Ballet Folklorico. Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Community Connections, Easter Seals and Harmony Health Clinic will benefit from your healthy appetite (don’t forget you can buy plenty of food to go through the drive-through). Go to greekfoodfest. com for a map, schedule and where to catch the trolley from the parking area on Napa Valley. LNP

TIME KEEPS ON SLIPPIN’: Maybe the meaning of the “pompitous” of love will be revealed at the Steve Miller Band’s concert Saturday at the Walmart AMP.

SATURDAY 5/16

STEVE MILLER BAND

7:30 p.m. Walmart AMP. $31-$75.50.

Much like Bob Dylan, Steve Miller’s career can be divided into two distinct periods: before and after a serious vehicular accident. In Dylan’s case it was a motorcycle crash that laid him up in Woodstock and inspired “The Basement Tapes.” In Miller’s, it was a 1971 car accident that left him with a broken neck and inspired — indirectly or not — a little album called “The Joker.” Its title

track would forever haunt the legacy of the Steve Miller Band, which had previously been an above-average acid rock group spawned in LSD-era San Francisco and known for gorgeous, trippy art-rock missives like “Sailor” (“Dear Mary,” from that LP, remains Miller’s high-water mark as a songwriter and one of the most moving ’60s psych-rock ballads ever recorded). Meanwhile, “The Joker” and all the albums the followed it are – to paraphrase Renata Adler —

jarringly, piece by piece, line by line, and without interruption, worthless.

So by all means, go see the Steve Miller Band. But when they launch into “The Joker,” with its nursery rhyme meter and unforgiveable utterances (“Some call me the gangster of love”) and nonsense words (what exactly, Steve, is the “pompitous of love”?), just know that once, back before the crash, a long time ago, Steve Miller was a very different man. WS

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 5/14

N

TUESDAY 5/19

THE ED CROMWELL LEGACY

5:30 p.m. reception, 6 p.m. panel discussion. Arkansas Arts Center. Free.

LOCAL JAZZ LIGHT: Trumpet star Rodney Block performs with his band, the Real Music Lovers, at Jazzlights in the Park on Saturday at the Clinton Presidential Park.

SATURDAY 5/16

JAZZLIGHTS IN THE PARK

1 p.m. Clinton Presidential Park. $20 adv., $25 d.o.s.

This annual fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club of Central Arkansas bills its lineup as “modern, progressive jazz,” which on further investigation seems to mean “a wide variety of genres that are often unjustly relegated into the background.” Or if that’s what you’re after: “music to bliss out to while hanging out near the river.”

Jonathan Butler, a South African guitarist and vocalist famous for his slightly jazzinflected, quiet storm R&B, is the head-

liner. He’s joined by three of Arkansas’s finest acts: charismatic genre straddling band Amasa Hine, jazz combo Rodney Block & the Real Music Lovers, and the Ted Ludwig Trio, led by the seven-string guitar stylings of New Orleans transplant Ludwig. TP and the Feel, Twice Sax, That Arkansas Weather and The Boys and Girls Club Jazz Band round out the lineup. Plus, country-folk dynamo Bonnie Montgomery performs with a backing band in the beer garden. Kids under 10 get into the event for free. LM

Architect Ed Cromwell was both preservationist and visionary. He worked to keep downtown Little Rock from losing its historic gems, such as the Capital Hotel, which he helped renovate with a $10 million federal grant. He saw the importance of the Arkansas River to the city and the need for a riverfront park. His vision led to the creation of the Quapaw Quarter Association, and for 25 years he was chair of the board of directors of the Historic Arkansas Museum’s predecessor, the Arkansas Territorial Restoration. Cromwell was also forward-looking, designing the Maumelle New Town planned community on 5,000 acres owned by Jess Odom. Buildings he designed in Little Rock include the Arkansas Arts Center, Christ Episcopal Church and the Governor’s Mansion. His impact on the look of Little Rock and Arkansas will be discussed by Charles Penix, chief operating officer of the firm Cromwell founded, Cromwell Architects and Engineers; Bill Worthen, director of the Historic Arkansas Museum; and Don Evans, an architect and associate, in this free event sponsored by the Architecture and Design Network. LNP

Americana standout Parker Millsap, who NPR has compared to Valerie June, the Alabama Shakes and St. Paul and the Broken Bones, comes to Stickyz, 8:30 p.m., $10 adv., $12 d.o.s. Houston alt-rockers Blue October share a bill with Harvard of the South and Ashleigh Stone at Juanita’s, 7:30 p.m., $27. Dana Louise specializes in tuneful folk-pop flecked with bits of jazz and bluegrass. For her record release show at White Water Tavern, she’s joined by her band The Glorious Birds, which includes her father, Ezra Idlet, and Keith Grimwood, who together make up the band Trout Fishing in America.

To get a preview of the show search Dana Louise on YouTube, and you’ll find a video of her and The Glorious Birds playing in a cave in North Arkansas, 9 p.m. The Arkansas Travelers begin a home stand against the Tulsa Drillers that lasts until Sunday, 7:10 p.m., $6-12. At Cajun’s Wharf, party band Ace’s Wild headlines, 9 p.m. The Arkansas River Blues Society hosts its regular jam at Revolution, 7 p.m., free.

FRIDAY 5/15 The Arkansas Festival Ballet presents “Hansel & Gretel” at the Arkansas Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $15$25. Central Arkansas’s favorite party band, Tragikly White, returns to Revolution, 9:30 p.m., $10. San Antonio country singer Mike Ryan comes to Stickyz behind the singles “Dancing All Around It” and “Wasting No More Whiskey,” 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 d.o.s. The Joint’s Main Thing comedy troupe continues its run of its latest original production, “I Love You But You’re Sitting On My Cat,” 8 p.m., $22. At 9 p.m., Ramona and The Soul Rhythms play R&B songs you know the words to at Cajun’s. Lakeland, Florida, indie group Copeland share a bill with Canopy Climbers at Juanita’s, 7 p.m., $16.

SATURDAY 5/16 SUNDAY 5/17

BOOKS IN BLOOM LITERARY FESTIVAL

Noon. 1886 Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs. Free.

It might be hard to imagine a place better for outdoors, springtime reading than Eureka Springs, that magical little town of burbling springs, Victorian architecture and lush Ozark greenery. Just thinking about sitting on a sun-warmed bench in Basin Park with a good book cracked on

my lap makes me want to chuck it all and hit the road for Eureka. If you’re a reader, this weekend might be a good time to do just that. For 10 years now, Eureka Springs’ Books in Bloom Literary Festival has been helping great readers meet great writers. Held on the grounds of the soaring 1886 Crescent Hotel, this year’s event features appearances by over a dozen nationally known authors and creative writing teachers, including humorist Roy Blount

Jr., fiction writer William Bernhardt, former University of Arkansas English professor Margaret Jones Bolsterli, Mississippi short fiction writer Steve Yates, thriller author Tess Gerritsen and Ozark burial customs expert Abby Burnett. Best of all, it’s absolutely free. For more information about authors, presentations and events at this year’s Books in Bloom, visit the festival’s website at booksinbloom. org. DK

The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center hosts a screening of the documentary “Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy” followed by a performance and discussion with executive producer and comedian Darryl Littleton, 7 p.m., free. Country star Joe Diffie comes to Juanita’s with Shari Bales supporting, 9 p.m., $25. Brooklyn’s The Lone Below are at Revolution, 9 p.m., $15 adv., $18 d.o.s.

www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

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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.

Fourth Friday of every month, 7:30 p.m., $5.

3520 JFK Blvd., NLR. arkansascountrydance.org.

“Salsa Night.” Begins with a one-hour salsa lesson. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

Greek Food Festival. Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, May 15-17, free. 1100 Napa Valley Drive. 501-221-5300.

LGBTQ/SGL weekly meeting. Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 244-9690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. LGBTQ/SGL Youth and Young Adult Group, 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St.

THURSDAY, MAY 14

MUSIC

Ace’s Wild (headliner), Brian Ramsey (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

Arkansas River Blues Society Thursday Jam. Revolution, 7 p.m., free. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/ new.

Blue October, Harvard of the South, Ashleigh Stone. Juanita’s, 7:30 p.m., $27. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Dana Louise and The Glorious Birds (record release). White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

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

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

Irish Traditional Music Sessions. Dugan’s Pub, 7-9 p.m. 401 E. 3rd St. 501-244-0542. www. duganspublr.com.

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

Karaoke. Zack’s Place, 8 p.m., free. 1400 S. University Ave. 501-664-6444.

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.

Parker Millsap. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8:30 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

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

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com.

Willie G, Tiaffo, Yung Moe, Purple Kush Gang.

Revolution, 9 p.m., $10. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/ new.

COMEDY

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

FILM

Little Rock Film Festival 2015. Ron Robinson Theater and other venues in downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, through May 17.

Schedule and tickets at www.littlerockfilmfestival.org.

SPORTS

HE’S ‘BIGGER THAN THE BEATLES’: Or at least that’s the name of one of country star Joe Diffie’s five No. 1 hit songs. He’s likely to play those and dozens more from his 25-year career at 9 p.m. Saturday at Juanita’s with Shari Bales opening. Tickets are $25.

SPORTS

Arkansas Travelers vs. Tulsa. Dickey-Stephens Park, 7:10 p.m., $6-$12. 400 W. Broadway St., NLR. 501-664-1555. www.travs.com.

FRIDAY, MAY 15

MUSIC

All In Fridays. Club Elevations. 7200 Col. Glenn Road. 501-562-3317.

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

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

Copeland, Canopy Climbers. Juanita’s, 7 p.m., $16. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

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

Mike Ryan. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Ramona and The Soul Rhythms (headliner), Alex Summerlin (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-3755351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Route 66. Agora Conference and Special Event

FILM

Little Rock Film Festival 2015. Ron Robinson Theater and other venues in downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, through May 17.

Schedule and tickets at www.littlerockfilmfestival.org.

LECTURES

2015 Nonviolence Youth Summit XIII: Step Up, Stop Bullying. University of Central Arkansas, 7:30 a.m., free. 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. www.uca.edu.

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Center, 6:30 p.m., $5. 705 E. Siebenmorgan, Conway.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com.

The Temptations. Oaklawn, 7 p.m., $25-$35.

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

Tragikly White. Revolution, 9:30 p.m., $10. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new.

COMEDY

A.G. White, Damn Fool. Lulav, 8 p.m., $20. 220 A W. 6th St. 501-374-5100. www.lulaveatery.com.

“I Love You But You’re Sitting On My Cat.” An original production by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

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

DANCE

Arkansas Festival Ballet, “Hansel & Gretel.”

Arkansas Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $15-$25. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

Contra Dance. Park Hill Presbyterian Church, first and third Friday of every month, 7:30 p.m.;

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MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

Arkansas Travelers vs. Tulsa. Dickey-Stephens Park, 7:10 p.m., $6-$12. 400 W. Broadway St., NLR. 501-664-1555. www.travs.com.

SATURDAY, MAY 16

MUSIC

Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. See May. 15.

Faster Pussycat, Iron Tongue. Vino’s. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Jazzlights in the Park. Clinton Presidential Center, 1 p.m., $20 adv., $25 day of. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 370-8000. www.clintonpresidentialcenter.org.

Joe Diffie, Shari Bales. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $25.

614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www. juanitas.com.

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

Karaoke. Casa Mexicana, 7 p.m. 7111 JFK Blvd., NLR. 501-835-7876. Zack’s Place, 8 p.m., free.

1400 S. University Ave. 501-664-6444.

Karaoke with Kevin & Cara. All-ages, on the restaurant side. Revolution, 9 p.m.-12:45 a.m., free. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new.

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.

The Lone Bellow. Revolution, 9 p.m., $15 adv., $18 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new.

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.

Riitz, Kxng Crooked. Discovery Nightclub. 1021 Jessie Road. 501-664-4784. www.latenightdisco. com.

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

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

Steve Miller Band. Walmart AMP, 7:30 p.m., $31-$75.50. 5079 W. Northgate Road, Rogers.

479-443-5600. www.arkansasmusicpavilion.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.cap-

italbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

“I Love You But You’re Sitting On My Cat.” An original production by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Paul Hooper. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $7-$10.

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

DANCE

Arkansas Festival Ballet, “Hansel & Gretel.”

Arkansas Arts Center, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., $15-$25. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www. arkarts.com.

EVENTS

BKD’s River Cities Dragon Boat Festival. Lake Willastein Park. Lake Willastein Drive, Maumelle.

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

Greek Food Festival. Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, through May 17, free. 1100 Napa Valley Drive. 501-221-5300.

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

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

Little Rock Farmers’ Market. River Market Pavilions, through Oct. 31: 7 a.m. 400 President Clinton Ave. 375-2552. www.rivermarket.info.

MSA Grandslam Autorama II. Dickey-Stephens Park, 5 p.m., free. 400 W. Broadway St., NLR. 501-664-1555. www.travs.com.

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

FILM

10th Anniversary Year Screening of “The Hunting of the President.” Sturgis Hall, 12:30 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

Little Rock Film Festival 2015. Ron Robinson Theater and other venues in downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, through May 17.

Schedule and tickets at www.littlerockfilmfestival.org.

“Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy.” Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 7 p.m., free. 501 W. 9th St. 501-683-3593. www. mosaictemplarscenter.com.

SPORTS

Arkansas Travelers vs. Tulsa. Dickey-Stephens Park, 7:10 p.m., 2:10 p.m., $6-$12. 400 W. Broadway St., NLR. 501-664-1555. www.travs. com.

SUNDAY, MAY 17

MUSIC

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, “Electrify Your Strings!” Connor Performing Arts Center, Pulaski Academy, 7 p.m., $15. 12701 Hinson Road.

Hellyeah, Devour The Day, ARCHER. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $23. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-3721228. www.juanitas.com.

Irish Traditional Music Session. Hibernia Irish

Tavern, first and third Sunday of every month, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com.

Karaoke. Shorty Small’s, 6-9 p.m. 1475 Hogan Lane, Conway. 501-764-0604. www.shortysmalls.com.

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

501-982-1939.

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

DANCE

Arkansas Festival Ballet, “Hansel & Gretel.”

Arkansas Arts Center, 2 p.m., $15-$25. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

# All American Food & Great Place to Watch Your Favorite Event

EVENTS

Greek Food Festival. Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, free. 1100 Napa Valley Drive.

501-221-5300.

FILM

Little Rock Film Festival 2015. Ron Robinson Theater and other venues in downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock, through May 17.

Schedule and tickets at www.littlerockfilmfestival.org.

SPORTS

Arkansas Travelers vs. Tulsa. Dickey-Stephens Park, 2:10 p.m., $6-$12. 400 W. Broadway St., NLR. 501-664-1555. www.travs.com.

BOOKS

Books in Bloom Literary Festival. Crescent Hotel and Spa, 12 p.m., free. 75 Prospect Ave., Eureka Springs. 877-342-9766. www.crescenthotel.com.

MONDAY, MAY 18

MUSIC

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 19

MUSIC

Dave Matthews Band. Walmart AMP, 7 p.m., Sold out. 5079 W. Northgate Road, Rogers.

479-443-5600. www.arkansasmusicpavilion.com.

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

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

Karaoke Tuesday. Prost, 8 p.m., free. 322 President Clinton Blvd. 501-244-9550. willydspianobar.com/prost-2.

Karaoke Tuesdays. On the patio. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 7:30 p.m., free. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-

Tweet shop LOCAL ARKANSAS TIMES

ViNO’S

SEVENTH&CHESTER

501-375-VINO ALWAYS ALL AGES F R I D AY M AY 1 5

| Mulehead - VINYL RELEASE PARTY! | | John McAteer & Gentlemen Firesnakes | S AT U R D AY M AY 1 6

| Vore (Fayetteville, AR) | Macrocosm (Fort Smith, AR) | | Moment Of Fierce Determination | T U E S D AY M AY 1 9

Vino’s Brewpub Cinema presents 8 God’s Little Acre (1958) T H U R S D AY M AY 2 1

| Sinai Vessel (North Carolina) | I Was Afraid | F R I D AY M AY 2 2

| The Harmaleighs (Nashville, TN) | Kevin Kerby | S AT U R D AY M AY 2 3

| Young Gods Of America | Headcold | | Inrage | Iron Born | Vile Pack | | Terminal Nation | and more!! | T U E S D AY M AY 2 6

Vino’s Brewpub Cinema presents 8 Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958) W E D N E S D AY M AY 2 7

| Secrets Of The Sky (Oakland, CA) | TBA |

www.vinosbrewpub.com www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

31

AFTER DARK, CONT. 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.

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

Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton.

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

COMEDY

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

DANCE

“Latin Night.” Juanita’s, 7:30 p.m., $7. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20

MUSIC

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

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

Drageoke with Chi Chi Valdez. Sway. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582.

Faster Pussycat, Iron Tongue. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $12 adv., $14 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/ new.

Fret & Worry. South on Main, 7:30 p.m., free.

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.

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

Karaoke. MUSE Ultra Lounge, 8:30 p.m., free.

2611 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-6398.

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

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

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

DANCE

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

FILM

“Time of Fear.” MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, 6:30 p.m., free. 503 E. 9th St. 3764602. www.arkmilitaryheritage.com.

POETRY 32

MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

Wednesday Night Poetry. 21-and-older show.

Maxine’s, 7 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-321-0909. maxineslive.com/shows. html.

KIDS

Little Beginnings Toddler Program: Bicycles!.

Old State House Museum, 10:30 a.m. 300 West Markham Street. 501-324-9685. www.oldstatehouse.com.

ARTS

THEATER

“Hansel and Gretel.” Arkansas Arts Center, May 15-17, 7:30 p.m., $15-$25. 501 E. 9th St. 501-3724000. www.arkarts.com.

“The Member of the Wedding.” The Weekend Theater, through May 30: Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m., $16. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. www.weekendtheater.org.

Maumelle Players, “Noises Off.” Little Scholars Academy of Maumelle, May 14-16, 7 p.m.; Sun., May 17, 3 p.m., $12-$15. 10910 Maumelle Blvd, NLR. 501-803-0300.

NEW GALLERY EXHIBITS, EVENTS New shows in bold-face ARGENTA GALLERY, 413 Main St., NLR: “Lend Me Your Eyes: An adventure in collaborative curating between UALR and Art Connection,” work by graduating BFA students and students from the Art Connection program, opens with reception 5-8 p.m. May 15, Argenta ArtWalk; “Eluvium and Formation: Abstracted Landscapes,” sculpture by Ed Pennebaker and paintings by LaDawna Whiteside, through May 18. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. argentagallery.com.

ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “Feed Your Mind Friday” talk by metal and jewelry artist David Clemons on “30 Americans,” noon May 15; Art of Architecture presents “The Ed Cromwell Legacy,” a panel discussion on the career of the late architect by Charles Penix, Don Evans and Bill Worthen, 5:30 p.m. reception, panel 6 p.m. May 19, lecture hall.

372-4000.

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “The Quiet Hours,” paintings by John Wooldridge, opens with reception 6-8 p.m. May 15, show through July 10. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 2241335.

GALLERY 26, 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd.: New work by Robert Bean and Stephen Cefalo, opens May 16 with reception 7-10 p.m., show through July 11. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 664-8996.

GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR, and HEARNE FINE ART, 1001 Wright Ave.: National Silverpoint Invitational 2015 “Drawing with Silverpoint,” May through June 27, works

by Sherry Camhy, Jeannine Cook, Lori Field, Marietta Hoferer, Michael Kukla, Jeffrey Lewis, Tom Mazzullo, Susan Schwalb, Aj Smith and Marjorie Williams-Smith, reception at Thompson 5-9 p.m. May 15, Argenta ArtWalk.

BENTONVILLE CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART: Architecture Speaker Series presents former UA dean Jeff Shannon on “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House — A New Perspective,” 7-8 p.m. May 15, $10 nonmembers; Spotlight Lecture by “Beyond Pollock” author Morgan

Falconer on “What Can Painting Do (and what it can’t),” 4-5 p.m. May 17, free; Meet and Greet with sculptor Alice Aycock, 6:30-7 p.m. May 21, followed by Spotlight Conversation with Aycock 8-9 p.m. 479-657-2335.

EL DORADO SOUTH ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, 110 E. 5th St.: “The Viewfinder,” photography, through June 1, Merkle and Price galleries; Steven E. Ochs juror, reception 6-8 p.m. May 16. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.Fri. 870-862-5747.

EUREKA SPRINGS WHITE STREET STUDIO WALK: Open studios on White Street, with studio and guest artists in all media, 4-10 p.m. May 15.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith is accepting photographs taken with mobile devices for its second “Explore Arkansas” exhibition July 1-Aug. 31. Submissions will be accepted through May 22. Register through @ArkMoPhys on Instagram or Twitter or the ArkMoPhs Facebook page. Judges are Cindy Momchilov, Don Lee, Chad Cochran and Chuck Dovish.

The Arkansas Arts Council is accepting applications from performing, literary or visual artist who would like to join the Arts in Education Artist Roster. Call Cynthia Haas at 324-9769 or email Cynthia@arkansasheritage.org for more information. Deadline is July 10.

The South Arkansas Arts Center is accepting entries to its 2015 Annual Juried Art Competition to be held July 1-30. Two- and 3-D works in all media may be entered; deadline is May 20. Juror will be Dr. Stanton Thomas of the Brooks Museum in Memphis. For more information and an entry form, go to www. saac-arts.org.

The Fort Smith Regional Art Museum is accepting entries for a show themed “Man versus Machine: The Art of Expression and the Wired World” to run July 31 to Nov. 1. Deadline is July 1. Submissions should be sent to FS RAM, 1601 Rogers Ave., Fort Smith 72901. Call 479784-2787.

CONTINUING GALLERY EXHIBITS ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “54th Young Artists Exhibition,” art by Arkansas students grades K-12, through July 26; “30 Americans,” works by African American artists from the Rubell Collection, through June 21; “Humble Hum: Rhythm of the Potter’s Wheel,” recent work by resident artist Ashley Morrison, Museum School Gallery, through June 21. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000.

ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORP. GROUP, 200 River Market Ave., Suite 400: “Southern Curiosities,” work by Diane Harper, Dominique Simmons and Barbara Satterfield, through June 26. 374-9247.

BOSWELL MOUROT FINE ART, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “In Rose-Papered Rooms,” paintings by Grace Mikell Ramsey, through May 23. 664-0030.

BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Human Faces & Landscapes: Paintings by Sui Hoe Khoo,” “White River Memoirs,” artwork collected by canoist and photographer Chris Engholm along

the White, through July 25; “A Different State of Mind,” exhibition by the Arkansas Society of Printmakers, loft gallery, through June 27. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790.

CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 509 Scott St.: “Plein Air Painters of Arkansas,” work by Victoria Harvey, Clarence Cash, Tom Herrin, Greg Lahti, Sean LeCrone, John Wooldridge and Diana Shearon.

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

Sat. 664-0880.

COX CREATIVE CENTER, 120 River Market Ave.: Arkansas Society of Printmakers exhibition. 918-3090.

ESSE PURSE MUSEUM & STORE, 1510 S. Main St.: “What’s Inside: A History of Women and Handbags, 1900-1999,” vintage purses and other women’s accessories. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.Sat., $8-$10. 916-9022.

GALLERY 221, Pyramid Place, Second and Center streets: Paintings by Greg Lahti; “WPA & Art from the Great Depression,” works from private collections, through May 28. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. gallery221@ gmail.com.

GALLERY 360, 900 S. Rodney Parham Road: “Flora and Fauna,” work by Rachel Trusty and Beth Whitlow, through May. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.Fri, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. 663-222.

GINO HOLLANDER GALLERY, 2nd and Center: Paintings and works on paper by Gino Hollander.

801-0211.

HEARNE FINE ART, 1001 Wright Ave: “Page Turners: Original Illustrations and Prints by Bryan Collier,” through June 13. 372-6822.

HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM GALLERIES, 200 E. 3rd St.: “(Everyday) Interpretations: Cindy Arsaga, Joe Morzuch and Adam Posnak”; “Suggin Territory: The Marvelous World of Folklorist Josephine Graham,” through Nov. 29; “Suyao Tian: Entangled Beauty,” through June 7; “Recent Acquisitions,” objects acquired between 2012 and 2014; “Arkansas Made,” ongoing. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351.

L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Backyard Birds,” through May, giclee giveaway 7 p.m. May 20.

LAMAN LIBRARY ARGENTA BRANCH, 420 Main St., NLR: “Dennis McCann: A History.” 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 758-1720.

LOCAL COLOUR, 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Rotating work by 27 artists in collective. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 265-0422.

M2GALLERY, 11525 Cantrell Road (Pleasant Ridge Shopping Center): Watercolors by Lisa Krannichfeld, through June 12; also work by Bryan Frazier, Dan Holland and Sabine Danze, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. 9447155.

MUGS CAFE, 515 Main St., NLR: “The Original Selfie: Artists’ Self Portraits.” 442-7778.

RED DOOR GALLERY, 3715 JFK, NLR: Paula Jones, new paintings; Jim Goshorn, new sculpture; also sculpture by Joe Martin, paintings

by Amy Hill-Imler, Theresa Cates and Patrick Cunningham, ornaments by D. Wharton, landscapes by James Ellis, raku by Kelly Edwards and other works. 753-5227. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. STEPHANO’S FINE ART: 1813 N. Grant St.: New work by Mike Gaines, Maryam Moeeni, Ken Davis, John Kushmaul and Gene Brack.

563-4218.

THEA FOUNDATION, 401 Main St., NLR: “River, Buildings, Streets, Bridge,” paintings by John Kushmaul, part of The Art Department series, through May. 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1-5 p.m. Mon.Fri. 379-9512.

MOVIE REVIEW

‘The D Train’: James Marsden (left, in shades) and Jack Black star.

Left behind High school reunion comedy ‘D Train’ takes a subversive turn.

BY SAM EIFLING

FILMS. PARTY. REPEAT. May 11-17th Presented By

is anything approaching happy. We know to snicker at Dan’s instant fawning when he sees his chiseled former classmate hawking Banana Boat; and we know to recognize Oliver’s insouciance about Dan’s buffoonish attempts to seem cool. Oliver knows he’s a dime-a-dozen in Hollywood. When Dan swoops in to idolize him, it’s as if he has just been cast in a role he can finally nail. So he runs with it, even posing as a CEO to cover Dan’s baloney lies to his boss (Jeffrey Tambor) about why he needed to jaunt to California.

A class-of-’94 actor who’s stuck making sunscreen ads feels like a mediocrity only until he throws back shots with someone ambition forgot altogether. But once that party slows, he’s still a hack in a land where hacks go to die. Oliver’s trajectory here is one of admission — he peaked in the 11th grade, and knows it, even if none of the other mopes in his hometown realize that. Dan, too, has to come to this conclusion, though through very different channels, that the guy he idolized (and on whom he was counting for a big ol’ reflected glow of popularity) isn’t going to provide that. Dumpy, frustrated, and prone to spinning yarns, Dan could scarcely be more let down with his life. If “The D Train” has a moral, buried in its barely concealed bleakness, it’s that whatever mistakes you make, over decades or over drinks, you just gotta own those suckers, and that lying to yourself and the people around you is the anti-cool.

That’s not exactly a groundbreaking notion in itself, but “The D Train” takes an admirably risky route to get there.

GOLD PASS

K

nowing nothing more about “The D Train,” Jack Black’s new dark comedy, than what its trailer shows, you wouldn’t even get much of a sense that it is, in fact, dark.

Black plays Dan Landsman, a hometown Pittsburgher who forgot to form a single ambition in life, who has made himself the tinpot dictator of his 20-year high school reunion committee and not much else in life. He notices an old classmate named Oliver Lawless (James Marsden, or Cyclops of the “X-Men” flicks, minus the ruby shades) looking lifeguard-rugged in a sunblock ad, and hits upon an idea to save the saggy reunion: get the TV actor to RSVP, and the rest of the old gang will follow.

Now, in the trailer, it’s clear that this plan doesn’t shake out quite as Dan would hope. After Dan flies to L.A. to sway him, Oliver relents and comes to the reunion; by then, though, something has shifted, and all that should have been beer toasts and back-slapping (per Dan’s daydreams of arriving at the reunion with the one-time coolest dude in school) has warped and faded. To say what happened that in L.A. didn’t stay in L.A. would be a spoiler that you can surely Google, if you must. Suffice it here that everything pivots, and when it does, “The D Train” goes from a flat comedy with a simple premise and unlikable protagonist to something far weirder, uncomfortably funny and memorable.

Subversively, almost, directorscreenwriter tag-team Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul never pretend that any of the major characters, with the possible exception of Dan’s supersupportive wife, Stacey (Kathryn Hahn),

GOLD ACCESS: ON SALE NOW!

Be a VIP at all screenings,panels, workshops and parties including the Opening and Closing Night Films.

Visit littlerockfilmfestival.org to purchase.

Use promo code: LRFFYEAH www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

33

FILMS. PARTY. REPEAT.

MAY 11-17, 2015 LittleRockFilmFestival.org Presented By

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MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

MARY DOES IT ALL, CONT. word. So to really hear from songwriters about their inspiration and not just have a night where the songs are going one right after another, but have the leisure and pleasure of that knowledge of how that song was born, I just thought that’s something people might appreciate there.

It’s gotten back to me, some of the really nice things people who’ve played [South on Main], like Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash and Iris Dement, have said about performing there.

If those guys are talking about it, I wanted some of the people who’re some of my dearest friends and Nashville songwriters to experience it. I think it’s going to be a great night. There are also going to be some extraordinary auction items.

We’ve see trend pieces almost every other month about how Hollywood doesn’t make room for women in their 40s. Amy Schumer memorably poked fun at this idea a couple weeks ago. But in the last year, you’ve been defying that narrative with a run of really great roles on acclaimed TV shows. Are you at the vanguard of a change in Hollywood? Is it something about you as an actress?

This is not a very glamorous answer, but I’m the best represented I’ve ever been in my career.

Some of it also has to do with it being a golden age in television. I don’t know about the golden age, but it is a golden age. There’s just a tremendous amount of good material. There have been years and years at a time when I felt like I was desperately searching for something that I could be proud of. There’s actually more work now than I can do. Which is crazy. I don’t think I fully understand all the reasons. I’ll be honest with you, I really thought I would be kind of tending a garden by this age. I had the busiest year I’ve ever had. I did four movies and four TV shows in a year. I have one more little film for TV I’m doing with the [Jim Henson Company], and then I have a month break and then we start the “Last Man” second season. I feel really blessed. I’m having a great time.

I love the people I’m working with. It was very unexpected. But I’m having a great time.

“Justified” is one of my favorite shows of all time.

That was a great gig. That was like a gift. I just got a call one day from Graham Yost, the creator, who said, “We want you to be one of the kind of major villains of the final season.” People sometime assume, for some dumb

reason, I can’t play mean even though I keep telling them (laughs). He said, “I thought of you because I trusted you to handle the comedy.” A big part of “Justified” is that wonderful, Elmore Leonard, darkly comic thing going on.

When we started I really didn’t know too much about [my character], Katherine. I didn’t know who she was going to be. That’s one of the interesting things about guesting on one of these series with long arcs. They’re not really written when you start it; they’re just sketched. You have to dive in and be brave and go on that journey together. There was an episode where I shoot someone through my purse and then speak to someone in French telling them to come clean this up (laughs). The way that they wrote the character, no matter what you think of her, she wasn’t a dumb Southern woman.

I’m a time-shifted viewer for “Last Man,” so I’m not caught up, but I’ve heard tell about a scene with you and an accordion that figures in prominently.

There were a couple of musical little found moments. There’s this scene that needed to be sad. They were saying they wished they had some sad music. I said, “What music would you play?” They said, “We’d play the Death March.” I said, “Well, I have my accordion in my car.” They said, “Wait! Wait! Don’t tell us you play the accordion.” I said, “I won’t tell you that I’m very good, but I think I can play that Death March.” I whip it out and play it and then go into some strange French cafe music improv, and they loved it.

The other musical moment was they

needed a song for Will Forte to sing at the very last episode. That song was important, and they were trying to figure out what would fit. I told them, I actually have a song that I’ve written with Katie Hertzig that would be perfect, I just need to tweak it. So I did and sang it for the director. Will sings it in the last episode.

The thing I love about that show and the thing I loved about “Step Brothers” is that it’s very alive creatively. There are no real, hard-fast rules. If something happens during the day or something is thought of, it’s explored and jumped on and everyone tries to figure it out. That’s very unusual for television. Because we have to work very fast and there’s so much money involved, it tends to get a little rigid. “Last Man” is the opposite of that: very risk-taking. It probably means that sometimes we’ll fall flat on our face, but there’s always going to be magic in that.

Can you tease anything about your “Orange Is the New Black”?

I really wish I could, but I can’t. It’s coming in June.

How do you feel about your old friend Hillary Clinton’s campaign?

I saw her last night and her speech was amazing. I don’t think there’s a human being in this world more qualified because of all of her experiences.

I’m thrilled about the idea of someone of my sex with that much talent and that much experience and that much caring in that job. I will be campaigning mightily.

THE BIG PICTURE, CONT. Williams, a native of Tennessee, moved to Mississippi County in the early 1840s and bought 480 acres, on which he built his house. He served in the General Assembly in both the House and Senate chambers and was a community leader.

The antebellum structure is believed incorporated into an 1880 expansion.

The home was occupied until 2014, but stands empty today.

WATCHING: Worthen Bank (KATV) Building Little Rock (Pulaski County) Built 1928 George R. Mann designed

this Neo-Classical limestone building at the corner of Fourth and Main streets for Worthen Bank. It was purchased

by KATV in 1969, and its interior has been modified but its exterior is largely intact. KATV has discussed moving from the building for several years, and now the Little Rock Technology Park Authority has identified the building as a possible site for park expansion. The Authority has not determined whether it would tear down the building or renovate it. It will be years before the Tech Park is in a position to do either; it has yet to make an offer on the building, “affording preservation advocates a golden opportunity to work for the building’s survival,” the Alliance says.

hearsay The Promenade at Chenal is hosting its annual Ladies Night Out beginning at 6 p.m. May 14 at The Promenade Courtyard between J.Crew and lululemon athletica. The event will feature this summer’s best fashion from an array of Promenade stores.

The first 100 ladies there will receive shopper swag bags with coupons, beauty and home product samples and much more. Also planned is a scavenger hunt and giveaways, as well as food and cocktails. ➥ Calling all metal heads: Quiet Riot is scheduled to perform June 27 at the Choctaw Casino Hotel’s CenterStage Event Center in Pocola, Okla. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com, by phone at (800) 745-3000 or by visiting the Gift Shop, Branches Trading Co., located inside Choctaw Casino Hotel. For more information, visit www.choctawcasinos.com. ➥ Looking for a fun summer activity for the kids? Check out Eggshells Kitchen Company’s Lil’ Eggheads Kitchen Camp, scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon July 13-17 for kids ages 6-10. This is Eggshells’ first foray into kids’ day camps, and attendees will experience a new cuisine and learn kitchen skills he or she will take from their kitchen to home.

Cost of the camp is $200. Also, the May-June schedule of cooking classes for adults has been posted, with chefs Brian Kelley and Scott Rains and South on Main’s bar manager David Burnette sharing their culinary and mixology knowledge. For more information, visit www.eggshellscookingcompany.com. ➥ Support Arkansas Festival Ballet by attending its production of “Hansel & Gretel”, a storybook ballet, scheduled for May 15 -17 at the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre. Show times are 7:30 p.m. May 15, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. May 16 and 2 p.m. May 17. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for children and students. Purchase tickets online at www.arkansasdance.org or by calling Arkansas Festival Ballet at 501-227-5320.

Advertising Supplement www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

35

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’

Sassy’s Red House

ROB BYFORD, OWNER OF THE SLIM Chickens outlets in Arkansas, is bringing three Pie Five Pizza outlets to Central Arkansas starting in fall. The Texasbased fast-casual pizza restaurants offer hand-cut and gluten-free pizzas, and can cook them to diner specifications in five minutes thanks to “special ovens,” the chain says. No word yet on exact locations.

708 College Ave. Fayetteville 479-856-6366 sassysredhouse.com

QUICK BITE Dining out with kids? Sassy’s is just the place. Servers are quick with high chairs and booster seats, and will have some crayons and coloring pages in the hands of the little ones quicker than even the sweet tea hitting the table. In addition, kids’ portions are relatively large, diverse and inexpensive.

STONE’S THROW BREWING AT Ninth and Rock streets has received approval for a new outdoor beer garden, which should open this week. The Little Rock City Board also approved extended hours, to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Also, the brewery has added another six-barrel fermenter, which means more beer output.

HOURS 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

OTHER INFO Beer and wine, all credit cards.

DINING CAPSULES

AMERICAN

ACADIA A jewel of a restaurant in Hillcrest.

Unbelievable fixed-price, three-course dinners on Mondays and Tuesday, but food is certainly worth full price. 3000 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, CC. $$-$$$. 501-603-9630. D Mon.-Sat. BEST IMPRESSIONS The menu combines Asian, Italian and French sensibilities in soups, salads and meaty fare. A departure from the tearoom of yore. 501 E. Ninth St. Beer and wine, all CC. $$. 501-907-5946. L Tue.-Sun., BR Sat.-Sun. BIG ORANGE: BURGERS SALADS SHAKES Gourmet burgers manufactured according to exacting specs (humanely raised beef!) and properly fried Kennebec potatoes are the big draws, but you can get a veggie burger as well as fried chicken, curried falafel and blackened tilapia sandwiches, plus creative meal-sized salads. Shakes and floats are indulgences for all ages. 17809 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-821-1515. LD daily. 207 N. University Ave. Full bar, all CC. $$. 501-379-8715. LD daily.

BIG ROCK BISTRO Students of the Arkansas Culinary School run this restaurant at Pulaski Tech under the direction of Chef Jason Knapp.

Pizza, pasta, Asian-inspired dishes and diner food, all in one stop. 3000 W. Scenic Drive. NLR. No alcohol, all CC. $. 501-812-2200. BL Mon.-Fri. BJ’S RESTAURANT AND BREWHOUSE Chain restaurant’s huge menu includes deep dish pizzas, steak, ribs, sandwiches, pasta and award-winning handcrafted beer. In Shackleford Crossing Shopping Center. 2624 S. Shackleford Road. Beer, all CC. 501-404-2000.

BLACK ANGUS CAFE Charcoal-grilled burgers, hamburger steaks and steaks proper are the big draws at this local institution. Now with lunch specials like fried shrimp. 10907 N. Rodney Parham. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$. 501-228-7800.

LD Mon.-Sat. BOBBY’S CAFE Delicious, humungo burgers and tasty homemade desserts at this Levy diner.

12230 MacArthur Drive. NLR. No alcohol, No 36

MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

FLAVOR AND HEAT: The Fuego Burger was a standout at Sassy’s.

Best on beef Brisket, burgers stand out at Sassy’s Red House in Fayetteville.

I

n our experience, the best barbecue joints are the ones that make us feel at home as soon as we walk through the door, then follow that up with some hearty grub that leaves us ready to waddle off to the nearest bed for a well-deserved food coma and case of the meat sweats. We appreciate a good plate of barbecue, but we aren’t of the worshipful class that elevates it beyond all other forms of cuisine. For many people, opinions about barbecue are like children — everybody thinks theirs are the best.

Perhaps that disqualifies us from talking about a place like Sassy’s Red House on Fayetteville’s College Avenue, but while we may not know all the esoteric secrets of the different ways fire and smoke can be applied to heat, we do know what we like putting in our mouths, and Sassy’s did just fine on that score, leaving us satisfied with a

big meal that didn’t blow us away, but certainly left us feeling like we had gotten our money’s worth.

We opened the proceedings with an order of Homemade Fried Pickles ($5.99), because when it comes to deep-fried treats we can’t ever seem to turn down, fried pickles are right at the top of the list. Sassy’s version of the Arkansas classic were of the sliced, textured hamburger-chip variety, dipped in a light batter and fried to a golden crisp. They’re salty, utterly greasy and completely decadent when dipped in the side cup of ranch dressing with which they were served. There was nothing about these pickle chips that would set them apart in a blind taste test with a dozen others we’ve tried, but since we were after that salty-tangy taste of familiar bliss, that wasn’t a bad thing.

Without planning it, our table man-

aged to hit the holy trinity of smoked meat with our order, starting with brisket in the form of a jumbo beef sandwich ($7.65 sandwich, $9.99 combo).

Brisket is one of those cuts that can be simply spectacular when done well, but all too often wind up bland, dry or overwhelmed by slimy fat. This beef was decidedly between those two extremes, because while we thought the exterior of the meat could have used more of that dark, smoky bark that is the sign of excellent brisket, the meat was moist and tender and not too fatty.

The regular pork sandwich ($5.25 sandwich, $6.99 combo) was closer to what our ideal barbecue sandwich should be, which might have something to do with the fact that we personally prefer pork — this is Arkansas, after all. The pork paired well with Sassy’s signature Sassy Jones BBQ Sauce. Of particular note, too, is that despite our ordering a regular portion instead of the jumbo-sized sandwich (as we did with the brisket), this was still a large sandwich that we had no problem getting full from. Again, we could have used a stronger flavor of smoke to the meat, but in terms of texture and tenderness, the sandwich was right on.

Perhaps the weakest of the smoked meats we tried came with our chicken sandwich ($5.25 sandwich, $6.99 combo), which made us realize that smoked chicken really needs to be served on the bone and with the skin still involved in order to reach maximum flavor potential. This sandwich was decidedly bland, and while we

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

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

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. think Sassy’s is doing a great job with its house recipe sauce, we would have liked a little more flavor. Of course, we know people who refuse to even acknowledge that chicken has any part of barbecue whatsoever, and we can imagine them reading this with an “I told you so” expression on their faces.

Texture was also an issue with the chicken — things were just a little too dry and chewy for our taste all around.

For our final dish, we stepped outside the barbecue paradigm altogether and went with the Fuego Burger ($7.99), a hot and hearty combination of peppers, buffalo sauce and pepper jack cheese that tingled the mouth and brought a little sweat out to the forehead. It’s a huge burger, well cooked and juicy, and even though there were a lot of flavors going on with the toppings, the beef was the star of the show.

Along with the brisket, we’d have to say that Sassy’s is doing best when it’s doing beef, and despite our desire to go back for ribs, we’ll find it hard to branch out from the burger menu.

Like many barbecue places we’ve eaten at over the years, Sassy’s side dishes were secondary. A thick, sweet version of barbecue beans was tasty enough and the cole slaw was perfectly passable, though neither did much to stand out from dozens of similar versions around. French fries were of the decidedly pre-frozen waffle-cut, making us long (as we usually do in these situations) for a barbecue joint that would make the decision to commit to really stellar hand-cut fries. Okra wasn’t much better, and while we enjoyed our sweet potato tots with caramel sauce well enough, it’s clear that the freezer is getting a workout here.

Despite these minor complaints, we’d have to say that Sassy’s is an excellent value for a down-home lunch or dinner. We fed a table of four adults and one child for just north of $50, and that’s an almost unheard-of thing outside fast food these days. Service was friendly and accommodating, and while we may not have had a transcendent experience, we left full and satisfied.

With just a little more attention to its side items and the addition of a little more smoke to the meat, there’s no reason why Sassy’s couldn’t be among the elite for Arkansas ’cue.

CC. $. 501-851-7888. BL Tue.-Fri., D Thu.-Fri. BOSTON’S Ribs and gourmet pizza star at this restaurant/sports bar located at the Holiday Inn by the airport. TVs in separate sports bar area. 3201 Bankhead Drive. Full bar, all CC. $$.

501-235-2000. LD daily.

BOUDREAUX’S GRILL & BAR A homey, seatyourself Cajun joint in Maumelle that serves up all sorts of variations of shrimp and catfish. With particularly tasty red beans and rice, jambalaya and bread pudding. 9811 Maumelle Blvd. NLR. Full bar, all CC. $$. 501-753-6860. LD daily.

BOULEVARD BREAD CO. Fresh bread, fresh pastries, wide selection of cheeses, meats, side dishes; all superb. Good coffee, too. 1920 N. Grant St. Beer and wine, all CC. $$. 501-663-

5951. BLD Mon.-Sat., BL Sun. 400 President Clinton Ave. Beer and wine, all CC. $-$$.

501-374-1232. BLD Mon.-Sat. (close 5 p.m.), BL Sun. 4301 W. Markham St. No alcohol, all CC. $$. 501-526-6661. BL Mon.-Fri. 1417 Main St. Beer and wine, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-5100.

BL Mon.-Sat. BREWSTERS 2 CAFE & LOUNGE Down-home done right. Check out the yams, mac-andcheese, greens, purple-hull peas, cornbread, wings, catfish and all the rest. 2725 S. Arch St. Full bar, all CC. $-$$. 501-301-7728. LD Mon.-Sat. BROWN SUGAR BAKESHOP Fabulous cupcakes, brownies and cakes offered five days a week until they’re sold out. 419 E. Third St. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$. 501-372-4009. LD Tue.-Fri.

THE EVERYDAY SOMMELIER Your friendly neighborhood wine shop. #theeverydaysommelier

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(close at 5:30 p.m.), L Sat. BUTCHER SHOP The cook-your-own-steak option has been downplayed, and several menu additions complement the calling card: large, fabulous cuts of prime beef, cooked to perfection. 10825 Hermitage Road. Full bar, all CC. $$$. 501-312-2748. D daily.

CACHE RESTAURANT A stunning experience on the well-presented plates and in terms of atmosphere, glitz and general feel. It doesn’t feel like anyplace else in Little Rock, and it’s not priced like much of anywhere else in Little Rock, either. But there are options to keep the tab in the reasonable range. 425 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, all CC. $$$. 501-850-0265. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. CAJUN’S WHARF The venerable seafood restaurant serves up great gumbo and oysters Bienville, and options such as fine steaks for the non-seafood eater. In the citified bar, you’ll find nightly entertainment, too. 2400 Cantrell Road. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-375-5351. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. CAMP DAVID Inside the Holiday Inn Presidential Conference Center, Camp David particularly pleases with its breakfast and themed buffets each day of the week. Wonderful Sunday brunch. 600 Interstate 30. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$.

501-975-2267. BLD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. CAPERS It’s never been better, with as good a wine list as any in the area, and a menu that covers a lot of ground — seafood, steaks, pasta — and does it all well. 14502 Cantrell Road. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-868-7600. LD Mon.-Sat. CHEDDAR’S Large selection of somewhat standard American casual cafe choices, many of which are made from scratch. Portions are large and prices are very reasonable. 400 South University. Full bar, all CC. $-$$. 501-614-7578.

LD daily.

CHICKEN KING Arguably Central Arkansas’s best wings. 2704 MacArthur Drive. NLR. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. 501-771-5571. LD Mon.-Sat. 5213 W 65th St. No alcohol, all CC. $-$$.

501-562-5573. LD Mon.-Sat. COMMUNITY BAKERY This sunny downtown bakery is the place to linger over a latte, bagels and the New York Times. But a lunchtime dash for sandwiches is OK, too, though it’s often packed. 1200 S. Main St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$.

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

No alcohol, all CC. $-$$. 501-224-1656. BLD Mon.-Sat. BL Sun. COPELAND’S RESTAURANT The full service restaurant chain started by the founder of Popeye’s delivers the same good biscuits, the same dependable frying and a New Orleans vibe in piped music and decor. You can eat red beans and rice for a price in the single digits or pay near $40 for a choice slab of ribeye, with crab, shrimp and fish in between. 2602 S. Shackleford Road.

Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$. 501-312-1616. LD daily.

COPPER GRILL Comfort food, burgers and more sophisticated fare at this River Market-area hotspot. 300 E. Third St. Full bar, all CC. $$-$$$.

501-375-3333. LD Mon.-Sat. CRACKER BARREL OLD COUNTRY STORE Home-cooking with plenty of variety and big portions. Old-fashioned breakfast served all day long. 2618 S. Shackleford Road. No alcohol, all CC. 501-225-7100. BLD daily. 3101 Springhill Drive. www.arktimes.com

MAY 14, 2015

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WHAT WENT DOWN IN ASHDOWN, CONT. times. A member of Benca’s defense team noted privately that they would gladly have stipulated to the facts of the bodies’ condition, but images are powerful tools.

In addition, numerous objects were presented for the jury to see, objects small as a piece of a bullet and large as a pickup truck toolbox. Testimony accompanied these objects, often by scientists from the State Crime Laboratory.

However, the experts could say little more about some of the items, such as a baby mattress with affecting Mickey Mouse sheets than that they had been sent to the lab and examined.

Did that mattress give the jury evidence, one way or another, that could help the jury in its considerations? Not that I could tell.

But relevance didn’t seem to matter. The sad thing stood in a corner of the courtroom until the trial was over.

Howard used meth, dealt in stolen tires and had “kinky sex” with several women.

The prosecutors established that in his 20s, the defendant was not a guy any of us would have wanted our daughters to date.

On the other hand, as Howard was quick to acknowledge, prison had done him good.

His death sentence may have saved his life.

Now in his mid-40s, the man who sat opposite the jurors appeared mentally and physically fit. Though he did not take the stand, he looked trim and remained attentive throughout. Not that that made him innocent.

Chesshir subpoenaed me to testify against Howard, intending for me to verify a comment by him that I quoted here in 2011. The section of that article read: “ ‘Things were going downhill,’ he said in a recent interview. ‘I didn’t know how to stop. I didn’t even know I could stop.’ He admits: ‘I would eventually have ended up in prison at some point. Either that or dead.’ But he says he did not kill his friends.”

Chesshir never called me to read that.

He told me later that Smith had persuaded him I wasn’t needed because they’d already adequately established Howard’s unsavory past.

Good trials need good investigations.

Benca tore apart the police investigation of the murders, from their handling of the crime scenes to the disappearance of evidence.

After a retired crime-scene investigator from the Little Rock Police Department criticized actions taken and not taken by chief investigator Hays McWhirter of the Arkansas State Police, the prosecutors responded that Little River County didn’t have the resources the city of Little Rock does.

Benca pointed out that McWhirter had county deputies and Ashdown police available. But the larger, more disturbing 38

MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

point to me was the implication that, of course, justice will be meted out differently depending on where in Arkansas we live.

A coherent theory would help prosecution.

I didn’t hear one. The prosecutors’ opening and closing statements veered through various scenarios, but essentially they came down to this: Tim Howard and Brian Day had been buddies, “thick as thieves,” until their relationship “went south” shortly before the murders.

Brian’s brother had told him that Shanon was having an affair with Howard. Shanon, who (all who knew her agreed) was hallucinating in her last days, believed she was pregnant and that Howard might be the father. Brian was fuming.

Nonetheless, Brian entered into two illegal deals with Howard, to be carried out on the weekend that culminated with the murders. The murders occurred because, while those deals were in the works, Brian found out that, in addition to messing with Shanon, Howard had stolen his stash of meth.

So, as best I could make it out, Howard shot Brian at the field owned by the extended Howard family where the second deal was to occur. From there, he dashed to the Days’ home, where he strangled Shanon and stuffed Trevor into the zippered bag, “like so much trash,” as Smith aptly put it.

What’s more, Howard did this at a time in his life when he did not own a vehicle, so he had to rely on a series of girlfriends to get him around.

Even though Shanon’s autopsy clearly showed that Shanon was not pregnant, Chesshir and Smith stressed her belief that she might be and that Brian suspected an affair. Her imagined pregnancy by Howard was presented as central to the prosecutors’ case.

But I could never figure out why, in that case, Brian hadn’t shot Howard, instead of the other way around. Or why, if Howard was having an affair with Shanon, he had gone on to strangle her (and trash little Trevor) after murdering Brian.

Maybe some of the jurors struggled with that, too.

The boots troubled both sides.

Two miles from the field where Brian Day’s body was found, a passer-by spotted a pair of work boots standing in plain sight about 60 feet from the road, near where it joined a highway. The boots had a small amount of Brian’s blood on them.

Several hairs were found inside, three of which contained mitochondrial DNA that could have come from Howard. But, because mitochondrial DNA cannot identify a specific person and no nuclear DNA was found, a positive connection could

not be made.

Tom Cooper, a current circuit judge who was Howard’s first prosecutor, told jurors the boots’ importance was “monumental.”

They seem to have considered it so, because three days after that trial started the jury sentenced Howard to death.

But Benca challenged a lot about the boots, especially the notion that a killer fleeing the scene had been willing and able to throw them, not into the woods that were all around, but into a clearing visible from the road, where they landed about one foot apart.

The handcuffs proved climactic.

Chesshir and Smith built much of their case, as had Cooper, around statements made after the murders by a woman who at the time was named Jennifer Qualls.

Qualls, who now goes by Jennifer Stanley, had been one of Howard’s girlfriends.

But, she said, shortly after the murders, she became suspicious of him and called the police.

A key element of what Qualls told McWhirter was that Howard carried a black case, like a camera bag, in which he kept various items used for that “kinky sex.” One was a pair of handcuffs trimmed in fake fur.

McWhirter said he considered that important information because Shanon Day was found with her hands cuffed behind her back. The investigator said he went to a local “adult” store and purchased a set of cuffs that, when the fake fur was removed, were identical to the ones that bound Shanon.

Howard’s wife, Vickie, confirmed that Howard had handcuffs in the bag, though she said he did not use them with her. So the prosecutors rested much of their case on Qualls’ testimony that she’d found Howard’s black bag in the trunk of her car and McWhirter’s testimony that when he

retrieved it, there were no handcuffs inside.

At this trial, however, Qualls/Stanley inadvertently torpedoed much of that testimony. “Do you remember telling our investigator not long ago that you saw the handcuffs in the bag after the murders,” Benca asked her on the stand. “No!” she insisted.

But then, over her strong objections, Benca played a recording the investigator had secretly taped of his interview with her in which she’d said just that.

With her credibility thus, at least, challenged, Stanley stormed out of the courtroom, slamming the door as she went.

Jurors noticed. And some of them may have been concerned by McWhirter’s additional testimony that he’d discarded a tape recording he made of his initial interview with Qualls and that an unknown number of his handwritten notes from that meeting appeared to be missing as well.

After the trial Chesshir said he believed Stanley told the truth from the start. “I never saw any signs of her lying to me whatsoever,” he said, “and I’ve been doing this for 25 years.”

Benca said that, though Howard will be out of prison by summer, he plans to appeal the new convictions.

“The appellate court can find that the jury had to resort to speculation and conjecture in finding Tim guilty of the lesser included offenses of second-degree murder (times two) and the attempted second-degree murder of Trevor,” he said. If it does, he said the appellate court will direct Yeargan to “dismiss the matter.” In that case, Howard would be exonerated.

But all that will take time. Though Howard will likely be free for most of it, Chesshir said he’s satisfied that, “for the second time he has been convicted of horrifically murdering his friends and trying to do the same to their baby.”

LYONS, CONT. and intelligence forces at the front line; they are complicating and undermining their work.”

President Obama has said much the same thing.

Things might also be different if Pamela Geller didn’t have such an extensive track record. “On her website,” reports the Jewish Daily Forward, “Geller has denounced President Obama as “a third worlder and a coward” who “will do nothing but beat up on our friends to appease his Islamic overlords” and as “a muhammadan” who “wants jihad to win.”

The Anti-Defamation League has criticized Geller for “consistently vilifying the Islamic faith under the guise of fighting radical Islam.” The British

government refused to let her enter that country in 2011. She has characterized other Jews who criticize her as worse than “21st-century kapos,” a reference to Jews who served as guards in Nazi death camps.

Astonishingly, after extreme right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik murdered 70 people at a Norwegian Labour Party summer youth camp in 2011, he credited Geller with inspiring him. She then assailed the Scandinavian left for harboring anti-Israel sentiments, posting a camp photo on her Atlas Shrugs website captioned: “Note the faces which are more Middle Eastern or mixed than pure Norwegian.”

Non-Aryan untermenschen, Hitler would have called them.

OBSERVER, CONT. prepared for how attached we became to him over the years. Afterward, Junior wound up having to prop up his Old Man instead of the other way around.

In the midst of that grief, though, Junior managed to say the prettiest three sentences in a row that The Observer has ever heard in our life. Here is what he said: “Time is like the water. You come up for a minute and take a breath, and that’s your life. Then you go back down again.”

Ain’t that lovely? Ain’t that the truth?

Maybe someday, UAMS will finally jump Pine and Cedar streets and engulf lower Stifft Station, at last a Meditropolis. Or, maybe someday, they’ll widen I-630 to 10 lanes, swallowing another strip of the city. Or maybe someday, The

Observatory will simply succumb to the weight of all its long days. Hell, maybe someday the place will find a new family to fill its bookcases and closets and rooms with love. Whatever the case, someday, somebody will put a shovel into the ground in the back yard of a very old house on Maple Street in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States of America, Planet Earth, System Sol. They will turn the dirt. And there, laid beneath time’s water with his catnip and blanket and a bauble retrieved from the Christmas box, they will find the bones of a cat.

And that person, whoever they are, will never know what the friend they have uncovered meant to the people who once lived there. Which was, of course, damn near everything.

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BLOOD AND GRIT, CONT. had so much adrenaline, we were like, damn, there’s no way we can sleep right now. So we went to the one gas station that was open to get more beer. And I walk in there, the woman just cowered behind the counter. I said, “Ma’am are you OK, what’s going on?” She said, “please leave, please leave!” I looked at Turner and he’s cracking up. Then I put it together: I’m covered in blood. My face is like “Apocalypse Now.” TR: 6:30 in the morning and this fucking dirty-looking bumpkin comes in covered in blood, walks up and asks for beer.

BR: So yeah. She sold us the beer and we kept going.

And Turner, what did you have to do to prove yourself to Martin?

TR: He just couldn’t stand my wardrobe. I don’t know why it was me, because at the moment I wasn’t looking all that shabby, and Bill had the long hair and everything.

BR: Well, you had red leather boots.

TR: I had a pair of red, eelskin boots that were awesome in New Mexico — but that doesn’t fly in South Texas, according to Martin Wall. So he said, “Well, Turner, we need to get you a new wardrobe.” I said, fine, whatever you need. He had me try on some new shirts and a nice hat for the summer time (he didn’t care for my hat, either) and a few pairs of jeans. It’s a little different when you’re trying on jeans and walking out of the dressing room to a 300-pound steer wrestler in dirty boots saying, “Those look real good on you, Turner, I want a pair of those for myself.” He bought me a whole new wardrobe. Everything was kosher after that.

Whatever you were wearing, y’all were down there 13 months — it seems like you managed to get to know folks well enough that they were comfortable with you doing such close observations of their lives.

TR: It’s being honest. You don’t usually have to stab the hog. Those things are exciting, but really it’s being honest right off the bat. What you’re going to do and what you’re not going to do and actually following by that. You start getting skivvy on some of that shit, you lose it. The truth is we’re not fake. We show up and we tell people the truth of our situation and stick by it. We’re there to be enamored by people, and we are always so humbled by the fact that people welcome us into their lives.

We try to be good company when we’re there.

You’re shooting a new project with David Byrne, kind of a concert film, how’s that going?

BR: We’re in the thick of it; it’s going very, very well. It will be our shortest shoot but our most active; we’re flying all over the place, shooting every day.

TR: It’s definitely our biggest production and our shortest production. It will be weird, but I think it’s of a piece — it’s definitely one of our movies.

That was the deal, right? Y’all would do your Ross Brothers thing?

TR: We weren’t going to do it if it wasn’t that way.

BR: And I think it’s cool, the approach is similar, just in a smaller space. Cameras will be all over the place and it will be this huge cast of characters. So, it’s like boiling down a city into an arena.

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The dreams, yearnings and heartache of childhood in 1950s Georgia.

DIRECTED BY

MARGARET PIERSON BATES

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.375.2985

May 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30, 2015 7:30pm, Fridays & Saturdays $16 — Adults $12 — Students & Seniors

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

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 14, 2015

39

FRIDAY, JUNE 5 | 6-9 P.M at the ARGENTA FARMERS MARKET PLAZA

FOOD

WINE

EIGHT LOCAL RESTAURANTS

TASTE OVER 300 WINES 5 tents serving wines from all over the world.

Arkansas Ale House, Arkansas Fresh Bakery & Kent Walker Artisan Cheese & Cocoa Rouge Chocolates, Graffiti’s Italian Restaurant, SO Restaurant-Bar, Two Sisters Catering & Cafe, Whole Hog Cafe NLR

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LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL SWING BAND REUNION

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

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

Go to Eventbrite and search Celebrate the Grape 2015.

Print your tickets and present at the door.

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MAY 14, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES