Arkansas Times by Arkansas Times

NEWS + POLITICS + ENTERTAINMENT / JANUARY 25, 2012 / ARKTIMES.COM

LIFE ON THE LIST Arkansas is on the cutting edge of how we classify sex offenders, but laws may be too harsh for some on the registry and the people who love them. BY DAVID KOON PAGE 14

Something new – the development of the state’s largest cardiovascular network

Announcing the partnership of Heart Clinic Arkansas, Drs. Watkins, Bauer, and Meadors, and St. Vincent Health System Cardiologists: C. Douglas Borg, M.D., F.A.C.C. Mangaraju (Raj) Chakka, M.D., F.A.C.C. Charles W. Clogston, M.D., F.A.C.C. John A. Colleran, D.O., F.A.C.C. Debasis Das, M.D., F.A.C.C. J. Lynn Davis, M.D., F.A.C.C. Van H. De Bruyn, M.D., F.A.C.C. David M. Evans, M.D., F.A.C.C. Forrest D. Glover, M.D., F.A.C.C. David D. Griffin, M.D., F.A.C.C. David C. Hicks, M.D., F.A.C.C. Randy A. Jordan, M.D., F.A.C.C. Morris E. Kelley, M.D., F.A.C.C. Eleanor E. Kennedy, M.D., F.A.C.C. Valerie McNee, M.D., F.A.C.C. Donald F. Meacham, M.D., F.A.C.C. Tena E. Murphy, M.D., F.A.C.C. Eric J. Robinson, M.D., F.A.C.C. Scott W. Rypkema, M.D., F.A.C.C. Mark A. St. Pierre, M.D., F.A.C.C. Thomas W. Wallace, M.D. Not pictured: Marvin W. Ashford, M.D., F.A.C.C. Leon Roby Blue, M.D., F.A.C.C. Bradley R. Hughes, M.D., F.A.C.C. Andrew G. Kumpuris, M.D., F.A.C.C. Aravind (Rao) Nemarkommula, M.D., F.A.C.C. Rod Parkhurst, M.D., F.A.C.C. Jim E. Shuffield, M.D., F.A.C.C. Sayyadul (Sid) Siddiqui, M.D., F.A.C.C. Cardiovascular surgeons: F. Michael Bauer, M.D. Frederick A. Meadors, M.D. Charles J. Watkins, M.D. Leadership: Peter D. Banko, FACHE St. Vincent President & CEO Jonathan P. Timmis St. Vincent Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer Marcia L. Atkinson, MHSA St. Vincent Vice President/Administrator of the Jack Stephens Heart Institute

SVC 0112 023 HCA AT_10X12.5.indd 1

What this means for heart patients today: • The state’s largest cardiology group • The state’s most experienced heart surgeons • The most advanced diagnostic technology and treatment options available We’re improving heart care for you and for all Arkansans for years to come by: • Investing $36 million in state-of-the-art cardiology facilities at St. Vincent Infirmary and St. Vincent North • Building 7 all-new cardiac cath labs and 4 new operating suites • Creating the state’s first hybrid cardiac cath lab/operating room You’ll still be able to see your trusted physician at the hospital or emergency room of your choice. Plus, you can visit our clinic locations throughout Arkansas. Learn more about this exciting development at StVincentHealth.com.

ST. VINCENT HEART CLINIC ARKANSAS CLINIC LOCATIONS: St. Vincent Heart Clinic Arkansas – Kanis 10100 Kanis Road, Little Rock 501-255-6000

St. Vincent Heart Clinic Arkansas – NLR 4000 Richards Road, Suite A 501-758-5133

St. Vincent Heart Clinic Arkansas – University 415 N. University Ave., Little Rock 501-664-6841

St. Vincent Heart Clinic Arkansas – Searcy 711 Santa Fe Drive 501-279-9393

In an emergency, dial 911.

ST. VINCENT CARDIOVASCULAR SURGEONS 5 St. Vincent Circle, Suite 501, Little Rock 501-666-2894 HOSPITALS AND EMERGENCY ROOMS St. Vincent Infirmary Two St. Vincent Circle, Little Rock 501-552-3000 • 501-552-2680 ER St. Vincent North 2215 Wildwood Avenue, Sherwood 501-552-7100 • 501-552-7190 ER St. Vincent Morrilton 4 Hospital Drive, Morrilton 501-977-2300 • 501-977-2442 ER

1/18/12 1/18/123:14 PM

Music Lessons ARKANSAS’S SOURCE FOR NEWS, POLITICS & ENTERTAINMENT 201 East Markham Street 200 Heritage Center West P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, Arkansas 72203 www.arktimes.com arktimes@arktimes.com @ArkTimes www.facebook.com/arkansastimes

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SEPT. 24, 2011 - FEb. 12, 2012 PRESENTED bY VOLUME 38, NUMBER 21 ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, 200 Heritage Center West, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72203, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, AR, 72203. Subscription prices are $42 for one year, $78 for two years. Subscriptions outside Arkansas are $49 for one year, $88 for two years. Foreign (including Canadian) subscriptions are $168 a year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is 75¢, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $2.50 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all single-copy orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

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JANUARY 25, 2012

COMMENT

Chamber tax grab Little Rock voters last September approved $6 million of new city sales taxes to be stockpiled in a cash fund for future “economic development” purposes. No further specifics were ever offered by Mayor Stodola for the use of this $6 million. Similar to the chamber’s management of the tax campaign, I think there is little doubt about the chamber’s hand working its will on this $6 million of taxpayer cash. When does “enough” become “enough?” Apparently never when it comes to the chamber’s appetite for Other Peoples Money. Jim Lynch Little Rock While we squeezed-to-death citizens count pennies and hoard coupons to afford our groceries, the chamber appears to take umbrage at any attempt to determine accountability for their actions and expenses. Their smugness insults the people they profess to “represent and enhance.” As an intense lover of Little Rock, and a believer in her potential to be a GREAT destination, I urge you to keep your laser on this issue. And, while you are sleuthing, help us lowly citizens understand the alleged value-added objectives of our recently voted tax increase. We still don’t know on what, and where, these newly minted dollars will be spent. It’s every citizen’s job to be vigilant about the constructive use of our taxes. Rita Mitchell-Harvey Little Rock

Cuts all around Most of the Republican candidates propose various voodoo economic schemes involving reducing government revenue by taxing the rich less. Only one Republican candidate seems to be serious about reducing spending significantly (about $1 trillion per year, he says) and he doesn’t have a serious chance of being nominated or winning the election. The rest, no better than the Democrats with their 10 to 20 year plans to go far deeper in debt before balancing the budget, are just kicking the can down the road in the hope that we will be able to continue kicking it or that they won’t be around to account for our national failure. Seems to me that the only real answer to our dilemma is to cut almost everything, some expenditures entirely including welfare for the rich, some slightly such as welfare for the poor and the vast American military empire spread around the world. Clearly, Social Security and Medicare too must be cut although most of that has to be imposed on future 4

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

beneficiaries. Everyone seems to insist that his own sacred cow be spared but we are in far too deep already for anyone to completely escape what must be done. If Americans are unwilling to make sacrifices to rebuild our economy, we will have no national security. Our funding of China’s military build-up will continue at an accelerating rate, at our expense instead of theirs, and we will eventually have to pay them for protection and do as they require. The bottom line here seems to be that all Americans have to step up to make a significant shared sacrifice. America’s

“Greatest Generation” has to be ours. There’s no avoiding the fact that “Sacred cows make the best burgers.” Al Garrett Jr. Perryville

Out-of-town love My wife and I will be visiting Little Rock in mid April and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about your city via your Dining and Entertainment guides, as well as the several unique features about your neighborhoods like Riverdale, The Heights, and Hillcrest. I feel we’re

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getting a true local’s perspective and we’re excited about being guests in your city and exploring local merchants and restaurants. Of particular value was the recent feature on living downtown, written by Kelley Bass. We’re staying at one of the historic hotels downtown, so it was quite enjoyable (and valuable) to learn about downtown Little Rock from someone who lives there. I hope the merchants and restaurants you list in the various guides recognize the value you’re providing to visitors. To be frank, I learned significantly more by spending a couple of hours on the Arkansas Times site than I did on the LittleRock.com tourism site. Thank you for helping me plan our visit, and we look forward to visiting your city. Jim Hofman Naperville, Ill.

From the web In response to a post on the Arkansas Blog about the Northwest Arkansas Times’ refusal to publish the wedding announcement of a gay Arkansas couple marrying in another state. Though we don’t have a regular marriage feature, the Arkansas Times is happy to publish news of same-sex marriages as a counterweight to discrimination the couples experience elsewhere. My blessings are many for I am a gay Canadian. I can get married, have my spouse make medical decisions for me, visit me in hospital, adopt children to love, and of course, get married and announce it in the paper. I don’t however rest on these rights I have as a recognized legal human being. My feeling is that we all share the planet and therefore human rights should be something as simple as any indelible right. I wish American gays could have the freedom I have. The fact that you will publish same-gender wedding announcements, especially in the Southwest, makes me see that perhaps this dream for my American brothers and sisters will come true. Thank you for encouraging these loving couples to share their love with their communities as any one else would. It helps to show we are no different in that we love, we cherish and we want to share. If I lived down your way I would be a regular subscriber to your newspaper. I think it’s only right to support those who act on the side of good. Jaclyn Bush Burlington, Ontario

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JANUARY 25, 2012

EDITORIAL

EYE ON ARKANSAS

Foiled again

Some like it big

he champions of Big Government were on the march Sunday, converging at the state Capitol to demand less individual interference with government prerogatives. They seek harsher punishment for women who claim sole authority over their bodies. (Have such women not heard of sharing?) Speakers explained to the anti-abortion crowd that if God had wanted women to run their own wombs, he wouldn’t have made government bureaucrats. Some people are suspicious of Big Government, but they weren’t at the Capitol Sunday, and they aren’t in the Republican presidential primary either. All the candidates there prefer government control over individual freedom in regard to abortion, even the one who calls himself a libertarian.

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

he cruel trap laid for Arkansans by the Chamber of Commerce, the Medical Society, the Farm Bureau and their mercenary cronies is now being systematically dismantled, rendered harmless by the Arkansas Supreme Court. The monied interests behind “tort reform” had planned on skinning the common people without interference; the Court has intervened, insisting the people be given a chance. Last week, the Court unanimously ruled unconstitutional a provision of the “tort reform” law that declared some doctors eligible to give expert testimony in medical malpractice cases (essentially, those doctors on the side of the defendant), and others ineligible (those on the side of the victim). The law violated the separation of powers doctrine of the Arkansas Constitution, the Court said; only judges can decide who is permitted to testify. Legislators had hoped to protect errant physicians from retribution. The Supreme Court decision means that negligent and incompetent doctors will not be allowed to hide behind friendly witnesses after all. This is the fifth time the Supreme Court has thrown out a portion of the “tort reform” law enacted by a captive legislature in 2003. Last December, the Court ruled that the legislature had exceeded its authority by attempting to impose a $1 million limit on punitive damages. A $42 million award was upheld in that case. The fixers who’d planned on immunity from lawsuit for their misdeeds are now howling mad at being held accountable. In coming years, they’ll spend great sums on judicial elections, most likely — that has been the pattern in other states — and encourage unscrupulous conduct by judicial candidates, hoping to install judges friendly to them. Independent Arkansas lawyers and judges are now studying ways to lessen the impact of big money and big lies in judicial races. More power to them, which is to say, more power to the people.

BLOCK BOTS: Members of the “Geek Squad” from The New School in Fayetteville, Grant Blanchette, left, age 11, and Campbell Rogerson, right, age 10, square off against other teams in the robot portion of the Arkansas State FIRST LEGO League competition at the Clinton Presidential center Saturday.

The unknown soldiers

he controversy over relocation of a clinic for veterans to an abandoned car dealership on Main Street is a testament to the country’s fleeting patriotism. Politicians are quick with a salute and a tearful word on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. The fighting military is also an ever-ready shield for congressional budget busters. But when the troops come home from fighting our wars with adjustment problems, they aren’t so cherished. For example: The VA treats all kinds at its current center at 2nd and Ringo. Some have alcohol and drug problems. Some are having a hard time finding work. Some are haunted by their time in combat. Some need a meal. Others need help finding shelter. Some are homeless. They have in common two things — 1) they’ve actively sought help and 2) sunshine patriots promised never to forget them. The city of Little Rock and U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin haven’t been sympathetic to the move to bigger quarters. They don’t want the vets on Main Street. Many neighbors don’t either. Mayor Mark Stodola reacted in angry indignation to the idea. He’d prefer to shunt them out past the neat rows of crosses in the National Cemetery to a more distant, poorer neighborhood. Veterans have thus been transformed from a collection of people to a singular community blight. It’s misguided; it’s hypocritical on the part of the flag wavers, and, in human terms, it’s just sad. I’d like to give the floor to Dr. Tina McClain, the chief of Central Arkansas Veterans Health Services and a psychiatrist. She wrote the following to the Downtown Neighborhood Association. “Regardless of location, children in Little Rock are exposed to individuals with mental illness. Overall 1 in 4 people have some type of mental illness, and the idea that the ‘mentally ill’ are not already present in the area is simply wrong. They are there, and go unrecognized. They live their lives just like those fortunate enough to

not have a mental health condition. Untreated or inadequately treated mental illness is one of many contributing factors to homelessness. The fear related to putting children at risk should MAX be higher today since the street BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com homeless already in the area are not in treatment. “Evidence shows that this program will decrease the number of homeless on the streets, not increase the number. This program provides treatment. Several current enrollees in our program attended the DNA meeting Jan. 12, and never became hostile, aggressive, or otherwise displayed any behavior other than that of perfect ladies and gentlemen, despite the barrage of derogatory comments they heard. I would be surprised if most in attendance even knew they were ‘homeless veterans.’ One of those veterans, the speaker, was even challenged when he attempted to vote as a resident in the downtown area, presumably because he simply lives his life in the area and was not known to the DNA. “Stigma and ignorance lead to fear, and fear exaggerates perceived risks. CAVHS, regardless of our clinic location, will continue to combat this stigma through education, responsiveness, and compassion. CAVHS will staff the clinic with VA police officers to address any problems requiring police intervention. Again, not all veterans treated in our Veterans Day Treatment Program suffer from mental illness. “Lastly, it should also be recognized that the proposed site for the [city of Little Rock] Day Resource Center on Confederate Blvd is also near a neighborhood, though not as large a neighborhood, and is near a magnet school. I don’t believe the risks would be any higher to the children in the downtown location than at the Confederate Blvd. location.” I’m inclined to believe her.

OPINION

The South likes a good story

o well had the revival of Ronald Reagan’s reputation gone for two decades that all of this year’s Republican presidential candidates wrapped themselves in the mythical raiment of the great man and claimed his sacred mantle. They floundered when Newt Gingrich took the Reagan mythmaking to heights none of them could match, since they confined themselves fairly loosely to the truth as they imagined it, and when the former House speaker assigned himself a central role in all the Reagan fables. That is the story of the presidential race so far. When the unceasing debates went south, Gingrich claimed a great advantage. Southerners, or a good portion of them, are accustomed to a mythical view of history and celebrate it. And when a debater is unconstrained by facts or even a rough approximation of the truth, he gains a great advantage. So it was with Gingrich in South Carolina, and so is it likely to be in the Republican primaries across the South. There were satisfying moments for Gingrich in the lusty South Carolina debates, such as when he savaged reporters on the panel of questioners, one for questioning his innuendoes that

America’s poor people were lazy freeloaders led by a black president who encouraged them, and another ERNEST newsman for askDUMAS ing him to comment on one of his ex-wives’ remark that he had asked her for permission to continue having sex with a young woman on his staff who had been his paramour for six years, but there were more illuminating moments than those. There was the time in the second debate where he took a dig at former President Jimmy Carter, who had the day before criticized his racist innuendoes, and entwined himself with Reagan and with George W. Bush, the latter, of course, without mentioning his name. Bush is an unmentionable in the debates. “Under Jimmy Carter,” Gingrich said, “we had the wrong laws, the wrong regulations, the wrong leadership, and we killed jobs, we had inflation, we went to 10.8 percent unemployment. Under Ronald Reagan, we had the right jobs, the right laws, the right regulators, the right leadership, we created 16 million new jobs.” As a young congressman, he

Backstage with Mitt and Newt

ust before the January 23 Republican debate, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney encountered one another at a deli tray just off-stage. What follows is a transcript of that meeting: Newt eats turkey cold cuts. Mitt approaches, grabs a Pellegrino. They realize they’re alone and next to each other. Awkward moment. NEWT:...How many more of these, right? [Silence as Newt eats. Mitt looks at watch. Finally…] NEWT: Ya know, one of us is going to get this nomination. MITT: ...Yup. NEWT: I mean, one of us will actually... be the Republican nominee. [A moment, curious.] ...Have you thought about what you might do if you didn’t win? [The two look at each other, studying.] MITT: Naw. ...I mean, a little maybe. [Mitt thinks.] ...One time I went to the Bahamas by myself.

NEWT: Really? MITT: I was young. Cashed my whole paycheck without a thought. Beach GRAHAM all day, blackjack GORDY all night. [Back to reality.] But...that’s nothing compared to public service. NEWT: Yeah. [Newt gets lost in thought.] I was in Belize years ago. Scubadived in a barrier reef. Caught my supper. Bottle-nursed an orphaned spider-monkey. [Realizing.] But...going door-to-door in New Hampshire in January...that’s good too. [Mitt takes a cold cut after all. The two men lean against the table, looking out.] MITT: In college, I went whitewater rafting through the Grand Canyon. I met a Hopi Indian girl named Hehewuti. I had to conquer her father in traditional feats of strength in order to copulate with

said, he had joined Reagan in that great struggle, which included historic tax cutting and ending the Soviet Union. Then, he continued, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton raised taxes, over his strenuous opposition, and unemployment soared again. Gingrich said he did his best as the speaker by pushing through a balanced federal budget for four years — the first four-year stretch like that, he bragged, since before the Great Depression. Except for Reagan’s 16 million new jobs in eight years, all of that was precisely the opposite of the truth. Unemployment under Jimmy Carter never exceeded 7.8 percent. That 10.8 percent Gingrich mentioned? It was Reagan’s, in 1982, not Carter’s. No sooner had Reagan (with Gingrich’s vote) pushed through the big income tax cut of 1981 than the deepest recession since the 1930s set in. Unemployment exceeded 10 percent for 10 straight months, the only time since the Depression. Under President Obama, it reached double digits—10.1 percent — one month. Unemployment went down, not up, after Clinton’s 1993 tax increase. The economy in his eight years created 22 million jobs. Gingrich didn’t balance the budget for four years. The speaker doesn’t have budgets, and he fought key steps that achieved four balanced budgets. The last three balanced budgets occurred after he was forced by his party to resign from the House in 1998. He didn’t even vote on them.

All that job growth after Bush’s tax cuts for which Gingrich shared the credit? Bush oversaw only one million new jobs, the worst eight years for jobs since World War II. Gingrich called Obama “the finest food-stamp president in American history.” He said more people were on food stamps under President Obama than under any president in history. It’s true. Food-stamp use goes up in recessions, particularly prolonged ones. But contrary to Gingrich’s claims, Obama did not work to make more people eligible. The Bush administration expanded eligibility for food stamps, which caused the numbers to rise sharply late in his administration and in Obama’s. Food-stamp participation set a record, too, under Ronald Reagan and then again under George H. W. Bush while Gingrich was a House leader. He did not call them the best food-stamp presidents. Food stamps, by the way, are not a black phenomenon. The share of recipients who are white are more than a third higher than the share who are African-American. None of these are matters on which reasonable men can disagree. They are facts. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has provided the jobs numbers every month since 1948, the Agriculture Department the food-stamp numbers since 1965, and anyone can access them in two minutes. Gingrich was a trained historian but a practicing fabulist. Just what his party needs, but the country?

her. Hehewuti and I then made passionate love and bathed each other in cactus nectar beneath the moonlight. ...That was a good day. [Straightening.] But, I mean, that doesn’t beat, like, side-stepping real campaign issues to trade useless barbs and talking points with you guys twice a week, does it? NEWT: Are you asking? MITT: No, I’m being rhetorical. [But they both clearly continue to consider.] NEWT: ...The year was 1999. I had resigned from Congress — MITT: — Because of 84 ethical charges — NEWT: [defensive] —Most were dismissed. Anyway, I just got in a car and drove. Road the rail with hobos. Got in a fist-fight with Norman Mailer. Was a roadie for Widespread. Then I went on a four-day, sex-filled mescaline-binge with the brunette from the Dixie Chicks. ...Freedom. [Trying to be cheerful.] ...Buuuut spending 20 minutes talking to some inbred Nevadan only to find out that he’s listening because he thinks I’m former Cowboys coach Wade Phillips...I mean... [seething]...that’s why I’m here.

[Mitt stands, fed up.] MITT: I used to have a life, Newt! I don’t want to be president. NEWT: Of course you don’t! It’s terrible out there! I just wanted a Fox talk show. MITT: Me too! But then you’re winning, and suddenly you’re strapped to a rocket, and you realize, “If I wanted to get off, I should’ve said something earlier!” NEWT: [shaking head] I don’t have a chance in a national election. I mean, you probably don’t either, but I mean, I don’t have a CHANCE. [Both men lean back again, sigh. A WOMAN approaches.] WOMAN: They’re ready for you gentlemen. [Mitt and Newt look at each other. They sigh.] NEWT: Welp...here we go again. What’s up for tonight? MITT: (lifeless) I’m gonna hammer you on getting paid by health care companies. NEWT: ’K. I’m probably just going to call you a pederast and see if it sticks. [They smile grudgingly, do the fistbump/explosion in unison, then head onto stage.] www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 25, 2012

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ome was not built in a day, nor will Arkansas basketball be rebuilt within a matter of months. As much as that may be a chilling certainty, Mike Anderson seems completely unwilling to accept it. If your stance toward his appointment as head coach in March 2011 was indifferent, lukewarm or otherwise unenthused, take stock of things now and reassess, please. The Razorbacks go about seven or eight deep after injuries and defections ravaged them from summer forward. They accordingly get virtually no contributions from upperclassmen and are ostensibly being “led” by guys who barely remember who Bill Clinton is. This team engenders very little fear in the opponent’s perimeter defense because, well, it shoots poorly. By the way, these Hogs don’t stack up well in the paint against most upper-echelon teams. It is frankly a terrible prescription for thriving in the Southeastern Conference, which is a league predicated on raw athleticism as much as any actual basketball gifts. Arkansas’s status as a basketball mecca was fleeting. It’s really never been accurate to depict the Razorbacks as a national titan, even in the peak years of 1990-95. Richardson was a trailblazing sort who capitalized on an era where college players weren’t being siphoned into the NBA at a breakneck rate, and where his style caught lesser coaches flatfooted. That just doesn’t happen as much now, and the dilution of the broad talent pool has made the phrase “mid-major” a fixture rather than an anomaly. All of this is said simply to underscore the fact that Anderson’s role is often overstated: overzealous fans would claim he is here to restore glory to Razorback basketball. I don’t buy it — he’s here to create fresh success. We don’t expect Bobby Petrino to recapture the magic of 1964, do we? In many ways, college basketball has changed as much in 18 years as college football has in the last 48. All things considered, then, the Hogs’ respectable 14-5 start is remarkable. The win against a ranked and extremely well coached Michigan team over the weekend was further evidence that Anderson is doing things right even when his roster isn’t quite right. Arkansas looked crisp offensively for a half, then flagged badly. It was the kind of game that Stan Heath and John Pelphrey oversaw constantly, and it almost always ended with Hogs walking off the floor in utter dejection. The Razorbacks bricked free throws

that could have secured matters, got battered on the boards by a team that similarly relies on a threeBEAU guard lineup, and WILCOX failed to throw Michigan’s shooters outside of their comfort zone. Fortunately, Anderson borrows from the Richardson playbook in the postgame as well as during the game. He was quick to call attention to his squad’s faulty execution in the last 20 minutes and rarely, if ever, does the first-year coach dare to suggest that his team is simply too immature to get it fixed. Even after the Hogs got barreled over by Kentucky at Rupp Arena only three days earlier, Anderson docked himself points for poor pre-game preparation. Where Anderson has already succeeded is in massaging the fans’ psyche, which makes those 23-point losses against the likes of the Wildcats so much easier to tolerate, at least for now. The team may get outclassed by an obviously superior team, which is no great sin. But it appears that Anderson’s gifts include an ability to forge a bond with young players and keep them afloat when half of the water is getting sucked down the pipes. Consider that Pelphrey seemed to have captured Hog brilliance back in early 2009, only to follow a splendid sequence against Oklahoma and Texas with an SEC clunker (2-14, then a loss in the SEC tourney for good measure) and then two more middling years fraught with suspensions and dismissals. Remember Andre Clark, Montrell McDonald, Jason Henry and Brandon Moore? Didn’t think so. Guys were on and off the roster constantly and it never appeared, at any time, that Pelphrey was capable of sloughing away the chaff while keeping the wheat tightly bundled. Anderson has already had those challenges before him, and the Hogs have responded. When they got battered by UConn and Oklahoma, they bounced back nicely and ran off a few steadying nonconference wins. They have also followed each of their conference losses with wins. That isn’t to say that a more extended low period won’t happen, but it seems unlikely that a short string of losses will completely undo weeks of pretty competent work. And that fact alone is substantive evidence that the stubborn pursuit of Anderson was something more than just an appeasement of a salivating fan base.

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Happinesses are just things called Joes: Unnecessary plurals continue to infest American discourse, as in “For decades, fights over the provenance and treatment of human bones have played out across the nation. Yet new federal protections could mean that the vast majority of the remains of an estimated 160,000 American Indians held by universities, museums and federal government agencies … likely will soon be transferred to tribes.” Protection makes the point quite sufficiently, and more gracefully, than protections. “Give the s a rest,” as Dickens said, or might have, before we get to “provenances and treatments.” Excessive pluralization has been underway for some years now. Damage was one of the early victims. “The house suffered severe damage from the high wind,” became “The house suffered severe damages …, “ the writer apparently feeling a need to explain to us that “this window pane was blown out, and that window pane, and another one over there.” But there is no need; it’s all damage. Then, pop-psychologists began talking about behaviors instead of the longaccepted behavior. “See, he picked up the gun and then he fired the gun. That’s two behaviors.” The fad spilled over onto the sports

page. Extra s’s were called up from the minor leagues, in order to turn “Yankee slugger Slam Bamm” DOUG into “Yankees SMITH dougsmith@arktimes.com slugger …” Razorback spirit became Razorbacks spirit, though no one could enunciate it properly. I asked the plurals czar if he could cut us some slack. He said no. An editor who spoke of a publication’s need “to incent our audience” was confronted after the weekly staff meeting. Such talk as that, he was told, will incense the literate members of his audience. Incentive is a word; incent is not. Repentant, he said he must have picked it up from the marketing department. Luckily, we caught it in time; the wall of separation between editorial and advertising was not breached. “Known in Texas as Perry’s Svengali, Leininger made a fortune selling hospital beds.” Studies have shown that Texans don’t know Svengali from by golly. Leininger is more widely known as Rick Perry’s “boss” or “owner.”

WEEK THAT WAS

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JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

It was a good week for…

It was a bad week for…

FUNDRAISING. The Pulaski Tech Board of Trustees decided to move forward with a special election on a Pulaski County property tax millage this summer. It would be the first source of local funding for the school, which has experienced enormous growth to around 11,900 students.

TIM GRIFFIN. Otherwise quick to trumpet his support of veterans, the U.S. congressman urged VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to suspend the VA’s plans to relocate a drop-in center to Main Street.

THE GREEN PARTY. Secretary of State Mark Martin said the party gathered sufficient signatures to qualify for a party slot on the Arkansas election ballot this year. EXPLOITING A LOOPHOLE. The Arkansas Department of Human Services proposed a new rule to clarify that state money may not be used to provide religious instruction in preschools that receive public tax money. Nonetheless, Rep. Justin Harris of West Fork, whose taxpayer-funded daycare’s regular religious instruction led to the new rules, has already identified a loophole. He said he’d be happy to tell his teachers to provide religious instruction before or after the seven-hour school day required for state funding.

POLITICS IN THE 3RD DISTRICT. Jake Burris, campaign manager for 3rd District congressional candidate Ken Aden, a Democrat, returned to his Russellville home to find the family cat killed and painted with the word “liberal.” SELLING OXYCODONE. U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer announced the indictment of 23 people with multiple charges. These new charges are in addition to those filed against 28 people in the investigation last year. Joseph P. “JP” Williams of Little Rock and Johnnie “Little Johnnie” Campbell and Keithen Pettus, both of North Little Rock, were among those named in the indictment. They were the three men in a car fired on Dec. 27 by a Park Plaza security officer (Little Rock Patrolman Christopher Johannes) when it backed up toward him at high speed when he went to question occupants about remarks people in the car had allegedly made to a passing female teen-ager.

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Graffiti ONE OF THE GREATEST GIFTS bestowed upon The Observer during our secretive, moonlit coronation at La Petite Roche down below the Junction Bridge some years back — with the mayor and the governor and a certain magical, wishgranting catfish in attendance — was the power and right to eavesdrop on any citizen of Central Arkansas within our earshot, anywhere, at any time. You’d be surprised what you can hear when part of your job description requires you to stick your big ears into other peoples’ conversations. People are a lot more interesting than they give themselves credit for, especially when taken out of context. For example, we were at a local Wendy’s the other day grabbing lunch when we heard the following gem passed between two fellas: “These pickles,” one said to the other, “taste like cucumbers!” Try the raisins next, dude. They remind me a lot of grapes. SPEAKING OF GRABBING A BITE, The

Observer and the lovely war bride went out for lunch on Sunday, just the two of us for the first time in too long. One of the things you quickly learn when you have kids is that unless you’ve got a convenient grandmother or enough money to blow on a trusted babysitter every few weekends, the Together Time can get few and far between over the long haul. Luckily, Junior is finally getting old enough that not only can he be left home alone for short periods, he’s pushing for that nibble at independence. While his mother was reluctant to leave him there sans parentis, The Observer — who saw Ma and Pa only at dawn and after dusk in the summertime at his age — is fine with it. Eventually, The Kid and his Old Man convinced her to see it our way. Given that, The Observer is now dating this girl we once knew in college: a beautiful, charming young lass, who happens to be the woman we’ve been married to for dang near 15 years. A bit of caution and advice, young wedded folk, from one old married fart: Even if everything else goes great, it’s all too easy to forget who the person you’re married to really is, what with the duties attached to being Dad and Mom, and both busy besides at winning that bread Monday

through Friday, 9 to 5. Rage against that forgetfulness together. Your hearts and the hearts of others depend on it. We wound up at Vino’s on Sunday afternoon, storied bar and sometime haunt of The Observer’s troubled youth. Sure, we got the veggie pie instead of the Artery Clogger we both might have ordered at 22, but Yours Truly couldn’t resist a beer. Some things stubbornly refuse to change. We picked a corner table in the nearly empty restaurant, turned off the nearby TV, then sat there and waited on our pizza and just chatted about things. Not the bills or the funny noise the car is making or whether we need cat litter. Just things. We smiled a lot. Over in the corner of the restaurant were a few parental units and a couple of kids, none of the children more than 6 years old. The Observer, having done our time in the gravel pile of fatherhood, isn’t one of those restaurant snobs who look askance at parents who bring their children out to eat, even to a place with a microbrewery in the next room and old beer cans for decoration. Being a parent for awhile teaches you something else, thank God: the uncanny ability to put any voice created by a human being below the age of 8 on the Background Noise channel. The Observer didn’t notice the kids again until one of them came back from the bathroom with Mom. Vino’s — being a beloved music venue and bar of some age and renown — has the prerequisite collection of bathroom graffiti, much painted-over and scribbled out and re-inked, some of it near-Sphinxian in its mystery. The men’s room door, for example, is currently emblazoned with the word “Dongs” in magic marker, whether for reasons of instruction or sheer, gleeful vulgarity, we can’t decide. On the way back to the table, Mom was patiently noting to junior that though the restroom graffiti is part of the restaurant’s decor, we should never, ever, under any circumstances, write on the walls at home. That would be a bad thing. Ah, the joys of parenthood. Half instruction, half joy, half hoping for the best — or thereabouts. Honestly, we’re a little fussy on the math. Whatever it all adds up to, though, two old married types over in the corner looked at each other and passed a knowing smile between us.

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Arkansas Reporter

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Hold on, gals. That headline doesn’t mean we’re about to go all sexist on you. Testimony in Garland Circuit Court last week by several current and former employees of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services Division was that some of the clients they serve were known by the acronym PMS. It stands for politically mandated service — for clients who have clout and should be treated accordingly. According to Bob Means, a psychologist for 37 years at the Hot Springs Rehabilitation Center, PMS broke the law when it meant housing, transportation, food and services for somebody not qualified under federal law. He blew the whistle in 2008. He said he told elected officials and got no response, except from the U.S. Office of Inspector General, which asked for more information that he supplied. Days after, he was fired by division chief Robert Trevino. Trevino testified that he fired Means at the direction of Bill Walker, director of Workforce Education. Trevino contended, but offered no documented proof, that the move was part of a longplanned reorganization. He didn’t explain what moved Walker to act suddenly from a vacation in the Cayman Islands, through a phone call to Trevino, himself vacationing at South Padre Island, Texas. A state law protects whistle blowers. A Garland Circuit Court jury awarded Means $110,000 and his attorney, Scott Hickam, will be filing a claim for attorney fees. After a day of stonewalling, we finally got a response to this from Bill Walker. He’d have no comment on the verdict because he planned to appeal. PMS? No comment. The governor’s office said PMS is “a term we’ve never used, recognized or heard of before this matter.” The office, of course, has referred people to a variety of state agencies including the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services Division, but has “never mandated that anyone be treated regardless of qualification.”

More from WM3 supporters The West Memphis 3 defense team continues its work on behalf of the three defendants. Pam Hobbs, mother of Steve CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 12

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

PMS at state agency

LIKES A ROCK: Norm Berner stands atop outcrop overlooking Hindman Park.

A (safer) walk in the park Fed up with crime, neighbors rescue Hindman. BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

n September 2009, the Meadowcliff/Brookwood Neighborhood Association learned that Hindman Park, which those neighborhoods border, would be included on a neighborhood pride tour for people in town for the Neighborhoods, USA conference to be held the following May. City Director Joan Adcock made the suggestion because the members of the neighborhood association, fed up with drug-dealing and crime — including the two bodies dumped in the park in 2006 — were coming together to reclaim their neighborhood by fixing up its central asset. Three months later, on the eve of

Christmas Eve, a 24-hour record deluge swelled Fourche Creek by several feet, downing trees, sweeping brush and trash into the creek and flooding Hindman Community Park, the water nearly reaching the roof of the pavilion there. In the February following the flood, two teen-age boys who’d gone to the park to help a volunteer do clean-up were confronted by a gang, beaten so badly they required hospitalization and robbed. “That put us over the top,” neighborhood activist Norm Berner said. The events galvanized residents of the Meadowcliff and Brookwood neigh-

borhoods to make the neglected, overgrown but potentially beautiful finger of a park along the cypress-lined Fourche, banked by hills and a large novaculite outcrop, safe again. “We can’t call it the big damn rock,” Berner mused the other day as he scrambled down the face of the distinctive outcrop to the trail below. He’s trying to come up with a descriptive name for the 9-hole disc golf course installed in August 2010 just off the path to the rock; the Big Dam Bridge name came to mind because bridge proponent and County Judge Buddy Villines, Berner said, has promised to provide asphalt for Hindman’s trails. The creation of the disc golf course was a spin-off from a 30-day whirlwind cleanup by neighbors and their friends and their friends’ friends that rid the Hindman of trash and graffiti, cleared undergrowth, saw the pavilion get a new roof and replaced a bridge swept away in the flood. CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

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MIKE HUCKABEE’S JANUARY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MITT ROMNEY According to an anonymous “prominent Republican” quoted in Politico, Mike Huckabee almost ran for president in 2012 just to beat Mitt Romney. There was no love lost between the candidates during the 2008 race, with Romney sending out a mailer suggesting Huckabee was soft on punishing meth offenses and the death penalty and Huckabee calling out Romney for not having hunting bona fides, not being able to eat fried chicken correctly, for his religion (“Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?” he told the New York Times Magazine) and, perhaps most memorably, for his time at Bain Capital (“I want to be a president who reminds you of the guy you work with, not the guy who laid you off.”). But 2012 represents a new era, where Huckabee is too busy planning for a country music variety show in Branson, organizing his 16th guided tour to Israel (only $4,600 for double occupancy!) and counting his Fox money to tear into Romney. Instead, he’s mastered the art of tepid endorsement.

INSIDER, CONT. Branch, one of three 8-year-olds killed in the 1993 West Memphis slayings that became the West Memphis 3 case, says new information unearthed in the recently released documentary, “West of Memphis,” has persuaded her to call for the state of Arkansas to reopen the case. Hobbs’ statement follows the release by a West Memphis 3 defense team of information about affidavits pointing toward Hobbs’ ex-husband, Terry Hobbs, stepfather of one of the three slain children. The affidavits are from young men of college age — as yet unidentified — who are friends of Hobbs’ nephew. The young men, who responded to publicity about a tip line, say Hobbs’ nephew told them that his father had said Hobbs had implicated himself. The new information is double hearsay, from a legal standpoint. But Lonnie Soury, a spokesman for the cause, terms it the “first real connection” between Hobbs and the deaths. The hope is that it will pressure others to come forward. Terry Hobbs has steadfastly denied any involvement in the death of the children and some of his denials, as well as statements from others that contradict some of his accounts, are included in the recent HBO documentary, “Paradise Lost: Purgatory.” Jonesboro Prosecutor Scott Ellington had said in agreeing to release of West Memphis 3 defendants for time served that their guilty pleas closed the case. But he also said he’d be willing to review anything produced by those seeking to prove their innocence.

Mitt Romney is Denny’s. Jan. 5 , “America’s Morning News” radio

Scratch that, he’s bean dip. Jan. 5, “America’s Morning News”

“Mitt Romney is the guy that, even though he is not very many people’s first choice, he is consistent. People say he hasn’t risen above 25 [percent] — well, he hasn’t gone below it either. The other candidates all have had their moment. They go up like a rocket, and down like a rock. It’s more of a ‘tasting’ as people sort of graze over the table and see what they like. But there’s Mitt, sitting down there, you know, like the bean dip. He’s always going to be at the end of the table, and always ready. And that’s kind of how I see this thing.”

No, he’s a logger with the forest’s best interest in mind. Jan. 12, in a message to his e-mail list defending Romney’s record at Bain

“I’ve told people that I think Mitt Romney is the Denny’s of the Republican field. [It’s] not the restaurant you jump in the car and say, ‘Honey, it’s our anniversary. Let’s go to Denny’s.’ But Denny’s is the place that, when everything else is closed, or you just want to go someplace where you know what you’re going to get and it’s going to be priced in a way that you can afford it — ‘OK, we’ll go to Denny’s.’”

Wait, he’s a NASCAR driver. Jan. 8, ABC’s “The Week”

“If last night was a NASCAR race, Mitt Romney had a couple of laps on everybody, and all he had to do was keep from hitting the wall. It was just critical that the other candidates do what they can to dent up his car a little bit and stay close to his bumper.”

“Bad companies have to die to make way for stronger companies, in the same way that old trees fall over to make way for new trees.”

“I would no more not vote for someone because they were Mormon than I would vote for somebody like Al Gore because he’s a Baptist, for heaven’s sake. I think that’s a ridiculous reason to vote or not vote for someone, unless they’ve done something that’s so wacky — like mix the blood of little children together in a public ceremony.”

PHOTOS BY DAVID BALL (HUCKABEE) AND MATTHEW REICHBACH (ROMNEY)

He’s always been a Mormon, and that’s OK. Jan. 21, Fox Business

Wedding news wanted The Human Rights Campaign has joined the Center for Equality in Arkansas in calling for the Northwest Arkansas Times to publish news of the wedding announcement submitted by Cody Renegar and Thomas Staed. The couple is of the same sex and will marry in another state. Just as the Democrat-Gazette said some months ago when another samesex couple sought to publish announcement of its wedding in Argentina, the Northwest Arkansas Times said it will only publish news of marriages legal in Arkansas. The Arkansas Times’ posture is unchanged. Though we don’t have a regular marriage feature, we’ll happily publish news of same-sex marriages as a counterweight to discrimination the couples experience elsewhere. www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 25, 2012

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL Police and other experts say some of our laws on sex offenders may be doing more harm than good. BY DAVID KOON

ay the words “registered sex offender” to almost anyone in Arkansas, and the thought that will likely leap to mind is “child molester” — possibly accompanied by the image of a greasy-haired pervert cruising playgrounds in a panel van with a bag of candy on the seat beside him. There’s no arguing with an image like that once it sets up shop in a person’s head. No use even trying. The truth, though — as with the truth in any dark corner of society that most folks would rather not think about — is a lot more complicated. In fact, the crimes that will land you on the registry are numerous (see sidebar on page 16) — from knowingly infecting someone with HIV to promoting prostitution to being a Peeping Tom — with many of them having nothing to do with children per se. For example: Because Arkansas is required to enforce the sex offender restrictions placed by other states on offenders who relocate here, there were a number of female prostitutes from Louisiana — where prostitution is a registry-level offense — on the Arkansas registry a few years back, evacuees from New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Thinking about pulling the classic college prank of “streaking” naked through a public place? If there

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

happen to be any children present and you get caught, you’re more than likely looking at a mandatory 15 years as a sex offender. We’ve been told there’s at least one man on the registry because, if you can believe it, he likes to have sex with the umbrella hole of picnic tables. There’s another on the registry whose only known victims are dogs. While the oddball cases are rare, and the majority of those on the list are men who fit anyone’s definition of deviant criminal, the term “sex offender” encompasses much more than “child molester.” When we spoke to the manager of the Arkansas Sex Offender Registry (available online at: acic.org/ registration ) in early January, there were 11,268 registered sex offenders in the state of Arkansas: 10,944 men, 324 women. The total grows sometimes by three or four every day; between 800 to 1,000 names have been added every year since the registry was established by the state legislature in 1997. Of those listed offenders, 2,067 were not yet assessed (mostly inmates, who are required to register on their way into prison if convicted of a sexual offense, but aren’t formally classified until they get out). Another 1,084 were Level 1 “low risk” sex offenders. A total of 3,839 were Level 2 “moderate risk”

offenders, 4,012 were Level 3 “high risk” offenders and 266 were Level 4s, which are specified by statute as “sexually violent predators.” The Level 4s are mostly the ones that keep even hardened cops up at night. From a drab office in Pine Bluff, the Arkansas Department of Correction’s Sex Offender Screening and Risk Assessment (SOSRA) program is doing groundbreaking, internationally-recognized work delving into the minds and motivations of those convicted of sexual crimes, using a combination of technology and old-fashioned interrogation techniques to separate the one-time offenders from the human monsters at the upper end of the scale, so that they can be more accurately assigned to one of the four levels (see sidebar on page 19) that determine the depth and breadth of community notification. It’s a proven system, and works well enough that law enforcement agencies all over the world have sought SOSRA’s advice. Still, even the experts in Pine Bluff will tell you that some of the well-intentioned things Arkansas does with SOSRA’s numbers once they’re assigned — most notably residency restrictions, which can drive offenders far from the support networks, work CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

THE SCARLET LETTER An offender and his victim struggle together with the realities of registration. BY DAVID KOON

BRIAN CHILSON

arrie Moore and her husband, “Adam,” (they asked that we conceal his name to protect his employment) understand all too well about the burdens placed on a sex offender and his family. Married for almost 10 years — he and his wife have two children now, and live a comfortable, middle-class life in a semi-rural home in Central Arkansas — Adam is classified as a Level 3 sex offender. When Carrie was 14 and he was 21, they started a relationship through a mutual friend that eventually led to Carrie getting pregnant. Carrie was well developed for her age and both insist that neither knew how old the other was until the relationship was several months along. Adam said he tried to break it off when he found out how young Carrie was, but she kept calling, and they decided to continue. When Carrie became pregnant and was forced to tell her parents about the relationship, Moore’s mother went to the prosecuting attorney, and Adam was arrested for statutory rape, a charge later reduced to sexual misconduct. “We’ve lived together since then,” Moore said. “We’ve been together ever since I was 14. We’ve had two children. Technically, he’s not allowed to be within 2,000 feet of the victim, but I’m the victim. He lives with me, so we’re breaking the law every day.” Adam said he doesn’t know exactly why he was assessed at a Level 3 status by SOSRA (at the suggestion of the reporter, Carrie recently requested a copy of her husband’s assessment report from SOSRA, but hasn’t received it as of this writing), but Adam notes that he was “young, and had a little bit of an attitude” during his assessment, which he thinks might have had something to do with the level he was assigned. Carrie Moore said she isn’t trying to say that the relationship between her and Adam was right at the time it began, pointing out that if her 13-year-old daughter tried to date a man in his 20s, she’d have problems with it. But she said she wouldn’t change the past if she could, even knowing how it all turned out. Adam worked two jobs to support her and their child while she finished high school and then college, where Carrie earned a B.A. degree, allowing her to get what she said is a well-paying job. Carrie said having her husband on the sex offender registry — a fact they didn’t tell their kids until this year — has been hard. They live under a dark cloud. Periodically, local law enforcement officers come to the house, requesting to search the premises and examine the family computer. Recently, their daughter came home in tears after a classmate who’d seen the online Sex Offender Registry listing about Adam told the girl that her father was a rapist and that she

VICTIM?: Carrie Moore and her husband, “Adam,” at home.

should be taken away from her parents by the state. Two years ago, Carrie and Adam said, Adam was suddenly let go from what he’d thought was a stable job with a local company after someone at work saw his page on the registry. “They said they didn’t want him working there anymore,” she said. “They sent a copy of the Sex Offender Registry print-out with his final paycheck.” Because of his sex offender status, Adam can’t attend any events at his children’s school without prior approval from the local police, and only then with a law enforcement monitor sitting within arm’s reach at all times. At Christmas last year, Adam was arrested and threatened with prison for attending his daughter’s holiday play at school after a local police officer saw him there (both Carrie and Adam insist they didn’t know until then that he couldn’t attend events at the school that were open to the public). The Moores have applied for a pardon from the governor’s office three times, and have been denied every time. They’d filed yet another request when we spoke at their home in late 2011. Sentenced to be on the registry for a mandatory 15 years, the soonest Adam can even begin petitioning the court to be removed will be 2015. As parents, Adam and Carrie said they see the need for strong laws concerning sex offenders, and under-

stand that a case like theirs — with the offender and victim getting married and living together long-term — is rare. Still, they said they believe there should be some kind of review process to let certain offenders off the registry before the 15 years is up, if they can show they’re not a threat to the community. “Do I think that 14-year-olds should be able to have sex with 21-year-olds and then the 21-year-olds not be held accountable for it?” Carrie asked. “That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that I think that after a certain time period, if you’ve established that you have a relationship and it wasn’t just a one-night stand or a fling, at some point there’s a review board that can look at that.” Adam said he often feels guilty about what being on the sex offender registry has meant to his children. “I know you have to draw the line between sympathy and right and wrong,” he said. “I know you have to have [laws governing sex offenders] in place. But I can’t go to their school, I can’t go to their plays. I can’t go to anything that has to do with the school. I guess I am allowed to go, but I have to call and ask if they have somebody who can babysit me ... I’ve been married for almost 10 years. I’m not interested in children in any kind of bad way. I’m interested in if my children are succeeding. It’s kind of hard for a kid to think you’re on their team if you can’t be there.”

www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 25, 2012

SEX OFFENSE CRIMES As outlined in the Arkansas Sex Offender Assessment Committee Guidelines and Procedures handbook, the following are the offenses that can land a person on the sex offender registry. The handbook notes that this list is not exclusive, because if an offender is sentenced for an offense in another state, registration requirements may include “the requirements of other state laws, tribal laws, military laws, and additional federal laws.” Kidnapping of a minor, except by a parent. False imprisonment of a minor, except by a parent, in the first or second degree. Permanent detention or restraint of a minor, except by a parent. Rape. Sexual indecency with a child. Felony indecent exposure. Exposing another person to HIV, if ordered by the court to register. Sexual assault in the first, second, third or fourth degree. Felony video voyeurism.

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

and narrow. 

alk past the door of the public library meeting room where Arkansas Time After Time meets one Sunday every month, and you might think you’ve happened upon a friendly book club, or maybe a group of weekend gardeners marooned indoors until spring. In fact, ATAT is one of the few, if not the only, free-world sex

offender support groups in Arkansas. The participants on the Sunday we visited were mostly middle-aged, the group evenly distributed between men and women and between offenders and the people who still love them. The group was started by Little Rock’s Robert Combs, who understands what it is to live as a sex offender because he is one. It’s impossible to sugar-coat what Combs did to earn his spot on the registry. In December 2003, Combs was

BRIAN CHILSON

opportunities, and treatment options that might help them avoid committing another crime — may actually be making us less safe in the long run. On the flip side of that are the offenders themselves. It’s hard to feel sympathy for a sex offender. For every offender, there’s a victim — sometimes dozens, or hundreds, many of whom will be mentally scarred for life. Still, talk to a few of those on the registry and the people who care for them, and it quickly becomes clear that life as a registered sex offender is a very tough row to hoe, even for relatively low-level offenders. The general public isn’t making SOSRA’s fine, carefully-reasoned distinctions between Levels 1 through 4 — a sex offender is a sex offender is a sex offender to Average Joe or Jane — and the tales of those on the list that we spoke to are routinely about jobs lost, midnight moves, children mocked at school for what a father did, families made into outcasts and men happy to get any kind of work or any sort of roof over their heads. Listen to a few of those folks, and even if you don’t buy every line of every sob story, even if you despise them for their crimes, it’s easy to find yourself wondering: If all sex offenders are so extraordinarily dangerous that our society believes they should be monitored constantly for decades or for the rest of their natural lives, why do we force so many of them to live among us as pariahs instead of keeping them in jail? Take enough away from a person, make him enough of a social leper, and a prison cell starts looking like a kind of mercy — which probably, come to think of it, isn’t the best state of mind for a convicted criminal if you want him to keep to the straight

Felony voyeurism. Incest. Permitting the abuse of a minor. Engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or print medium. Pandering or possessing visual or print medium depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. Transportation of minors for prohibited sexual conduct. Internet stalking of a child. Employing or consenting to the use of a child in a sexual performance. Distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. Computer child pornography. Computer exploitation of a child. Promoting prostitution in the first degree. Stalking, if ordered by the court to register. Any attempt, solicitation or conspiracy to commit any of the above offenses.

COMBS: Founder of Arkansas Time After Time, a sex offender support group.

working as a civilian historian for the Army’s 2nd U.S. Infantry Division in Seoul, South Korea — running a military museum, driving a Rolls Royce and spending his weekends going to embassy balls, he said — when police say he flew to North Little Rock and checked into a hotel with the goal of meeting an underage girl for sex. Police said he’d been conversing via e-mail with people he thought were a child and her mother for two months by the time he booked his

flight, and that he’d previously mailed a CD containing over 100 child-porn images. As you might have guessed already, the “girl and her mother” turned out to be officers with the North Little Rock Police Department. “I was not entrapped. I was not innocent of the crime,” Combs said. “They got me for exactly what I did. I don’t have any excuse other than I had cornflakes for brains. The minute they clapped those cuffs on me, the scales fell from my eyes, and I realized I was living in a very dark place.” Arrested and eventually convicted of mailing child pornography, Combs spent five years in federal prison. Released to Little Rock and later classified as a Level 3 sex offender, Combs said he wound up homeless and sleeping under the Broadway Bridge for awhile before he was able to get back on his feet. He decided to start Arkansas Time After Time, he said, after his daughter asked him what he was doing to give back to the community to help atone for what he had done. He admits it isn’t easy to be a sex offender advocate. “It’s like being an advocate for Ebola,” he said, without a hint of a smile. Even those in need tend to shy away from accepting ATAT’s help. Several of the people in law enforcement

and sex offender assessment we talked to are openly skeptical of Combs and his motives, which is perfectly understandable given what brought him to Arkansas in the first place. Still, Combs insists that the group wasn’t created to try and weaken the sex offender laws or somehow make it easier for offenders to commit sex crimes. Arkansas Time After Time wants, Combs said, many of the same things people in law enforcement want: for sex offenders to get the support they need to help them reintegrate into society and never re-offend. At ATAT’s January meeting, the group mostly talked about the things that concern all of us at a very basic level: jobs, housing and safety. “Jay,” a sex offender at the meeting who didn’t want to use his real name, said that the group has helped him overcome a feeling of being isolated. “It helps if you have this opportunity to talk with someone or even speak in their presence with people who have gone through the same damn thing,” he said. “Learning about Arkansas Time After Time is what has helped me to break out of a self-imposed shell that I’ve been in for a number of years.” “People are always asking me, what kind of job can I get?” Combs told the group. “I can tell you: you can get jobs

in construction, [and] back-of-the-house food services. If you have a unique skill set, you can always get a job, even if you’re a Level 4 sex offender. ... If somebody says ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken is hiring,’ we’ll spread that word out. We share information about where people can live, what mobile home parks are accessible, which apartments will rent to a person on the registry, and just share positive things as well as the struggle we all share.” It’s hard to imagine somebody getting excited over the prospect of a part-time job at KFC or living in a trailer park, but for a lot of the offenders on the list, that’s the best they can hope for. Many are fired as soon as an employer gets wind of their status. Current laws forbid Level 3 and 4 sex offenders from working in any job that might bring them into contact with children, and from living closer than 2,000 feet from any public or private school, daycare, public park or youth center. That’s getting close to a half-mile, and when you start drawing a 2,000-foot circle around every school, park and daycare in most municipal areas, the circles quickly overlap. That can force offenders into rural areas, sketchier neighborhoods or even homelessness, often with no access to

public transportation and treatment, and more limited access to employment. Combs said the group’s primary goal is to rescind the residency restrictions. He said he’d also like to see the sex offender registry made accessible only by law enforcement. “We have two goals: to make communities safer and to help reduce recidivism,” Combs said. “We feel that if someone serves their time in prison and gets out, they have to serve their time again — with residency restrictions, with social pariah status. If you can’t find housing, you can’t find employment, and you don’t have the support of your community and your family, you’re probably going to go back to prison. That doesn’t help anybody.”  f you’re a sex offender who hasn’t been caught yet, SOSRA program director Sheri Flynn is probably the last person in the world you’d ever want to find yourself in a room with. From a beige government office suite in the back of what appears to be a repurposed shopping center just off the interstate in Pine Bluff, Flynn and a team of seven interview-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

OPEN ENROLLMENT BEGINS JAN. 23 January 23 - January 27 • 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Mark Baptist Church (5722 W. 12th Street)

January 30 - February 3 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the LRSD Student Registration Office (501 Sherman Street) Now is the time to make your school choices for the 2012-2013 school year. Download your magnet school choice forms, pre-k and kindergarten registration forms at wwww.LRSD.org

LittLe Rock SchooL DiStRict Creating exCellenCe for tomorrow www.lrSD.org

StuDent regiStration offiCe 501 Sherman Street 447-2950 www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 25, 2012

SHOP ‘N’ SIP First thursday each month shop ’til 8pm and enjoy dining in one of the many area restaurants.

HILLCREST SHOPPING & DINING

Your Valentine’s Gift Stop 4523 WoodlaWn (Historic Hillcrest) 501.666.3600

great valentine’s day gifts!

RHEA DRUG 2801 KAVANAUGH • LITTLE ROCK • 663-4131

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shop local

Support our community.

2616 Kavanaugh • 661-1167 M-F 10-6, SAT 10-5

DRIVERS PLEASE BE AWARE, IT’S ARKANSAS STATE LAW USE of BIcycLES oR ANImALS

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

oVERTAKINg A BIcycLE

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

AND cycLISTS, PLEASE REmEmBER... You’re vehicles on the road, just like cars and motorcycles and must obey all traffic laws— signal, ride on the right side of the road and yield to traffic normally. Make eye contact with motorists. Be visible. Be predictable. Heads up, think ahead. 18

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ARKANSAS TIMES

ers evaluate and classify every person in the state convicted of one of the “target offenses” requiring placement on the sex offender registry (see page 16). By the time you get to Flynn’s door, you’re going on the registry whether you like it or not. The only question is where. “I think the thing to say right off the bat is: Arkansas is doing it right,” Flynn said. “For once, we’re not fighting Mississippi for the bottom spot. We’re actually doing it right, and more and more states are starting to do assessments the way we do it.” Asked why sex offenders are uniquely dangerous enough to require a public registry and community notification when those released after serving time for other serious crimes such as murder don’t, Flynn said the reasons are two-fold. First, she said, with the exception of certain crimes like serial murder or gang-related murder, those who commit homicide generally don’t have a compulsion to commit murder, or go out looking for someone to kill at random. Many sex offenders, on the other hand, have just that sort of compulsion: to find and re-offend on other victims as many times as they can until they are stopped. In addition, Flynn said the often long-term psychological trauma a sex offender can inflict on each new victim must be taken into account, and justifies law enforcement taking extreme measures to keep the public informed. “The damage that they do is lifelong damage, and sometimes ends in death,” she said. “Because it’s a compulsive behavior for certain small groups of these people who don’t ever stop, and do it repeatedly, people need to know about them.” While many states classify sex offenders by the offense the person was convicted of, by the number of times they’ve been charged with a sexual offense, or by using a questionnaire — an “actuarial instrument” that seeks to determine the likelihood they will re-offend based on their answers to specific questions about victim preference, victim gender, the age they began offending and the like — SOSRA has been a trail-blazer in the use of an individualized assessment approach, utilizing lengthy interviews, multiple actuarial instruments and computerized lie detection to root out sex offenders’ hidden sexual compulsions — deviances that aren’t found on a rap sheet and behaviors that many offenders have never revealed to anyone other than their victims. It takes longer, but Flynn believes the results paint a much fuller picture of each offender, which can lead to better strategies for keeping the public safe. Their methods are revolutionary enough that Flynn and other members of SOSRA have made presentations before international conferences on sex offend-

ers, and are asked to consult on cases in other states. A paper Flynn co-authored is soon to be published in the prestigious journal “Law and Human Behavior” — a once-in-a-lifetime honor for most any researcher in the field. To show the wisdom of individualized assessment, Flynn cites a case she uses in a Power Point presentation she’s delivered all over the country: A man who was convicted of sexual indecency with a child came in to SOSRA to be evaluated. Under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, the federal law that ranks sex offenders largely based on the crime they were convicted of, Flynn said the man would have been a Tier 1 “least serious” offender, and a “low risk” offender in most states that use only an actuarial instrument. During an extensive interview with SOSRA, however, the man began to disclose many other sex offenses in what Flynn called a “detached, matterof-fact manner.” “When you start seeing detached, matter-of-fact manner, where this is not a big deal for him,” Flynn said, “you may be looking at a psychopath ... somebody with no conscience. They have no remorse.” By following that red flag down some very dark alleyways, Flynn and her colleagues were eventually able to get the man to admit to a host of sexual crimes: that he’d molested at least 40 children of both sexes; that he knew it was at least that many because he kept a list of their names; that he was particularly attracted to “vulnerability and innocence,” and used that to exploit his victims; that he started molesting other children at age 7 and never stopped. “This is a guy who is a true pedophile, who can walk up to a daycare center or school yard, and pick out the one he can offend on,” Flynn said. “In the Arkansas system, he’s a Level 4. If we’d just gone from what we knew from the title of his conviction, he would have been a Level 1. So you see the importance of doing that individualized assessment.” While there’s undoubtedly some high fives at SOSRA when they smoke out a “true pedophile” so the public can better see him coming, Flynn said the goal of SOSRA is to do an accurate assessment so the appropriate level of notification can be made. “We’re not focused on trying to get everybody to admit this kind of stuff,” she said. “We really want to know the truth, and if there isn’t anything to know, we’re not going to assign one of these levels that says everybody has to be notified.” The process of assessment probably couldn’t go on without some kind of stick to force offenders to participate. Those who don’t show up for two consecutive assessment appointments, who appear for

THE LEVELS The following are the descriptions of sex offender levels, as taken from the Arkansas State Sex Offender Protocol Training Manual. LEVEL 1: Typically offenders in this category have no prior history of sexual offending and the community can be protected with notification inside the home and to local law enforcement authorities. LEVEL 2: Typically offenders in this category have a history of sexual offending where notification inside the home is insufficient. Community notification requires notice to the offender’s known victim preference and those likely to come into contact with the offender. LEVEL 3: Typically offenders in this category have a history of repeat sexual offending, and/or strong antisocial, violent or predatory personality characteristics. These

are individuals whose offense and criminal history require notification throughout the community. Offenders who appear for the assessment under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs or who fail to timely disclose the use of medications, individuals who fail to appear for any phase of the assessment, individuals who are aggressive, threatening, or disruptive to the point that SOSRA staff cannot proceed with the assessment process, and individuals who voluntarily terminate the assessment process having been advised of the potential consequences will be classified as being a Level 3 or referred to SOAC for Sexually Violent Predator status. LEVEL 4: Sexually Violent Predator refers to a person who has been adjudicated guilty of a sex offense or acquitted on the grounds of mental disease or defect of a sex offense that makes the person likely to engage in predatory sex offenses. The designation indicates that the highest and most visible means of community notification is required.

child safety zones,” she said. “Some states are going to that, where anyone with an offense against a child can’t be unsupervised in a park or near a school or daycare. You see the difference? It’s not based on where they live. They can’t be in those areas with access to the victims that are their interest.” The state is already taking some steps in this direction. During the last legislative session, a law was passed that makes it a class D felony for Level 3 and 4 offenders to visit public pools and water parks. 

BRIAN CHILSON

D FLYNN: With the Department of Correction’s sex offender screening and risk assessment division.

assessment impaired by drugs or alcohol, who refuse to cooperate with the process or who are aggressive or violent during the assessment default to Level 3. All offenders can apply for reassessment after five years. Every assessment is reviewed by an attorney. If that attorney questions the level status, it is then reviewed by the Sex Offender Assessment Committee, a nine-member board appointed by the governor. All Level 4 classifications must be approved by that board. Flynn said she does training seminars constantly to try and educate the public about how the sex-offender levels are assigned and the differences between them. “If they’re not in that higher category,” she said, “if they’re not one of these [high level offenders], you don’t necessarily have to be as worried about them.”

She notes that all the notification in the world will never beat an attentive parent at keeping a child safe, a message she said she’s been telling reporters for 12 years, but which she’s never seen in print. “No amount of community notification, no assessment, no sex offender registration is ever going to take the place of good parenting or good child care practices,” she said. “You can’t legislate good parenting. … If you’ve got somebody spending time with your kids, you need to know who they are and what their background is.” Flynn and several others who think a lot about the issue have deep reservations about residency restrictions. The sex-offender levels are designed to keep the community safe through notification, she said, and not to determine where an offender can reside. Flynn did her master’s

thesis on residency restrictions, and said there’s evidence to suggest they might cause more offenders to re-offend. “There’s just not any indication that this is working, and it may be doing more harm than good,” Flynn said. “It may be creating worse offenders. They can’t work, because they can’t live near a job. They can’t get treatment. And we know that when they have free time on their hands, that’s not a good thing. We’re pushing them outside the support system. There may be a better way to do it.” Flynn believes that better way may be an exclusion zone approach — tailored to each offender, his crimes, and his victim preference — which dictates not where an offender can sleep, but where he’s forbidden to go while awake. “It makes more sense to me to have

r. Jeffery Walker, chair of the Criminal Justice Department at UALR, agrees that residency restrictions might be making sex offenders more likely to commit another crime. Walker, who has done extensive research into the behavior of sex offenders, said the laws concerning them are largely being created by those who haven’t thought much about the problem, but who know it’s easy to score points with constituents by writing laws that appear to more closely control sex offenders. “This would be tantamount to making a law that says you have to have your brakes changed, by law, every 1,000 miles,” Walker said. “You’d go to the mechanics, and they’d say: ‘Why would you change your brakes every 1,000 miles? We know what we’re doing, and they don’t wear out like that.’ The people who are not thinking about it and it’s not their field and it’s not their area are creating the rules, against the better judgment” of those who’ve studied the issue. While residency restrictions for sex offenders were probably well-intentioned and might have seemed like a good idea at the time they were created, Walker said, the latest science shows CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

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JANUARY 25, 2012

BRIAN CHILSON

WALKER: Chair of the UALR Department of Criminal Justice.

they just don’t work. Because legislation about sex offenses is popular, however, the restrictions have grown and grown. In addition to pushing offenders into rural or low-rent areas where they have no access to treatment and possibly have access to drugs and other illegal behavior, Walker points out that residency restrictions can actually lead to Level 3 and 4 offenders — those judged by SOSRA to be at the highest risk for re-offense — being less closely monitored by authorities rather than more. Hypothetically, he suggests a child molester who gets out of jail, only to realize there’s nowhere he can live in his city where he’s outside the 2,000foot zone around every daycare, park and school, could end up homeless. “So what do they put as their address when they go to check in [with police]? ‘Don’t have an address.’ So if something pops up, and the police need to get hold of them, they can’t. They’re effectively less controlled and observed than if he didn’t have the residency restrictions and you knew where they were.” Like Flynn, Walker notes that residency restrictions apply only to where an offender sleeps, not where he can go while awake. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in criminal justice to know that an offender might leave home to find a victim. “You’re known,” Walker said. “If I walk across the street and grab somebody and anybody sees me, they’ll be like: ‘That’s the guy that lives in that house over there.’ Whereas, if you’re in another part of town or another town, they’ll say: ‘It was some dude, who was between 5’5” and 6’5”, between 150 and 550 pounds.” Walker said that while sex offender 20

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sentencing and the assessment process works fairly well in Arkansas (though he said he’d like to see more flexibility in the sex offender levels to allow SOSRA to adjust them in response to current science), the laws on the books regarding sex offenders once they’re set free are “arcane and disjointed” and need to be rewritten. “Let’s be realistic about it all,” he said. “Go back in and rewrite it based on the current science. There’s lot of good science out there, and it would not take very long at all to put together a short legislative task force and say: ‘OK, what do we know and how long would it take us to do this?’ ” 

aula Stitz, manager of the Arkansas sex offender registry, said the biggest challenge in tracking sex offenders is just keeping up with their address changes. They tend to move a lot. “As soon as community notification is done, neighbors find out, employers find out, they lose jobs, the neighbors start looking at them funny, so they move,” she said. “We can have one who registers in one place one week and another the next week.” Death isn’t even an escape from the registry for some. At last count, there were 561 dead offenders on the registry. Stitz said the deceased are kept on the publicly accessible list at the request of victims’ rights groups, who wanted victims who’ve lost track of their rapists or molesters to be able to find closure if they ever go looking online. While Stitz is a true believer in the

registry and its value in protecting the public, she said there are probably some Level 1 offenders who are simply a waste of time and money to keep track of. If it is determined that an offender will likely never re-offend, she’d like to see prosecutors and judges have more leeway to let low-level offenders off the list before the mandatory 15 years is up. “The solution, in my view, is to let that deputy prosecutor and the judge and the defense attorney look at the circumstances of that,” she said. “If they figure out this is a one-time incident, the kid needs his knuckles rapped, but I don’t think he needs to be on the sex offender registry for 15 years.” She notes that those sex offenders who don’t need to be on the list long term are a very small slice of the overall pie. “The vast majority of these guys are criminals,” she said. “You look at their criminal histories, and it’s just one thing after another. These are not nice people. These are people who have served long terms in prison, who have done horrendous acts on adults and children, and are not sympathetic characters. … These are people who have committed horrible acts, and who minimize what they’ve done, and who regularly and routinely try their best to fall through the cracks.” A former cop, Stitz said one of the first sex offender cases she worked was the rape of an infant, a crime which the perpetrator pleaded down to the point that he received only four months in jail. Though Stitz said she was outraged at that as a rookie officer, she’s since come to understand why many sex offenders can often strike plea bargains

that lead to light sentences: Children often make for unreliable witnesses, can’t testify at all, or have parents who don’t want to put them through the trauma of a trial. “When you’re talking 2- or 3-yearold kids, you can’t put them on the stand,” she said. Even 7, 8, 9-year-olds can’t testify. “If you’ve got a teen-ager who has been traumatized over a long period of time by a parent or an uncle or someone close to them, and you’ve got a defense attorney hammering at them, when you tell parents: ‘Well, he wants to take a plea for sexual assault 4th degree, a misdemeanor,’ they grab at stuff like that because they don’t want to put their child through it.” Stitz is a big believer in community notification as a tool to keep the public more safe. She recalls a case in North Little Rock some years back in which a sex offender living in a hotel snatched a small boy from the playground and brought him back to the hotel. He and the boy were seen by a security guard who’d received a community notification flyer on the offender. He called police, and they wound up catching the man in a bathroom with the boy. Stitz would like to see the creation of a cohesive legislative task force that could address some of the issues in the law. The state had a task force at one time, Stitz said, but when the legislator who’d created it was term-limited out of office, it was disbanded. “I’m talking about the ground troops,” she said. “Parole and probation, the police officers that actually work the registry in their communities, somebody from the attorney general’s office, our office, the Department of Corrections, the assessment folks. Everybody that we could think of that were stakeholders in the sex offender registry business. We had a defense attorney, we had a victim’s advocate, we had a psychologist who specialized in treating sex offenders.” Though she’d like to revisit some parts of current law regarding sex offenders, Stitz believes the registry and community notification work well to keep the public safe. Sex offenses, she said, can only continue “in the dark.” “The less you know about [sex offenders], the more they can commit their crimes,” she said. “The one thing they haven’t liked is this bright light of publicity shone on them. Before, it was much easier to fool the public. You could be the good ol’ grandpa next door, or the teacher, or the professor or the police officer or the Sunday School teacher. You could be any of those people and you could hide your crime. The one thing that the sex offender registry has done is hamstring these guys from continuing their behavior.”

Arts Entertainment AND

THE JUDGES

SHINING RAE

THE COASTS

THE HOLY SHAKES

EPIPHANY: Excellent local MC, whose new album is set to be released soon. You know him from his countless live shows and as the host of The Peabody Hotel’s RiverTop parties.

VORE

SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN Round one of the annual Times showcase kicks off Thursday BY ROBERT BELL

2012 marks the 20th year of what became the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase. It was started in 1993 by the now defunct Spectrum Weekly, and the Times took it over a long about 1997. The winner of that first showcase? That’d be Substance, the Towncraft-era melodic hardcore band. The other winners, chronologically, were: Ho-Hum, Pokerface, Ashtray Babyhead, Big Cats, Big John Miller & The Direction, Brenda & Ellis, Big Silver, Mojo Depot, Runaway Planet, Salty Dogs, Grandpa’s Goodtime Fandango, The Odds, Hannah Blaylock & Eden’s Edge, Cooper’s Orbit, 607, Velvet Kente, Brother Andy & His Big Damn Mouth and Tyrannosaurus Chicken. So which band will be the 20th? Over the next six weeks, we’ll find out. Starting Thursday at Stickyz, four acts will square off each night for five judges, who will award points based on originality, song quality, musicianship and showmanship. The winner of each semifinal round will go on to the finals, March 2 at Revolution. The grand prize winner will net a bevy of great prizes and will be immortalized with a drink named in his, her or their honor at Stickyz. SHINING RAE Shining Rae is the stage name for Shannin Watkins, a Magnolia native who graduated with honors from Louisiana Tech University in 2006 and moved to Baltimore for a job as a clinical lab scientist at Johns 22

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Hopkins Hospital. Last summer, Watkins’ melodic kiss-off “Dreaming” won the monthly Artists Access competition on OurStage.com. The prize was a mentoring session with industry vet and former Sony Music EVP Bruce Tyler, who has advised John Legend, Beyonce, The Fray among many others. Now based in Little Rock, Watkins has released a digital EP and two singles of catchy, soulful pop. Her songs range from sultry ballads to ear candy of the sweetest sort. Her single “Sugar” will get stuck in your head for days. THE COASTS This Arkansas-Ohio duo — Ike Peters of Little Rock and Eric Mount of Lebanon — make a warm, reverb-heavy sound that will tickle the ears of anybody who dug Dr. Dog’s “Easybeat,” from a few years back. Check out “I Only Want You” from the band’s self-titled album. The tune is spacious sounding, with a laid-back, everso-slightly wistful vibe, all jangly guitar strum and a simple beat, punctuated with a trumpet peeking out like a ray of sunshine through a cloud. The album was produced and mixed and mastered by, respectively, Isaac Alexander and Jason Weinheimer, whose track records are purt-dang near unimpeachable. Peters and Mount are wasting no time, though, and are already at work on a follow-up. THE HOLY SHAKES The Holy Shakes hearken back to the hey-

day of Dischord-ant, rocking ’90s hardcore. The Hot Springs quartet includes Bobby Missile on guitar, Brian Lee on bass, Justin Castleberry on drums and Bill Solleder — of Low Key Arts and Valley of the Vapors music festival — on vocals. Though the band hasn’t yet recorded an album, you can check out some raw, pummeling demos (recorded last May by the eminent Will Boyd) on the band’s Soundcloud page. The punishing, Drive Like Jehu-esque “Spray Paint Saint” will rock your ratty argyle socks off, while “One of These Days” and “Look into the Light” recall Fugazi at their leanest and meanest. VORE Fayetteville’s Vore has mastered — and remained true to — mid-tempo death metal like no other band in the state, or arguably, in the country. Since 1994, the band (Page Townsley on guitar and vocals, Jeremy Partin on bass and Remy Cameron on drums) has released three fulllengths of chugging, classic death metal in the vein of Morbid Angel, Death, Bolt Thrower and Obituary. Vore has shared stages with many of death metal’s leading lights over the years, including Deicide, Nile, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass and the mighty Manowar. The band’s latest, 2011’s “Gravehammer,” has gotten glowing reviews from critics, including Metalreview.com’s Jordan Campbell, who wrote that the album “further cements Vore as a death metal fan’s death metal band.”

CLAY FITZPATRICK AND CHEYENNE MATTHEWS: Hosts of the indispensable local program Shoog Radio, which broadcasts two hours of recorded and live-in-the-studio Arkansas music, as well as updates on all the live music happenings of Central Arkansas. The show airs every Monday from 1-3 p.m. on KABF Community Radio 88.3.

SAMMY WILLIAMS: Singer and guitarist of Midwest Caravan; pithy blog commentator par excellence; possessor of categorical knowledge of musical arcana and auditory obscurities of all flavors.

GUEST JUDGE MARY CHAMBERLIN: A fixture on the Little Rock scene since forever, she has operated lefty literature distributor Tree of Knowledge since the late ’90s and spends a good deal of time on the road selling merch for Lucero.

Live Music

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

A&E NEWS

FRiDAy, JANuARy 27

13 GHOStS & LAuDeRDALe (BiRmiNGHAm, AL)

SAtuRDAy, JANuARy 28 COACH

tueSDAy, JANuARy 31 MAGIC SPRINGS TIMBERWOOD AMPHITHEATER has made several

concert announcements for its upcoming season, and if you’re a fan of country or contemporary Christian pop, you should probably just go ahead and move to Magic Springs. Do they let people live there? Maybe in the parking lot? May 26: The Charlie Daniels Band June 2 — Trace Adkins June 9 — Third Day July 7 — Gretchen Wilson July 14 — Switchfoot Aug. 4 — Justin Moore Aug. 11 — Newsboys VERIZON ARENA has rescheduled

the concert by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly that had been slated for Nov. 20. The band is now scheduled to play March 17 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $37-$67.

THE LITTLE ROCK HORROR PICTURE SHOW, the fanged-and-

betentacled sister film fest that sprang from the guts of the Little Rock Film Festival, is teaming up with the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies to throw a “secret” screening and reception Jan. 31 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event is open to the public and will serve as an early sneak peek for the LR Horror Picture Show, which is scheduled for Feb. 17-19 at Market Street Cinema. Attendees will be able to purchase passes for the Picture Show at the Butler Center event.

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A SHORT THAT RAY MCKINNON

directed and Times columnist Graham Gordy wrote and starred in a couple years ago is now on YouTube and Vimeo. You can see it on Rock Candy. Gordy’s currently writing for McKinnon’s forthcoming Sundance series, “Rectify.” The premise sounds promising: “Rectify follows the life of Daniel Holden upon his release from jail after serving nineteen years on Georgia’s Death Row before DNA evidence disputed the State’s original case. Holden, who was only eighteen years of age when convicted and sentenced to die for the brutal rape and murder of a sixteen year old girl, returns to his family and to his hometown where the murder occurred and where many still believe he is guilty. Daniel spent all of his adult life waiting to die. Now he must learn how to live again or decide if he even wants to while others choose whether or not he will have that chance.”

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JANUARY 25, 2012

THE TO-DO

LIST

THURSDAY 1/26

FRIDAY 1/27

‘SLOW SOUTHERN STEEL,’ HAIL!HORNET, ZOROASTER

KNUCK FEST

8 p.m. Market Street Cinema. $10.

If you have even a passing interest in heavy metal and/or Southern culture and you’ve not yet seen “Slow Southern Steel,” then you won’t soon get a better opportunity than this show. The film — the work of CT (of Rwake and Iron Tongue) and David Lipke — documents the vibrant underground metal scene in the South, and features Eyehategod, Down, Deadbird, Hank Williams III, Music Hates You and many other folks discussing everything from music history to religion to perceptions of the South to the tight-knit community that’s arisen around this crusty, sludgy, louder-than-hell music. CT’s currently on a 17-date tour with Hail!Hornet and Zoroaster, screening the film. As far as vibe goes, Hail!Hornet’s got a real raw, nasty, bruising quality. The band is often described as a supergroup, understandably so considering the musical pedigrees involved (Sourvein, Bongzilla, Buzzov*en, Alabama Thunderpussy, Weedeater). But as good as those bands are, Hail!Hornet stands fully on its own raging, bludgeoning, misanthropic merits. The band’s 2011 album, “Disperse the Curse” is 11 songs suffused with the groove inherent in a lot of Southern metal and always, always bowing at the altar of the bitchin’ riff. Even the faster songs swing in a way that’s unmistakable for fans of sludgy Southern metal. Zoroaster’s spacy doom metal sounds like some sort of hybrid of Pink Floyd and Pentagram, beamed in from an alternate ’70s where everything was way more awesome than it was in the actual ’70s. If you were going to blast off to the furthest reaches of the cosmos in a shag-carpeted space shuttle loaded with a lifetime supply of Plutonian Nyborg, Zoroaster would be the exact right soundtrack. RB

BY ROBERT BELL & LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

6 p.m. Downtown Music Hall. $8 adv., $10 d.o.s.

Knuck Fest returns this year for another weekend-long extravaganza of sounds that are 100 percent crushing, heavy, brutal and/or raging. Friday kicks off with Fire to Reason, Crank-

bait, The Muddlestuds, Kill Crazies, Wraith, Sol Inertia, Story of the Eye and Holy Angell. On Saturday, you can catch Fallen Empire, Legions Await, Mainland Divide, Poisonwood, A Darkend Era, Auricle, Distiller, Veridium, Decay Awaits and Strange as Fiction. Sunday’s lineup includes locals as well

as several touring acts, including Stray from the Path, Cruel Hand, Structures, Betrayal, Counterparts, Snakedriver, Motives, Jungle Juice, God City Destroyers and Pose No Threat. The Saturday and Sunday shows start at 2 p.m., and the cover is $10 adv., $12 d.o.s., or you can get a weekend pass for $25. RB

anticipated juried show of work by regional artists. This year’s Delta includes 54 works by 50 artists in all media; to be eligible, artists must have been born or work in Arkansas and its contiguous states. Juror Tom Butler, executive director of the Columbus Museum

in Columbus, Ga., waded through 900 works to make his selections; 31 of the artists whose works will appear in the show are Arkansans. Two Arkansans, David Bailin and Keliy Anderson-Staley, won Delta Awards, and locals scooped up honorable mentions as well. LNP

FRIDAY 1/27

DELTA EXHIBITION

Jan. 27-March 28, Arkansas Arts Center, free

“9 Zen Nuns,” a sculpture by Oxford, Miss., artist Rod Moorhead, is the Grand Award winner in the 54th annual “Delta Exhibition,” the Arts Center’s highly

FRIDAY 1/27

PAT GREEN

9 p.m. Revolution. $20.

Pat Green is one of the giants of contemporary Texas singer/songwriters. Over the course of the past decade and change, Green graduated from self-released albums and small bars and dancehalls to major labels and much larger venues. He built his considerable fan base on the strength of his rootsand rock-tinged country, though his more recent albums have quite a bit more polish on them than those early DIY recordings. Expect a packed house for this one. Green also plays at Shooter’s Sports Bar in Texarkana Thursday night and at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville on Saturday night. The opening acts are Brent Cobb and The Lost Trailers. RB

DANCEHALL DREAMER: Texas singer/songwriter Pat Green comes to Revolution Friday night.

FRIDAY 1/27

SCOTT H. BIRAM, LYDIA LOVELESS JOHN PESINA

8 p.m. Maxine’s. $5 adv., $7 door.

BLUES STOMPER: Scott H. Biram plays Maxine’s Friday night, with the up-andcoming country chanteuse Lydia Loveless.

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Back in January of aught-four, I was down in Austin, Texas, for a visit, and a friend of mine told me about a local dude, a singer and guitar player name of Biram. We went to some tiny little club up on North Loop and started in on some drinking. After about a half-hour, this gnarly-

looking ragamuffin in a ball cap and a hoodie shuffles over to the corner, sets up an amp, plugs in a hollow body guitar, lays a tambourine down on the floor (for stompin’ on) and proceeds to start hollerin’ out all these twisted, distorto-punk blues. It went well with the drinking. Now all these several years later, Biram still belts out the ragers, but he’ll also write a country weeper that’ll jerk the tears out of your head so hard you might catch

whiplash. Exhibit A: “Still Drunk, Still Crazy, Still Blue.” Still got it, has Biram, who’s joined on this tour by his Bloodshot Records label mate Lydia Loveless, a fiery-haired singer/songwriter outta Ohio. She’s just now recently old enough to drink on the legal, but can swing the heartache well above her years, and has earned comparisons to such illustrious performers as Loretta Lynn, Neko Case and Exene Cervenka. RB

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 1/26

FRIDAY 1/27

BLACK OAK ARKANSAS

9 p.m. Juanita’s. $10 adv., $12 d.o.s.

Over the course of four decades, somewhere around 50 souls have passed through the ranks of Black Oak Arkansas. But there has been one constant, and that of course, is front man Jim “Dandy” Mangrum, who

is widely considered the prototype for such raunch-tastic Wildman lead singers as David Lee Roth. Nowadays, like many rockers of his vintage, Dandy’s stage presence is a bit more subdued than it was in the heyday of the ’70s. But there’s no denying the group’s legacy in the history of not just Arkansas

acts, but Southern rock as a whole. These days, though they might not be playing the same size venues as their contemporaries in Skynyrd or The Allmans, Black Oak is nonetheless one of the originals of the genre, still at it. The opening acts are Blind Opie and Ben Franks & The Bible Belt Boys. RB

The 2009 World Food Prize Laureate Gebisa Ejeta presents a lecture on global food security, Clinton School of Public Service, noon, free. If you dig sublime psychedelic garage rock with virtuosic guitar playing, then get on over to see The Many Persian Z’s at Maxine’s, with sultry pop duo Landrest, 8 p.m., free. Funnywoman Kristin Key brings the chuckles, chortles, giggles, etc. at The Loony Bin, 8 p.m., $7. She’ll be there through Saturday night.

FRIDAY 1/27 FRIDAY 1/27

ARKANSAS BIG BUCK CLASSIC 9 a.m. Arkansas State Fairgrounds. $5-$10.

Apparently, back in the olden days, like before 1990 or so, there was rampant BS-ing among outdoorsmen about deer killing. You’d always hear about so-and-so’s cousin, who, swear-to-

God, killed a 48-point buck over in Boone County with a .22 short that was a direct hit to the heart. Nowadays, if you want to find out who bagged the biggest buck in the state, you can head out to this here annual event, with its certified judging and its rules and whatnot. There are awards for sev-

eral categories and divisions, including muzzleloaders, bows and crossbows, modern weapons, ladies and youth. You can also scope some live deer, shop from hundreds of vendor booths, get your fill at the chili cook-off, check out knife-making demonstrations and plenty more. RB

SATURDAY 1/28

ASO: ‘RUSSIAN WINTER’

8 p.m. Robinson Center Music Hall. $14$52.

The latest in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Masterworks series features worldrenowned Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev, who has performed with orchestras all over the globe. ASO Conductor Philip Mann told KTHV’s Dawn Scott that Alexeev is “a true legend in his own time, a Russian performer that is so well respected all over the world, that not only is he sought after as a soloist by the great orchestras of the world, but he’s on the juries of the Tchaikovsky competition, the Van Cliburn competition. It’s a true coup for the Arkansas Symphony to be presenting him with us from our stage to our audiences.” The program includes performances of Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 “Classical,” Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor “Little Russian.” The program will be performed again on Sunday at 3 p.m. On Tuesday, ASO presents “Mozart Meets P.D.Q. Bach” at the Clinton Presidential Center, 7 p.m., $22. RB

SATURDAY 1/28

RUSSIAN LEGEND: Pianist Dmitri Alexeev is in demand the world over, and performs with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

SUNDAY 1/29

P.A.T.H. BENEFIT

7 p.m. Juanita’s. $10.

The Partnership Against the Trafficking of Humans is based in Kentucky, and seeks to provide a variety of aid to victims of this modern-day form of

The Ghost Town Blues Band brings a crunchy blend of electric blues styles — all with a funky flair — to Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5. If tasteful, jazzy lounge tunes with a powerful lady singer are what’s in order, then The Smittle Band is just the ticket, Dugan’s pub, 9 p.m., free. Those punkabilly hellraisers Josh the Devil & The Sinners get rowdy at Flying DD, with pop weirdoes Frown Pow’r, 9 p.m., $5. Tireless country troubadour Ryan Couron plays Denton’s Trotline, 9 p.m. Hans Klemm, former U.S. ambassador to East Timor, presents a lecture titled “Challenges in Securing the Rule of Law in Afghanistan,” Clinton School of Public Service, noon, free. Vino’s hosts Foreign Tongues Poetry Group, featuring Chris James, APOLLO, Osyrus, Ron MC and Tru Poet, 8 p.m. Monster Jam kicks off at Verizon Arena, with Bounty Hunter, Bad News and Barbarian doing all the jumping, crushing and smashing you’ve come to love, 7:30 p.m., $7-$37. Monster Jam continues at the same time Saturday.

slavery. Max Records founder Burt Taggart has organized this benefit show, all of the proceeds of which will help P.A.T.H. to provide housing and other resources for rescued victims of human trafficking. Performers include Chris

Maxwell of the Gunbunnies, Lenny Bryan of Ho-Hum and Isaac Alexander of Big Silver. “In my mind, those are — by generation — three of the best pop songwriters LR has produced,” Taggart said by e-mail. RB

Everyone’s favorite Daily Show commentator and sputtering, twitching rage junkie Lewis Black presents “In God We Rust,” Walton Arts Center, 8 p.m., $40. Down in Spa City, Maxine’s hosts The Year of the Tiger, Delicate Cutters and Ben Franks & The Bible Belt Boys, 8 p.m., $5 adv., $7 door. Sun Records rockabilly legends Sonny Burgess and The Legendary Pacers play Ward Country Dance, 7 p.m., $6. Austin’s Bart Crow Band plays a rock-infused take on singer/ songwriter country at Stickyz, 18-and-older, 9 p.m., $10. For some entirely different sounds from Austin, Mobley’s electro-laced pop and harmonies are reminiscent of Animal Collective, Vino’s, 9 p.m., $8. At Discovery, DJs Hollywood, Crawley and Balance will keep you up till all hours, with performers Dominique, Whitney and Karmin, 9 p.m.-5 a.m., $10.

www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 25, 2012

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

501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

COMEDY

Kristin Key. The Loony Bin, through Jan. 27, 8 p.m.; Jan. 27, 10:30 p.m.; Jan. 28, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 25

FILM

MUSIC

Acoustic Open Mic. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com. Alternative Wednesdays. Features alternative bands from Central Arkansas and the surrounding areas. Mediums Art Lounge, 6:30 p.m., $5. 521 Center St. 501-374-4495. Bolly Open Mic Hype Night with Osyrus Bolly and DJ Messiah. All American Wings, 9 p.m. 215 W. Capitol Ave. 501-376-4000. allamericanwings.com. Brian & Nick. Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-3755351. www.cajunswharf.com. Grim Muzik presents Way Back Wednesdays. Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8:30 p.m. 314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub.com. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Karaoke at Khalil’s. Khalil’s Pub, 7 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com. Karaoke. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com. Hibernia Irish Tavern, 9 p.m. 9700 N Rodney Parham Road. 501-246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com. Karaoke with Big John Miller. Denton’s Trotline, 8 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-3151717. Keb’ Mo’, Anders Osborne. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $29-$49. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600. Low Dough Wednesdays: Sychosys, Metal Flake, Let Them Be Buried. All-ages show. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $5. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com. Sam Sliva & The Good. 18-and-older show. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $5. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyfingerz.com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 5 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG.

COMEDY

Kristin Key. The Loony Bin, 8 p.m.; Jan. 27, 10:30 p.m.; Jan. 28, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

LECTURES

“To Kill a Mockingbird.” Arkansas Repertory Theatre director Bob Hupp will host a discussion on the upcoming production of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Clinton School of Public Service, 12 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501683-5239. www.clintonschool.uasys.edu.

SPORTS

UALR Women’s Trojans vs. South Alabama. Jack Stephens Center, UALR, 7 p.m., $4-$35. 2801 S. University Ave.

BENEFITS

“Paint for Pets.” Basic acrylic painting lessons,

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

“Happy.” Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 7 p.m., free. 350 S. Donaghey, Conway. “Slow Southern Steel.” Also includes performances from Hail! Hornet and Zoroaster. Market Street Cinema, 8 p.m., $10. 1521 Merrill Drive. 501-312-8900. www.marketstreetcinema.net.

LECTURES

FUTURE FEELS FINE: Hugely popular up-and-coming rapper Future comes to Revolution on Thursday, Jan. 26. Doors open at 9 p.m. General admission is $20. VIP “champagne” tickets are $50. On the strength of his booming Lex Luger-produced single “Tony Montana” alone, expect a large crowd. DJ Deja Blu hosts. portion of proceeds to benefit Friends of the Animal Village. Spirited Art, 6 p.m., $35. 5612 R St. 501-296-9903. myspiritedart.com.

BOOKS

Alex Beard. Appearance from the author of “The Jungle Grapevine” and “Monkey See, Monkey Draw.” That Bookstore in Blytheville, 4 p.m. 316 W. Main St.

THURSDAY, JAN. 26

MUSIC

2012 Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase. Round one, featuring Shining Rae, The Holy Shakes, The Coasts and Vore. 18-and-older show. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $5 21 and older, $8 18-20. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyfingerz.com. Future, Derrty DJ Deja Blu. Revolution, 9 p.m., $20-$50. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-8230090. revroom.com. “Inferno.” DJs play pop, electro, house and more, plus drink specials and $1 cover before 11 p.m. Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Karaoke. Zack’s Place, 8 p.m. 1400 S. University

Ave. 501-664-6444. www.zacks-place.com. Many Persian Z’s, Landrest. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com. Matt Joyce. Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8:30 p.m. 314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub. com. Michael Eubanks. Lulav, 6:30 p.m. 220 A W. 6th St. 501-374-5100. www.lulaveatery.com. Mr. Lucky (headliner), Handmade Moments (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-3755351. www.cajunswharf.com. Ol’ Puddin’haid. Thirst n’ Howl, 7:30 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirstn-howl.com. Port Arthur Band. Parrot Beach Cafe, 9 p.m. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994. Rob and Tyndall. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 5 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Tragikly White. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, 10 p.m., $5. 215 N. Shackleford. 501-2247665. www.westendsmokehouse.net. “VIP Thursday” with Power 92 and Stack 3. Juanita’s, 9 p.m. 614 President Clinton Ave.

Gebisa Ejeta. The 2009 World Food Prize Laureate presents a lecture on global food security. Clinton School of Public Service, 12 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-6835239. www.clintonschool.uasys.edu.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411. www.oaklawn.com. UALR Men’s Trojans vs. South Alabama. Jack Stephens Center, UALR, 7 p.m., $4-$35. 2801 S. University Ave.

BOOKS

Sherry Laymon. The author of “Fearless: John L. McClellan, United States Senator” will discuss her book. Faulkner County Library, 7 p.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org.

CLASSES THURSDAY, JAN. 26

Arkansas Craft School Session II. “Pottery” with David Dahlstedt, for all skill levels, 6:309:30 p.m., $225, Arkansas Craft School; “Jewelry Making” with Dona Sawyer, basics, 6:30-9:30 p.m., $225, Arkansas Craft School; “Web Designs for Artisans” with Shawn Hoefer, website creation, 5-8 p.m., Ozarka College, Mountain View, $225. Arkansas Craft School, continues through March 2. 110 E. Main St., Mountain View. 870-269-8397. www.arkansascraftschool.org.

FRIDAY, JAN. 27

MUSIC

After Eden (headliner), Richie Johnson (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www. cajunswharf.com. Alize. Fox And Hound, 10 p.m., $5-$10. 2800 Lakewood Village, NLR. 501-753-8300. www. foxandhound.com/locations/north-little-rock. aspx. Black Oak Arkansas, Blind Opie, Ben Franks & The Bible Belt Boys. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 d.o.s. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501372-1228. www.juanitas.com. Brian Nealan. Cregeen’s Irish Pub, 8 p.m., free. 301 Main St., NLR. 501-376-7468. www.cregeens.com. Chris Henry. Flying Saucer, 9 p.m., $3. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-7468. www. beerknurd.com/stores/littlerock. DJ Silky Slim. Top 40 and dance music. Sway, 9 p.m., $5. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582. “The Flow Fridays.” Twelve Modern Lounge, 8 p.m. 1900 W. Third St.

Ghost Town Blues Band. Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5. 1316 Main St. 501-372-9990. midtownar.com. Glory Bones, Lash Outs, Well Well Well. The Lightbulb Club, 9 p.m., $3. 21 N. Block Ave., Fayetteville. 479-444-6100. Goldy Locks. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, Jan. 27-28, 10 p.m., $5. 215 N. Shackleford. 501224-7665. www.westendsmokehouse.net. The Intruders. The Tavern Sports Grill, 9 p.m., free. 17815 Chenal Parkway. 501-830-2100. www. thetavernsportsgrill.com. Josh the Devil and the Sinners, Frown Pow’r. Flying DD, 9 p.m., $5. 4601 S. University. 501773-9990. flyingdd.com. Knuck Fest. Featuring Fire to Reason, Crankbait, The Muddlestuds, Kill Crazies, Wraith, Sol Inertia, Story of the Eye and Holy Angell. Downtown Music Hall, 6 p.m., $8 adv., $10 d.o.s. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownshows.homestead.com. Mister Lucky. Shooter’s Sports Bar & Grill, 9 p.m., $5. 9500 I-30. 501-565-4003. www.shooterslittlerock.com. The OD-5. Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8:30 p.m. 314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub.com. Pat Green, Brent Cobb, The Lost Trailers. Revolution, 9 p.m., $20. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com. Ryan Couron. Denton’s Trotline, 9 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-315-1717. Scott H. Biram, Lydia Loveless. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., $5 adv., $7 door. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com. The Smittle Band. Dugan’s Pub, 9 p.m., free. 403 E. 3rd St. 501-244-0542. www.duganspublr.com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www. capitalhotel.com/CBG. William Staggers Trio. The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com.

COMEDY

Kristin Key. The Loony Bin, through Jan. 27, 8 p.m.; Jan. 27, 10:30 p.m.; Jan. 28, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

Arkansas Big Buck Classic. Arkansas State Fairgrounds, Jan. 27, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Jan. 29, 1-6 p.m., $5-$10. 2600 Howard St. 501-372-8341 ext. 8206. www.arkansasstatefair.com. LGBTQ/SGL Youth and Young Adult Group. Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 244-9690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. 800 Scott St., 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St. Monster Jam. Verizon Arena, Jan. 27-28, 7:30 p.m., $7-$37. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-9759001. verizonarena.com.

LECTURES

Hans Klemm. The former U.S. ambassador to East Timor presents a lecture titled “Challenges in Securing the Rule of Law in Afghanistan.” Clinton School of Public Service, 12 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5239. www. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

POETRY

Foreign Tongues Poetry Group. Featuring Chris James, APOLLO, Osyrus, Ron MC and Tru Poet Vino’s, 8 p.m. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-

8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

SPORTS

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

SATURDAY, JAN. 28

MUSIC

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra: “Russian Winter.” Featuring pianist Dmitri Alexeev. Robinson Center Music Hall, Jan. 28, 8 p.m.; Jan. 29, 3 p.m., $14-$52. Markham and Broadway. www.littlerockmeetings.com/convcenters/robinson. Bart Crow Band. 18-and-older show. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $10. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyfingerz.com. Big Stack (headliner), Sarah Hughes (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com. Bonnie Montgomery. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m. 2500 W. 7th. 501-375-8400. www. whitewatertavern.com. DJs Hollywood, Crawley and Balance. Performers include Dominique, Whitney and Karmin. Discovery Nightclub, 9 p.m., $10. 1021 Jessie Road. 501-664-4784. www. latenightdisco.com. Donna Massey and Blue-Eyed Soul. Dugan’s Pub, 9 p.m., free. 403 E. 3rd St. 501-244-0542. www.duganspublr.com. The Freds. Denton’s Trotline, 9 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-315-1717. Goldy Locks. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, 10 p.m., $5. 215 N. Shackleford. 501224-7665. www.westendsmokehouse.net. Gunfish. Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8:30 p.m. 314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub.com. Interstate Buffalo. Fox And Hound, 10 p.m., $5-$10. 2800 Lakewood Village, NLR. 501753-8300. www.foxandhound.com/locations/ north-little-rock.aspx. Karaoke at Khalil’s. Khalil’s Pub, 7 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www. khalilspub.com. “KISS Saturdays” with DJs Deja Blu, Greyhound and Silky Slim. Sway, 10 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582. Knuck Fest. Featuring Fallen Empire, Legions Await, Mainland Divide, Poisonwood, A Darkend Era, Auricle, Distiller, Veridium, Decay Awaits and Strange as Fiction. Downtown Music Hall, 2 p.m., $10 adv., $12 d.o.s. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownshows.homestead.com. Michael Eubanks. Newk’s Express Cafe, 5 p.m. 1412 Higdon Ferry Road, Hot Springs. 501-321-4221. www.newkscafe.com. Mobley. Vino’s, 9 p.m., $8. 923 W. 7th St. 501375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com. Se7en Sharp. Cregeen’s Irish Pub, 8 p.m. 301 Main St., NLR. 501-376-7468. www.cregeens.com. Shannon Boshears Band. The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-6631196. www.afterthoughtbar.com. Shannon McClung. Flying Saucer, 9 p.m., $3. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-7468. www.beerknurd.com/stores/littlerock. Sonny Burgess and the Legendary Pacers. Ward Country Dance, 7 p.m., $6. Hwy. 319 and Hickory Street, Ward. 501-605-3251.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www. capitalhotel.com/CBG. Tyrannosaurus Chicken. Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5. 1316 Main St. 501-372-9990. midtownar.com. The Year of the Tiger, Delicate Cutters, Ben Franks & The Bible Belt Boys. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., $5 adv., $7 door. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

COMEDY

Kristin Key. The Loony Bin, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com. Lewis Black. Walton Arts Center, 8 p.m., $40. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

EVENTS

Falun Gong meditation. Allsopp Park, 9 a.m., free. Cantrell & Cedar Hill Roads. Monster Jam. Verizon Arena, 7:30 p.m., $7-$37. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-9759001. verizonarena.com.

LECTURES

Seminar: Why Commemorate the Civil War?. Featuring Bill Gurley, Ronnie Nichols and Dr. William L. Shea. Old State House Museum, 9:30 a.m., free. 500 Clinton Ave. 501-324-8641. www.oldstatehouse.com.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411. www.oaklawn.com. UALR Men’s Trojans vs. Denver. Jack Stephens Center, UALR, 7 p.m., $4-$35. 2801 S. University Ave. UALR Women’s Trojans vs. Denver. Jack Stephens Center, UALR, 4:30 p.m., $4-$35. 2801 S. University Ave.

BENEFITS

Saints & Sinners Ball. Annual black-tie gala benefiting the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, with cocktails, silent auction, dinner and live entertainment. Statehouse Convention Center, 6 p.m., $350-$4,500. 7 Statehouse Plaza. 501-378-0445.

BOOKS

Cindy Rush. The author of “Broken Road” will sign her books. Faulkner County Library, 2 p.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org. Robert Leleux. The author of “The Living End: A Memoir of Forgetting and Forgiving” will discuss his work. That Bookstore in Blytheville, 1 p.m. 316 W. Main St.

SUNDAY, JAN. 29

MUSIC

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra: “Russian Winter.” Featuring pianist Dmitri Alexeev. Robinson Center Music Hall, 3 p.m., $14-$52. Markham and Broadway. www.littlerockmeetings.com/conv-centers/robinson. Benefit for Leslie Harris. Featuring Clay Caldwell and Scott Bartlett from Saving Abel. Flying DD, 8 p.m., $7 adv., $10 door. 4601 S. University. 501773-9990. flyingdd.com. Karaoke. Shorty Small’s, 6-9 p.m. 1475 Hogan Lane, Conway. 501-764-0604. www.shortysmalls.com. CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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JANUARY 25, 2012

Estate Sale!

Jan 27 & 28 • 9am-3pm

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MOVIE LISTINGS

JAN. 27-28

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JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Market Street Cinema times at or after 9 p.m. are for Friday and Saturday only. Rave times are valid for Friday only. Lakewood 8 showings were not available as of press deadline. Find up-to-date listings at arktimes.com. NEW MOVIES A Dangerous Method (R) – Cronenberg’s latest is about Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Sabina Spielrein, the psychoanalyst who had a romantic relationship with Jung. Market Street: 2:15, 4:25, 6:45, 9:00. The Grey (R) – Liam Neeson and a band of oilrig roughnecks fight for survival in Alaska after their plane crashes. Breckenridge: 1:40, 4:40, 7:35, 10:10. Chenal 9: 10:10 a.m., 1:10, 4:10, 7:10, 10:10. Rave: 11:00 a.m., 2:00, 5:00, 8:00, 11:00, 11:45. Riverdale: 11:00 a.m., 1:25, 3:50, 6:15, 8:40. Man on a Ledge (PG-13) – Elizabeth Banks is an NYPD negotiator who tries to talk a potential suicide off the ledge, but perhaps all is not as it seems with the jumper? Breckenridge: 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 9:55. Chenal 9: 10:15 a.m., 1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 10:15. Rave: 10:30 a.m., 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30, midnight. Riverdale: 11:20 a.m., 1:30, 3:40, 5:50, 8:00, 10:10. One for the Money (PG-13) – Starring Katherine Heigl as an unlikely bounty hunter. Breckenridge: 1:45, 4:45, 7:40, 10:05. Chenal 9: 10:30 a.m., 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30. Rave: 10:00 a.m., 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 9:35, midnight. Riverdale: 11:25 a.m., 1:35, 3:35, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30. RETURNING THIS WEEK Alvin and The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (G) – That rascally Alvin is at it again, driving Dave crazy and making him scream “ALVIN!” Only this time it’s on a cruise ship. Also, Alvin raps. Rave: 10:00 a.m. Anonymous (PG-13) – What if Shakespeare didn’t really write all those plays and his works were actually created by time-traveling robots? Sadly, this period piece doesn’t explore that tantalizing, entirely plausible angle. From the director of “Stargate.” Movies 10: 1:15, 4:15, 7:10, 10:00. The Artist (PG-13) – This meta-homage to the black-and-white silent films of yore concerns a silent film star whose career is jeopardized by the advent of talkies. With Jean Dujardin. Market Street: 2:00, 4:20, 7:00, 9:15. Rave: 10:40 a.m., 1:20, 3:55, 7:05, 9:40. Beauty and the Beast (G) – It’s Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” in 3D. Breckenridge: 1:05, 4:00, 7:05. Chenal 9: 10:15 a.m., 1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 9:15. Rave: 10:55 a.m., 1:25, 4:15, 6:45, 9:15. Contraband (R) – Marky Mark has to return to his life of drug-running to save his boneheaded brother-in-law from gangsters. Breckenridge: 1:20, 4:10, 7:10, 9:45. Chenal 9: 10:25 a.m., 1:25, 4:25, 7:25, 10:25. Rave: 11:10 a.m., 2:15, 5:10, 8:15, 11:15. Riverdale: 11:30 a.m., 1:45, 4:15, 6:40, 9:10. The Descendants (R) – Clooney inches ever closer to making his “About Schmidt” in this tale of furrowed-browed, middle-aged soulsearching set in scenic Hawaii. Breckenridge: 1:25, 4:20, 7:00, 9:35. Rave: 11:40 a.m., 2:25, 5:20, 8:05, 10:50. The Devil Inside (R) – Great INXS song; terrible horror movie. Rave: 10:25 p.m. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (PG-13) – A young boy tries to unravel a secret message from his dad, who died in 9/11. With Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Breckenridge: 1:00, 3:50, 6:50, 9:40. Chenal 9: 10:25 a.m., 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00. Rave: 10:05

WOLVES IN THE COCKPIT: Liam Neeson pretty much only takes on roles as badasses these days. In “The Grey,” he fights wolves in the Alaskan wilderness after his plane crashes. a.m., 1:15, 4:25, 7:35, 10:40. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (R) – The first in a series of film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling Millennium Trilogy, directed by David Fincher (“Seven,” “The Social Network,” “Zodiac”). Rave: 10:05 a.m., 4:40, 11:20. Riverdale: 11:10 a.m., 2:45, 6:15, 9:40. Happy Feet Two (PG) – In which computer-animated penguins with famous voices sing and dance and carry on in glorious, wholly necessary 3D. Movies 10: 1:10, 3:30, 5:50, 8:20 (2D), noon, 2:20, 4:40, 7:15, 9:35 (3D). Haywire (R) – Ass-kicking girl action flick from director Steven Soderbergh. With Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor. Breckenridge: 1:15 (open-captioned), 4:25, 7:20, 9:40. Chenal 9: 10:05 a.m., 1:05, 4:05, 7:05, 10:05. Rave: 11:05 a.m., 1:45, 4:20, 7:15, 9:45. Riverdale: 11:35 a.m., 1:55, 4:10, 6:35, 9:00. Hugo (PG) – Martin Scorsese’s latest is a familyfriendly 3D epic based on the best-selling “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.” Rave: 11:15 a.m. Immortals 3D (R) – The producers of “300” continue to blur the line between movies and over-long video game cut-scenes. This one has hordes of glistening dudes fighting with swords and whatnot. Movies 10: 12:05, 2:35, 5:05, 7:35, 10:10. In Time (PG-13) – Justin Timberlake stars in this movie that takes us to a future where aging has been halted at 25 and time has become currency. Movies 10: 12:10, 2:40, 5:10, 7:45, 10:15. The Iron Lady (PG-13) – Has Meryl Streep ever been bad in a movie? This movie about Margaret Thatcher hasn’t gotten very good reviews, but apparently Streep’s performance redeems it. Breckenridge: 1:35, 4:35, 7:25, 9:50. Market Street: 1:45, 4:00, 6:45, 9:00. Rave: 11:25 a.m., 2:05, 5:05, 7:45. J. Edgar (R) – Word is this flick is enjoyable enough, but doesn’t get into to the nitty gritty of J. Edgar Hoover’s deepest, darkest secret, namely, his crippling addiction to crossword puzzles. With Leonardo DiCaprio. Movies 10: 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 9:55. Jack & Jill (R) – Dear sweet Lord, is there any way for us to all just pay Adam Sandler to not make movies? Movies 10: 12:25, 2:50, 5:00, 7:25, 9:40. Joyful Noise (PG-13) – It’s Queen Latifah vs. Dolly Parton in a no-holds-barred sass-off that won’t end until the movie is over. Breckenridge: 1:10, 4:05, 6:45. Rave: 10:00 a.m., 12:55, 3:50, 7:50, 10:45. Riverdale: 11:20 a.m., 2:05, 4:35, 7:15, 9:50. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (PG-13) – Ol’ Middle-tooth is back in this, the fourth MI flick, which supposedly is really good with killer special effects and action sequences. Rave: 12:25, 3:35, 7:20, 10:35. My Week with Marilyn (R) – Starring Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe circa 1956. Market

Street: 2:00, 4:15, 7:15, 9:15. Riverdale: 11:00 a.m., 1:10, 3:25, 5:35, 7:45, 10:00. Puss in Boots (PG) – A Shrek spin-off following the adventures of Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas. Movies 10: 12:20, 2:30, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45. Real Steel (PG-13) – You know they’re turning Battleship into a movie, too. (Boxing robots). Movies 10: 1:20, 4:10, 7:05, 9:50. Red Tails (PG-13) – The story of the AfricanAmerican WWII pilots of the Tuskegee training program. With Cuba Gooding Jr. Breckenridge: 1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 10:00. Chenal 9: 10:20 a.m., 1:20, 4:20, 7:20, 10:20. Rave: 10:10 a.m., 1:10, 2:30, 4:10, 5:30, 7:10, 8:30, 10:10, 11:30. Riverdale: 11:15 a.m., 1:50, 4:25, 7:00, 9:35. Shame (R) – Starring Michael Fassbender as a sex addict whose life spirals out of control. Market Street: 1:45, 4:00, 7:00, 9:15. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (R) – Robert Downey Jr. once more stars as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as his trusty sidekick Dr. Watson. Breckenridge: 9:30 p.m. Rave: 10:20 a.m., 1:35, 4:55, 8:10, 11:35. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (R) – Gary Oldman stars as a fallen British spy in this smart, economical adaptation of John Le Carré’s cold war classic. Rave: 1:35, 8:20. Tower Heist (PG-13) – A Bernie Madoff type steals millions from his clients as well as the retirement funds of the staffers at his luxury condo. Movies 10: 12:15, 2:45, 5:15, 7:40, 10:05. Underworld: Awakening (R) – Ass-kicking vampire girl action flick from directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein. With Kate Beckinsale. Breckenridge: 1:50, 4:50, 7:45, 9:55. Chenal 9: 10:00 a.m., 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 (IMAX 3D). Rave: 5:15, 10:55 (2D), 10:15 a.m., 12:45, 3:45, 6:35, 7:55, 9:00, 11:25, midnight. Riverdale: 11:05 a.m., 1:05, 3:05, 5:05, 7:05, 9:05. War Horse (PG-13) – A horse named Joey and a young man called Albert form an unbreakable bond that carries them through the battlefields of World War I. Breckenridge: 9:20 p.m. Rave: 10:25 a.m., 1:50. Chenal 9 IMAX Theatre: 17825 Chenal Parkway, 821-2616, www.dtmovies.com. Cinemark Movies 10: 4188 E. McCain Blvd., 9457400, www.cinemark.com. Cinematown Riverdale 10: Riverdale Shopping Center, 296-9955, www.riverdale10.com. Lakewood 8: 2939 Lakewood Village Drive, 7585354, www.fandango.com. Market Street Cinema: 1521 Merrill Drive, 3128900, www.marketstreetcinema.net. Rave Colonel Glenn 18: 18 Colonel Glenn Plaza, 687-0499, www.ravemotionpictures.com. Regal Breckenridge Village 12: 1-430 and Rodney Parham, 224-0990, www.fandango.com.

MOVIE REVIEW

‘RED TAILS’: Leslie Odom Jr., Michael B. Jordan and Nate Parker star.

Delayed liftoff Lucas’ ‘Red Tails’ BY SAM EIFLING

bit of skepticism is in order when George Lucas, who’s (ir) responsible for perhaps the two greatest popcorn-movie franchises ever (the two “Star Wars” trilogies and the Indiana Jones quadrilogy) spends 20 years scrounging for funding and talent to commit his ideas to film. Conceived in the ’80s, “Red Tails,” for which Lucas served as the executive producer, took

a while to get moving. In 1990 Lucas told the L.A. Times (headline: “Lucas’ Next Movie: Tuskegee Airmen”) that he thought “Top Gun” proved there was an appetite for fighter-pilot action, even if he was proposing the bold step of focusing on an all-black group of Army airmen. “I’m sure to encounter resistance, but I’m one of the few people that can get this film made,” he said then. And that was

before the second batch of “Star Wars” movies were born as unleavened, soulless CGI orgies, and the fourth Indiana Jones movie was a swamp of mishmashed camp. You figure people at least trusted Lucas’ artistic instincts in those days. Pinning a big-budget fighter-pilot epic on the marketability of a predominantly black cast was surely a taller order 20 years ago. Still, you have to wonder about the script and the planning with that kind of lag. For good reason, it turns out. “Red Tails” has its moments. Cool fight sequences. An occasional snappy line. A couple of genuinely engaged performances, including that by the ace pilot, Lightning, played by David Oyelowo. Otherwise, it waddles through many of the same cliches that have plagued war movies since, well, at least WWII, when Hollywood served as an ostensible propaganda arm of the U.S. military. There are too many characters to appreciate any of them in particular. Hammy explosions. Germans who have all the humanity of battle droids. An only occasional nod to a little thing moviegoers like to call “realism.” The choice of focusing on the Tuskegee Airmen shows a better sense of topic than of actual story. The plot is simple: You’ve got an all-black fighter group relegated to flying beater planes on low-consequence missions in Italy. They’re viewed as inferior because they’re black and because they can’t rack up any kills, but once they get their chance,

they prove to be quite skilled fighters, and become instrumental to the Allied plan in Europe. Changing minds and hearts, blowing up Axis soldiers. And … that’s about it. We all know the Germans lost and the road to something like real equality didn’t stop in 1945. “Red Tails” starts where you think it will and takes a more or less straight line to where you think it’ll wind up. It’s going to have other troubles. The bankable stars — Cuba Gooding Jr. as a pipe-chomping major and Terrence Howard as a colonel who spends most of his time dealing with racism in the Pentagon — have two Oscar nods between them but never so much as climb into a cockpit. The flying is left to the whippersnappers, and while the dogfight scenes are quite lavish and mostly convincing, none of the pilots (an overburdened Nate Parker, a middling Tristan Wilds, even the likeable Ne-Yo) is likely to emerge from “Red Tails” the way Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer did from “Top Gun.” Props to screenwriter John Ridley and director Anthony Hemingway (episodes of “The Wire” and of “Treme”) for making some bold choices along the way, such as having Lightning fall for a woman who speaks uncaptioned Italian throughout their romance, and a choice of an ending that probably didn’t focusgroup well. We’ll take even some small victories in a popcorn flick that had such trouble getting off the ground, and even now that it’s out, still does.

AFTER DARK, CONT. Knuck Fest. Featuring Stray from the Path, Cruel Hand, Structures, Betrayal, Counterparts, Snakedriver, Motives, Jungle Juice, God City Destroyers and Pose No Threat. Downtown Music Hall, 2 p.m., $10 adv., $12 d.o.s. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownshows.home-

stead.com. P.A.T.H. benefit show. All proceeds benefit P.A.T.H., which provides housing and recovery programs for rescued victims of human trafficking. Includes performances from Chris Maxwell, Lenny Bryan and Isaac Alexander. Juanita’s, 7

p.m., $10. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-3721228. www.juanitas.com. Porter’s Sunday Jazz Brunch. Porter’s Jazz Cafe, 10 a.m. 315 Main St. 501-324-1900. www.portersjazzcafe.com. Sunday Jazz Brunch with Ted Ludwig and Joe

Cripps. Vieux Carre, 11 a.m. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.vieuxcarrecafe.com.

COMEDY

Elliott Threatt. UARK Bowl, 7 p.m., $5-$7. 644 CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

no skinny steaks. Where Little Rock Goes To Taste Perfection

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JANUARY 25, 2012

THEATER

Lessons in love and hate BY BERNARD REED

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-301-2030. www. uarkballroom.com.

EVENTS

Arkansas Big Buck Classic. Arkansas State Fairgrounds, 1 p.m., $5-$10. 2600 Howard St. 501-372-8341 ext. 8206. www.arkansasstatefair.com.

SPORTS

TUESDAY, JAN. 31

GALLERIES, MUSEUMS

MUSIC

NEW EXHIBITIONS, EVENTS

MUSIC

Creator Spiritus. The Theatre of Voices presents works by Arvo Part and others. Hendrix College, 7 p.m. 1600 Washington Ave., Conway. www.hendrix.edu. Dave Williams. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com. Elvis Lives!. Robinson Center Music Hall, 7:30 p.m., $29-$58. Markham and Broadway. www. littlerockmeetings.com/conv-centers/robinson. Karaoke. Thirst n’ Howl, 8:30 p.m. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com. Touch, Grateful Dead Tribute. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $5. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyfingerz.com.

SPORTS

all very professional, and yet they are still able to capture the childlike innocence of the time and the place.” The crowd of youngsters who haven’t yet been introduced to “Mockingbird” don’t yet know the name Atticus Finch and may not have had their eyes opened to the reality of jarring racial violence. The best audience members, in a sense, are the Scouts and Jems and Dills who come see the play with their schools, as uninitiated as the children on the stage are when the curtain rises. John Feltch, who plays Atticus in The Rep’s production, played the same character in a production in Texas. “It was new and fresh to them,” he said. “The kids would get breathless at what was done to Tom Robinson. It was a new horror to them, and they couldn’t conceive of a time and place where that might have happened.” It is that horror, that dramatic loss of innocence, which keeps the story alive in our consciousness. “ ‘Mockingbird’ is so enduring because it’s about real people, living people,” Hupp said, “and yet the big ideas in the play, which are so epic in what they encompass, remain timeless and jump over generations.”

THIS WEEK IN THEATER

The Story of Your Life Writing Workshop. Geared toward the budding memoir author. Laman Library, 6 p.m. 2801 Orange St., NLR. 501-758-1720. www.lamanlibrary.org.

MONDAY, JAN. 30

‘TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD’: Abby Shourd stars as Scout, Damon McKinnis as Jem and Spencer Davis as Dill in The Rep’s production.

Smith College, 7 p.m. 900 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive. 501-370-5279. Tales from the South. Authors tell true stories; schedule available on website. Dinner served 5-6:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. Call for reservations. Starving Artist Cafe. 411 N. Main St., NLR. 501372-7976. www.starvingartistcafe.net.

Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre: “Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood.” Arkansas Arts Center, through Feb. 5: Fri., 7 p.m.; Sat., 3 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m., $11-$14. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.arkarts.com. “Driving Miss Daisy.” This play about a 72-yearold Jewish widow and her African-American chauffeur was the basis for the Academy Award-winning film starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy. Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, through Jan. 29: Tue.-Sat., 6 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.; Wed., Jan. 25, 11 a.m., $15-$33. 6323 Col. Glenn Road. 501-562-3131. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com. “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.” A follow-up to “The Laramie Project,” based on interviews with residents of Laramie, Wyo., as well as those involved with the brutal 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student. The Weekend Theater, through Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m., $12-$16. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-3743761. www.weekendtheater.org. Moscow Festival Ballet in “Cinderella.” Perot Theatre, Mon., Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m. 321 W. Fourth St., Texarkana. www.trahc.org. “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The play based on Harper Lee’s classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Arkansas Repertory Theatre, through Feb. 12: Wed., Thu., 7 p.m.; Fri., Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 and 7 p.m., $25-$30. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www.therep.org. “The Typists.” Hendrix College, Jan. 27-28, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., Jan. 28, 2 p.m. 1600 Washington Ave., Conway. 501-450-1343. www.hendrix.edu.

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

CINDY MOMCHILOV

f you are of a certain age, odds are good that you’ve read Harper Lee’s classic, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” or at least have seen the 1962 film, starring Gregory Peck. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” now more than 50 years old, is as revered as ever, and the Rep production will introduce it to another generation. Like many celebrated and long-lived cultural artifacts, the story and its lessons are not instinctual. “Mockingbird” has opened the eyes of young people to elements of humanity that are both heartwarming and shocking. There aren’t too many other books and movies acceptable for children that include racially-driven rape allegations in their plot arcs. Christopher Sergel adapted “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the stage in 1990, and The Rep’s production, helmed by producing artistic director Bob Hupp, opens Friday. The story does not deviate from its previous incarnations except that it includes as a character Jean Louise, the grown-up Scout, who narrates the play as a memory. She reflects on the events of her formative years in Depression-era Alabama — her fears of Boo Radley, her father’s representation in court of a black man accused of raping a white woman and the small town’s reaction to it. “The play is about good and evil, or perceived good and evil,” Hupp says, “and the shades between the two. This is reflected in the set design, since Jean Louise is telling the story filtered through 30 years: The perceived good is the Finch house, and the perceived evil is the Radley house.” Scout learns the difference between the two, but not without tragedy. A production like “To Kill a Mockingbird” requires several young actors in powerful and significant roles. “We are very fortunate to have exceptionally talented young artists,” Hupp said. “We wouldn’t have tackled a play like this unless we felt we had the right actors to create the central characters of Scout, Jem and Dill.” Each of these roles and their understudies are filled by actors from The Rep’s Young Artists Program. In the book and film the characters are 9 years old, but the actors in this production are a few years older. “What makes the story magical is that you’re dealing with such complex issues, but you’re watching it through the eyes of a child,” Kathy McCafferty, who plays Jean Louise, said. “The young actors are

AFTER DARK, CONT.

Downtown Tip Off Club presents Gary Blair. Wyndham Riverfront Hotel, 11:15 a.m., $15-$20. 2 Riverfront Place, NLR. 501-371-9000. www. wyndham.com.

BOOKS

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra: “Mozart Meets P.D.Q. Bach.” Performances of works by Mozart, Schubert and more. Clinton Presidential Center, 7 p.m., $22. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 370-8000. www.clintonpresidentialcenter.org. The Ataris, Dreamfast, belair. Downtown Music Hall, 7:30 p.m., $8 adv., $10 d.o.s. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownshows. homestead.com. Brian Martin. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com. Jeff Long. Khalil’s Pub, 6 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Karaoke with Big John Miller. Denton’s Trotline, 8 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-3151717. The Libras. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m. 2500 W. 7th. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Lucious Spiller Band. Copeland’s, 6-9 p.m. 2602 S. Shackleford Road. 501-312-1616. www.copelandsofneworleans.com. Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

DANCE

“Latin Night.” Revolution, 7 p.m., $5 regular, $7 under 21. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-8230090. www.revroom.com.

EVENTS

Bless the Mic: Darrin Dewitt Henson. Philander

ARGENTA STUDIOS, 401 Maple St., NLR: Unveiling of V.L. Cox’s large-scale paintings “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” 6-9 p.m. Jan. 26. 786-1382 ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER: 54th annual “Delta Exhibition,” juried show of 54 works by 50 regional artists, Jan. 27-March 28; “Masters of Watercolor,” Jan. 27-March 28; “Horizons Interrupted,” work by Piet Mondrian, Arthur Davies, Hayley Lever and others, guest curated from the permanent collection by Norwood Creech, through March 11. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 372-4000. OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham: “Why Commemorate the Civil War?” seminar with Bill Gurley, Ronnie Nichols, Dr. William L. Shea, 9:30 a.m.noon Jan. 28;“An Enduring Union: Arkansas and the Civil War,” through March 11. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 3249685. OW PIZZA, 1706 W. Markham St.: Grav Weldon, photographs. Artist’s reception 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 4-8 p.m. Feb. 1. 374-5504.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

“The Art of Science and the Science of Art” is the name of the Arkansas Darwin Day 2012 competition. Artworks should illustrate the relationship between art and science. Artists may submit up to two works in various media. Registration is $10 per artist and the deadline to enter is Feb. 1. For more information, go to arkansasdarwinday.org.

Dining

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

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

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

WHAT’S COOKIN’ BOB AND SCOTTIE VIALL have

BRIAN CHILSON

revived The Hop Drive-In at 7706 Cantrell Road. Two years ago, the couple opened Bob and Scottie’s Dairy Barn in the old Garry’s DriveIn space in Benton (a legendary locale, where, Scottie said proudly, a scene in the movie “Slingblade” was filmed). The landlord for The Hop space recruited the Vialls to expand into Little Rock. At both restaurants, the menu is typical dairy bar — burgers, hot dogs, fries, homemade shakes and splits. Scottie Viall said she and her husband plan to serve the barbecue sandwich that’s popular in Benton in Little Rock as soon as they can add some equipment. The Hop Drive-In is open 10:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday. The phone number is 228-5556.

TSUIVAN: Steamed wheat noodles stir-fried with beef, fried potatoes and veggies at Zogi’s Euro Asian Bistro.

Soup’s on at Zogi’s But that’s not all.

11321 W. Markham St., Suite 4 501 246-4597 QUICK BITE There are things on the menu here you’ve probably never heard of and can’t pronounce, and some of them are quite good. Even the ones with English names, like “Cutlet,” are apt to be not exactly what you expected.

BRIAN CHILSON

f you’ve ever herded sheep on the Steppes, the borscht at Zogi’s Euro Asian Bistro will make you think you’re back out there, singing “Get along, little dogie,” lining up at the chuck wagon, bowl in hand, after a long day in the saddle. Otherwise, you’ll probably just think “Say, this is nice soup.” This version of borscht is Hungarian, the menu says, made from beets, of course, with beef and carrots and sour cream. It’s one of the stars at Zogi’s, which serves up dishes from what it calls “the regions where Europe meets Asia.” A bowl of Zogi’s borscht would be a good lunch by itself on a cold day, though it might be more than you could eat. We had it as an appetizer, the “cup,” and that was a good amount of soup. The “bowl” must be a punchbowl. Another soup, Bantan, we found was excellent too. (“Mongolian flour lump soup with shredded beef and green onions.”) But before we go on in this vein, we should admit that on our first visit to Zogi’s, we were not so impressed. The Beef Goulash, the top listing on the “Main Course” section of the menu, reminded us of the mushy beef stew served at undistinguished plate-lunch places. The Mongolian beef was similar, and nothing at all like the Mongolian beef in Chinese places around town. It may be more authentic, for

Zogi’s Euro Asian Bistro

PELMENI: Steamed chicken dumplings.

all we know — we haven’t been to Mongolia in ages — but it didn’t taste as good. And, to be frank, there wasn’t as much beef as we would have liked. Then we paid a return visit to Zogi’s, discovered the borscht and the Bantan, and our estimation of Zogi’s went up sharply. And pretty much stayed there. The Tsuivan was a main dish we loved — steamed wheat noodles stir-fried with beef, fried potatoes and veggies. It came with a vinegary cole slaw that makes a nice complement to many of the entrees at Zogi’s. The “Mongolian BBQ Ribs” were pleasingly meaty and came with a sauce that was sweet but not too sweet. The “Cutlet” — that’s all, no nationality given — was not so much to our liking, the fried beef a little tough. But occasional toughness happens everywhere. More troublesome was that the cutlet was kind of bland, not spicy. We were reminded that many ethnic dishes reputed to be hot are lukewarm at most in Little Rock restau-

HOURS 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. OTHER INFO No alcohol. Credit cards accepted.

rants. Probably because the restaurateurs have learned that Little Rock diners prefer them that way. There’s a Thai place near our office, and we like the food, but not even the curry is very hot. We digress. There were no desserts on the menu, and the waitress didn’t ask us if we wanted dessert. The Zogi’s ambiance is about what you’d expect for an eatery in a strip mall that includes wing joints and take-out pizza places. Summing up, there were some things we liked a lot about Zogi’s and some not so much, but we definitely want to go back. There’s a problem facing the restaurant — the waitress said they plan to correct it — and that is that it lacks an alcohol permit. Not very bistroish. If Zogi’s is going to make it, it’ll have to make it with the kind of people who like a nice wine or beer with their meals.

LONGTIME PIZZA D’ACTION EMPLOYEES Gary Hoschouer and

Chuck Beets have purchased the storied dive bar and pizza joint from longtime owner Orville Davis. Hoschouer, who along with Beets has worked at Pizza D off and on for about 18 years, said to expect small menu and interior updates, but no radical changes. Two specific upgrades coming soon: outlets at tables to allow laptop users to work more easily and a repaired and remodeled front entrance, which has been covered with plywood since mid-December, when the driver of car lost control, smashed into the building and drove away. Once the entrance is fixed (hopefully in time for the Super Bowl, Hoschouer said), look for a party to celebrate the ownership change and the “grand reopening.” The restaurant/bar’s new Facebook Page has information on daily meal and drink specials and music listings. Look for concerts at Pizza D once or twice a week, Hoschoeur said.

DINING CAPSULES

AMERICAN

4 SQUARE CAFE AND GIFTS Vegetarian salads, soups, wraps and paninis and a daily selection of desserts in an Arkansas products gift shop. 405 President Clinton Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-2442622. L daily. D Mon.-Sat. ARGENTA MARKET The Argenta District’s neighborhood grocery store offers a deli featuring a daily selection of big sandwiches along with fresh fish and meats and salads. Emphasis here is on CONTINUED ON PAGE 32 www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 25, 2012

CROSSWORD

DINING CAPSULES, CONT.

EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ Across 1 Hold back 5 Egg pouches 9 Bus. cards in commercial mailings, e.g. 14 Janowitz who wrote “Slaves of New York” 15 Dept. of Labor agency 16 “M*A*S*H” setting 17 “Little Caesar” gangster 18 Movie about La Brea Tar Pits’ formation? 20 Sharp-tongued 22 Does a postmeal chore 23 Movie about a Nobel-winning chemist? 26 Our sun 29 Word after Farm or Live 30 Craving

31 Humble oneself 34 Curtain material 36 Surfer wannabe 37 Movie about Wall Streeters’ excesses? 42 So far 43 Bridge bid, briefly 44 Wild West badge 47 William Tell’s canton 48 Brit. military honor 51 ___ Tomé 52 Movie about the early life of Lassie? 55 ___ Creed of A.D. 325 58 Nonsense word said while pointing a finger 59 Movie about the memoirs of the Duke? 63 Saint Philip ___ 64 Packing heat 65 The “a” in a.m.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE M A R T

A M E R

N A P A

B R O N C

E I E I O

L O N G U

Q T I P

A R N O

T O R O

B R O D Y

A N T I G U J A O H N T M A A R Y E R

G M A O S J T I O O R N E V A P A N H E Y Y F A S I C O Q E D U N D E T S

E B O N

H O R O S I L A T H T E Z R A A L I R A Q S A C E N B A R Q S N A C O U P D G I S E E A D E L A Q I R S L R U N O S M P U T E R S O S P R E Y R E A G A N T S T O P S

66 Baseball analyst Hershiser 67 “Siddhartha” author 68 River through Belgium 69 Seasonal song … or a phonetic hint to 18-, 23-, 37-, 52- and 59Across Down 1 Geologic layers 2 Meditative exercises 3 Acted the host 4 New Zealand native 5 Boozehound 6 Bat wood 7 “S.N.L.” alum Oteri 8 Texas/Louisiana border river 9 Ticker tests, for short 10 Snoop (around) 11 Bygone Toyota sedan 12 Jeans brand 13 Syrup base 19 “Young Frankenstein” woman 21 Certain protest 24 Soft ball brand 25 Put in stitches 27 “The Plague” setting 28 Bygone Fords 32 Precarious place, metaphorically 33 ___ death (overwork) 34 Dams and does

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

34 38

22 24

36 40

52 55

47 53

Puzzle by Ron and Nancy Byron

35 Unit now known as a siemens 37 Musical with Mungojerrie and Jennyanydots 38 Home to billions 39 Prim and proper, e.g. 40 Plenty, informally 41 Garr who played 19-Down

45 Knuckle draggers 46 Takeoff site 48 Do-re-mi 49 Evening affair 50 “The Iceman Cometh” playwright 53 Lowly laborers 54 Mortise’s mate

56 Supermodel Sastre 57 Hand over 59 Cartoon baby’s cry 60 “Chances ___,” 1957 #1 hit 61 Address abbr. 62 ___ Spiegel

For answers, call 1-900-285-5656, $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5554. Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS. AT&T users: Text NYTX to 386 to download puzzles, or visit nytimes.com/mobilexword for more information. Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 2,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Share tips: nytimes.com/wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/learning/xwords.

THIS MODERN WORLD

Arkansas-farmed foods and organic products. 521 N. Main St. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-379-9980. L daily, D Mon.-Sat., B Sat., BR Sun. ARKANSAS BURGER CO. Good burgers, fries and shakes, plus salads and other entrees. Try the cheese dip. 7410 Cantrell Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-0600. LD Tue.-Sat. ASHLEY’S The premier fine dining restaurant in Little Rock marries Southern traditionalism and haute cuisine. The menu is often daring and always delicious. 111 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-3747474. BLD Mon.-Sat. BR Sun. BELWOOD DINER Traditional breakfasts and plate lunch specials are the norm at this lost-in-time hole in the wall. 3815 MacArthur Drive. NLR. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-753-1012. BL Mon.-Fri. BRAVE NEW RESTAURANT The food’s great, portions huge, prices reasonable. Diners can look into the open kitchen and watch the culinary geniuses at work slicing and dicing and sauteeing. It’s great fun, and the fish is special. 2300 Cottondale Lane. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-6632677. LD Mon.-Fri. D Sat. BY THE GLASS A broad but not ridiculously large wine list is studded with interesting, diverse selections, and prices are uniformly reasonable. The food focus is on high-end items that pair well with wine — olives, hummus, cheese, bread, and some meats and sausages. Happy hour daily from 4 -6 p.m. 5713 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-663-9463. D Mon.-Sat. CAFE HEIFER Philly cheesesteak, turkey clubs, pizza and other American fare in the Heifer Village. With one of the nicest patios in town. 1 World Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-907-8801. BL Mon.-Fri., L Sat. CAPITAL BAR AND GRILL Big hearty sandwiches, daily lunch specials and fine evening dining all rolled up into one at this landing spot downtown. Surprisingly inexpensive with a great bar staff and a good selection of unique desserts. 111 Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-374-7474. LD daily. CAPITOL BISTRO Formerly a Sufficient Grounds, now operated by Lisa and Tom Drogo, who moved from Delaware. They offer breakfast and lunch items, including quiche, sandwiches, coffees and the like. 1401 W. Capitol Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-371-9575. BL Mon.-Fri. CATERING TO YOU Painstakingly prepared entrees and great appetizers in this gourmet-to-go location, attached to a gift shop. Caters everything from family dinners to weddings and large corporate events. 8121 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-664-0627. L Mon.-Sat. CATFISH HOLE Downhome place for well-cooked catfish and tasty hushpuppies. 603 E. Spriggs. NLR. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-758-3516. D Tue.-Sat. CHEEBURGER CHEEBURGER Premium black Angus cheeseburgers, with five different sizes, ranging from the Classic (5.5 ounces) to the pounder (20 ounces), and nine cheese options. For sides, milkshakes and golden-fried onion rings are the way to go. 11525 Cantrell Rd. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-490-2433. LD daily. CIAO BACI The focus is on fine dining in this casually elegant Hillcrest bungalow, though tapas are also available, and many come for the comfortable lounge that serves specialty drinks until late. Happy hour all night Wednesday. 605 N. Beechwood St. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-6030238. D Mon.-Sat. CRAZEE’S COOL CAFE Good burgers, daily plate specials and bar food amid pool tables and TVs. 7626 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-221-9696. LD Mon.-Sat. DIVERSION TAPAS RESTAURANT Hillcrest wine bar with diverse tapas menu. From the people behind Crush. 2611 Kavanaugh Blvd., Suite 200. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-414-0409. D Mon.-Sat. DOE’S EAT PLACE A skid-row dive turned power brokers’ watering hole with huge steaks, great tamales and broiled shrimp, and killer burgers at lunch. 1023 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-376-1195. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. EJ’S EATS AND DRINKS The friendly neighborhood hoagie shop downtown serves at a handful of tables and by delivery. The sandwiches are generous, the soup homemade and the salads cold. Vegetarians can craft any number of acceptable meals from the flexible menu. The housemade potato chips are da bomb. 523 Center St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-6663700. LD Mon.-Fri. FLYING FISH The fried seafood is fresh and crunchy and there are plenty of raw, boiled and grilled offerings, too. The hamburgers are a hit, too. It’s self-service; wander on through the screen door and you’ll find a slick team of cooks and servers doing a creditable job of serving big crowds. 511 President Clinton Ave. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-375-3474. LD daily. GRUMPY’S TOO Music venue and sports bar with lots of TVs, pub grub and regular drink specials. 1801 Green Mountain Drive. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-225-3768. LD Mon.-Sat. HOMER’S Great vegetables, huge yeast rolls and killer cobblers. Follow the mobs. 2001 E. Roosevelt Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-3741400. BL Mon.-Fri. THE HOUSE A comfortable gastropub in Hillcrest, where you’ll find traditional fare like burgers and fish and chips alongside Thai green curry and gumbo. 722 N. Palm St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-4501. D daily, BR and L Sat.-Sun.

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. JIMMY’S SERIOUS SANDWICHES Consistently fine sandwiches, side orders and desserts for 30 years. Chicken salad’s among the best in town, and there are fun specialty sandwiches such as Thai One On and The. Garden Get there early for lunch. 5116 W. Markham St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-6663354. L Mon.-Sat. KRAZY MIKE’S Po’Boys, catfish and shrimp and other fishes, fried chicken wings and all the expected sides served up fresh and hot to order on demand. 200 N. Bowman Road. Beer, All CC. $$. 501-907-6453. LD daily. LOCA LUNA Grilled meats, seafood and pasta dishes that never stray far from country roots, whether Italian, Spanish or Arkie. “Gourmet plate lunches” are good, as is Sunday brunch. 3519 Old Cantrell Rd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-4666. L Sun.-Fri., D daily. LULAV Comfortably chic downtown bistro with continental and Asian fare. 220 A W. 6th St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-374-5100. BL Mon.-Fri., D daily. MILFORD TRACK Healthy and tasty are the key words at this deli/grill that serves breakfast and lunch. Hot entrees change daily and there are soups, sandwiches, salads and killer desserts. Bread is baked in-house, and there are several veggie options. 10809 Executive Center Drive, Searcy Building. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-223-2257. BL Mon.-Sat. OYSTER BAR Gumbo, red beans and rice (all you can eat on Mondays), peel-and-eat shrimp, oysters on the half shell, addictive po’ boys. Killer jukebox. 3003 W. Markham St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-7100. LD Mon.-Sat. OZARK COUNTRY RESTAURANT A longstanding favorite with many Little Rock residents, the eatery specializes in big country breakfasts and pancakes plus sandwiches and several meat-and-two options for lunch and dinner. Try the pancakes and don’t leave without some sort of smoked meat. 202 Keightley Drive. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-7319. B daily, L Mon.-Fri., D Thu.-Sat. PORTER’S JAZZ CAFE Nice takes on Southern cuisine are joined by chicken wings, a fabulous burger and a Sunday brunch that features an impressive array of breakfast and lunch foods at a reasonable price. 315 Main St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-324-1900. D daily, L Thu.-Fri. BR Sun. PURPLE COW DINER 1950s fare — cheeseburgers, chili dogs, thick milk shakes — in a ‘50s setting at today’s prices. Also at 11602 Chenal Parkway. 8026 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-221-3555. LD daily, BR Sat.-Sun 11602 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-4433. LD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. 1419 Higden Ferry Road. Hot Springs. Beer, All CC. $$. 501-625-7999. LD daily, B Sun. SALUT BISTRO This bistro/late-night hangout does upscale Italian for dinner and pub grub until the wee hours. But there’s no late-night food on Wednesday! 1501 N. University. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-660-4200. L Mon.-Fri., D Tue.-Sat. SBIP’S RESTAURANT Casual fine dining with sandwich and salads on its lunch menu. Sunday brunch, too. Try the Cro Que Monsieur sandwich or the weekend prime ribs. 700 E. Ninth St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-372-7247. LD Mon.-Sat. BR Sun. SCALLIONS Reliably good food, great desserts, pleasant atmosphere, able servers — a solid lunch spot. 5110 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-6468. L Mon.-Sat. SHORTY SMALL’S Land of big, juicy burgers, smoky barbecue platters and the signature onion loaf. 1100 N. Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-3344. LD daily. CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

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Central Arkansas weekly distribution — Find us in Pulaski, Saline, Garland and Faulkner counties. If you are interested in learning more about Mature Arkansas or how you could reach Arkansas’s seniors, please contact us at matureaarkansas@arktimes.com; Anne Wasson, Editor, or Katherine Daniels, Director of Sales, at 501-375-2985.

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JANUARY 25, 2012

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. SONNY WILLIAMS’ STEAK ROOM Steaks, chicken and seafood in a wonderful setting in the River Market. Steak gets pricey, though. Menu is seasonal, changes every few months. 500 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-324-2999. D Mon.-Sat. STAGECOACH GROCERY AND DELI Fine po’ boys and muffalettas — and cheap. 6024 Stagecoach Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-455-4157. BL daily. D Mon.-Fri. TERRI-LYNN’S BAR-B-Q AND DELI Highquality meats served on large sandwiches and good tamales served with chili or without (the better bargain). 10102 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-227-6371. LD Tue.-Sat. (10:30 a.m.-6 p.m.).

ASIAN

CURRY IN A HURRY Home-style Indian food with limited interior seating and a focus on fresh ingredients and spices. 1800 Pike Avenue. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-753-4400. LD Tue.-Sat. HANAROO SUSHI BAR One of the few spots in downtown Little Rock to serve sushi. With an expansive menu, featuring largely Japanese fare. 205 W. Capitol Ave. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-301-7900. L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat. LEMONGRASS ASIA BISTRO Fairly solid Thai bistro. Try the Tom Kha Kai and white wine alligator. 4629 E. McCain Blvd. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. 501-945-4638. LD Mon.-Sun. PHO THANH MY It says “Vietnamese noodle soup” on the sign out front, and that’s what you should order. The pho comes in outrageously large portions with bean sprouts and fresh herbs. 302 N. Shackleford Road. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-312-7498. SEKISUI Fresh-tasting sushi chain with fun hibachi grill and an overwhelming assortment of traditional entrees. 219 N. Shackleford Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-221-7070. LD daily. SHOGUN JAPANESE STEAKHOUSE The chefs will dazzle you, as will the variety of tasty stir-fry combinations and the sushi bar. 2815 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-6667070. D daily. WASABI Downtown sushi and Japanese cuisine. For lunch, there’s quick and hearty sushi samplers. 101 Main St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-374-0777. L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat.

BARBECUE

CHIP’S BARBECUE Tasty, if a little pricey, barbecue piled high on sandwiches generously doused with the original tangy sauce or one of five other sauces. 9801 W. Markham St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-225-4346. LD Mon.-Sat. DIXIE PIG Pig salad is tough to beat. It comes with loads of chopped pork atop crisp iceberg, doused with that wonderful vinegar-based sauce. The sandwiches are basic, and the sweet, thick sauce is fine. Serving Little Rock since 1923. 900 West 35th St. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-753-9650. LD Mon.-Sat.

EUROPEAN / ETHNIC

ARABICA HOOKAH CAFE Kebabs and salads along with just about any sort of Middle Eastern fare you might want, along with what might be the best kefte kebab in Central Arkansas. Halal butcher on duty. 3400 S. University Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-379-8011. LD daily. CREGEEN’S IRISH PUB Irish-themed pub with a large selection of on-tap and bottled British beers and ales, an Irish inspired menu and lots of nooks and crannies to meet in. 301 Main St. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-376-7468. LD daily. ISTANBUL MEDITERRANEAN CUISINE This Turkish eatery offers decent kebabs and great starters. The red pepper hummus is a winner.

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

So are Cigar Pastries. 11525 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-223-9332. LD daily. LE O ’S GR E E K CAS T LE Wonderful Mediterranean food plus dependable hamburgers, ham sandwiches, steak platters and BLTs. Breakfast offerings are expanded with gyro meat, pitas and triple berry pancakes. 2925 Kavanaugh Blvd. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-7414. BLD daily.

ITALIAN

CAFE PREGO Dependable entrees of pasta, pork, seafood, steak and the like, plus great sauces, fresh mixed greens and delicious dressings, crisp-crunchy-cold gazpacho and tempting desserts in a comfy bistro setting. Little Rock standard for 18 years. 5510 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-5355. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. CIAO Don’t forget about this casual yet elegant bistro tucked into a downtown storefront. The fine pasta and seafood dishes, ambiance and overall charm combine to make it a relaxing, enjoyable, affordable choice. 405 W. Seventh St. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-372-0238. L Mon.-Fri., D Thu.-Sat. IRIANA’S PIZZA Unbelievably generous handtossed New York style pizza with unmatched zest. Good salads, too; grinders are great, particularly the Italian sausage. 201 E. Markham St. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-374-3656. LD Mon.-Sat. PIERRE’S GOURMET PIZZA CO. EXPRESS KITCHEN The first RV entry into mobile food truck scene. With a broad menu of pizza, calzones, salads and subs. 760 C Edgewood Drive. No alcohol, No CC. $$. 501-410-0377. L Mon.-Fri. U.S. PIZZA Crispy thin-crust pizzas, frosty beers and heaping salads drowned in creamy dressing. 2710 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-2198. LD daily. 5524 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-664-7071. LD daily. 9300 North Rodney Parham Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-224-6300. LD daily. 3307 Fair Park Blvd. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-565-6580 ý. LD daily. 650 Edgewood Dr. Maumelle. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-851-0880. LD daily. 3324 Pike Avenue. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-758-5997. LD daily. 4001 McCain Park Drive. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-753-2900. LD daily. 5524 John F Kennedy Blvd. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-975-5524 ý. LD daily. ZAFFINO’S BY NORI A high-quality Italian dining experience. Pastas, entrees (don’t miss the veal marsala) and salads are all outstanding. 2001 E. Kiehl Ave. NLR. Beer, Wine, All CC. 501-834-7530. D Tue.-Sat.

MEXICAN

CANON GRILL Tex-Mex, pasta, sandwiches and salads. Creative appetizers come in huge quantities, and the varied maincourse menu rarely disappoints, though it’s not as spicy as competitors’. Happy hour from 3 p.m.-6 p.m. on weekdays and all day on Sat. and Sun. 2811 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-664-2068. LD daily. LA REGIONAL The menu offers a whirlwind trip through Latin America, with delicacies from all across the Spanish-speaking world (try the El Salvadorian papusas, they’re great). Bring your Spanish/English dictionary. 7414 Baseline Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-565-4440. BLD daily. TAQUERIA KARINA AND CAFE Freshly baked pan dulce, first-rate guacamole, inexpensive tacos, burritos, quesadillas and a broad selection of seafood. 5309 W. 65th St. Beer, No CC. $. 501-562-3951. LD Tue.-Thu.

Hey, do this!

➧

february

Food, Music, Entertainment and everything else that’s

FEB 14-16

Experience the phenomenon known as Blue Man Group at Robinson Center Music Hall.

JAN 27

The New York Times heralds the show as “one of the most delightful performance pieces ever staged.” Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with a Thursday matinee at 1 p.m. Tickets range from $27-$57 and are available by phone at 501-244-8800 or at the Celebrity Attractions ticket office at 300 S. Spring Street, Suite 100 in Little Rock. For more information, visit www.celebrityattractions.com.

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra performs with internationally acclaimed pianist Dmitri Alexeev on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at Robinson Center Music Hall as part of the Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series. Adult tickets range from $14-$52 and can be purchased by phone at 501-666-1761 or online at www.arkansassymphony.org. Children can get in free with the purchase of an adult ticket using the Entergy Kids Ticket which is available for download online at www.arkansassymphony.org.

Feb. 2

hillcrest shop ’n’ sip—Shop ’til 8pm and enjoy dining in one of the many area restaurants.

JAN 27-28

Verizon Arena hosts the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam, Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. It’s a loud, exciting spectacle with 10,000pound trucks as the stars of the show. Watch in amazement as the trucks go air born, clearing 14 cars in a single bound. Party in the Pits, a meet and greet with monster truck drivers, takes place before each show from 4:15-6:15 p.m. Tickets start at $20 for adults and $5 for children and are available through Ticketmaster online at www. ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800-745-3000.

Friday night is the much-anticipated opening night of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird. The show starts at 8 p.m. and includes a post-show reception with the cast. Complimentary champagne and light hors d’oeuvres will be served. For tickets, visit www.therep.org or call 501-378-0405.

JAN 28-29

JAN 31

FEB 2-4

Orchestra’s River Rhapsodies Series, the works of Mozart and P.D.Q

illuminates Little Rock for a fourth year with family fun and glowing entertainment in abundance. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children 6-12 and includes live entertainment, family activities and a cultural experience like no other in Central Arkansas with stops in these themed locations: China, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, India, Shakespeare’s England, Venice, American baseball and the moon! The festival takes place Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6-10 p.m. nightly. For more information, visit www.wildwoodpark.org.

As part of the Arkansas Symphony Bach will be performed at the Clinton Center Great Hall on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Tickets are $22 for adults and $10 for students and are available online at www. arkansassymphony.org or by phone at 501666-1761.

FEB 7

Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy, starring actress Candyce Hinkle (from 2010’s True Grit), concludes its run at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse on February 4. From February 7-March 11, the dinner theatre will present The Odd Couple, a revisited female version of Neil Simon’s classic hit. For show times and tickets, call 501-5623131. Visit www.murrysdinnerplayhouse.com for additional information.

LANTERNS!, Arkansas’ only deep-winter outdoor festival,

FEB 10

The Cellular Connection,

the largest Verizon retailer in the U.S., is hosting a grand opening celebration at its new North Little Rock location at 5001 JFK Boulevard, next to Subway. The event lasts all day, so stop in at any time for a chance to win a variety of prizes. Customers will also receive $50 off select Verizon devices.

➧

FEB 17

FEB 17-18

5-8 p.m. as dozens of local artists display and sell their work along Main Street in North Little Rock. Participating venues include Argenta Studios, The Creative Space, Crush Wine Bar, Greg Thompson Fine Art, the THEA Foundation, Starving Artist Café and more. The event takes place on the third Friday of every month. For more information, visit www.argentaartwalk.com.

motorcross production on tour in North America, rides into Verizon Arena. The show features the greatest freestyle motorcross riders ever assembled, including X Games 17 medalists Mike Mason, Ronnie Faisst and Adam Jones. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices vary from VIP Fallout Zone tickets for $125 to general admission for adults $30 and children $15. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster online at www.ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800-745-3000.

Argenta Art Walk takes place from

FEB 21

Lauren Kate, the internationally bestselling author of the young adult sensation the Fallen series, will be visiting WordsWorth Books & Co. on February 21, 2012 at 4PM. 5920 R St, Little Rock, 72207. Call (501) 663-9198 for more infomation.

FEB 11

The newest members of the Grand Ole Opry and CMA award nominees, Rascal Flatts will make a stop at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock on their 2012 Thaw Out Tour. Sara Evans and Hunter Hayes will open the show. Show time is 7:30. Tickets are $25.50, $40.25 and $60.25 and available through Ticketmaster online at www.ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800-745-3000.

Nuclear Cowboyz, the only theatrical freestyle

Feb. 24-26

Arkansas Flower & Garden Show is now in its second decade with even more to learn and see than ever before. Hosted at the Statehouse Convention Center, the 2012 show themed “Floral Notes” will feature presentations by garden experts Chris Olsen and Kelly Norris. Visitors will be inspired by beautiful gardens created by Arkansas’ leading landscape architects. Enjoy the new night garden feature with a unique insight into the nocturnal worlds. Visit arflowerandgardenshow.org or call 501.821.4000.Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors 60+, children under 12 FREE.

FU N!

FEB 27-MARCH 2

FEB 16

Don’t miss Heights Happy Hour from 10a.m.-5p.m. Local restaurants, shops and galleries offer discounts and free samples of food and drinks. This event takes place on the third Thursday of every month.

The Clinton Presidential Center hosts Dr. Seuss’ Weeklong Birthday Party. Local celebrities will read their favorite books and share the joy of reading with school children. Every child will receive a book from the Dr. Seuss collection and enjoy birthday cake. The event will be held at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Make your reservations now at 501-748-0419. For a complete calendar of events at the Clinton Center, visit www.clintonpresidentialcenter.org.

2012 Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase Schedule

Year after year, we recognize the best in local music. Here’s your chance to support your favorite Arkansas act, and, while you’re at it, you could discover a band that becomes your new favorite. All shows take place at Stickyz at 107 River Market Ave. in the River Market district. Show time is 9 p.m.

Jan. 26

Shining Rae The Holy Shakes The Coasts Vore

Feb. 2

JD Parker & The Tin Strings Lindsey Kate Band Don’t Stop Please Holy Angell

Feb. 9

Wes Patterson Tsar Bomba War Chief Se7en Sharp

Feb. 16

Wooden Toys Swampbird Joey Farr & The Fuggins Wheat Band Quadkiller

Feb. 24

Trasspassers Laundry for the Apocalypse Ben Franks & The Bible Belt Boys Jab Jab Sucker Punch

LAURAY’S signature diamond engagement ring. Alwand Vahan Bracelets from LAURAY’S.

JANUARY 25, 2012

Valentine’s Day gifts that sparkle and shine

“Simple Swoop” earrings, 14k yellow or white gold with natural gemstones or pearl drops, made in America, range from $200 to $275. STANLEY JEWELERS

f you’re vexed by the question of what to get your Valentine, allow us to help. Here we consult with local fine jewelers to see what’s in store and glean some advice on what to get that very special someone. Prepare to swoon! We begin at Lauray’s the Diamond Center, a family owned and operated third generation jewelry store located in the heart of downtown Hot Springs. Michel Gutman, Director of Sales, offers this advice when choosing a piece of jewelry for someone else. “Ask an expert! That’s what we’re here for. A true professional will always come up with the right piece of jewelry for that special someone. Everyone’s tastes are different. Most women love diamonds, but some don’t. Some love contemporary styles, while others prefer an antique look. Some like simple, and some like complex. The highly trained staff at Lauray’s will help you get it right every time.” When asked what types of jewelry or other gifts are traditionally the most popular for Valentine’s Day, Gutman responds, “At Lauray’s, we’re all about creating new traditions. With the largest and most versatile selection of jewelry you’ve ever seen, we’ll help you choose the perfect gift. From basic diamond stud earrings to elaborate one-of-akind pieces, Lauray’s has it all. Valentine’s Day is also a great time of year to ask the one you love for her hand in marriage, and our engagement rings are beautiful. Our 88-year tradition of being Hot Springs’ jeweler of choice makes Lauray’s the perfect place to get the best Valentine’s Day gifts. We specialize in helping you make the people you love very happy.” Kelley Naylor-Wise of Hillcrest Designer Jewelry has a lot of sound advice to impart and urges clients, above all, to follow their instincts. “When choosing a piece for someone else,” she says, “it’s extremely important to keep their individual style in mind. What kinds of pieces do they wear most often? Being aware of honoring someone’s tastes will help when browsing. I always ask my clients to pick one word that describes that person. It then becomes easier and fun to find something that fits the same style, like ‘classic,’ ‘eclectic,’ ‘artistic,’ ‘modern’ or ‘free-spirited.’ ” Naylor-Wise adds, “I also say, trust your gut feeling! You know the person you’re buying for and will feel it when the match clicks because you’ll easily be able to see them wearing that piece.”

hearsay ➥ High fashion meets high art. You won’t see them on the runway at Fashion Week, but the guest services and security staff at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art are sporting some exclusive designer fashions. Elements of the uniforms at the museum were designed by Arkansas’s own Korto Momolu. Momolu developed designs for a vest and sweater for the male employees, and a dress and blouse for the women. She also created a custom fabric print for the scarves and ties worn by guest services staff. The scarves in Crystal Bridges’ signature colors are reserved for staff members, but a variation of Momolu’s print is also available for purchase in the CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM STORE. ➥ Not your garden variety store. Take the coupon in this week’s issue to ADAM 36

JANUARY 25, 2012

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO ARKANSAS TIMES

AND EVE, a new romance/erotica super store that recently opened on South University, and receive a free t-shirt. Adam and Eve carries everything from lingerie, to bachelor and bachelorette gifts, to racy instructional manuals and games. ➥ Let’s bolt! CYNTHIA EAST FABRICS offers 20% off storewide through Saturday, January 28. This includes bolts and bolts of fabrics for upholstery, drapery, etc. Hours 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Time to recover that tired easy chair. ➥ Trish dish. Has winter gotten the best of your skin? B. BARNETT has just introduced the Power of Skincare Collection from Trish McEvoy, and we hear it’s suberb.

Our Way Of Saying Thanks Bring in this ad for a FREE t-shirt!

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Enamel & sapphire cuff bracelet, perfect for Valentines or Razorback Red, $1577. CECIL’S FINE JEWELRY When asked if she has a number one tip for buying V-day jewelry specifically, Naylor-Wise suggests, “Make the gift special by making it personal. What kind of special memories could be honored from your history or newly created with your choice? My advice is to go custom. It opens up so many more possibilities for creativity, and it’s uniquely perfect for your desired intention. Everyone feels special with a gift that is created only for them because of the thought and special attention required to make it happen. After all, the real value of gifts is the love exchanged and the personal connection expressed. Your gift is when you see the light in their eyes as they tell the story behind it over and over again.” Laura Stanley of Stanley Jewelers Gemologist advises, “Look for a piece you think will work with their current style and color palette, and if they give you hints, take the hint!” Of the earrings featured here, Stanley says, “I love the sleek and understated hook which is easy to put on and is designed to stay securely in the ear. And the briolette gem wiggles when you move, which is a nice contrast to the stationary top. Also the colors are fabulous, and they are very affordable.” She’s quick to add, “And women can never have too many earrings. It’s a fact.” So true. Stanley Jewelers will be open Saturday, February 11, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. for Valentine’s Day shoppers. Becky Whelan at Cecil’s Fine Jewelry suggests going the traditional route for Valentine’s Day, “I know it sounds corny but hearts, diamonds and anything red. This says it all.” She also offers this insight, “Don’t spend a lot of money on heart jewelry unless you know for sure that this is her passion. Stick to something basic like a diamond pendant.” Simple and sweet! In sum, the collective wisdom seems to be this: when choosing sweet somethings for your Valentine, just follow your heart—straight to your local jeweler. Look for more Valentine’s Day gift ideas in our February 8th issue.

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JANUARY 25, 2012

Looking for gnat omens

flatter myself to think you might remember that for several Januaries past I’ve done some tall moaning and groaning in this space about how this is the worst month of the year. Far and away. Without a close rival. August is the second worst, I reckon, but only in the sense that Twice a Prince ran second to Secretariat in the Belmont. I know August, Sen. Quayle, and August is no January. But this year, in keeping with a resolution I made at the dawn of the month, I foolishly determined in 2012 to accentuate the positive, and January does have a few plusses to go with its abundance of minuses. Its silver sunshine looks mighty good on the white-oak trees. The yellow broomsedge hides old dead pastures beneath amber waves as small as puddles and as big as lakes. You can walk in the woods without worrying about stepping on a snake. There are farkleberries. There are eagles. The cold wind coming down over the mountains is always clean, bluing the sky and stirring a kind of racial nostalgia for the Ice Age, when the glaciers pushed around our ancestors like so much moraine. Driving the icy roads infuses a nice little change-of-pace outing with considerable suspense.

You don’t do a lot of sweating in January so you can take a bath less often than the usual once a week. BOB There’s not as LANCASTER much street crime. It keeps all the big cats away, except for the snow leopards, and we never had much of a problem with them anyway. It’s so somber a month that you can go ahead with your solemn ceremonies like the Boy Martyr memorial without great concern that there’ll be disruptive laughter from disrespectful wags along the parade route. Wags stay indoors in January boning up on their mots. Here in Bug Tussle on the first sunny day around the end of January we have a tradition in which a critter emerges from its wintertime hidey hole to look for its lost shadow. That critter in Pennsylvania folklore is the groundhog; here it’s not. Here it isn’t the groundhog, or the hedgehog, or the wild boar, or the spirit of Wilbur, or the namesake of Hogwarts, or Boss Hogg or Bobby Petrino. Here it’s the dog-peter gnat. And here all the townspeople gather around the community’s biggest-petered dog on the appointed day waiting for the

legendary gnat to appear and assume its familiar circular flight path. We pass the time making bets on whether it will see its shadow if it does appear. And making further bets on what it means if it does see its shadow or if it doesn’t. We all try our hand at being a gnatpex, like the auspex or the haruspex of the olden days. Or most of us try our hand at it. Some just draw the shades and turn up the TV, believing that this whole dog-peter gnat business is just provincial hooey, tasteless, vulgar, and embarrassing. Nobody knows where dog-peter gnats spend the winter. They might seal themselves up in tiny cocoons that are spun by their womenfolk or by trolls. They might hitch a ride with bears into designated hibernation caves. They might hide under the wings or in the toejam of certain of the locusts and cicadas and find themselves buried alive as their hosts settle in for those underground siestas that last for 17 years. Or they might transmogrify back to the larval stage and attach themselves with homemade Gorilla glue to the backside of poison-ivy leaves to wait in dry dormancy for the April sun to pop them back into fully adult dog-peter gnattery. Or they might simply lay their eggs and croak, leaving it to the next dog-peter gnat generation to torment Phydeaux for no reason that any of the

higher fauna can see, meaning those that have at least one cell of brain and a single lick of sense. But those are just guesses. Nobody knows for sure. Nobody knows anything for sure about dog-peter gnats, including why you pronounce something with an “n” that starts with a “g.” It’s also uncertain how a dog-peter gnat could see its shadow, even if it were big enough to cast one. Like the elder Oedipus, it has no eyes to see a shadow or anything else with, as far as I can tell, and seems to use its sense of smell to pilot in narrowing circles around the object of its affection. Even its sense of smell may be limited to that one distinctive scent that attracts only lady dogs in season and dog-peter gnats. It probably can’t even smell a skunk, or a human’s breath after Parmesan cheese. There was a fistfight last year over what it means if the season’s first dog-peter gnat does or doesn’t see its shadow. I don’t remember how the fight turned out, but I’m fairly certain that it’s no omen whether it does or doesn’t. It doesn’t signify the date and time when the Rapture will rapture. It doesn’t tell you whether to bet over or under on the Super Bowl. It doesn’t predict who’ll win the presidential election. God tells Pat Robertson things like that. Dog-peter gnats don’t tell the rest of us diddly.

ARKANSAS TIMES CLASSIFIEDS Employment Field Workers-2 temporary positions; approx 9 months; Duties: to operate tractors in the soybean and rice fields for planting, maintenance of the crop and harvesting of the crop. General Farm Labor. $9.30 per hour; Job to begin on 3/1/12 through 11/30/12. 3 months experience required in job offered. All work tools provided. Housing and transportation provided to workers who can not reasonably return to their permanent residence at the end of the work day; _ guaranteed of contract. Employment offered by Anthony Plattsmier Farms located in Washington, LA . Worksite located in Washington, LA . Qualified applicants may call employer for interview (337)351-1766 or may apply for this position at their nearest State Workforce Agency using job order # 404575. For more info regarding your nearest SWA you may call (501) 682-7719

The Design Group, Arkansas’ LEADER in multicultural marketing seeks qualified candidate:

Advertising Account Executive

is responsible for identifying and developing relationships with clients, vendors & suppliers. Candidate must track and monitor project progress, develop work plans, coordinate the design, production, and writing of marketing materials. Must be able to prepare basic reports and use of the appropriate mode of communication, computer literate, comfortable with technology and the use of standard office programs and networks, and driven to meet or exceed client expectations. Must prepare and format reports using establish tracking standards. Candidate must have a BA in Marketing, Advertising or PR. Candidate must; assist in the development of new business, express ideas concisely, and clearly, both orally and in writing, have interpersonal skills, including the ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with others, and experience in serving the public in a courteous and professional manner.

designgroupmarketing.com

JANUARY 25, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

38 January 25, 2012 ARKANSAS TIMES

Field Workers-5 temporary positions; approx 10 months; Duties: to operate tractors during the preparation, planting and maintenance of the sugar cane crop before, during and after the harvesting season. $9.30 per hour; Job to begin on 3/1/12 through 1/1/13. 3 months of experience required in job offered. All work tools provided. Housing and transportation provided to workers who can not reasonably return to their permanent residence at the end of the work day; _ guaranteed of contract. Employment offered by Palo Alto, Inc. located in Donaldsonville, LA. Qualified applicants may call employer for interview (225) 4734303 or may apply for this position at their nearest State WorkforceAgency using job order # 403441. For more info regarding your nearest SWA you may call (501) 682-7719. Field Workers-5 temporary positions; approx 10 months; Duties: to operate tractors during the preparation, planting and maintenance of the crop before, during and after the harvesting season. $9.30 per hour; Job to begin on 3/1/12 through 12/31/12. 3 months experiencerequired in job offered. All work tools provided. Housing and transportation provided to workers who can not reasonably return to their permanent residence at the end of the work day; _ guaranteed of contract. Employment offered by Paul Milano Farms, Inc. located in Gonzales, LA. Worksite located in Sorrento, LA. Qualified applicants may call employer for interview (225)644-4610 or may apply for this position at their nearest State WorkforceAgency using job order # 404137. For more info regarding your nearest SWA you may call (501) 682-7719.

Business Opportunities ANY Car/Truck. Running or Not! Top Dollar Paid. We Come To You! Call For Instant Offer: 1-888-4203808 http://www.cash4car.com (AAN CAN) EARN $500 WEEKLY! Assemble products from home. For FREE information send SASE: Home AssemblyARA, P.O. Box 450 New Britain, CT 06050-0450 Rodan+Fields Dermatologists is seeking 3 to 5 entrepreneurs/ team builders/leaders to join our team as Independent Consultants in Arkansas. R+F is the new ground level, direct selling company by the creators of ProActiv and offers antiage and other skin care solutions. For more info, call Jeanie Berna at 501-551-4703.

Education Teach English Abroad! 4-week TEFL course in Prague. Job assistance worldwide. We have over 1500 graduates teaching in 60+ countries! www.teflworldwideprague.com info@teflworldwideprague.com

Miscellaneous Lonely Single Mom. Looking for a Mutually Beneficial Arrangement. ArrangementFinders.com Featured in USA Today and MAXIM

Miscellaneous PREGNANT? CONSIDERING ADOPTION? Talk with caring agency specializing in matching Birthmothers with Families nationwide. LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby’s One True Gift Adoptions 866-413-6293 (Void in Illinois) (AAN CAN)

Legal Notices Superior Court of California, County of San Diego Central Division, Juvenile Court, 2851 Meadow Lark , San Diego, CA 92123 In the matter of Serenity Nichole Mullins, date of birth, May 1, 2007 (minor) CITATION FOR FREEDOM FROM PARENTAL CUSTODY AND CONTROL Case# A57079 To: Jill Erin Gentry. You are advised that you are required to appear in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego, in Department 1 at the court location indicated above on Feb 10, 2012, at 9:00 am, to show cause, if you have any, why Serenity Nicole Mullins minor should not be declared free from parental custody and control (*for the purpose of placement for adoption) as requested in the petition.

Automotive CASH FOR CARS: Any Car/Truck. Running or Not! Top Dollar Paid. We Come To You! Call For Instant Offer: 1-888-420-3808 www.cash4car.com

Arkansas Times Flipside Advertise your business or event here for as little as

50 $100! $

Find out how!

Call Challis now at 375-2985!

Food Allergy? Traditional Chinese Medicine for the Treatment of Food Allergies

Are you allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish or shellfish? Arkansas Children’s Hospital is currently enrolling volunteers 12-45 years of age for a nine month research study that will determine the effectiveness of Chinese herbs for the treatment of food allergy. All study related visits and laboratory test are provided at no cost. Compensation will be provided. For more information, please call:

FLIPSIDE N E W

CALL OR EMAIL FOR DETAILS • SPECIAL RUNS THROUGH THE END OF JANUARY 2012

STUDIO1

Arkansas Children’s Hospital

PUBLIC AUCTION

501.650.1806

Retail Building Supplies & Materials: Ceramic Tile, Marble, Hardwood and Laminate Flooring, and Carpet; Hundreds of New Hanging Light Fixtures and Ceiling Fans; Huge Qty of Door Slabs, Pre-Hung Doors, Elaborate Entry Doors, Door Hardware, & Lock Sets; New ELECTROLUX, FRIGIDAIRE, WHIRLPOOL, and RELIANCE Appliances: Front Load Washers & Dryers, Dishwashers, Refrigerators, Freezers, Stoves, Ranges, Microwaves, Double Ovens, Water Heaters, Fire Place Inserts; New DEWALT, BOSTITCH, SENCO, PASLODE, MAKITA, PORTE CABLE, SKIL, and HITACHI Power Tools; Treated Lumber, Moulding/ Trim, Plywood Sheeting, Landscape Timbers, Drywall, and Concrete Block; Complete Hardware Store and Lumberyard Inventory; RUVO, NORFIELD, and FULLHOUSE Door Manufacturing Equipment; Various Box Trucks and Vehicles Arkansas Auction License # AR2250 Call (877) 357-8124 www.CharlestonAuctions.com

UAMS Research Study

Heart Connections Brings You The 2012 North Little Rock:

Needed for MRI study

Confidential. Compensation provided. For more information: http://psychiatry.uams.edu/birc_studies

(501) 526 526-8339

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MOVING TO MAC

www.movingtomac.com

Saturday, Jan 28 10:30am-6:30pm Sunday, Jan 29 11am-5pm

Rodan+Fields Dermatologists is seeking 3 to 5 entrepreneurs/team builders/leaders to join our team as Independent Consultants in Arkansas. R+F is the new ground level, direct selling company by the creators of ProActiv and offers anti-age and other skin care solutions. For more inFo, call Jeanie Berna at 501-551-4703.

NLR Community Center 2700 Willow St North Little Rock Admission: $5 ($2 Off with this ad)

          

For More Information: 501.955.2063 or 501.351.0962 sharpump@aol.com www.bodymindsoulexpos.com

cindy@movingtomac.com • 501-681-5855

! p a e g h n i C rtis

e v Ad

contact@studio-1-photo.com

FEMALE COCAINE USERS 5510 Landers Road, North Little Rock FRIDAY & SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3RD & 4TH AT 9AM Preview Inspection: Thur., Feb. 2nd 9AM-5PM

S P E C I A L

YOU CHOOSE YOUR OWN DEAL

Lynn at (501)364-1726 1 Children’s Way. Little Rock, AR 72202 Stacie Jones, MD, Principal Investigator

Y E A R

Advertise Your events, businesses or services

here

Call Challis to find out how.

375-2985

www.arktimes.com January 25, 2012 39

from Here

Retirement looks good

“

We take retirement living to new heights !

”

– Beth Ward

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WOODLAND

• Small Pets Welcome • Indoor Heated Saltwater Pool & Whirlpool • Emergency Pull-Cords • Billiards & Game Room • Beauty Salon & Barber Shop • Fitness Room, Exercise Classes & Activities/Fitness Director • Close To Four Of Arkansas’Best Medical Facilities

8700 Riley Drive

Little Rock, AR

H E IG H TS

Call Christy Tucker to schedule your tour today! 501.224.4242

reathtaking views of the surrounding hills, deluxe modern amenities and more – the

luxurious high-rise residences of Woodland Heights take retirement living to a whole new level. Tucked away in the serenity of nature yet only minutes from the bustle of the city, you’ll love life from our point of view.

woodlandheightsllc.com