The Idle Class - Spring 2014

the

LEGACY issue FEATURING MARY STEENBURGEN / HARRY THOMASON / CHARLES PORTIS / JAMES SALLIS / PETER READ

CELEBRATING THE ARTS IN ARKANSAS / SPRING 2014

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The

LEGACY ISSUE

FEATURING

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Peter Read

10 Chris “Clunk” Selby 12 Harry Thomason 16 Mary Steenburgen 20 Charles Portis

FASHION

PHOTO / MELISSA BRAWNER

28 beyond the runway Little Rock resident Korto Momolu goes from Project Runway to NYC Fashion Week.

FOOD

40 a taste of the islands Hawaiian Brian’s brings authentic Polynesian cuisine to NWA.

ART

22 the man who won’t sit still Artist & musician Joshua Asante talks about his new photo essay on AfricanAmerican women.

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WRITING

42 gone so long Best-selling writer James Sallis reflects on his childhood in Helena.

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A PUBLICATION OF

RIOT ACT MEDIA, LLC

EDITOR'S

P.O. Box 4853 Fayetteville, AR 72702 editorial@idleclassmag.com

NOTE

Photo by Jaime Holland

B

enjamin Franklin once remarked, “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” Now this isn’t a call to arms for everyone to pick up a pen and give us the next A Farewell to Arms, but it is a definite suggestion to get off the couch.

Franklin and his contemporaries understood the concept of legacy. Aside from founding a modern democracy, they each had their passions they pursued. Thomas Jefferson had his gardens. Franklin pursued publishing and lightning on occasion. And John Hancock enjoyed penmanship.

While we can’t all be expected to start a government or discover electricity, leaving a legacy is something everyone should strive for. Maybe it’s being a great artist or writer. Or perhaps it’s raising a child who has integrity and ambition.

It’s all about what we leave behind.

For this issue, we wanted to celebrate Arkansans who have left a legacy either on the national stage or in our community. Given Arkansas’ rich history, we are certainly just scratching the surface. Hopefully, with the support of our readers and businesses, we will have many more legacy issues to come.

Kody Ford Editor/Publisher

FOLLOW US:

EDITOR/PUBLISHER Kody Ford MANAGING EDITOR Andrew McClain CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Marty Shutter Katie Wyatt EDITOR-AT-LARGE Jeremy Glover CONTRIBUTORS Joshua Asante Colley Bailey Melissa Brawner Bo Counts Vikram Desai Taylor Gladwin Danielle Green Jaime Holland Chad Maupin Lauren McCormick Dave Morris Tina Parker Stephanie Parsley Susan Porter Beth Post Heidi Ross Shannon Shrum ..

Joelle Storet Amy Webb Rodney Wilhite SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS Jay Jennings James Sallis

Cover: “To Dare To Breathe & Claim Yourself for Yourself”

by Joshua Asante

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THE NIGHT OWL

FOR OVER 30 YEARS, NIGHTFLYING HAS KEPT ARKANSAS IN THE KNOW ABOUT MUSIC AND ALL THINGS AFTERHOURS. YOU CAN THANK PETER READ FOR THAT. ..

WORDS / SUSAN PORTER ILLUSTRATION / JOELLE STORET 8

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PETER READ IS A MUSIC FAN, A MUSICIAN AND A HUMANIST, but he’s best known as the editor of Nightflying and - more importantly - as a really nice guy.

Through Nightflying, Read has helped amplify and promote musical careers and music venues in Arkansas and surrounding states. He has helped musicians find work and encouraged public support of live music, especially of local musicians. But if you want the dirty lowdown on a musician or club, don’t ask Read. He’ll only share the good stuff.

Spreading information is Read’s business. Nightflying is the ultimate guide to what’s happening in local clubs and what new bands and musicians are breaking onto the scene in the Natural State. This is why Read started the publication.

“I started this publication so working musicians might have a guide for booking themselves, and to be able to spotlight the incredible world-class talent in the region and so the music-loving public could have a solid source for who’s playing where...a solid guide for both the working musicians and the playing public,” he says.

Read has been the guru for local music for more than 30 years. To put that into perspective, before home computers and the internet and during the formative years of early music festivals like SXSW. Prior to the Austin mega-festival’s inception, Louis Meyers, co-founder of SXSW, invited Read to come to Austin to discuss putting together a “makeshift music event.” That makeshift event later became SXSW and Nightflying is still a player in the festival.

Although focusing primarily on local music, Nightflying’s first edition carried a major story. While Read was proofing the pages just before sending that first edition to print, a radio DJ reported that John Lennon had been shot. Read’s sister, who was helping with the proofing, asked if the news about Lennon should be included. He answered her with a question: “Is it music news?” After they decided yes, they pulled a story that was set for printing and replaced it with a story about Lennon’s death.

“We were set to print very early in the morning and I had told the clubs around Dickson Street that we’d leave a bundle of papers on their doorstep,” he says. “Most of these folks had not yet heard about Lennon and when they saw that first issue they pretty much freaked out. People asked me for years how I managed to scoop every other publication in Arkansas with that news. It was my first serious lesson about being timely with so called ‘breaking news.’

Over the years, Nightflying has continued to grow. In

addition to printing about 30,000 copies each issue, Nightflying has close to half-million online readers a month. As the granddaddy of free publications in Arkansas, Read deals with every aspect of the business from providing the content, chasing advertisers for payment, and distributing the magazine to countless racks. The van he relies on has 406,000 miles on it.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m putting the Exxon children through college,” he says.

It’s not easy to run an independent publication for all these years, but Read maintains a positive attitude.

“I’m not sure I’d recommend doing this sort of thing to most people,” he says. “But then, short of chicken soup for a cold, there’s little I’d recommend anyway other than to push the fact that when someone helps you get ahead you need to remember it, reciprocate and try to pass it along. And you should never turn your back on those who have been in your corner the entire way up...you will likely see the same folks in the same place on your way back down. They might help you...if they want to.”

Read said his father had the most influence on the voice of Nightflying.

“He was very concerned, since media virtually controls people’s thoughts, that I be most careful about placing unhealthy notions into people’s minds,” he says. “He realized that the power of suggestion was a slippery slope for many, especially impressionable young people. We tend to be extremely careful with our content and pay attention to what goofy ideas we might suggest to youth in general.”

For Read, devoting the prime years of his life to promoting music with a music magazine goes deep. Providing a calendar for music lovers and highlighting musicians is only the surface. In the big picture, it is a segue for encouraging people to kick back and enjoy their lives.

“Music relieves stress and putting people in touch with music, in my opinion, is just about the greatest thing you can do for them and it’s good for everyone; their families, their jobs and the world in general. It has a ripple effect.

And anything that relieves stress for the world helps overall,” Read says.

VISIT: NIGHTFLYING.COM

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notes from a scene CHRIS “CLUNK” SELBY MADE THE FAYETTEVILLE MUSIC SCENE THE PLACE TO BE IN THE EARLY ‘00s. HERE’S A LOOK BACK ON HOW HE DID IT & THE LEGACY HE LEFT BEHIND. WORDS / DAVE MORRIS PHOTO / COLLEY BAILEY LOCAL MUSIC SCENES ARE OFTEN THOUGHT OF only in terms of the bands or the venues in that particular area. However, there is another very important element to most high functioning music scenes – the promoters.

Starting in the mid 1990s, the residents of Northwest Arkansas have enjoyed the services of Chris Selby, an exceptionally competent and accomplished DIY promoter (among other things). If that name doesn’t sound familiar, then perhaps you’ve heard of Clunk Music Hall, Clunk Records, Clunk’s Hungry Express Wagon, or something else involving the name he is more publicly associated with, Clunk.

Clunk Records was responsible for selling an entire generation of Northwest Arkansas music fans both regional and national underground CDs and LPs, as well as releasing original music by vital local acts such as the Paper Hearts.

Clunk Music Hall brought a multitude of meaningful music into the region, such as Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, At The Drive-In, The Get-Up Kids, …And You Will Know Us

By Trail of Dead, Ted Leo + Pharmacists, The Mars Volta, Les Savy Fav, Pinback, Nada Surf, the Dismemberment Plan, Murder City Devils, Melt Banana, The Special Goodness,

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The Faint, Wesley Willis, and many, many other national and regional acts. Even Lucero made their Fayetteville debut at Clunk Music Hall, an event frontman Ben Nichols remembers fondly.

“I’d never been to Clunk before we played there, but we’d heard rumor of it for quite a while. It was our first show in Fayetteville, I believe, and I remember being really impressed that a town like Fayetteville had a place that cool. We played on the floor in front of the stage because I think we thought the stage was too big for us,” Nichols says.

With such a steady influx of national artists performing on a regular basis, Clunk Music Hall attracted patrons from all over the state and region. However, it was the locals that kept the venue alive. “I had lots of good friends and other great local folks help me out during shows at Clunk. Without them it never would’ve worked at all. They saw a lot of mediocre bands just to help me out,” Selby says.

Northwest Arkansas NPR Affiliate KUAF 91.3’s Classical Music Director, Katy Henriksen, was one of the local regulars during Clunk Music Hall’s heyday. “Clunk Music Hall was a haven during college for me - it opened up my freshman year, I think, so I wasn’t able to go to bars to check out any music. Clunk was in touch with what was going on in the indie scene bringing folks like Damien Jurado through town in a venue I could actually get into. Bare bones, it was all about the music and the people who came to enjoy the music. What I have is a fond glowing memory of coming together over all types of bands at a dark threadbare warehouse extremely sparsely furnished.”

Of course this steady flow of big names also helped local artists find their way; bands such as the Paper Hearts, Skirt, Vore, Spoken, Total Knockouts, Kung-Fu Grip, Gal’s Revenge, 100 Years War, Fizzgig, 2 Dean Crew, and countless other local acts played the Clunk stage as well.

Fayetteville Flyer co-owner Todd Gill performed at Clunk Music Hall with several local acts from 1998-2002. “Chris would book popular local openers that sounded nothing like the touring bands to make sure enough people would show up. Sometimes he’d have the locals play last just to keep people around. That exposed a lot of folks to music they’d normally never consider listening to. And it led to a lot of appreciation for different genres.

“Combine that with the venue doubling as a record store, which carried the same music as it booked and you end up with a really strong community of musicians and fans of music. I think Clunk created a lot of musicians out of people who were previously just fans. It’s easier to imagine yourself learning to play an instrument when you’re around so many musicians, especially when you’re in such an intimate environment with players of all ages and levels.”

Gill noted that Fayetteville became known as a must-stop city for a lot of bands and booking agents, which led to a high caliber of talent coming through the city.

“I think people felt obligated to themselves to show up and watch a band even if they’d never heard of them.

Nobody wanted to wake up on a random Tuesday morning to discover they’d missed something epic at Clunk the night before,” Gill says.

Personally I’ve always wondered what was the story behind the name Clunk and like most nicknames, it’s a bit silly.

Young Chris Selby joked about naming his future child Clunk and the name was instead re-purposed for the name of his

record store and obviously it stuck for him personally. Clunk wanted to have a record store since he was 13 years old, and that naturally lead him to become involved with booking performances, hosting a series of radio shows on 104.9 The X, owning a venue and later a record label, and participating in local music in pretty much every other conceivable way.

However, his involvement as an actual musician has been surprisingly non-existent; he “can’t sing” and his stint in a joke band called the Muffins consisted of him “hitting play for a pre-recorded samba beat.”

Clunk attributes his success with a simple philosophy: “Don’t screw anyone over and don’t be an a--hole.” Most of his biggest shows were booked either by merely calling the appropriate booking agent or band contact and asking if they were interested in playing the Fayetteville area or by old-fashioned networking based on his previous shows. He also humorously notes, “And if they were bad at geography I would help them route shows here by being familiar with a map of the United States.”

Unfortunately, Clunk was burned out by mid-2002 and in the face of growing financial concerns, Clunk Music Hall closed its doors. Clunk Records survived until 2005 before succumbing to the all too common fate of most brick and mortar record stores in the 21st through his friendship and great working relationship with JR’s and Dickson Theater owner Wade Ogle, he was able to continue booking local shows on a much more sporadic basis. Even after the demise of his namesake venue, Clunk has booked big shows such as the Shins at the Dickson Theater and The Postal Service, The White Stripes, and TV on the Radio (different shows) at JR’s He even recently brought Sub Pop’s King Tuff to the current JR’s. A local t-shirt company even still produces a t-shirt with the old Clunk Records logo, signifying the lasting impact Clunk has had on the area culturally.

Although he has no immediate plans involving music aside from the occasional DJ set at JR’s, Clunk is still a visible part of the community through his current business endeavor, Clunk’s Hungry Express Wagon, or C.H.E.W. For a modest fee, Clunk will deliver (on a moped, no less) food from a growing number of restaurants on and around Dickson Street to your door. “I like delivering food. It is much simpler and less stressful than booking shows,” he says.

So if you’re in the downtown Fayetteville area and would like to meet a local icon to see what all the fuss is about, and also have some food delivered, call 479-283-7655.

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FROM HAMPTON to HOLLYWOOD HARRY THOMASON & HIS WIFE LINDA GAVE A TRUE VOICE TO SOUTHERNERS WITH DESIGNING WOMEN & EVENING SHADE. NOW THE FORMER HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL COACH REFLECTS ON HIS CAREER. INTERVIEW / KODY FORD ILLUSTRATION / BETH POST THE TOWN OF HAMPTON, Arkansas, is 1,721 miles to the Los Angeles city limits. If you drive, you can make it in 25 hours. A direct flight from the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock to LAX in Los Angeles takes a little under six hours. But to truly leave your mark on Hollywood - that’s not as easy. But Hampton native Harry Thomason did just that.

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Harry and his wife Linda Bloodsworth-Thomason created Mozark Productions in 1983. The company is best known for the classic sitcom Designing Women, which drew high ratings for CBS in the late 80s. Their other hits include Evening Shade and Hearts Afire, which starred John Ritter and Markie Post. (Fellow Arkansan Billy Bob Thornton co-starred in the latter two shows.) During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Harry produced The Man from Hope, a biographical film on then Gov. Clinton, that played prominently during the Democratic National Convention. Throughout the Clinton administration, Harry supported his friend (and President) in a variety of ways. Later, he directed a documentary called The Hunting of the President that focused on the political attempts to bring down the Clintons.

Having a storied career by the dawn of the 21st century, Harry has not stopped. In 2011, he directed The Last Ride about the final days of Hank Williams, Sr., and is currently at work on new projects. The Idle Class caught up with Harry to talk about growing up in Arkansas, why he left coaching football for Hollywood and the working relationship between he and his wife.

IDLE CLASS: At what point did you know you wanted to pursue a creative line of work?

When I was twelve, my mother helped me build my own darkroom in a closet and I started processing photos shot with a camera my uncle had brought back from Germany – he was there for D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, the move into Germany and somewhere along the way he picked up a camera that he let me have long after the war.

IDLE CLASS: Who were some of your early creative influences?

As far as creative arts, it would have to be my mother who was a painter later in her life but when younger she was a good craftsperson and she understood how to free me of any restraints of how things should be done – she certainly allowed my imagination to know no bounds. Whatever I wanted to try, she would not say no, but would guide to let me figure it out for myself and most times I would see it would not work. Not just in creative areas, at ten years old, I decided it would be great to raise sheep, then shear them and sell the wool. She got me articles on how it was done and we even visited some person in the countryside that had a couple of sheep and he told me how early he had to get up to take care of the sheep and how hard the shearing and care was. I quickly decided I didn’t want to have a sheep herd!

Of course my mother already knew what my conclusion would be.

Another influence was the kid that lived next door to me, Charles B. Pierce (The Legend of Boggy Creek, The Town That Dreaded Sundown and many others). He was a couple of years older than me and is the first kid I remember from my life. Charlie was first of all, a great artist and could easily have had a career as an oil painter. What he was great at as a kid and what served him well in the film business was that he was a great storyteller. I remember sitting around campfires with other neighborhood kids listening to him spin mesmerizing stories. They captured and fired my imagination (after all these years, I can still tell you a few of the stories he told.)

IDLE CLASS: How did growing up in Hampton & south Arkansas influence your view of the world and what you wanted out of it?

I went to the Hampton school at a time (I hope it is still that way) when every teacher did her job and if you came out of that high school, you were prepared. Few of us ever doubted we would do what we wanted to do. Unfortunately,

in my class I consider myself to be the lowest achiever! I look at the people in my very small class, even for Hampton, of 20 people or so and I see a group of overachievers - builders of transportation firms, lawyers, doctors, surgeons, founders of large bank chains, engineers, teachers and accountants.

And it just wasn’t my class – when I first arrived at Columbia Pictures, the studio had a meeting of all the producers and explained a problem they were having with the legendary Jack Valenti and the MPAA that was serious. They asked if anyone thought they might know anybody in NY or DC that could help, and after a moment of silence, I raised my hand and said I thought I might. The studio executive looked at me like he thought I was in way over my head (but I probably imagined that). I asked him to give me a couple of hours and went to my office and called the MPAA’s chief legal counsel and explained how the studio felt and what could be done to fix it.

The legal counsel replied, “Have you been home lately?”

I said no but I was going for a reunion the next month. Then Attorney Victor Nutt from Hampton High, chief legal counsel of the MPAA said, “I need to get home soon, myself. Listen, I will fix this and call you back tonight.” He fixed it.

They asked me to produce The Blue and the Grey and had already sent scouts all over the nation with no luck, the head of production asked where I would you shoot it. I said, ‘I know you will think I am crazy but the only place that can offer everything we need is Arkansas. ‘ He said, “I thought you were crazy on the MPAA matter, you weren’t, fly home tonight, scout, take pictures.” I did and we shot it around Fayetteville and the president of production at Columbia loved Arkansas for the rest of his life. He would see me in the hallway and ask when we were going to find another picture to shoot in Arkansas.

IDLE CLASS: You were a speech teacher in Little Rock at one point. How did you go from that into show business?

I taught art, drama and was a football coach at Little Rock McClellan and...it was one of the best times of my life. The faculty was made of people I still consider friends. I decided I wanted to get in the television business and in the spring I read in the paper about an ad agency that had just been hired to represent a guy running for governor.

On a whim, I went to see the head of the agency, Jim Brandon, on a late Thursday afternoon and told him I should do the campaign spots for the candidate. I had drawn some storyboards on how I would do the spots. He studied them said they were pretty good and then asked, “Why would I be crazy enough to hire a football coach to make these commercials?” I had talked to my Uncle J.L. beforehand and he had agreed to back me so I said, “Because when I am through, if you don’t like them you don’t have to pay me.” I don’t believe I told my Uncle J.L. I was going to say that.

There was a long silence and finally Jim Brandon said, “This is crazy, and I am going to regret it, but I will give you a shot. You get the candidate for three hours on Saturday morning so we will have time to redo them when you foul it up.”

I said okay and left downtown Little Rock sort of in shock. I had the gig, but in two days I had to film them, and of course didn’t own a camera or have the slightest idea what to do.

By late Thursday night, the McClellan coaching staff was at my house and we were planning how to do it. By midnight we were downtown at the now-gone but then-famous Ray-Chris Film Lab, which furnished cameras and processed game film for every high school and college team within hundreds of miles.

They repeatedly showed us how to load the film into the Bolex 16mm camera they were loaning us. By 1 am we managed to learn how to load (the hardest part) and the basics of

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how to use the camera.

The next day, we recruited a few of our athletes to help us and Friday afternoon went to a farm near Bryant we had chosen and practiced what we would say and how we would shoot the spot. That night, I went to K-Mart and bought dark green polished cotton t-shirts and blue baseball hats to dress the crew in. I must say that at six o’clock the next morning on location, I perused the best-dressed film crew I have still ever had!

Now the anxiety set in, because we all knew that the minute the candidate for governor got there, he would look at us and say, “Are you insane, this is not a film crew – it’s a coaching staff!” Didn’t happen, he arrived we had everything set and planned and we wrapped ahead of schedule.

He thanked us, talked about how professional we were (I caught a glimpse of Jim Brandon rolling his eyes as the candidate was telling us how great we were), got in his car and drove away.

We rushed back to Ray Chris to process the film and were amazed to see an image! We edited the film and sent a rough cut to the Brandon Agency and within hours got a call that they wanted us to do the rest of the candidate’s spots. So now I was in the film business. I never do anything that I don’t think about that first great film crew I ever had.

IDLE CLASS: You and your wife been credited by some as helping shift the image of Southerners away from Beverly Hillbilly-types to more witty, sophisticated characters.

When you first got to L.A. was this one of your goals to stories with Southern characters that you laughed with, rather than at?

Linda and I have always been cheerleaders for the South in particular and Middle America. We know there are bad things in some parts of the South and Midwest that we don’t want to represent but we have never gotten why all television shows and most movies are designed for only people who live on the coasts. Most people live in the middle but are rarely depicted on the screen as intelligent - almost always they are characters that are being made fun of. When you think about it, even Andy Griffith was very popular, but most of the people in the show were a little short, IQ wise. I have always believed you could find people of low IQ and bad living examples in New York and L.A. and wonder what kind of ignorance and prejudices always drives (especially cable networks) executives to pick people in our region that really do not contribute to making our areas look as good as the rest of the nation.

IDLE CLASS: Was it difficult to get Designing Women off the ground?

We were in our offices at Columbia (later to become Sony) and Linda was discussing the show about smart women in

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the South (no name yet) she wanted to pitch to CBS. Some Columbia executives were very reluctant for her to pitch it probably because it was about smart women from the South!

As fate would have it, during the meeting the phone rang and it was one of the top executives at CBS, (Mike Ogiens) and he asked Linda when she was going to pitch something, and as some of the Columbia guys gasped and mouthed “No, no”, she said she had an idea for a show about smart Southern women. He said “when can you come over to talk about it?” and she replied that she could come over right then.

We all got in our cars (yes, the Columbia execs who said “don’t do it,” got in their cars and went also. We all met in a conference room at CBS and hour later and CBS’, Vice President, Mike Ogiens had Linda tell him briefly about the women. He then called the President of CBS, Harvey Sheppard and asked if he would come across the hall to the meeting. He walked in and stood in the door and Mike said, “Linda, tell him what you want to do.” Linda briefly told the story again. There was a beat, and Harvey Sheppard looked at Linda and said, “We will do that show. You have a deal.”

He then turned and walked out. He then stepped back in and asked Linda what these women did. Linda had not thought about it a lot and off the top of her head she said, “I don’t know, maybe they are designers or decorators.” He said “Great,” and walked out.

The Columbia executives that opposed the idea rushed to the office phone to tell their bosses they had just sold a wonderful show about Southern women. They were right.

IDLE CLASS: What sort of an influence has your wife played on you throughout the years and how is your working relationship?

I can truly say that I believe my wife is one of the smartest people I know and that she has an instinct that is almost infallible. I love and admire her and only wish I had listened to her more - I would be in a much better place. It is hard for her to work on television now because she refuses to compromise good writing in order to get on the air. Lucky for her, the people on Broadway tend to let writers write what they want, so she is knee-deep in two big Broadway musicals. She has been asked to do the shows by one of the smartest and most successful producers on Broadway – Elizabeth Williams, and guess what? – she is from Arkadelphia!

IDLE CLASS: What’s next for you?

We have a couple of movies we are prepping and a little short series for YouTube presentation that we really like, but too early to say much about any of them yet. One is designed to try to help the people who have helped us. More later.

VISIT: MozarkProductions.us

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The Sound of Southern

Voices

MARY STEENBURGEN TALKS ACTING, SONGWRITING & STAYING CONNECTED WITH THE NATURAL STATE. WORDS / KODY FORD PHOTO / HEIDI ROSS

IT STARTED WITH A SIMPLE PROCEDURE. Mary Steenburgen underwent general anesthesia for a minor surgery on her arm. But when she awoke, things had changed.

The music had started.

She felt odd for a few days afterwards and found herself increasingly fixated on melodies that played in her head.

Someone would speak to her and soon those words were transformed into notes on a scale. She had no idea what was happening to her. This continued throughout the summer.

Someone gave her a copy of Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. In the book, the neurologist discussed situations where someone experienced a specific incident only to become preoccupied with music afterwards.

“I don’t know if that’s what I have or if it’s exactly what happened,” she says. “I just know that my life changed.

There’s a point when I said yes to it. I told myself I’m not sure what this is or why it’s here but whatever it is, you have an opportunity to push it away and deny it or to say yes.”

Like many challenges throughout her life, Mary said yes.

She studied music theory and songwriting and what qualities made some songs better than others. As her confidence began to build, she reached out to a friend in Martha’s Vineyard, where she and her husband Ted Danson have a home.

She would sing what she heard to her friend, who helped her set it to music. That summer, she wrote hundreds of songs

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with her friend and sent a demo tape of 12 of the best tunes to her manager with a request for him to send them anonymously to an entertainment lawyer.

“I didn’t want to wonder if my being an actor might affect the outcome or the response to the music,” she says. “I wanted it to be ‘it’s terrible or it works’.” The word came back to her manager that this kid was good and the lawyer wanted to meet. “I went over and I’ve began working with this lawyer.

He sent me to Universal [Music Publishing Group] and they signed me to a publishing deal.”

It was the second time in her life that her talent lead to a lucky break. Her first one had been in a reception room at Paramount Picture’s New York City office when she met Jack Nicholson, who cast her as the female lead in his second directorial effort, a western called Goin’ South. Two years later, she would win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Jonathan Demme’s Melvin and Howard. She’d come a long way since her childhood in North Little Rock. Growing up in a working class family in central Arkansas, her family were cheerleaders for her goals and created an environment that she credits with her success in life.

“They just were kind of quiet champions of dreams and that was a really cool environment to grow up in,” Mary says.

“One of the things I always loved about where I came from is that was true where I came from, whether it was people at my church or people at school. There was kind of a lack of cynicism and discouragement.”

While she wasn’t raised on the stage or film sets, she had an appreciation for the arts. Two friends, a gifted singer and a gifted musician, sparked her artistic “a-ha moment.” One day she wished that she good at something like they were and the voice in her head answered, “But you’re an actor. That’s what you are.” The seeds had been planted and it grew from there.

She credits being a voracious reader as a child for her desire to act. While films and television defined the story, books gave Mary the ability to let her imagination take over.

“When you read, you were discerning the questions in your brain and you were doing the art direction of the house and you were deciding how the man’s voice sounds and how the lady mopes,” she says. “There’s a certain amount of the author giving you details but all of those nuances are your imagination at work. So I always encourage young artists to read or explore areas of imagination that have not been laid out fully by somebody else. So for me, the realization that I was an actor came from not being on stage or being in a movie, it came from reading and the fact that when I read, I was transported - I laughed and cried and felt things. [T]the next step was to put that on its feet and make that a dimensional world.”

After high school, Mary enrolled at Hendrix College.

While she only studied there a year, the experience gave her the push she needed to pursue her dream. When the theatre department held its senior production of “The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail,” a play by Robert Edwin Lee and Jerome Lawrence, Mary was cast as Lydia Emerson, the wife of Ralph Waldo Emerson. A freshman appearing in a senior production was nearly unheard of at the time and Mary reveled in the experience. One of her professors, Kenneth Gilliam, encouraged his student to go to New York City to study her craft. He gave her a list of acting schools and placed a checkmark beside the best - The Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre, which was ran by the legendary Stanley Meisner, who developed the Meisner Technique. He taught legendary actors like Steve McQueen, Robert DuVall and Gregory Peck. Mary only applied to the Neighborhood Playhouse

and became one of Meisner’s pupils.

“It was an absolute miracle I was able to study under him for two years,” she says. “I was on set [of FX’s Justified] yesterday and there was a moment we were trying to figure something out in the scene and I went straight to what my teacher taught me. It still works after all these years.”

Mary arrived in Manhattan armed with a defensiveness about the South. Given the racial tensions in the south at the time and negative stereotypes long associated with Southerners, she expected people to look down on her and anyone else from the region. However, she found her worries to be unfounded.

“I felt that people were fascinated about [Arkansas] and thought it was beautiful,” she says. “Occasionally, people would say I drive through there and it’s gorgeous but I really never heard bad things.”

However, one aspect of her upbringing haunted her as she embarked upon her new career as an actor and she found herself faced with a choice - to keep or lose her accent. A speech teacher at the Neighborhood Playhouse encouraged her to lose it so she would be able to play a wider array of parts. She chose to alter her voice, a move she doesn’t regret.

“I love the musicality of the South, the sound of Southern voices,” she says. “I love the fact that after a drink or two I’m as Southern as anyone has ever heard. I’m fine with that and I enjoy that about myself, [but] probably about two-thirds of the roles I played, I wouldn’t have been able to play without losing my Southern accent. I think it was a good choice.”

Mary went on to star in films like Back to the Future, Part III, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? and Elf. While appearing opposite of Hollywood heavyweights like Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Will Ferrell has been a highlight for her, she focuses on the small victories in the process of acting as the true highlights of her career.

“I’m kind of a geek in both acting and music so for me a lot of the moments that are important to me are little quiet process moments like on a set when you’re struggling with a scene and you figure out the key to it,” she says. “Step Brothers was one of the most hilariously funny films to work on because a large part of it was improvised. We would spend the morning on a scripted scene and afternoon was improvised. It was such a challenge to get through scene without losing it because [Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly] were so funny.”

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Mary co-wrote and performed a song with Kris Allen for the film Valley Inn. This still is from that performance.

(Photo courtesy of Kim Swink) Despite being in such high profile films, Mary stays connected with Arkansas. She and her husband are investors in South on Main, a restaurant affiliated with The Oxford American Magazine. The magazine is a non-profit and Mary serves on its board of directors. Given the tenuous nature of the publishing industry, the OA sought a way to showcase Southern music and culture beyond the page. Warwick Sabin, former publisher of the OA, knew the perfect chef to make this possible - Matt Bell, who also happens to be married to Mary’s niece Amy. Things came together naturally. According to Sabin, Mary played an instrumental role in South on Main’s inception and development.

“Mary was tremendously supportive and absolutely instrumental in bringing South on Main to life,” he says. “She had an understanding of what we were trying to achieve and she was very helpful in so many ways and continues to be.

I think that her creative vision is evident in the aesthetics of the restaurant. She’s been very much an advocate in promoting South on Main to a national audience.”

Her advocacy for the restaurant also extends to her role as an ambassador for the Natural State.

“I really the best part of partnering with them is...that they have adopted Arkansas as a second home. It is their commitment to stay involved in the arts in Arkansas and promote Arkansas as a center for the arts,” says Matt Bell.

Mary says some of her favorite artistic places and events in Arkansas are Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Argenta Theatre, The Little Rock Film Festival and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

“I feel like both of [the festivals] are just soaring and growing and doing such interesting things,” she says. “I feel like filmmaking in Arkansas has taken a while to take hold but films like Mud and others that are being shot and conceived of there. It’s very exciting.”

Recently, Mary had a brief appearance in Valley Inn, the coming of age romantic comedy shot last year. However, her cameo wasn’t typical. She and American Idol winner Kris Allen performed a song they wrote for the film.

“I had to pick a song that I’d written and compose an accordion solo and play with a band,” she says. “For me at age 61, that’s pretty scary but I think it’s important to scare oneself and surprise yourself and to not say ‘I don’t do that.’

We encourage children to do everything...but then there’s some unwritten age where that’s no longer true, but no one ever told me what that day was, and I’m assuming that my expiration date is gonna be the day I croak. Until I reach that, I’m not gonna stop going.”

VISIT: SouthonMain.com

advertise with the idle class Want to reach people who love the creative life in Arkansas? The Idle Class may be for you. We currently have a readership of around 5,000 people ranging from mid-20s through late 50s. Our prices are competitive and we offer various online advertiser perks. Feel free to email us for rates.

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JUST SHORT OF ESCAPE VELOCITY HE INFLUENCED A GENERATION OF WRITERS. HE GOT JOHN WAYNE HIS OSCAR. AND HE MIGHT BE AMERICA’S BEST UNSUNG NOVELIST. BUT CHARLES PORTIS NEVER REALLY LEFT ARKANSAS. NO MATTER WHERE HE TRAVELED. WORDS / JAY JENNINGS ILLUSTRATION / CHAD MAUPIN

VERY FEW ARKANSANS GO AWAY AND STAY AWAY. Sam Walton stuck around even as his retail operation spanned the globe. Bill Clinton plunked his presidential library back in the state. Stephens Inc. goes toe-to-toe with Wall Street firms but doesn’t feel compelled to stray from Center Street in Little Rock. Charles Portis fits the mold of the Arkansan who roamed and then returned (though he doesn’t fit any other mold), and as usual he acutely observed and wryly articulated the phenomenon, through the voice of Ray Midge in the novel The Dog of the South: “A lot of people leave Arkansas and most of them come back sooner or later. They can’t quite achieve escape velocity.”

Those last two words gave me the title for the collection of Portis’s work I edited, subtitled “A Charles Portis Miscellany.” Arkansas runs through the book, like the state’s namesake river, but Portis’s Arkansas is not one of sweeping pronouncements and grand flowing waters, but sideways glances and trickling creeks. (Portis would never have called any work Arkansas, as did the poet John Gould Fletcher for his striving epic; now that I think about it, Fletcher couldn’t achieve escape velocity either.)

In the one extended autobiographical piece Portis has published, “Combinations of Jacksons,” he recounts a childhood of margins and borders: he hears tales from his great grandfather about service on the Western edge of the Civil War, so unlike the carnage of Gettysburg, a thousand miles away; he recalls his own attempts, at age eight, to escape capture by imaginary Nazis (who of course weren’t pursuing anybody in Arkansas) by hollowing out a reed and submerging himself in the creeks around his home in Mount Holly, “in Union County, Arkansas, which adjoins Union Parish, Louisiana.” Though Arkansas is landlocked, hours from any coast, what place is more marginal than one people aren’t paying any attention to?

When Portis decided to try a career as a novelist, after distinguishing himself with a journalism career that took him to its peak – the London bureau chief for the New York Herald Tribune – he returned to a cabin on the White River and wrote Norwood. Tom Wolfe, the novelist and a onetime colleague at the Herald Tribune, has famously exclaimed about the location of his labors, “A fishing shack! In Arkansas!” Later, Portis moved to Little Rock and would launch himself from there to places even farther afield, both geographically and imaginatively: McAlester, Oklahoma; dusty towns in Mexico and British Honduras; a number of odd lots in Texas like La Coma; and Burnette, Indiana, “the most fashionable suburb of Gary.” While his peers like Wolfe, John Updike and Philip Roth were plumbing the depths of

suburban and urban malaise, Portis was roaming the forgotten places and finding American dreamers and schemers.

For all that he has lived 70 or so years in Arkansas, the state is not a fundamental part of the fictional world of his novels. Norwood Pratt lives in east Texas and merely passes through Arkansas—slamming on the brakes once, disastrously, to watch a possum climb through a fence—on his way to New York and back. Mattie Ross of True Grit is proudly from Yell County but lights out for the territory on her revenge quest before coming home to spend her spinsterhood and eventually tell her tale. Ray Midge of The Dog of the South departs and returns to Little Rock but mostly wanders through Texas and into Mexico in search of his wife and Ford Torino. And the word “Arkansas” makes a lone appearance each in Masters of Atlantis (“Moaler was in his Arkansas duck blind”) and Gringos, where Jimmy Burns IDs himself as being from the Arklatex, and even then from Louisiana.

If Arkansas has a claim on him, it is as the place where he learned to listen. In an interview with his former Arkansas Gazette colleague Roy Reed, Portis notes that his father’s side of the family “were talkers rather than readers or writers. A lot of cigar smoke and laughing when my father and his brothers got together. Long anecdotes. The spoken word.” Portis’s “ear” was honed in Arkansas while reading too. He worked for the Northwest Arkansas Times when he was a journalism student at the University of Arkansas and edited dispatches from “lady stringers in Goshen and Elkins,” he tells Reed, and his job “was to edit out all the life and charm from these homely reports. Some fine old country expression, or a nice turn of phrase—out they went.”

Portis took his Arkansas ear and traveled and listened to people at the margins, whether they were characters like Cezar Golescu from the Caspian Sea or Mattie Ross from near Dardanelle in Yell County. He heard them and conveyed this truth back to us: America is almost all margin.

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ART

MUSICIAN. ARTIST. POET. PHOTOGRAPHER.

JOSHUA ASANTE IS

The Man who won’t

Sit Still WORDS / ANDREW MCCLAIN PHOTOS / JOSHUA ASANTE idleclassmag.com

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JOSHUA ASANTE WANTS DIALOGUE. Journalists will note that this is a rare trait among musicians, and as a member of Little Rock bands Amasa Hines and Velvet Kente, Asante has become a staple of the central Arkansas music scene. Musicians can often be quick to shrug off discussion of their music in favor of letting it speak for itself, but as Asante prepares for an exhibition of his photography at Hearne Fine Art, he’s eager to discuss the implications of his photographic work.

“I always have at least two or three cameras with me,” Asante says. As someone who never went to school for photography, he values the content of his work over the technical qualities that professional photographers prize. “The best camera is the one that you have in your hand,” he says, quoting a mentor of his.

Asante wanted to present a narrative through his photography, so the exhibit, entitled “Eve Everlasting: Extended Maternity in the African Diaspora” has a very specific focus.

“The idea for the project came from a conversation with a friend of mine,” he says. “She said that when she got married, her husband’s mom made a statement saying that she had raised her son up to this point, and now it was the wife’s turn to take over. She was like ‘bullsh-t! I don’t wanna raise a dude!’ And a few years into the relationship, she realized what [her mother-in-law] meant. She didn’t necessarily mean ‘bring him into maturity,’ she meant that those things that are innately maternal - ‘you’ll be doing that more than I will now’ - All the positive aspects of your personality are going

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to help cultivate his life.”

This account, coupled with Asante’s observations on relationships, piqued an interest in what he calls “the woman’s perception of self; how she evolves, how that relates to how she mothers her own children, the men that she encounters in her adult life” as a subject for photography.

“There’s a very symbiotic thing that goes on, and a lot of it is an extension of maternity,” Asante says, “And not necessarily in the sense that, as men, we have a need to be coddled the way our mothers would. Even if you’re a guy who doesn’t date women, you still have this maternal aspect of the women that are close to you that extends beyond what your mother could do for you.”

So with the themes of womanhood and maternity in mind, Asante chose a spot in a friend’s house, a bedroom mirror adjacent to a bathroom, as the spot where he would photograph a number of women. Asante had never attempted a project of this scale before, and saw it as an exercise in repetition, since he wanted about 25 images for the series,

Above: The Ever Unwrapping Tapestry of My Heart idleclassmag.com

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Above: You Are the Holiest Trinity I’ve Known

Above: Kimberly in the Interrogative Dimension

and approached 43 women to be photographed. He got exactly 25 responses, and photographed all of them over the course of one weekend, using only natural light, regardless of the time of day.

“I photographed all the women into this mirror, to where they would be outside of this room, and I’d take their photograph in the mirror. They couldn’t see themselves, but they could see me. That’s a lot of what parenting is about,” Asante says. “It’s about kids - blinders on - it’s about the kids. A lot of times, parents are doing things that are detrimental to themselves and detrimental to the kids, because they can’t see themselves.”

Asante shot the entire series on a digital camera and put the prints on watercolor paper, which gives the photos a specific textural quality that he prizes. He very quickly realized the difficult implications of this project’s subject matter.

“I have a old friend who is a professor at San Diego State, and I approached her about doing it, and she was super reluctant,” Asante says. “She made a lot of good points. She’s a writer, and she felt that I was basically using the women without their consent as vocabulary for my narrative… and I can see that.”

But Asante welcomes dialogue around his narrative of womanhood. On this point, Asante holds fast: “What I’m saying is, this is an absolute truth: whether or not you want to be mothered, you will be; whether or not you want to have maternal aspects to your personality, you will have them, and this is just an examination of things that I feel like are true. Now, will that truth have room to evolve? Will it mean something else to you than it does to me? Yes. But, at its core, it exists.”

One reason Asante was eager to have this exhibition at Hearne, a gallery that deals primarily in African-American art, was their practice of doing panel discussions on the art that they show, and he wants his friend, the professor, to come participate in the discussion when the show opens.

The photographs may very well ask more questions than they answer, and to that end, Asante will get what he wants: dialogue.

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The “Eve Everlasting” opens at Hearne Fine Art in Little Rock in August, running through September.

“WHAT I’M SAYING IS, THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE TRUTH: WHETHER OR NOT YOU WANT TO BE MOTHERED, YOU WILL BE; WHETHER OR NOT YOU WANT TO HAVE MATERNAL ASPECTS TO YOUR PERSONALITY, YOU WILL HAVE THEM...”

Above: There is No Time for Despair Upper right: Zion Amaris, Age Three Lower right: Gone is the Night that Hid Your Face from Mine idleclassmag.com

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Beyond the

Runway

LITTLE ROCK RESIDENT KORTO MOMOLU GOES FROM PROJECT RUNWAY TO NYC FASHION WEEK WITH HER NEW COLLECTION “URBAN COUP.” WORDS / DANIELLE GREEN PHOTOS / STEPHANIE PARSLEY

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THE ROOM FELL SILENT TO SIGNAL THE START OF THE SHOW while the crowd lulled to a hush. The catwalk awoke with floodlights as a loud beat led the synchronized strut of stilted models wearing Korto Momolu’s 2014 Fall/Winter Collection “Urban Coup.”

I sat in the last seat at the end of the runway, next to photographer Stephanie Parsley, who journeyed with me as part of Korto’s team to New York to capture the moments of the production.

The tempo of the models’ stride submerged you into a hypnotic mode of cool. The sound of shutters snapping put my mind in a trance where I found myself back at the model call and fitting session. There, I met ZAAF handbag designer, Abai Schulze, whose handbags were carefully crafted by artisans in Ethiopia. They paired gracefully with Korto’s outerwear pieces, constructed with tough leather blocking, utilitarian trim and pleated draping flowing into a silhouette reminiscent of Christian Dior’s “The New Look.”

Every outfit to be worn on the runway was styled by one of New York’s most sought after stylists, Arnold Milfort.

Model after model showcased a perfectly executed look. As the last one took the spotlight, I recognized Treloni Flournoy wearing my favorite piece from the collection. It was the sheer floral embroidered dress that I watched Korto construct in the studio weeks before the show, and now it was here, completed by an ominous leather clutch by Little Rock designer Bryant Phelan for O’Faolin Leather, who recently told me about his tedious process of collecting exotic leather from Italy to hand-dye himself to create subtle patterns which have a value that only a design enthusiast would truly appreciate. On the runway, light glinted from the scalloped crystal dripping off his black ouija board clutch as the show neared its end.

As the models filed into a line and made their last turn at the end of the runway, I understood the many intricate parts artists and businesses - working together for a greater purpose. Shea Moisture provided hair and makeup artists while Joan Hornig Jewelry and Mdurvwa Collections provided jewelry. Fashion assistant Brandi Tate, crochet artist Tiffany Pippins, White Mountain Shoes, Hotel Belleclaire, Eonis Media, Champion Eye Media, and DJ Universe also contributed. But it was Korto Momolu who brought all these people together in New York. She is not only a reputable fashion designer but also a woman who has a desire to give opportunities to others, cultivating a community of local, national and international artists around her who all became part of a large collaboration. Although her designs are enough to set her apart, she encompasses a magnetic sense of community spirit that inspires those around her.

Throughout our New York Fashion Week journey, I picked up on pieces of her story over the course of several dinners

with colleagues and during small intervals between engagements. We delved into discussions over the industry, politics and business during taxi rides, city walks and late night group discussions. I discovered a profoundly genuine artist with a deeply moving backstory.

Her name is Korto Momolu. She likes it if you pronounce it correctly - (Cut • Toe – Mo • Mo • Lu) She was born in Liberia, and her early years were marked by a terrorizing reality in which a military coup overthrew the AmericoLiberian leadership, causing political and economic instability and two successive civil wars, causing the deaths of between 250,000 and 500,000 people and devastating the country’s economy. As a result, she moved to Canada in 1990. Her love for fashion led her to pursue fashion design at L’Academies des Couturiers Design Institute in Ottawa, Ontario, then to the renowned Parson’s School of Design in New York City while stepping out on her own as a fashion designer. After marrying a man in the military, she landed in Little Rock.

The location didn’t stop her progress. Her designs were noticeably advanced, so she took a shot for Bravo’s TV hit show, Project Runway and made the cut. She became an icon on the show by her distinct style of unexpected bold colors and remarkable details. Her personality on television reflected an unapologetic spunk, and audiences voted her “fan favorite.” She became first runner-up at the fifth season finale. Opportunities to showcase her signature style were now a reality. She’s designed for Miss Universe (Leila Lopes) and the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. She’s created an accessory line for Dillard’s department stores, produced an eco-friendly jewelry line for the Smithsonian Museum stores, designed the uniforms for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, served as the Cheerios’ ambassador for the Shoprite Partners in Caring “Knock Out Hunger” campaign, and continues to contribute her time and talents to countless charitable and philanthropic endeavors. She was recently highlighted in the “Top 5 Designers to Watch” in New York City this season. Korto has been featured in many international and national publications and has appeared on numerous television shows, including two seasons of Project Runway All Stars, most recently on Project Runway All Stars 3, where she was also the first runner-up.

“There was always a camera in your face,” she told me.

For six months she had to partake in reality TV boot camp.

The challenges were very real and very emotional. “You became a functioning group together, then all of a sudden,

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someone was gone.”

She established friendships with her competitors that have lasted beyond the show. She invited me to take part as a makeup artist for the FACES of Fashion show at the Arlington in Hot Springs, Arkansas last year, where she pulled in some of her Project Runway friends to benefit the community’s charity efforts. Korto uses every avenue she can to not only help herself, but to also help others around her. She recently hosted the Designer’s Choice Fashion Preview, a fashion showcase for local designers. Through these outlets, she reaches out to aspiring artists to help mentor.

She continues to embody an unwavering willingness to share her successes with others, despite having endured the struggles in an industry that can be unforgiving for an African-American woman. And to top that, she’s also a mother, currently expecting her second child. When I asked her what she believed to be her greatest triumph, she responded “being able to successfully juggle motherhood and my career.” Here was the woman behind the glossy screen, beyond the sewing machine, buried under the stitches of her couture dress seams. She stated her message of empowerment quite simply: “Be you...know who you are and what you stand for.”

VISIT: kortomomolu.com gofundme.com/kortomomolu 30

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MUSIC for your

MIND

BROOKS TIPTON MAKES MUSIC TO ENTERTAIN & INSPIRE WITH HIS NEW INSTRUMENTAL PROJECT GLASS WANDS. WORDS / LAUREN MCCORMICK PHOTO / SHANNON SHRUM 32

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A LITTLE ROCK NATIVE AND JACK-OF-ALL TRADES, you could call Brooks Tipton a bit of a Renaissance Man. He hasn’t simply dipped his toes in the art scene here and there in the Natural State, but more so plunged head first embracing several modes of creation on his way in.

Brooks has inspired the local art scene through his screen-printing company Electric Ghost Printing, but the majority of his history lies as a thriving musician where he began playing in bands over twelve years ago. This guy has been around the block a time or two, and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down. He’s played in Unwed Sailor, Bear Colony, Colour Revolt, Chase Pagan, and Thursday, and has toured with Taking Back Sunday, just to name a few.

Although Brooks is from and now resides in Little Rock, he has made some moves around the country in pursuit of new beginnings. Tipton packed up and went to Los Angeles for a bit alongside his colleague and longtime friend Chase Pagan to help with a record, followed by a stint in Boulder, Colorado, although Brooks never quite found the satisfaction he was looking for. “Through all of these travels I’ve grown to love where I’m from and realized I took it for granted a little bit.” So this frustration led him back to Little Rock where he decided to focus on his company and take a break from the rock & roll lifestyle for a bit. “I felt fulfilled in my music career and just thought that was it.”

Well, this hiatus ended up being short-lived, and his latest endeavors will be touring with Alabama-born Laura and Lydia Rogers and their band, The Secret Sisters this spring.

All of this stimulation and the people he has met along the way have inspired Brooks to record his debut solo album, Glass Wands, released March 25th on Esperanza Plantation Records. The record seems to have been a long time coming for him. “I’ve been writing and working on some of these songs for over seven years. Sort of like an oil painting, where you’re never quite done tweaking it.”

Unlike Tipton’s rocker repertoire, Glass Wands is an elegant, instrumental masterpiece that is undeniably packed with emotion in each song. Throughout the album you’ll hear haunting piano melodies accompanied by various strings and horns, plus lingering tunes in the background that really make the songs come to life. Brooks says, “I want people to feel inspired to create something as they’re listening to it. Instrumental music has been a powerful force for me over the years, and I’ve found it to be a great source for sorting out emotions or creative inspiration.”

It’s pretty spectacular how Tipton has so gracefully shifted his gears in this album, and it just goes to show the endless possibilities of what this guy is capable of. It seems Brooks has been made an even better musician upon completing this album as he confesses, “This album has been proof to myself that you have to stick with your creative visions, and see them come to life no matter how much time it takes. I feel like I’ve grown a lot in this pursuit.”

Although nothing is officially on the books quite yet, a few shows are on the horizon surrounding the release of Glass Wands.

“From frustration comes creativity,” Brooks says, and with that let’s be glad that we have not seen that last of Brooks Tipton quite yet.

“I want people to feel inspired to create something as they’re listening to it. Instrumental music has been a powerful force for me over the years, and I’ve found it to be a great source for sorting out emotions or creative inspiration.”

VISIT: GLASSWANDS.BANDCAMP.COM ESPERANZAPLANTATION.COM

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SPEAKING IN TONGUES NATHAN HOWDESHELL OF ROCK BAND GOSSIP & TRAVIS McELROY OF THICK SYRUP RECORDS TEAM UP TO LAUNCH A NEW LABEL. WORDS & PHOTO / JEREMY GLOVER

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Glossolia: profuse and often emotionally charged speech that mimics coherent speech but is usually unintelligible to the listener and that is uttered in some states of religious ecstasy and in some schizophrenic states.

The medical definition of Glossolia may not be referring specifically to the sound Travis McElroy and Nathan Howdeshell are going for with their new record label, but their shared passion for visceral, charged underground music certainly encompasses that fevered state.

McElroy has spent the last several years building Thick Syrup Records into a premier independent label in the state - respected both nationally and abroad for the depth and variety of its releases. While Howdeshell has seen the band formed in his youth in Searcy, Arkansas reach an ever-wider audience throughout the last decade as The Gossip steadily rose from dive bars to national tours to festivals around the globe.

Glossolia Records is their new joint venture that, according to Howdeshell, has an aim “simply to release some cool records - that is all.”

“I grew up listening to K Records, Kill Rock Stars, Skin Graft, 99 Records,” Howdeshell says. “These labels were inspiring to me.”

While Howdeshell grew up in highly conservative Searcy, McElroy’s youth was spent moving to different Arkansas towns while his father pursued public service as a police officer, state trooper and eventually becoming mayor of Perryville.

In middle school, McElroy began to gravitate toward raw music of the late eighties, skipping school lunches and saving all of his lunch money to purchase punk and noise records each week at Hastings. He and a friend would discover a new label like Shimmy Disc or Amphetamine Reptile and then proceed to purchase everything in its discography – inspecting and devouring them in their entirety.

It’s a familiar story you hear from many Arkansas artists and musicians about growing up in out-of-the-way towns

REVIEW

Water Liars - Cannibal Fat Possom Records 2014

J

in Arkansas, especially before everything was so readily available on the Internet. Bands that struck a chord with rising adolescent feelings and opened up new possibilities in what once seemed like a limited world were held on to a bit tighter than maybe if you grew up in a metropolitan area rife with music and culture.

“I was a huge local music fan,” McElroy says. “I always going to see bands everywhere, from the smaller places to the bigger places to wherever. I didn’t sleep much back then.

It was always at White Water, Vino’s, Sports Page. Then getting up at 5 a.m. and working the next day.”

In 2006, McElroy launched Thick Syrup Records with the release of retro dance, alternative cheer artist Browningham and the first compilation that featured many of the bands he had been staying out all night listening to in previous years, including Smoke Up Johnny, San Antokyo, Sara Thomas, Ho Hum, and Clicking Beetle Bad Omen Band.

“I didn’t even know what to expect,” McElroy says. “Honestly I didn’t have anything in mind. I just did it because I wanted to. Years ago I played music but I sucked really bad, so I thought I could do this instead.”

The compilation received an overwhelmingly positive response from local music fans and some good press, including an interview with NPR. In 2007, Thick Syrup released the seminal debut album by bar rockers Smoke Up Johnny, who would go on to open for Green Day side project, Foxboro Hot Tubs.

Through his friendship with Jad Fair of Half Japanese fame, McElroy was soon able to move Thick Syrup into a more avant-garde noise-experimental realm. In 2008, Thick Syrup release Halloween Songs with Jad and his brother David.

“I didn’t know David before that but I really got to know

ustin “Pete” Kinkel-Schuster begins the new self-titled Water Liars record with the morbid question “When you taste the blood and sweat of the one you love, do you feel like a cannibal?” He answers with his bands best, and most dynamic record.

Cannibal is a study of contrast that effortlessly changes gears from loud to quiet, slow to fast, fuzzy to clean.

Songs like the fragile and poetic “Swannanoa” hit you with greater effect after following the beastly rollicking of songs “Cannibal”, and “I Want Blood.” The songs “Tolling Bells”, and “Pulp” take the band to new, vibrant places, while standout track “War Paint” references poet Frank Stanford and is quintessential Water Liars beautiful, sorrowful and eloquent.

Kinkel-Schuster, a native Arkansan, formed Water Liars in Oxford, MS, with Andrew Bryant (drums, vocals) in 2011. After releasing debut record Phantom Limb, the band fol-

lowed up with the record Wyoming in 2012. Water Liars have earned fans across the state by playing live shows everywhere they can, with lots of late night dining. The band played frequently enough in town to develop a crush on their regular Waffle House waitress.

With the addition of bassist GR Robinson, Water Liars have delivered a record that draws influence from all over - Nirvana, Urge OverKill, and Neutral Milk Hotel to name a few.

In a rare feat, the band has improved their own sound, evolved, and hinted at new sounds to come. Water Liars will please old fans or serve as a great starting point for new listeners. It’s a multi-faceted record that grows with repetition, through diverse songs and measured lyrics. Pick up the new album, and see the band live, and then watch them again.

- ROGER BARRETT

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him well,” he says. “They are super nice guys. They would do anything in the world for anybody. We’ve just worked super close ever since then doing all kinds of projects.”

Working with the hugely influential art-punk band Half Japanese gave Thick Syrup the credibility to further expand its scope, letting McElroy work with many of the people who inspired him as a teenager.

“Everybody that I grew up listening to, those people love Jad Fair and Half Japanese,” McElroy says. “That was really the opening.”

Thick Syrup now focuses on releases three or four releases from local acts while continuing to maintain a respected presence on the national and international noise-experimental scene. Recent releases have included David Markey, The Chrome Cranks, Velvet Monkeys, and producer Don Fleming.

“What’s weird now is some of the people I grew up listening to I now have to put them on a waiting list because we are doing this project now and this other one later,” McElroy says.

McElroy said his conversations with Howdeshell over the years were always populated with a love of the same bands and labels, which led to sharing of music and traveling to festivals. They then helped put together a show in Austin, Texas last year where operatic country crooner Bonnie Montgomery, who has released singles on Howdeshell’s Fast Weapons label, and Little Rock upstarts Twelve Tone Elevator, whose members have been featured on a number of Thick Syrup releases, opened for and played with Half Japanese.

An eclectic night of music to say the least, one that’s sure to reflect that expansive approach of Glossolia Records.

For Glossolia Record’s upcoming first release, Half Japanese recorded their first album with the original line-up – Jad and David in the studio together at the same time – since their debut release in 1977.

“They did about 50 songs in three days,” McElroy says.

“They came in with a book of lyrics and they were like ‘we’ll just start here on page one.’”

Besides launching the new label, both have other projects with Howdeshell playing in Bonnie Montgomery’s band and McElroy continuing a steady stream of shows and releases on Thick Syrup.

As much as its beloved local releases and championing new and underappreciated artists, Thick Syrup is also known

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for its stellar lineup of annual anniversary shows, which this year take place over four nights in May. For McElroy, these shows are always a highlight of the year, especially with the booking of such divergent bands and performers on the same night, reflecting his wide-ranging taste and aesthetic sensibilities.

“It’s always really fun to get a bunch of bands together that don’t make sense and let them play,” he says.

VISIT: THICKSYRUPRECORDS.NET FASTWEAPONS.BANDCAMP.COM

THICK SYRUP RECORDS 8TH ANNIVERSARY SHOWS May 9th - Sticky Fingerz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack in Little Rock Bear Colony Ginsu Wives Sleep Today May 16th - White Water Tavern in Little Rock Bonnie Montgomery Brother Andy & His Big Damn Mouth Nathan Brown May 17th - White Water Tavern in Little Rock Twelve Tone Elevator Hamberguesa Jumbo Jet May 24 - Maxine’s in Hot Springs Ezra Lbs Bloodless Cooties TBA

OFF TO THE MOVIES THE LITTLE ROCK FILM FESTIVAL BRINGS

THE BEST IN INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING TO THE NATURAL STATE. WORDS / ANDREW MCCLAIN

OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, The Little Rock Film Festival has seen its star rise to become a top tier festival often showing films fresh out of the Sundance Film Festival and SXSW. The festival will be held from Monday, May 12 to Sunday, May 18 for a full week of great films.

The only films announced as of press time are Rich Hill, directed by Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos.

Filmed in Missouri, it tells the powerful and emotional story of three boys growing up on the edge of poverty in rural America. Rich Hill won the Sundance U.S. Grand Prize for Best Documentary. Another highlight is Little Accidents, directed by Sara Colangelo, features an impressive cast including Elizabeth Banks, Boyd Holbrook, Chloë Sevigny and Josh Lucas and tells the story of a devastating mining disaster in an Appalachian coal-mining town which links the lives of three very different residents in a web of secrets.

Last year, the festival was based out of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre on Main Street in Downtown Little Rock, with additional venues around Downtown and Argenta, but this year, the festival headquarters have switched to the new CALS Ron Robinson Theater in the River Market. “[The theater] is a huge deal, as it gives us a great headquarters to screen out of and is the most technically advanced theater system in the state,” Agee says. “The films sound and look unbelievable and the atmosphere and culture at the theater are a film lover’s dream. Being in the heart of downtown, I’m excited about exploring more of the River Market district with great after-parties and alternative venues for more intimate screening spaces, in addition to using lecture spaces in the library like the Butler Center for panels and discussions.”

Festival artistic directors Brent and Craig Renaud announced they will present a new award dedicated to something they’re calling “cinematic nonfiction.” As documentary filmmakers themselves, the Renaud Brothers are interested in more adventurous takes on the genre. So in addition to their documentary category, the Renaud Brothers sought to recognize new voices in nonfiction cinema that

may not meet the criteria of a conventional documentary.

For instance, Little Rock Film Festival’s 2013 grand prize winner, Dirty Wars, which follows investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, was adapted from Scahill’s nonfiction book of the same name into a nonfiction screenplay, and edited in the style of a thriller, rather than a documentary. Films like last year’s Leviathan, which follows an Atlantic Ocean fishing crew, features no voiceover and very little dialogue, narrative or informational content. Because of their unique take on storytelling, it can be difficult for films like Dirty Wars and Leviathan to compete in a documentary category.

So the Renaud brothers tapped writer and filmmaker Robert Greene to curate the 2014 selection for Cinematic Nonfiction at the Little Rock Film Festival. Brent Renaud says, “Robert Greene has a national reputation as one of the most exciting and provocative new voices in film criticism. But he is also an accomplished filmmaker.”

One point of pride for the LRFF is national recognition as one of the most filmmaker-friendly festivals, meaning that they give great treatment to filmmakers and like having them involved in the festival.

“We try really hard every year to bring a filmmaker with each film if we can, to make the film festival more valuable than catching the film on demand or Netflix,” Agee says.

“You have the opportunity to meet these guys and girls who make these important films, talk to them about what you just saw and find out a little more about the story. [T]hat context gives these films more meaning...”

Passes for the festival are on sale now, with Bronze Passes going for only $50, which gets the holder into most LRFF screenings and panels.

VISIT: LITTLEROCKFILMFESTIVAL.ORG idleclassmag.com

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S O M E T H I N G I S

AMISS

SINCE 2004, FAYETTEVILLE ARTIST COLLECTIVE ART AMISS HAS PROVIDED SUPPORT & EXPOSURE FOR LOCAL ARTISTS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS & DESIGNERS. NOW THEY’RE READY FOR ANOTHER DECADE. WORDS / TINA PARKER PHOTOS / BO COUNTS & AMY WEBB 38

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IT IS THURSDAY NIGHT, and for the first time ever at 21c Museum Hotel, a group of designers readied themselves for Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week. Tonight is the local designer showcase for the three-day fashion event.

On the second floor of the hotel, a handful of designers with Art Amiss are adding the final touches to their eccentric expressions of counterculture fashion. Some of the models are dressed in leather, faux bones and roses, others as twisted Disney princesses or draped with plastic cages that resemble metal.

Fayetteville-based artist (and Idle Class contributor), Joëlle Storet, who frequents many of the Art Amiss events, says that out of all the events she is the most excited about tonight.

“Thursday night is the real night when creativity and eccentric designs come out,” she says. “There’s just more spontaneity with the shows that go on tonight.”

“We give complete and total freedom of expression to the artist/designer collaborations and this, I believe, is what creates such beauty behind the scenes and on the runway,” says Melissa Arens.

Arens is the fashion director for Art Amiss and has been participating in events for more than seven years. After helping with hair and makeup for an event in 2009, she was asked to take the role as director.

“It isn’t all rainbows and butterflies,” she says about the events she helps produce. “It takes lots of hard work and lots of time and dedication. It took years of showing up and working hard for little-to-no recognition before I actually landed the title.”

Her position, like all the positions within Art Amiss is an unpaid one, and is strictly done on a volunteer basis. *** Based in Fayetteville, Art Amiss is a non-profit art collective that provides an avenue for local artists to create fun and innovative art not generally seen in the region. The collective is made up of artists, designers, authors, poets, actors and musicians, who have separate events to bring more focus to the specific subjects.

“Art Amiss is a smorgasbord of all mediums of art,” says president Bo Counts, who has been with the art collective since its inception. “It doesn’t matter what your medium is – it’s open to all types of creative expression.”

Until four years ago, the art collective would come together for two large-scale events – one in spring and one in the fall. Since that time, the grandiose art parties that happened bi-annually were broken up into smaller, more focused events.

“It was a way to get artists to channel their medium so that it could be properly showcased,” Counts says. “And now we can really focus on the artists we were helping.”

Over time, Art Amiss turned into an artist organization, with 501-C3 designation. This allowed the group to provide micro-grants up to $300 to help artists bring projects to fruition.

“Art Amiss is really the go-to source,” says music director Eric Jensen. “We make money from fashion week, t-shirts, and music compilation CD sales and we turn it into grants that we award to artists.”

Art Amiss awarded a $300 grant to Candy Lee, a Fayetteville singer-songwriter, which helped her fund her

new album Human Conditions.

“I was very honored to receive the grant from Art Amiss,” Lee says. “I’ve been a big fan of Art Amiss’ work ever since I learned about them in 2009 when I was asked to be on the Art Amiss 11 compilation CD. They’ve been doing good things for the underground art community in Fayetteville and around AR for a while now. The grant from Art Amiss was a big help in funding the pressing/packaging of my album.”

“Artists started coming to us when they needed help finishing their product,” Counts says, adding that his favorite thing about the organization is helping people with diverse goals. *** “I also enjoy scouting out local artists and designer that are already established or I know can become more established with the right outlet to allow expression, obtain exposure and to show under Art Amiss at fashion events,” Arens says at the NWA Fashion Week show.

Jacqueline Manhattan and Chadd Wilson are showing their collaboration, BADDJaxx, under the Art Amiss fashion event. Their designs are unlike any others at the event – they are dark, twisted and have a deeper underlying meaning.

Their design is based on fairy tale rebound concept where each princess fell in love at a different time with Edgar Allen Poe. To further perpetuate the sense of mystery with the line, each article of clothing and accessory is made from recycled materials picked up from thrift stores or trash cans.

Katie Shingleur is dressed as Virgin Mary Ariel, with a bubble wrap fin tied with zip ties, a halo made from a large metal gear and a chain shawl. Her left breast purposefully exposed.

“The concept is weird...” Shingleur says. “It’s going to leave a lasting impression.”

Manhattan agrees. “It’s dark. It’s about being love sick.

And BADDJaxx is about what you’re not supposed to do, pushing the limits to see what you can get away with,” she says.

This is just one of the ways that Art Amiss encourages all types of creative expression. Whether it be poetry, prose, music, theatre, fashion or art, Art Amiss hopes to change the perception of art while filling the artists needs of the community.

“If we can change spaces and the environment by using art people will see things in a different and positive way,” Counts says. “And I think the presentation of art should be just as creative as the creation of art itself.”

VISIT: ARTAMISS.ORG Writer’s Note: I have known Bo Counts and Eric Jensen for a little over a year. We have worked together in different capacities at KXUA, the student-run radio station at the University of Arkansas where I am employed.

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A TASTE OF THE ISLANDS HAWAIIAN BRIAN’S SPICES THINGS UP WITH AUTHENTIC POLYNESIAN CUISINE WITH A SOUTHERN FLARE. WORDS / TAYLOR GLADWIN PHOTOS / VIKRAM DESAI

LET WINTER END AND THE LUAUS BEGIN. Hawaiian Brian’s in Fayetteville is sailing towards spring with new ideas. For the past couple of months, the Hawaiian Brian’s family has been preparing for its next big adventures, as well as opening up a new location in Springdale.

Shanea and Michael Holmbeck are the restaurant owners and the geniuses behind the menu. Married for 18 years, the couple brings their individual personalities to the table.

Michael has a native taste for Hawaiian delicacies. Originally from Kahuku, Oahu, Michael grew up playing pool at Hawaiian Brian’s Billiard in Honolulu, which played a role in giving the restaurant its name. Shanea, a Fayetteville local, has always loved cooking and brings a “Southern girl infusion” to each entree. “The entire restaurant is ‘Hawaiian-style cooking’ - dishes you can get in Hawaii, but with a Southern flare,” Shanea says.

Shanea is that flare. She started bringing dishes to potlucks, like Michael’s grandmother’s recipe for Shoyu Chicken

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(shoyu is Japanese for soy sauce). After trying and loving the food, friends suggested that they open a restaurant. With Shanea’s passion for cooking and Michael’s Hawaiian roots, “it just kind of went from there,” Shanea says.

Hawaiian Brian’s was one of the first food trucks in Fayetteville. After four months of people lining up from the truck out to the street, Hawaiian Brian’s outgrew the food truck business and they decided to open a restaurant. That was just over a year ago. Today, Hawaiian Brian’s has plans to spice up the restaurant with hula and bamboo stick dancers and ukulele players. Another key part of the plan is to have local beer, such as Core and Fossil Cove, with wine available by spring. The house beer will be a specialty coconut pineapple

Michael & Shanea Holmbeck serve up Hawaii’s finest cuisine at their Fayetteville & Springdale locations. pale ale, brewed by local Fayetteville friends Tanglewood Brewery.

“If you go to Hawaii, the whole island is made up of white people, Hawaiians, Samoans, Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese. You’ve got this huge infusion of people who have shared recipes. A lot of people think that Hawaiian food is going to be something crazy, but it’s comfort food,” Shanea says.

Some of their traditional dishes include Kalua Pig with rice, cabbage and macaroni salad. “In Hawaii, everything is served with macaroni salad. It’s huge,” she says. A true Southern girl, she has her own popular recipe for macaroni salad. The menu also includes Chicken Katsu (Japanese fried chicken), and spam and eggs with rice, a traditional Hawaiian breakfast. Hawaiian Brian’s has daily specials as well, including Musubi (spam sushi).

“We want you to be able to walk in, hear Hawaiian music, relax, and feel like you’re in Hawaii, but be able to afford to eat,” Shanea says.

When Shanea and Michael first decided to open a Hawaiian restaurant, they had no idea about the large Marshallese population in Northwest Arkansas, who began migrating to Springdale in the late 1980s due to the effects of nuclear testing near the Marshall Islands by the United States government during the Cold War. “We knew that we were offering our local Arkansans something different. It’s not BBQ, it’s not Chinese, it’s not fancy. We were excited about that, but now that we know that so many people have either been to Hawaii or that we have so many islanders, it’s just a good feeling,” she says.

Shanea and Michael’s next thought was, “Oh my god, there are 8,000 islanders in Springdale, Arkansas who have

nowhere to go for food.”

Besides cultural and delicious food, Hawaiian Brian’s is a team player in the community. Hawaiian Brian’s is sponsoring a diversity day at Sam’s Club in Fayetteville, with the official date to be released at a later time. The event will include a 45-minute storytelling about the Hawaiian/Marshallese culture. Hawaiian Brian’s will serve food as well as have ukulele musicians and traditional Hawaiian dancing.

The restaurant played a role in the local movie scene by sponsoring and catering the crew of Gordon Family Tree, which was shot in Fayetteville in 2012. Shanea and Michael also give a portion of their profits to different charities, like human trafficking awareness groups and veterinarian clinics.

“Anything that involves the human spirit, we will always be involved in,” Shanea says.

Shanea and Michael have the cultural knowledge, kitchen skills, and heart to take Hawaiian Brian’s as far as they wish to go. They want expand business to Rogers, Tulsa, Little Rock, Dallas, and Houston.

“One of our biggest reasons for opening a restaurant is 80 percent of the USA will never be able to go to Hawaii because of the expense, so we want to bring Hawaii here [so people can] experience the beauty, the stories...It’s a good feeling. And it’s affordable,” she says.

Return to your favorite island meal or try something new at Hawaiian Brian’s, open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and located in Fayetteville at the Evelyn Hills Shopping Center.

Hawaiian Brian’s in Springdale is located at 701 N. Thompson Street. Aloha!

VISIT: HAWAIIANBRIANSHAPPINESS.COM idleclassmag.com

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GONE so LONG An Essay by James Sallis Illustration by Beth Post Photo by Melissa Brawner HE WAS A TALL, HAWKLIKE MAN who hunched about his harmonica when he played, fitting his body around it as he might a woman. In later days he took to wearing a bowler hat and houndstooth suit. He’d been over to England, he said. Had made some records there, all these young white kids coming to see him, wanting to play with him. No one in Helena believed any of it.

Whenever I’m tired, my wife points out, the accent returns. I began consciously expunging it in the ninth grade. Reading a memoir by Cornelia Otis Skinner, I came across her own revelation that the contraction of can not does not rhyme with paint. By the time I’d reached Tulane, the accent for the most part was gone; years of living in the midwest, in London, New York and Boston swept away what vestiges remained.

Disavowal of the accent, of course, signalled a deeper apostasy. I sat there on South Biscoe Street in Helena, Arkansas, with Mozart, Mahler or Tchaikovsky on the turntable, looking across at a mile-long row of tarpaper shacks where black families lived, sons of whom had been my childhood playmates until the age of ten when without preamble I was told it was longer proper for me to play with black children. Beyond those shacks the levee rose like broad shoulders above the Mississippi. With that music, and with books, I was creating my own kind of levee, inventing a life in which I would not be Southern, little suspecting that forty years later I’d find myself engaged in a series of novels about another man, a black man, who fled, just as I had, that same South and all it meant.

Meanwhile I’d lie propped up in bed reading Wilde, Joyce, Sturgeon, biographies of Shelley and Byron and Shaw, Starkie’s Rimbaud, while all night long from the

outside speakers of a drive-in close by at the edge of my grandfather’s property spilled songs by Ray Charles, Conway Twitty, Arthur Alexander, Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole and Jimmy Reed.

Grandfather, though no longer a rich man, lived in what was nonetheless a mansion, an enormous structure with wraparound porch, massive entryway and wooden staircase, two-inch-thick doors between rooms. As a boy he’d broken his leg and, lacking access to medical care, had a box built about the leg until it healed; all the rest of his life, Hephaestuslike, he limped. Once, sawing wood in his workshop, he cut off a fingertip and, retrieving it from a pile of sawdust, threw it to the dog - then went on with his work. When he came to see us, limping up the hill beside our kitchen window, knowing my love of books he’d declaim for me the poetry he’d memorized as a child, long, rolling stanzas, literally hours, of Longfellow, Whittier, Sidney Lanier, William Cullen Bryant.

The black man I left hunched over his harmonica there at the first of this piece was Rice Miller, aka Sonny Boy Williamson. Most summer days I’d tune in to the noontime King Biscuit Hour on KFFA to hear his mournful harmonica and voice. Throughout the Thirties and Forties, Helena had been a hot spot for itinerant blues singers. Everybody passed through: Roosevelt Sykes, Robert Nighthawk, Char-

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A blues mural in Helena featuring local legends lie Patton, Johnny Shines, even Robert Johnson. Sonny Boy was the last hurrah of a rich blues tradition.

Sonny Boy’s was wild, loose music, music with a deep anger and sadness to it. Probably the closest connection I had to this other, alternate life while growing up lay in my odd kinship with Buster Robinson, a shambling, ageless black man living with his family in a rough cabin on my grandfather’s property and surviving on odd jobs. Buster was always smiling. He called me Mister Jimmie till the day he died.

There would be a time, not too long off, when I, too, standing by guitars and drums in a series of small bars, would cup my hands about harmonicas and lean into hard blues, swilling beer to kill the taste of last night’s early morning. As with so many things in my life, I played not well, but with great enthusiasm.

These days when I teach I tell my students: Write about the things that hurt you, write about the things you don’t understand.

Been gone so long, Sonny Boy sings. His harmonica fills the spaces between halting words, harmonica and voice become a single instrument. Been so long the carpet’s half faded on the floor.

Rimbaud wrote: I inherit from my Gaulish ancestors my whitish-blue eye, my narrow skull, and my lack of skill in fighting.

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So it is that Grandfather’s poetry, memories of those tarpaper shacks and of Buster Robinson, Sonny Boy’s music, the books I read, have combined in some manner, a most unlikely raft, to bring me here, to make me the writer and man I am today. I go on listening to black music, go on writing about the world of a Southern black man who, like myself, fled.

One does not escape, Rimbaud says.

ABOUT THE WRITER A prolific man of letters, James Sallis was born in Helena, Arkansas in 1944 and spent his childhood on the banks of the Mississippi River, along with his older brother John, now a philosopher and also an author.

James attended Tulane University in New Orleans, where he first began to sell his writing and where he has lived during several periods of his life. He is the author of the popular Lew Griffin and John Turner series of novels. He has also written countless stories, poems and essays. His best-selling novel Drive was made into a film starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.

VISIT: JAMESSALLIS.COM

SUBJECT

By Rodney Wilhite

after several days from bus to bus her father stops answering the phone she sleeps only in the seats a guitar in the overhead compartment chimes with the bus’s lurching a teenager photographs her leaning on the rail beside the bicycle racks packing her cigarettes he takes two strides toward her and his camera is in her face then he’s back into the crowd and away and here is the photograph her index finger along the surgeon general’s warning the cigarette pack clutched in one palm as her muscles tense to draw it up again she looks toward the lens as if to ask this boy why the strobe fires in her face cell towers on the horizon she watches their twitching light between overpasses everyone on the bus is asleep in their wanderings moths in the halogen fluorescence a plane crashes on the television the television repeats its loop something is stolen a finger presses a button a strobe fires a boy walks back into a crowd a guitar overhead chimes with the bus’s lurching a boy has taken her picture her father stops answering

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BOOKS IN BLOOM RETURNS TO EUREKA SPRINGS EUREKA SPRINGS HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN FOR ITS ARTISTIC AND LITERARY CULTURE. Once again, writers and readers have a reason to celebrate. The 9th Annual Books in Bloom will be held on Sunday, May 18, from noon to 5 PM, at The 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa, located on 75 Prospect Avenue.

Books in Bloom 2014 is a free literary festival that offers up a bouquet of authors, some with international reputations and millions of books in print, while others bring expertise in areas of regional interest, or share their passion for a splendidly diverse variety of topics, including the American Civil War, medicinal plants, biographies, social justice, Arkansas eateries and much, much more.

This year’s featured speakers include Dr. Kathy Reichs, whose medical thrillers inspired the television series Bones, as well as her TV series co-writer, collaborator and daughter, Kerry Reichs. Michael Sheldon riveted his audience several years ago with his book on Mark Twain. Now he has returned with a biography of Winston Churchill that is in the process of being turned into a six-part series by Carnival Films, makers of Downton Abbey.

Terry Brooks is a writer of fantasy that has transported fans to other worlds for decades with his masterfully imagined books. Over 30 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide and have been translated into dozens of languages. And Elizabeth Berg is that rare novelist with the ability to connect with her readers like a interesting friend, while capturing the nuances of complicated modern life.

What began with a modest offering of mostly local

Trolley Line Books Used, Rare, Signed & Arkansas-related Books Located in Downtown Rogers 110 W Walnut St Rogers, AR 72756

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(479) 636-1626

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Author Deborah Crombie at Books in Bloom authors has grown through the years into a stellar literary event that attracts booklovers from all over the state as well as across the borders. The chance to meet an array of accomplished authors, to hear them speak or read from their work, and to chat with them as they sign books, has become the “not-to-be-missed” event for many.

A project of the Carroll and Madison Public Library Foundation, Books in Bloom was envisioned from the start as a way to celebrate the literary arts and give both the people who write books and those who love to read a chance to come together in a lovely yet informal setting.

“We had no idea when we started out just how popular this event would become (although we hoped it would), or how many amazing authors would participate,” says Jean Elderwind, who has served as co-chair of the event since the outset. “Both Carroll and Madison counties are rural and not exactly on any publisher’s book tour schedule. But we have many ardent readers here and they have provided the impetus that has kept this festival not only going, but flourishing”.

For speaker schedules and a complete list of authors, can be found on their website.

VISIT: BOOKSINBLOOM.ORG