Arkansas Times - May 31, 2018 by Arkansas Times

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From beef or turkey to portabella or veggie—or even with a gluten-free bun!—we really know how to ROCK burger week in central Arkansas. This event gives readers a chance to taste all of the best burgers that the Rock has to offer. THE BEST PART? Optional burger pricing: $10 or under (sides are an additional cost). WHAT ELSE DO READERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BURGER WEEK ROCK(S)? ¶ Restaurants WILL be busy, so: get there early, have a backup plan and maybe try again the next day. ¶ There will be a wait, since we’ve been talking about delicious burgers since May. ¶ You will tip as though the burger is regular price. This should go without saying, but step up to the plate with a 20% tip, and say “Thank you” for the sweet deal. ¶ Buy a beverage and maybe some other delectable food to enjoy with your burger. So, when appropriate, have a beer or cocktail. ¶ Stay updated with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and (of course) arktimes.com

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VOLUME 44, NUMBER 39

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COMMENT

The enemy within We defeated the Redcoats. Outsmarted the Wehrmacht. Stared down the Red Army and humiliated the Imperial Japanese Army. The oceans of American blood and tears that have been spent to defend our fragile democracy have etched a trail from Gettysburg to Washington, from the beaches of Normandy to Washington and from Hiroshima to Washington. For what? So we can have a president who doesn’t believe in military service arguing that military combat is no more dangerous than fighting off STDs in the Manhattan dating scene. Hey, Trump supporters, especially military veterans, offer up your proud and convincing defense of your commander in chief on that slimy score. C’mon, scream it from the rooftops! What about his taped admission that he sexually assaults women because it’s what they want? No one can deny he said it. So, women for Trump, stand up and espouse your praise for all men who demean and assault women because such criminal and debauched behavior is not in conflict with your skewed values. C’mon, scream it from the rooftops! And let’s not forget our president regards the Constitution as just scribbling on paper. In his narcissistic world, he and he alone is the governing force; whatever he wants to do he can do. He views the Oval Office as a nation state similar to the Vatican. The Constitution’s three branches of government exist at his pleasure to fulfill his personal agenda. The Constitution, as it was written, has no sway when it comes to emoluments, equal treatment under the law, freedom of speech … nope. Comrade President operates with impunity rejecting constitutional limits of power treating the three branches — executive, legislative and judicial — as portfolio holdings in Trump Properties. All you constitutionalists who support our president’s blatant and unrestrained moves toward totalitarianism, profess your support for creeping despotism. C’mon, scream it from the rooftops! Little did the brave and unselfish defenders of America’s freedom know that our democratic system would open its arms to the one person who wishes to destroy it. He’s the enemy within. And he’s succeeding. Harry Herget Little Rock

GOP vs. Pelosi 4

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

It seems like every Republican running for the House is campaigning against Nancy Pelosi. They believe that’s a battle they can win. In many cases they can. If Nancy would just announce that she would relinquish the position of speaker if the Democrats take back the house, Democratic success would be assured. Nancy knows this. The question is, will she put the good of the party and the country ahead of her ego and political ambitions? P.S.: It wouldn’t hurt for Hillary to

keep her head down for a while as well. The Republican rank and file appears to be particularly frightened by grandmothers. David Rose Hot Springs

team. Sound Policy This is not the Christian Ten Commandments, this is God’s 10 Commandments he gave to the Israelites. We live on this Earth to follow these commands that God has given us. Xavier Walls

From the web In response to the May 23 Arkansas Blog post “Two lawsuits challenge 10 Commandments monument at Arkansas Capitol”: Game on. My money is on the ACLU

Xavier, you are free to believe what you wrote, but the rest of us are free not to believe what you wrote, because our country was founded on the principle of freedom of religion. Christianity is a fairly widespread religion, or assembly of stated (as opposed to followed) beliefs, but Christianity is not even universal. The ACLU is likely to win legal contests, but my read is [state Sen. Jason] Rapert doesn’t care, as his intent is simply to activate the sheep to donate money to him, so he does not have to find a real means of earning a living.

WE SPEAK SPANISH, DO YOU NEED HELP?

deadseasquirrel

It’s win-win for Bro’ Rapert and his inert Block O’ Rock of moral instruction. If the suits are successful in forcing removal, Rapert gets to play the bogus victim-of-Christian-persecution card to the hilt (in front of TV cameras) accompanied, no doubt, by a band of nutters attempting to surround the block in an attempt to prevent [the monument’s] removal and provoke arrest. Should the monument be removed under cover of darkness, as some recent Confederate monuments were removed, one can imagine the subsequent sermons regarding “evil working under the cover of darkness,” “thieves stealing the Lawd’s word”, etc., etc., ad nauseum. If the suits aren’t successful, Rapert gets to crow (in front of TV cameras) about a “moral victory” and how the Lawd’s will prevailed against “heathen atheists.”

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In response to a May 27 Arkansas Blog post about insurance industry worries over arming teachers: 19 Arming teachers is an especially terrible idea. Yes, the yahoos who pay for a training session to allow them to obtain a concealed-carry permit like to think they are as competent as a trained policeman. They aren’t. Not even close. The insurance companies have it right, and the yokels in the legislature are dead wrong. Pavel Korchagin

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arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

EYE ON ARKANSAS

WEEK THAT WAS

Blow to abortion in Arkansas

The Arkansas affiliate of the ACLU has filed its promised lawsuit against the Ten Commandments monument recently re-erected on the state Capitol grounds. The Freedom From Religion Foundation also filed a separate 6

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

Ten Commandments monument challenged

FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE AMPHITHEATER: There was a fireworks display during Tracy Lawrence’s concert at RiverFest.

BRIAN CHILSON

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear Planned Parenthood’s appeal of an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that could force the end of medical abortions in Arkansas at clinics in Fayetteville and Little Rock and reduce the state to one operating surgical abortion clinic. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case even though it had decided in a similar Texas case that a law requiring doctors performing abortions to have hospital admitting privileges placed a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking abortions. Federal District Judge Kristine Baker had issued a temporary restraining order on the similar 2015 Arkansas law, but was reversed by the 8th Circuit because, it said, Baker hadn’t specified how many women would be affected. Planned Parenthood said it had found no doctors willing to enter a contract because of fear of retribution. Bettina Brownstein, an attorney for the plaintiffs, including Planned Parenthood and Little Rock Family Planning, which provides both medicinal and surgical abortions, said the decision means that as soon as the mandate is received, which could be at any time, the clinics will have to obey the law and stop providing drug abortions pending further court action. But she said the plaintiffs would renew a request for a temporary restraining order from Baker to hold the law in abeyance while testimony continues about the obstacles presented to women by the state law. The conservative posture of the 8th Circuit is problematic, she acknowledged. The developments are “very worrisome,” she said. Brownstein naturally believes the 8th Circuit ruling was in clear error given the Texas precedent and holds out hope for an eventual win at the U.S. Supreme Court. But, in the meantime, the extent of availability of abortion in Arkansas could be restricted shortly.

federal lawsuit against the monument. In the ACLU suit, four women who bike and walk past the monument regularly — Donna Cave, Judith Lansky, Pat Piazza and Susan Russell — say they are offended by the promotion of religion on the Capitol grounds. The lawsuit argues it is a violation of the establishment clause for the state to promote the Christian religion over others. The plaintiffs in the Freedom From Religion Foundation include the FFRF, the American Humanist Association,

the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers and seven individual plaintiffs who are religious and nonreligious citizens of Arkansas: Joan Dietz, Gale Stewart, Rabbi Eugene Levy, Rev. Victor H. Nixon, Teresa Grider and Walter Riddick. Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway), who sponsored legislation to allow the monument, claims it is about the historical basis of law. The ACLU lawsuit details, through Rapert’s own words and those of others, the establishment of this monument and rejection of others is in fact all about declaring primacy for the Christian religion. Funding primarily came from evangelical churches and they were prominently represented at monument unveiling. The monument was paid for with private donations. A driver plowed his car into the first monument. The man, who’d destroyed a similar monument in Oklahoma, is hospitalized at the State Hospital. Four bollards protect the new monument.

Rutledge pushed to certify ballot proposals The Arkansas Supreme Court got Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s attention last week with its order that

she comply with the law and either certify proposed ballot initiatives or propose language more acceptable to her. In response, she certified two ballot proposals that would legalize casino gambling; one that would appoint a legislative redistricting commission with some members free of partisan connections; and one that would lift the $8.50 hourly minimum wage to $12 in stages, finishing in 2022. In a statement, Rutledge blamed the law and the state Supreme Court for her refusal to certify any of 70 proposals submitted for her review since 2016, including the minimum wage increase, which was identical to law put on the ballot and approved by voters previously. “I have issued opinions on ballot proposals based on standards set forth in statutes as well as case law of the Arkansas Supreme Court. However, the Arkansas Supreme Court has once again muddied the waters on these standards by offering no insight in its decision requiring me to certify or substitute language of a ballot title that I had previously rejected.” The certification allowed backers of three proposals to publish their proposals and begin the petition process, with hopes of achieving signatures by July 6 — no easy task.

OPINION

Election trends

tems of interest that emerged from primary and “nonpartisan” judicial elections last week.

• GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON: Thirty percent of Republican primary voters apparently bought into Jan Morgan’s overheated pitch that Hutchinson is a liberal, Muslim-coddling, tax-raising, gun confiscator. This was not a troubling percentage politically for Hutchinson. But to an Arkansas citizen in precincts where most voters are Republicans it means that every third person you meet is, well, maybe a brick shy. It was a very good primary for Hutchinson, in fact. Two Asa irritants in the Senate, Linda Collins-Smith and Bryan King, were defeated by challengers who backed Hutchinson on the state’s continued participation in the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. Three incumbent Republican representatives narrowly survived primary challengers in Benton County, essentially a win for the Republican establishment.

Jared Henderson, a bright and energetic newcomer, easily won the Democratic primary to challenge Hutchinson, MAX BRANTLEY who will now don maxbrantley@arktimes.com a moderate suit stuffed with corporate cash. • CONGRESS: State Rep. Clarke Tucker (D-Little Rock) demolished the narrative from some pundits that his race was an example of an existential battle over the meaning of the Democratic Party. He easily beat three good progressives for the right to take on Republican Rep. French Hill in the fall. Tucker is precisely the sort of new blood the Democratic Party needs. The Republicans demonstrated just how much peril Tucker presents to Hill, a Wall Street-coddling supporter of Donald Trump. The national party, Tom Cotton’s PAC and Hill himself are flooding media with ads attempting to

Darkly paid judges

his is the third Arkansas election cycle in a row where corporate interests have used the cover of dark money and semisecret political action committees to try to install cozy appellate judges. We will have to wait until November to see how successful they are. Thanks to some $2 million of dark money for TV and mail ads in the final days of the race, their candidate, David Sterling, reached a runoff last week with Justice Courtney Goodson, who is ending her first term on the Supreme Court. Goodson had once been their favorite, before she cast a couple of votes to void a Republican act that had undermined people’s right to damages when they or their family members are killed, injured or damaged financially. Instead of a beneficiary, she is now the prey. More about that in a minute. First, let’s review how we got here. It started with the famous Powell Memo in 1971. Lewis Powell, a rich Virginia lawyer who was on 11 corporate boards, wrote a lengthy manifesto to the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recommending that the chamber, corporations and rich businessmen set up an elaborate propaganda system to increase

their power and protection in all three branches of government, through lobbying, conservative think tanks and money directed to candidates who would favor them in the three branches. Installing the right judges was particularly important to taxation and aggressive regulation of business. “Under our constitutional system, ERNEST especially with an DUMAS activist-minded Supreme Court, the judiciary may be the most important instrument for social, economic and political change,” he wrote. Two months later, President Nixon put Powell on the U.S. Supreme Court. His memo went viral. Soon, the Heritage Foundation was formed to pump out pro-business and anti-government solutions. The Koch brothers started the Cato Institute and the Bradley Foundation. Scores of other organizations followed. When Powell penned his memo, 175 corporations had registered lobbyists. Now, 12,000 are registered in the District of Columbia alone — Donald Trump’s swamp. Owing to Nixon’s four appointees to

link Tucker to Nancy Pelosi. Tough, competent women are poison to the average Fox viewer. PS: Tucker has said he won’t support her for leadership.

once ruled in favor of plaintiffs in a damage lawsuit. Does this mean a backlash to dark money in judicial races? We’ll learn more in the runoff in November, when a tool of special interests and the Republican Party, David Sterling, will again be backed by a tsunami of dirty money.

• JUDICIAL ELECTIONS: The nominally nonpartisan elections have become increasingly partisan, with candidates from circuit court up endeavoring to identify themselves as Republicans, or • PULASKI COUNTY: Two Africanthe judicial equivalent. Americans won primary races for county Republican or dark money forces put office. Eric Higgins, with no November $2 million into races for state Supreme opposition, will be the first black sheriff. Court and state Court of Appeals, and Terri Hollingsworth faces a Republican the news wasn’t bad. for county-circuit clerk. Court of Appeals Judge Bart Virden This may or may not prove signifisurvived a dishonest Republican attack cant in time. Democratic primary voting that attempted to skew his judicial includes a disproportionate percentage decision upholding the Constitution of black voters in Pulaski County. Few as pampering a criminal. In the GOP blacks vote Republican. Higgins and world, all defendants are presumed Hollingsworth clearly enjoyed at least guilty and cops and prosecutors never some racial crossover in the Democratic do wrong except when investigating primary, but racially identifiable votDonald Trump. ing patterns often prevail in Pulaski Even more surprising was the fact County. Could primary nomination of that Justice Courtney Goodson led the African-Americans provide openings ticket over two challengers, one heav- for Republican wins at the county level ily backed by dark and dirty money, the in Pulaski general elections because of other merely the preferred choice of white resistance to black candidates? local fat cats unhappy that Goodson It’s an unhappy thought to ponder.

the Supreme Court, the fruits of Powell’s memo were swift. The court said corporations had the same fundamental human rights as, well, humans. In 1976, in Buckley v. Valeo, the court ruled that money was speech and laws that limited how much businesses and the rich could spend to elect people who would favor them limited their right to express themselves. People with more money have a right to more speech. Weeks later, the court held that the Constitution’s double-jeopardy ban did not apply only to men charged with crimes, but to corporations like gun makers and suppliers in civil matters. In 1977, the court barred government limits on corporate political spending, which would be a bonanza for hugely funded groups like the National Rifle Association. “The special status of corporations,” wrote the dissenting Justice Byron White, “has placed them in a position to control vast amounts of economic power which may, if not regulated, dominate not only our economy but the very heart of our democracy, the electoral process.” More such decisions followed, down to Citizens United in 2010, which encouraged corporations to set up nonprofit entities that could spend directly out of their general treasuries to affect elections and keep the identities of the real donors secret.

Arkansas is always behind big social and economic movements, so it was not until 10 years ago, after the Republican Party became dominant, that its courts came under sway and shadowy groups like the Law Enforcement Assistance Alliance of America and the Judicial Crisis Network spent millions from secret sources to defeat or elect judges on the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Although political parties are bound by law to stay out of judicial elections, Courtney Goodson, a Republican lawyer from Fayetteville, was favored by the GOP, the state chamber and business groups when she ran for the Supreme Court in 2010. Only months after taking office, however, she wrote the unanimous opinion of the court striking down part of a 2003 law that limited damages people could get in civil suits against businesses for injury, neglect or financial losses. The next year, she joined all the other justices in striking down the rest of the law. The state Constitution, in the strongest language anywhere in the document, bars the legislature from restricting people’s right to full remedies when they were wronged. It made Goodson forever a pariah to her old allies, but it should make her, for once in her career, everybody else’s friend.

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arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

On Philip Roth

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he recent death of Philip Roth, sey regionalist — a state perched on the America’s greatest living novel- ragged edge of the continent, half-immiist, came as shock. Although he grant and half-Midwestern. Unofficial was 85, and had written movingly of his motto: “Oh yeah, who says?” failing health, the strength of his voice A place where everybody was on the never faltered. “Old age isn’t a battle,” edge of becoming something else, where Roth wrote in his 2007 novel “Every- chutzpah was a virtue and aggravating man.” “Old age is a massacre.” specimens like Roth’s frantic onanist A few years later, he’d made a wry Alexander Portnoy were everywhere. To joke about his forthcoming obituary: my surprise, Roth “Even in death, you get a bad review!” wrote asking how And so it was. Scarcely had news of somebody in LitRoth’s death registered among his mil- tle Rock knew so lions of readers than both The New York much about New Times and Washington Post weighed in Jersey. with columns complaining of his literAfter an GENE LYONS ary sins. Both read like parodies of the exchange of letkind of moralistic cant his work had ters, he invited me to visit him at his always inspired. East 79th Street apartment the next time In the Times, one Dara Horn com- I came to Manhattan. We got on easily. plained that Roth failed to accurately Roth was a warm, witty conversationalportray persons like herself: “The Jew- ist. He offered to help me place an essay ish New Jersey women I know are tal- called “The Artificial Jewboy” — the ented professionals in every field, and title cribbed from Flannery O’Connor, often in those two thankless professions the themes from “Portnoy” — about that Roth quite likely required to thrive: growing up Irish Catholic in a Jewish teachers and therapists,” she scolded. neighborhood. Alas, the novelist “never had the imagi“So they said things about the goyim nation to give these women souls.” at the Portnoy dinner table as we said Horn gave no sign of having read about the Kikes — and apparently with anything more recent than the anarchic a good deal more frequency and less 1969 satire “Portnoy’s Complaint,” leav- ambivalence,” I wrote. “So what? I knew ing her roughly 30 books behind. that already.” On the other hand, maybe my It was Portnoy’s struggles with ethnic kvetching about dopey columns in the tribalism that I’d found liberating. Jewface of the great outpouring of heart- ish? Irish? Everybody’s grandma knew felt responses Roth’s death inspired how to fasten a straightjacket. makes me uncomfortably like one of his Today, the piece strikes me as preobsessed, irascible characters. The New tentious juvenilia. Even so, Roth saw York Times Book Review assembled promise, made a few suggestions, and a list of writers as various as Michael persuaded Moment, a Jewish literary Lewis, Stephen King, Daphne Merkin, magazine, to publish it — the only kind Richard Ford and Joyce Carol Oates — of periodical that could have risked 23 in all — to weigh in on their favorite doing so. He helped with other essays Roth novels. too, and vouched for me with editors For me, it’s “My Life as a Man,” along I’d never have approached on my own. with Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1997 Many owed him a similar debt of novel “American Pastoral,” an elegiac gratitude; the writers and editors Roth saga of American lives coming apart nurtured are legion. during the Vietnam years — a psychic A year or two later, Diane and I viswound that’s nowhere close to healing. ited Roth at his retreat in the ConnectiIt’s the story of how a man, a family, and cut Berkshires. On a walk in the woods, a city can seemingly have everything he complimented my wife to me — an and then suddenly nothing under the Arkansas girl occasionally patronized awful pressure of what Roth called “the to her face by New England academics. indigenous American berserk.” He liked it that she wasn’t awed by his We’d fallen out of touch in recent fame, and hadn’t yet decided what she years, Roth and I. Back in 1973, I’d writ- thought of him apart from it. ten a review of his baseball book, “The America’s infamous literary misogyGreat American Novel,” in the Arkansas nist had grasped her emotional integrity Gazette. It argued that Roth was not so in a single take, and told me how lucky much a “Jewish” writer as a New Jer- I was to have her.

Primary thoughts

hile results from Arkansas’s it came to women candidates. primary elections last week In several key races, gender mattered. are still not final, they are ce- The most telling examples were in two mented enough for some analysis of the closely matched numbers. A few observations: Democratic pri1) The continued demise of the (Dem- maries for the ocratic) primary. Certain enclaves of state House in the the state showed intensity regarding two most socially primary season, but it lacked the state- progressive diswide energy of primaries of the not- tricts in the state. that-distant past. Overall, participation In a Little Rock JAY BARTH in primaries has shrunk from approxi- district centered mately 380,000 voters in the 2010 elec- in the Hillcrest neighborhood, Tippi tion cycle to 310,000 last week. Increas- McCullough gained a solid victory over ingly, Arkansas voters see the real action environmental attorney Ross Noland, as taking place in a November general while in downtown Fayetteville progreselection. Turnout did vary wildly across sive attorney Nicole Clowney thumped the state from three counties with sin- a veteran vote getter — Fayetteville City gle-digit percentage turnout rates (two Council member Mark Kinion — with a Delta counties and Union County in the campaign that focused on the need for south) to several rural counties with more women in public office. primaries involving well-known candiIt also mattered in Terri Hollingdates locally exceeding 40 percent (Lee sworth’s surprisingly easy win for the County, with an intense state representa- Pulaski County Clerk nomination (she tive race front-and-center, led the pack does face a GOP opponent). If elected, with 45 percent turnout). Hollingsworth would join Sheriff-elect Just as importantly, the partisan skew Eric Higgins who, in the local upset of of primary participation has continued the evening, beat a candidate backed by to trend Republican, with GOP par- popular incumbent “Doc” Holladay, as ticipation increasing from just under the first African-American officehold150,000 voters in 2010 to 180,000 in ers in well over a century in the county. 2014 to just over 200,000 voters this year Most interestingly, while Higgins and and statewide Democratic participation Hollingsworth ran up overwhelming plummeting from 334,665 in 2010 to majorities in predominantly Africanjust over 100,000 this year. The result is American precincts, they also performed that, as late as 2010, about 70 percent of solidly in (and often won) majority white primary voters chose a Democratic bal- precincts, showing Democratic voters’ lot, but in 2018, just under two-thirds desire for candidates who visibly reflect asked for a GOP ballot. Only renewed their outsider status. Democratic success in statewide elec3) That Mysterious Race for SUPCO. tions will rehabilitate interest in the The race that no one could confidently party’s primary. prognosticate was the three-way race A real beneficiary of low turnout was for Supreme Court justice. Though we Democratic 2nd District Congress nomi- now know the two candidates who will nee Clarke Tucker. Pre-election polling advance to the runoff — incumbent Jusfrom Talk Business & Politics/Hendrix tice Courtney Goodson and GOP activist College showed Tucker with particular David Sterling — the results from May strength among older, better-educated 22 and the ultimate winner remain a consistent participants in Democratic mystery. primaries. That is who showed up last A quick regression analysis of voting week and aided Tucker in his surpris- patterns across the 75-county results ingly strong primary win. shows that the big surprise, consider2) Supply meets demand. As the filing Sterling’s GOP allegiances, is that ing period closed, I noted the dramatic Goodson over-performed in counties uptick in Democratic “outsiders,” candi- with high rates of GOP primary particidates representing groups too often left pation while Sterling did worse in heavy out of Arkansas politics. The key ques- GOP counties. tion was whether voters — the “shopRemarkably, the two large and fastpers” who make choices about electoral growing counties in Northwest Arkansas “products” — would be as keen on sup- had tiny turnout rates: Benton (12 perporting these candidates when given the cent) and Washington (14 percent). They chance. The answer from May 22 was a are monsters that will roar in Novemfairly resounding yes, particularly when ber. arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

GUEST COLUMN

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he Arkansas School Safety Com- Red-flag Laws make sense because they mission has been discussing im- keep guns out of the hands of people who portant steps that can be taken show warning signs of possible violent to keep students safe. It is considering actions against others or themselves. factors like mental health, prevention Red-flag laws — also known as programs and school infrastructure as Extreme Risk Protective Orders — can part of a comprehensive plan. And while also help prevent suicide, which makes school security can help mitigate the up nearly two crises we currently face, volunteers at thirds of gun deaths Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in this country. in America believe the key to preventing Between 2012 and gun violence in our schools is to keep 2016, suicide by gun guns out of the hands of people with accounted for 61 EVE dangerous histories. percent of suicides JORGENSEN Requiring background checks for all in Arkansas, killing Guest Columnist gun sales, implementing and enforcing over 1,600 Arkansas red-flag laws and enacting other com- residents. On average, one Arkansas resimon-sense gun laws would not only dent dies by gun suicide every 21 hours. make our schools safer, but those posi- Since Connecticut passed a red-flag law, tions enjoy broad support from the pub- researchers estimate that the law has lic, including gun owners. These are com- already averted an estimated 72 or more mon sense solutions that don’t involve suicides. putting more guns into our schools and Red-flag bills have been introduced are much less controversial and proven or carried over in 29 states and D.C. this to be effective. After all, if guns every- year. Florida’s red-flag Law passed with where for everyone made us safer, we’d bipartisan support and was signed by Gov. be among the safest states in the nation Rick Scott on March 9, 2018, in the wake and safest countries in the world. of the Parkland mass shooting. Many people assume background Since studies show most mass shootchecks are required on all gun sales, but ings involve domestic or family violence, this is not true. Criminal background another way to keep communities safe is checks are only required for sales con- to tighten laws to keep guns away from ducted by licensed dealers. Often called domestic abusers and to close the “boy“the gun show loophole,” this exception friend loophole.” By that I mean that is easy to exploit. The loophole makes when abusers are convicted of misdeit easy for convicted felons or domes- meanor domestic violence crimes or tic abusers to acquire guns without a subject to final restraining orders, they background check simply by finding an should be blocked from purchasing guns unlicensed seller online or at a gun show. and required to relinquish those they When Connecticut passed a law requir- already own. We also need to close the ing background checks for all handgun “boyfriend loophole” — by making sure sales, the state saw a 40 percent reduc- those laws apply to abusers regardless of tion in gun homicides and a 15 percent whether the violence is directed towards reduction in gun suicides. a spouse. Requiring comprehensive backWe know that when forming this ground checks is not controversial; a poll commission, the governor wanted to in February found that 97 percent of vot- take strengthening gun laws off the table. ers support legislation to require crimi- However, this commission is tasked with nal background checks on every gun sale. making recommendations to protect our The foundation of any comprehensive students. We cannot, and should not have gun violence prevention strategy must this conversation without discussing be background checks for all gun sales. ways to effectively keep guns out of the The next step is for Arkansas to join hands of people who are known to be a the growing number of states with red- risk of committing violent acts. These flag laws. This policy lets family mem- common-sense solutions are backed by bers and law enforcement petition a evidence, unlike arming teachers and judge to temporarily block a person from other school personnel. Enacting comhaving guns if a court finds that they mon-sense laws must be part of any compose a danger to themselves or others. If prehensive school safety plan. Florida had a red-flag law, like they now do, the Parkland school shooter’s famEve Jorgensen is the chapter lead for ily or police could have asked a judge to Arkansas Moms Demand Action for Gun order a temporary removal of his guns. Sense in America.

Conger AR TIMES 2018.pdf

Selfreliance

e swore last week would be the final graduation story, but permit us one last one, for old-time’s sake. On Thursday last week, Junior got duded up in his cap and gown and tassel and strangle of cords denoting his participation in various clubs and then joined in the three-and-a-half hour slow-motion endurance race that is Little Rock Central High School’s graduation festivities at Verizon Arena. From way up in the stands, proud Ma and Pa and a passel of our relatives watched until we saw Junior file in, then tracked him with our eyes to his seat, noting where he was so we could find him later in the sea of black robes. Four speeches, some kind words by the superintendent and then began the calling of the names, proceeding at last to Junior’s section, then Junior’s row, then Junior himself, striding across the stage with such nervous energy that it looked like he dang near took the hand off Principal Nancy Rousseau when it came time for the grip-n-grin for the photographer. As promised last week, Proud Papa was unable to keep himself together, though we contained it to a trickle of tears instead of the full blown, “where’s my blankie?” episode we’d feared. Junior made his way back to his seat, and as the roll call continued, Junior’s mother noticed he was leaning forward, speaking animatedly to the people in the next row up. In the stands, we watched as he took the black-andgold tassel from his mortarboard and handed it forward to a person in the row in front of him. The bottom of the list was finally reached, and the crowd was released into a muggy May night, the far horizon crawling with storms beating with lightning. The Observer hurried around to the street-level tunnel on the south side of Verizon, where the newly graduated would be released into an unprepared world. After a while, we saw Junior and rushed up to him, still in his gown and tie, looking so smart and handsome with his leatherette diploma folder under his arm. After plentiful huzzahs, back-slapping and cheek-kisses that he wiped away embarrassed the same way he did when he was 4 years old, we finally got around to the question that had been with us

1/10/18

2:13 PM

Confident Financial Choices THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

half the night: What did he do with the tassel from his mortarboard? He’d given it away, the graduate explained, to a friend a row up who realized he’d lost his somewhere between the stage and his seat. Why, The Observer asked, had Junior done a damn fool thing like that, given that it was definitely something we would have liked to squirrel away in the hope chest? “He said his parents would kill him for losing his tassel before they could take pictures with him, so I gave him mine,” Junior explained. Then he added darkly: “He’s Indian, dad. Indian parents don’t screw around.” While we admit we lack a frame of reference for whether that’s true, Junior knows a heck of a lot more young folks of all sorts than we do, so we’re going to go with: probably true. Whatever the case, we were proud of him, yet again, for thinking of another instead of himself. He’s just not about the material things. Whether that means we’ve done him right or laid the foundations for his future life on the streets of this wholly materialistic nation, we don’t know. At that point, we realized we still hadn’t seen his sheepskin, so there on the sidewalk under the streetlights, with the happy graduates and families streaming past and lightning haunting the horizon, we readied our camera, told him to open up his folder and let us see that diploma. “I didn’t get one,” Junior said woefully. “I lost a book, so they gave me a bill.” He flipped open his folder and there, on very nice paper in a very nice font, was Junior’s full, legal name, along with: “Self Reliance and Other Essays: $10.” He held it up, and as best his Old Man could through gales of laughter, we held the camera steady and pushed the button, freezing that moment, Junior’s bemused face and his final tab for as long as pixels can float in the pixelated ether. As we told him that night: We swear before all that is holy we’re going to get his last bill professionally framed and matted for the wall of the Observatory, because it kind of says it all about what raising him has been like, and because we guarantee seeing it will never fail to give Junior’s Old Man a smile. Always full of surprises, that one. C

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MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

ome of the best news from last week’s primary election was from Arkansas House Minority Leader David Whitaker of Fayetteville, who pointed out that the House Democratic Caucus immediately gained three women after Tippi McCullough, Jamie Scott and Nicole Clowney all defeated their primary opponents and face no GOP opposition in November. Considering the caucus only had three women as members before last Tuesday’s election, the addition of McCullough, Scott, and Clowney reflects a shift in politics in Arkansas. We saw issues such as school safety, childcare costs and women’s access to health care play a larger role in the primaries than in the past. The women who run for office this year, win or lose, will automatically be potential contenders in future races. Hopefully, as I lamented in my “Future is Female” column last year, we are done hearing the names of the same men over and over as potential candidates. Thanks to these women, along with the progressive men who stepped up and ran this year, the Democrats will have a larger, more diverse pool of future candidates. The bench is deepening. Speaking of women, as I was scrolling through Facebook this past weekend, I noticed an ad in my feed I thought surely was a joke. Here was the World Woman Foundation bragging that that Governor Hutchinson would headline and give opening remarks at the World Woman Summit in Little Rock this October. After I realized it was no joke, I figured this was one of those right wing groups masquerading as a women’s empowerment organization. Wrong again. Or at least from what I’ve read, it doesn’t seem that way. The website does have a testimonial from UN Ambassador Nikki Haley but also praise from Green Party 2016 presidential nominee Jill Stein and Senator Kamala Harris (D-California). Last year’s line up seemed to be an impressive and diverse mix of entrepreneurs and experts and also included Hutchinson as an opener. The conference is billed as “a source of inspiration and support that connects and empowers women around the world” and, last year, covered topics such as violence against women and global health equity for women. So why is Governor Hutchinson, who earlier this month was bragging about his primary endorsement from President Donald Trump, an admitted sexual assaulter, proponent of cutting health care to women and

obvious racist, involved in this summit? I know the answer. We are honoring him for being the governor of Arkansas. He is expected to appear at events, smile and say a few words and we are expected to clap. But when does it become appropriate to set aside the respect for the office to express our anger at the office holder? We’ve seen this very issue play out on the national level with more and more athletes and artists refusing the traditional White House visit to avoid meeting with Trump. While some centrists and RepubAUTUMN licans accuse those TOLBERT who take a stand against Trump of being “divisive” or “politicizing an event,” the members of the teams and the award winners are actually reacting to Trump’s own divisive comments and policies. It seems those with the least to lose are the first to cry for the loss of civility and respect of a president who is neither civil nor respectful of others. I’ll admit Hutchinson is no Trump, but he still has done very little to protect Arkansas residents from the authoritarian, anti-women policies of this administration. It seemed promising when, early on, Hutchinson had harsh criticism for Trump during the 2016 presidential primary, but they seem to be big buddies after a recent meeting that resulted in the endorsement and an agreement to send Arkansas National Guard to help secure the border. Are we just months away from seeing Hutchinson go all in and begin to refer to himself as a “deplorable?” That’s why the primary results are so sweet to many women and families in Arkansas. While Hutchinson continues to do everything to keep his conservative base happy, he is failing to prevent Arkansas from being on track to bottom out in education, health care, and infant mortality ratings. It’s a good thing so many in the Democratic Party are waking up to the idea that a diverse group of progressive women are the new force in state politics. And even though some still insist on referring to them as the “fairer sex,” don’t expect this group to always clap and be civil. They’ve watched as legislature put guns on college campuses, take money from public schools and given tax cuts to the rich. With apologies to Howard Beale, they are mad as hell and are not going to take this anymore.

Political wilderness W

ith primary season coming aren’t fielding enough candidates to to a merciful end last week, build a true wave in Arkansas. You the sprint to Nov. 6 is offi- can’t win if you don’t play. Though the cially underway. Several months ago, party is fielding a number of young, John Ray, Jesse Bacon and I produced exciting and diverse candidates, it one of the first legislative district- isn’t doing what its counterparts level projections for the state, showing in North Carothat the state’s minority party could lina, Oklahoma, pick up as many as 16 seats if things Maine and Ohio broke just right in 2018. The prospects have: field a full, for a Democratic resurgence seemed 10 0 - c a n d i d a t e bright, if only the party could recruit slate for t heir enough people to run. lower chambers. BILLY FLEMING Things didn’t quite work out that The best way to way. As we’ve written in other col- remedy this in umns, the Democratic Party of Arkan- 2020 is to lower — or perhaps even sas had an uneven performance during erase — the party’s exorbitant filing candidate recruitment season. They fees at least for first-time candidates. managed to field a full slate of candi- The other factors stem from shifts dates in the 3rd Congressional District in national indicators like the genand a near-full slate in the 2nd, but eral ballot polling question and the fell far short in the Delta (1st District) president’s improved standing in and South Arkanpublic opinion sas (4th District). polls. It seems Only 58 of the Democrats aren’t fielding enough strange to say lower chamber’s t hat a presi100 seats have a candidates to build a true wave dent whose Democratic cannet approva l didate on the bal- in Arkansas. You can’t win if you is negative 10 lot. As a result, and whose disour latest model don’t play. approval rating projects far more is 52.5 percent modest gains for has improved Democrats in November: seven seats, his standing, but that’s life in the rather than 16, is the new median pro- Trump era. He’s been more than 20 jection in our model. points underwater this year, with a Still, those seven seats would radi- disapproval rating near 60 percent cally reconfigure the legislature in at times. Whether he can hold or Little Rock. Flipping them would dis- improve on his standing between solve the Republican supermajority now and November will determine that’s allowed members like Reps. how competitive many of the state’s Charlie Collins (R-Fayetteville), Bob legislative races become. Ballinger (R-Berryville), and Mark But as they meander through the Lowery (R-Maumelle) to run rough- political wilderness, Arkansas Demoshod over a powerless Democratic crats now have to take a longer view caucus in the house. Though Ballinger if they plan to build power and infrais running for state Senate, the three structure in the state. One way to baldistricts have Democratic challeng- ance the electoral pressures of 2018 ers who have a real shot at winning with the need to build an organization in November: Denise Garner (taking over time is to rethink how the party on Collins), Monica Ball (Lowery) and and its high-profile candidates spend Gary Morris (running against Repub- their campaign cash this year. Rather lican Harlan Breaux for Ballinger’s than candidate-centric television ads, old District 97 seat). the party and campaigns like Clarke But as others are likely to ask, Tucker’s (likely to be the state’s top how did we go from 16 seats to seven Democratic fundraiser) should invest between January and June in our pro- in their organizers and in modernizjections? The first, and most impor- ing the party’s antiquated data gathtant factor, is simply that Democrats ering and analysis systems.

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BENJAMIN HARDY

ARChoices rule blocked DHS action on home-care program was ‘calculated disobedience’ of court order, judge says. BY BENJAMIN HARDY

ast Wednesday, seven physically disabled plaintiffs won the latest round in their legal battle with the state Department of Human Services when Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen found the state agency in contempt of court. In response to Griffen’s mid-May order that DHS stop using an algorithm to decide hours on home care for disabled and elderly people, the agency promulgated an emergency rule to restore the enjoined algorithm. For that, the judge found DHS in contempt and also blocked the emergency rule, calling it “a deliberate and calculated disobedience” of the permanent injunction he had handed down the previous week. Lead plaintiff Bradley Ledgerwood of Cash (Craighead County) said he felt “relieved” the emergency rule was suspended because he feared it would lead to a reduction of the attendant care hours he receives each week through ARChoices, a Medicaid program serving over 8,000 Arkansans. Ledgerwood, 36, has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. He needs assistance with the most basic of daily routines. Since 2002, he has received 56 hours of attendant care each week, provided by his parents. The emergency rule threatened to reduce that figure to 37 hours — a drop from 8 hours each day to less than 5 1/2. “In my personal opinion, they were going to the new system just to cut hours,” he said. Home-care waiver programs pay caregivers to assist certain high-need Medicaid beneficiaries with daily activities such as bathing, cleaning, using the bathroom and getting dressed. At-home services are typically much cheaper than 14

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

24/7 institutionalized care in a nursing home and are usually preferred by the people who receive them. Before 2016, DHS had two distinct home-care waiver programs for the disabled and the elderly; beginning in January 2016, it combined them into a single new program, which it called ARChoices. In a letter sent to beneficiaries beforehand, it assured people that benefits would remain the same. But when it created ARChoices, DHS also began using a new, algorithm-based method of determining the weekly number of home-care hours received by each person. Previously, hours were assigned at a nurse’s discretion. The algorithm sorted individuals into resource utilization groups, or RUGs, which determined how many weekly hours of attendant care the individual would get. DHS said the RUGs algorithm was a fairer, less subjective way of assigning hours. When it went into effect, though, many people were alarmed to find their weekly allotment of hours had decreased, sometimes dramatically. (DHS maintains other beneficiaries saw their weekly hours increase.) Ledgerwood and several other plaintiffs from East Arkansas sued, represented by Jonesboro-based Legal Aid. On May 14, the plaintiffs claimed victory when Griffen issued a permanent injunction against DHS. Their legal argument was based not on the merits of the RUGs-based algorithm itself, but on DHS’ method of rolling it out. Griffen agreed with the plaintiffs that the agency had failed to comply with the state Administrative Procedures Act when it created the new means of assigning hours, in part because it did not give beneficiaries proper notice in 2016 that their benefits might decrease.

SUED DHS: Bradley Ledgerwood of Cash, who has cerebral palsy, said the agency’s new way of calculating care could reduce his assistance from 56 to 37 hours a week.

The judge ordered DHS to stop using assessment,” DHS spokeswoman Marci the algorithm unless it properly pro- Manley said. mulgated a new rule — meaning the rule Waiver programs like ARChoices are would undergo public comment and a created by means of a waiver from the legislative review process. federal Center for Medicare and MedicHowever, DHS then attempted a aid Services, which oversees the entire workaround. On May 18, the agency got Medicaid program. DHS argued that approval from the legislature to pro- the terms of its CMS waiver obligated mulgate an emergency rule to replace it to stick with the algorithm. If it was the one Griffen enjoined just four days forced to drop the algorithm, the agency earlier. warned that it could be forced out of DHS said its use of the emergency compliance with CMS, potentially disrulemaking process — which doesn’t rupting services. require a public comment period — was But Kevin De Liban, an attorney for justified to ensure continuity in the pro- Legal Aid, said that this danger was “congram. “We have individuals who are cocted” by DHS. “There’s nothing that coming into the program or who are due says they have to stop services if they for [annual] reassessment and ... barring can’t use the RUGs algorithm,” he said. promulgation, we wouldn’t be able to “There is absolutely no legal reason in do that. ... The CMS waiver requires the agreement between the state and

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the federal government that says … that or even suggests it.” Nonetheless, DHS sought and received its emergency rule. Legal Aid then asked Griffen to intervene and said the agency should be held in contempt. The next week, on May 23, the judge did so. After a hearing, he said the emergency rule from DHS amounted to “an attempt to circumvent the injunction” he had just issued. Griffen rejected DHS’ argument that it was trying to remain in compliance with federal authorities, saying the agency failed to show any evidence that “the nurse’s assessment process that existed [before the algorithm] has been declared unacceptable by ... CMS.” “Put simply, the emergency rule is an emergency only because the agency chose to call it that. It’s a manufactured emergency, emergency by design,” he said. Griffen especially took issue with DHS’ insistence that its emergency rulemaking was a good-faith effort to follow his previous order. “The agency filed notice that it was complying with this court’s order which permanently enjoined it from using RUGs methodology by promulgating an emergency rule that uses RUGs methodology,” he said. “That statement not only begs credulity, it is manifestly preposterous.” He then granted the motion for contempt. The order doesn’t end the struggle over ARChoices. DHS could appeal Griffen’s decision. (Manley said DHS could not answer questions about the ongoing litigation.) Or, the agency could create a new rule that simply reinstates the algorithm, this time taking care to more carefully follow the standard rulemaking process. But that could mean significant pushback in the public comment period. “They can do the process differently and arrive at the same result,” De Liban acknowledged, “but this time it’s not going to pass in the dead of night.” This reporting is made possible in part by a yearlong fellowship sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists and supported by The Commonwealth Fund. It is published here courtesy of the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, an independent, nonpartisan project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans. Find out more at arknews.org.

THE

Inconsequential News Quiz:

Warfare BIG Spiritual Edition! PICTURE

Play at home, while tending your ravenous goatherd. 1) The University of Arkansas recently announced a change for Razorback football in 2019. What’s coming for the Hogs? A) Confetti cannons during games will no longer be filled with shredded taxpayer dollars. B) The new version of Razorback mascot Tusk will be a plug-in hybrid model. C) After 10 years of artificial turf, Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville is going back to natural grass. D) All-nude tailgating. 2) Recently, state Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Republic of Gilead) spoke to the evangelical Christian publication Charisma News about “an uptick in spiritual warfare against him.” Which of the following were among the things Rapert told the magazine? A) He believes that God literally spoke to him and encouraged him to run for office. B) He bragged on his 2013 sponsorship of a “heartbeat bill,” which banned abortions past 12 weeks’ gestation, but conveniently neglected to mention the $97,612.02 in attorney’s fees Arkansas taxpayers had to fork over to the ACLU after a federal court overturned the patently unconstitutional ban in 2015. C) He said he has “endured public ridicule by the atheist community, extreme liberals and even by organized satanic organizations.” No word, however, on whether Rapert realizes he actually deserves to be ridiculed. D) All of the above. 3) Speaking of the UA, the university recently announced an innovative plan to help remove overgrowth of invasive honeysuckle and Chinese privet along the Oak Ridge Trail near Garland Avenue in Fayetteville. What’s the plan, man? A) Put up signs saying the bushes are organic Zimbabwian kale; let hipster foodies do the rest. B) Good guys with guns. C) A herd of hungry goats will be used to devour the plants. D) Interns will wield Army surplus flamethrowers. 4) Recently, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge to do something she’s steadfastly refused to do this year. What did it order her to do? A) It gave her three days to either approve or rewrite a ballot proposal that would raise the state’s minimum wage, which forced Rutledge to break her streak of rejecting 70 proposed ballot initiatives in a row because she claimed they were too unclear or vague to put before the voters. B) Smile. C) Let go of the idea that her Beanie Baby collection is going to be worth a fortune someday. D) Eat something other than unsweetened bran flakes with skim milk. 5) The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently closed two beaches on lakes in Southwest Arkansas due to high E. coli levels. To what does the Arkansas Department of Health attribute the spike in fecal bacteria in the water? A) Former Gov. Mike Huckabee recently visited the beaches for a swim, and with a piece of crap that big in the water, it was bound to happen. B) Goose droppings. C) The new Taco Bueno that just went in up the street. D) Trump-emboldened drunks are no longer only going No. 1 in the water.

Answers: C, D, C, A, B

LISTEN UP

arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

BY LINDSEY MILLAR

COMMITTED TO

ACHIEVEMENT Nonprofit puts young black scholars on path to college and success.

BRIAN CHILSON

NEW COLLEGE GOALS: Thanks to Arkansas Commitment, Chase Swinton (left) and Carré Sadler have their sights on elite colleges.

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

STARTED ARKANSAS COMMITMENT: Among all that he’s done over the years, Little Rock City Director Dean Kumpuris says he’s most proud of his work with the nonprofit.

arré Sadler remembers hearing about college in the first grade. The message: It was attainable. “I’ve always worked toward that goal,” said Carré, who describes herself as an “ambitious” student and who just completed her junior year at North Little

Rock High School. Her mother, Carlotta Sadler, said Ivy League school. “Before Arkansas that,’ ” Arkansas Commitment Execushe also always saw college in her Commitment, we would’ve been like, tive Director Darren Morgan said. But daughter’s future, but did not think “That’s a reach,” Carlotta Sadler said. many school scholarships are needthe family could afford to send her any- “But now, it doesn’t seem like much based. “We teach them, if you follow where but a two-year college. of one.” these guidelines, not only will you get But in the ninth grade, Carré was Arkansas Commitment provides into college, you can get it paid for.” If admitted into Arkansas Commitment, a questionnaire to selected students Morgan can successfully communia Little Rock-based nonprofit program when they enter the program in ninth cate that attending an elite college is created in 1999 that works to match grade. About 50 percent say they don’t attainable to students in the ninth or high-achieving minority kids in Cen- have any idea what colleges are looking 10th grade, “they’re more intentional tral Arkansas with colleges that meet for and don’t think college is attainable. in their studies, in what classes they their academic criteria. The program, Thirty-five percent say they can’t afford select, more focused throughout the which is free to students, teaches them it. By the end of the program, those day in terms of getting that A, or takinterview skills, provides them with numbers drop close to zero. ing that AP course or opting for that intensive ACT prep, connects them to “Especially low-income, first-gen- harder course,” he said. elite colleges across the country and eration students and undocumented Morgan, 32, knows the arcane and helps them navigate the financial aid students, a lot of them just feel dis- often biased world of college recruitlandscape. After several years in the couraged when they see the price tag ment well. He graduated from public program, Carré’s top college choice of some of these schools. Like, ‘$70,000 high school in Atlanta, attended Davidis the University of Pennsylvania, an — there’s no way my parents can do son College in North Carolina and, after

working as a banker for a time, returned to Davidson as an admissions counselor, eventually working his way up to assistant dean. “What used to frustrate me is that we talk a lot about recruitment and diversity and getting good kids on campus, but we only talk to students in their 12th grade year. At that point, when they’re applying to these highly selective schools, like Yale or Vanderbilt, it’s too late to get them to change anything about their application,” Morgan said. He also pointed to a recent study by researchers at UCLA and the University of Arizona that found that colleges tend to visit richer, whiter high schools on recruiting trips. That study reflected his experience at Davidson. When he visited Little Rock on behalf of the college, he would go schools like Pulaski Academy and Little Rock Christian. “So we’re only getting the kids who’re intent on getting out of state, whose parents did that. We had our marching orders. We had to get those kids. But that leaves out a lot of really smart kids.”

arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

Thanks to exposure through Arkan- gency medical transport business. Arkansas Commitment had $184,668 sas Commitment, the Central High Blake credits Arkansas Commitment in revenue and $178,157 in expenses in graduate attended Grinnell College, a and his Regions internship with posi- 2015, according to its 2016 990 tax form, prestigious liberal arts college in Grin- tioning him to be successful. He says the most recent available. Its board nell, Iowa. The campus had more Afri- Kumpuris doesn’t get enough credit. is a who’s who of Little Rock power cans than African Americans, Blake “He’s been the steam in this engine,” brokers: Kumpuris, Moore, Warren said. “It prided itself on having stu- Blake said. “[Former state Rep. and Stephens, Khayyam Eddings, Jerry dents from all 50 states and 51 differ- Southern Bancorp CEO] Darrin Wil- Adams, Eddie Drilling, Susie Smith and ent countries,” he said. “That’s the first liams says, ‘I can tell what your priori- Bill Paschall. The board and the Little time I’d seen that kind of diversity.” ties are by looking at your checkbook.’ Rock business community have always Through Arkansas Commitment, ” The financial investment, sweat and almost entirely paid for the program, he got an internship at Regions energy Kumpuris has put into the Kumpuris said. Bank under the regional program “speaks volumes,” But Kumpuris acknowledges that CEO, Jack Fleischauer, Blake said. it was a bit “Pollyanna-ish” of him to for three summers “A diverse economy is expect that all, or even most, of the during college. A an economy that’s going students who passed through Arkansas month before gradto grow,” Commitment would return to the state. uation, Fleischauer Blake said. “We Like Parkview grad Earnest Sweat. offered him a job. have to make sure Sweat, an alumnus of Arkansas ComHe started a week we’re building up our mitment in its early years, went on to after graduation. African-American and Columbia University in New York for Blake spent almost Hispanic communities. a B.A., and to Northwestern Universia decade at Regions. It has to be intentional. ty’s Kellogg School of Management in He now owns a It takes a commit- Evanston, Ill., for an M.B.A. He started nonemerment.” his career in investment banking and is now a start-up investor and adviser and corporate venture capitalist in San Francisco. “I didn’t know what investment banking was while I was in Arkansas,” Sweat said. “I didn’t know what a venture capitalist was in college.” Sweat, 33, credits Arkansas Commitment for putting him on the path to success. “It was great to find that community of other black and brown folks who were doing exceptional things. I’m a true believer that iron sharpens iron. Being around people who had ambitions that were similar or even greater than mine pushed me and gave me the confidence to push myself when it came to thinking about college and where to go.” But come back to Little Rock? Unlikely, Sweat said, though he said he would love to invest in an Arkansas start-up. *** Antwan Phillips, 33, is a Little Rock politico, activist and partner at the Wright Lindsey Jennings law firm whose specialties include personal injury defense and trucking litigation.

BRIAN CHILSON

*** Longtime Little Rock City Director Dean Kumpuris started Arkansas Commitment as a way to help promising black students in Central Arkansas reach their highest potential. The idea was “to promote the best and brightest kids and get them to return [to Arkansas] to be tomorrow’s leaders,” Kumpuris said. Since the program’s founding, about 760 kids have passed through it, Morgan estimated. Since 2010, when the nonprofit began actively tracking its success, 320 students have graduated from the program. All of them went on to enroll in four-year colleges and earned a cumulative $29 million in scholarships. This year’s Arkansas Commitment senior class of 30 students was offered $9.6 million in first-year scholarships by 48 colleges. They will enroll in 17 colleges and accept $3.24 million of those scholarship offers. Kumpuris modeled the program on the Memphis Challenge, a college prep nonprofit for black students started by Pitt Hyde, the founder of AutoZone, and recruited Tom Eppley, director of the Memphis program, to start Arkansas Commitment. Eppley, Kumpuris, activist and philanthropist Clarice Miller and City Manager Bruce Moore were met with skepticism when they convened a group of local high school counselors and families to pitch the program. Kumpuris recalls a grandmother coming up to him after the presentation and saying, “I don’t get it. What’s the catch? What do you want? Why are you doing this? No one ever offers something to us.” The catch — or at least Kumpuris’ initial hope — was that Arkansas Commitment students would bring their degrees back to Central Arkansas. One of the most prominent alums, Charles Blake, who was just elected to a third term in the state House of Representatives, internalized that while going through the program in its early years. “It’s there in the name, ‘Arkansas Commitment.’ You make a commitment to bring your skills back to Arkansas and provide a return on investment.”

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRINGS INSIGHT: Darren Morgan, Arkansas Commitment’s executive director, previously served as an assistant dean of admissions at Davidson College.

BRIAN CHILSON

FROM ARKANSAS COMMITMENT TO THE ARKANSAS HOUSE: State Rep. Charles Blake (D-Little Rock) attended Grinnell College in Iowa, where he said he experienced diversity like he never had before.

(He also hosts a podcast, “Rock the Culture,” which the Arkansas Times distributes, and contributes guest columns. He’s close friends with Blake, who regularly co-hosts the podcast.) Phillips is the poster child for Arkansas Commitment, Kumpuris said. Phillips, who believes there’s a Jay-Z quote for every occasion, pulled one from the rapper’s obscure 2010 song “Most Kingz” when talking about how far he’s traveled since childhood: “Everybody look at you strange, say you changed/Like you work that hard to stay the same.” “In 2002, if you’d have asked me to pull out my cell phone and call someone who was not black, I couldn’t have done it,” Phillips said. Aside from a trip once to Dallas and a brief time living in North Little Rock, “I didn’t know the world outside of Southwest Little Rock,” he said. His family had “limited means” growing up and his father was absent. His mother stressed academic achievement. When he was in seventh grade, he was preparing for his spring formal dance. His mom had taken him to buy some new pants. Then his report card came. He had a 3.6 grade point average. His mom told him he couldn’t go to the dance. He’d had a 3.8 the nine weeks before, and his mom wouldn’t abide by his grades slipping. “I was so upset with her,” Phillips said. “I remember very vividly going to my

room and sitting on my bed and saying, ‘I wish she was dead. Like, how stupid is this woman that I’ve got a 3.6 and she’s not letting me go to the dance?’ ” The memory sticks with him because, unbeknownst to him at the time, his mom had cancer. She died later that year. His mother’s insistence on high achievement drove him, Phillips said. “[Education] was important to me because it was important to her. I think she knew, for my life to be different, that education was going to be the avenue.” Phillips excelled at Little Rock McClellan High School and played on the school’s basketball team. His goal was to go to Florida State University in Tallahassee and play basketball. “I thought I was good enough to play basketball there because their basketball team wasn’t that good,” he said, laugh-

ing. But then a friend, Tiffany Gunn, who was a senior when Phillips was a junior, told him about Arkansas Commitment. (Gunn, now Tiffany Frazier, was also an Arkansas Commitment student. She went to the University of Notre Dame, where she had an outstanding track career, and then earned an M.B.A. and a law degree. She is now director of product safety and compliance at Walmart.) Phillips asked for an introduction to Eppley, who was leading Arkansas Commitment at the time, and talked his way into the program. The experience broadened his sense of what was possible and gave him a new set of peers. “Once you get involved in Arkansas Commitment, you get involved with a bunch of other kids who are excelling. There were a handful of us in AP classes at McClellan. Now, there are 25 people who look like me and like doing well at

school,” he said. He got exposed to colleges he had never heard of and warmed to “the value of having a different experience than the one I grew up knowing.” No one in his immediate or extended family had graduated from college. In high school, he made a to-do list that included, among other things, to become the state’s first black governor and to visit all 50 states. So when Bowdoin College, a well-regarded small liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine, offered to fly him in for a visit, he figured at least he’d get to check a faroff state from his list. But he fell hard for the college and, despite some trepidation that it was going to turn him into Carlton from “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” when Bowdoin offered him a full scholarship that also included money to travel to and from Little Rock, he accepted. He had a white roommate, with whom he grew close. He learned to “navigate different situations and environments” that were foreign to his childhood. When he returned for the summer, he got an internship at Metropolitan National Bank through Arkansas Commitment. Because of his time at Bowdoin, he was comfortable with people who didn’t look like him. He met and worked with local banking luminaries Virgil Miller, Susie Smith and Lunsford Bridges. He interned with U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor and in the city manag-

arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

BRIAN CHILSON

er’s office with Moore. “It’s not weird. apply in the ninth grade and Morgan St. Louis, Colorado College in Colorado useful. Five Arkansas Commitment stuI’m not shell-shocked,” he remembered considers their GPA, how many AP Springs, Colo., and Washington & Lee dents participate in the Washington feeling during those internships. “I’m classes they’ve taken and a 300-char- University in Lexington, Va. All those University program each year. not like, ‘Oh, I can’t be me.’ … I don’t acter statement (“That’s not a big deal; schools and other unofficial partners Chase will participate this sumthink I’m able to do that if I go to a dif- they text longer than that,” Morgan said — including Yale; Pomona College in mer in another program affiliated with ferent school.” with a laugh). Students in the program Claremont, Calif.; Grinnell; Amherst Arkansas Commitment: a science/medPhillips says going to Bowdoin was come from 14 different schools, mostly College in Amherst, Mass.; and Wil- ical research internship at the Univerthe third best decision he’s made in his in Central Arkansas, though that’s not liams in Williamstown, Mass. — agree sity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. life, behind his faith and deciding to ask a requirement (one student attends to fly Arkansas Commitment students UAMS provides opportunities for as his wife to marry him. “I’m not who I ASMSA). All the students are minori- in for all-expenses-paid visits. many as 10 Arkansas Commitment am without going to Bowdoin, and I’m ties and most are black, though Morgan Arkansas Commitment students also students. not who I am without Arkansas Com- said that was not a requirement. Stu- participate in local service projects, Both Morgan and Kumpuris say mitment,” he said. they’d like to expand Phillips’ the core program. In maternal grandthe meantime, Mormother had 13 gan is working to children, all of broaden Arkansas whom had at Commitment’s reach. least four chilTo raise the college dren. Phillips matriculation rate was the second throughout Central person in the Arkansas, he’s partfamily to gradunered with North Litate from college tle Rock High School, — and only second eSTEM Charter because a cousin High School, Central graduated a few High School and Hall weeks earlier. High School to offer His sister, five-part admissions Jasmine Phillips, workshops, teaching was third. Seven kids what colleges years younger, are looking for, how she, too, passed to make their applithrough Arkancations stand out and sas Commitment, how to write a peran experience fect admissions essay. she describes Those programs reach as “important in about 660 kids. trying to change In the past, Arkanthe trajectory” in sas Commitment her life. She also hosted private col‘NOT WHO I AM WITHOUT ARKANSAS COMMITMENT’: Lawyer Antwan Phillips credits the program for changing the trajectory of his life. So does his younger sister, Jasmine Phillips, a college counselor at Arkansas School for Mathematics, went to school in lege fairs. Now, MorSciences and the Arts in Hot Springs. Maine, to Colby gan makes sure to College, a small, open fairs to all stuhighly regarded liberal arts school in dents participate in a seven-week ACT with partners such as the Arkansas dents. Last week, he worked with North Waterville. From there, she got a mas- prep class and have access to tutoring. Food Bank and the Mosaic Templars Little Rock High School to host a free ter’s degree in education from Penn. During spring break of their junior year, Cultural Center, and have the opportu- financial aid workshop with represenShe’s a college counselor at the Arkan- they visit a series of colleges. This year, nity to participate in summer programs. tatives from Pomona and Yale. sas School for Mathematics, Sciences the group toured schools in TennesChase Swinton, who just completed Arkansas Commitment celebrates and the Arts in Hot Springs, where she see: Rhodes College in Memphis; Fisk her junior year at Sylvan Hills High its graduates every year with “The Bow provides a similar service as Arkansas and Vanderbilt universities in Nash- School in Sherwood, got to partici- Tie Bash” (a nod to Kumpuris, who Commitment. A nephew, 13, will soon ville; and The University of the South pate in a five-week biology program is known for wearing bow ties). This be old enough to enter Arkansas Com- in Sewanee. “That’s something a lot of at Washington University. “It was a year’s event will be held 5:30 p.m. to mitment. She hopes he gets accepted, kids don’t get to do,” Carlotta Sadler really eye-opening experience, being 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 6, at the but regardless, she has the skills to help said. Her daughter Carré was on the five and a half hours away from home Clinton Presidential Center. Tickets him position himself to be admitted to Tennessee trip this year. “A lot of kids by myself, taking college credit classes are $100 ($50 for alumni). Morgan also an elite college. just make decisions based on what’s in a subject I want to major in. I was said there’s a pay-what-you-can option on a piece of paper. [Getting to take the only African American and the only for people who can’t afford fundraiser *** this trip] was almost a game changer.” female in the class,” Chase said. She prices. Arkansas Commitment has offi- said she’d expected that being in the At the event, one is sure to find parDirector Morgan is in his second cial partnerships with six universities, extreme minority was something she ents like Carlotta Sadler singing the year leading Arkansas Commitment. who pay an annual fee to support the would encounter on her planned path program’s praises. “Every time I see The core of the program involves program: Hendrix College, Sewanee, to becoming a neurologist or research someone, I say, ‘You need to get your around 120 kids, 40 in grades 9-12. Kids Vanderbilt, Washington University in physician, but that experiencing it was child in Arkansas Commitment!’ ”

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

JUNE 8 DRIVERS PLEASE BE AWARE, IT’S ARKANSAS STATE LAW:

COME IN AND SEE US! 300 East Third St. • 501-375-3333 coppergrillandgrocery.com

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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.

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OVERTAKING A BICYCLE

108 W 6th St., Suite A (501) 725-8508 www.mattmcleod.com

3 Statehouse Plaza 501-906-4000 littlerockmarriott.com

Featured artist:

USE OF BICYCLES OR ANIMALS

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.

THE 2ND FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH 5-8 PM

FEATURING THE ART GROUP GALLERY

Pyramid Place • 2nd & Center St (501) 801-0211

artgrouparkansas.com

Opening reception for Justin Bryant: That Survival Apparatus with live music and #ArkansasMade beer.

Opening Exhibition:

Delta des Refusés

Featured Musician (Butler Center Galleries): Isaac Helgestad

A museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage

200 E. Third Street • 501-324-9351 HistoricArkansas.org

Carver (detail) by Justin Bryant

Arkansas’s 182nd Birthday Celebration!

AND CYCLISTS, PLEASE REMEMBER...

Your bike is a vehicle on the road just like any other vehicle and you must also obey traffic laws— use turning and slowing hand signals, ride on right and yield to traffic as if driving. Be sure to establish eye contact with drivers. Remain visible and predictable at all times.

Stuttgart Carnival, 2017 by Cary Jenkins

A m us e u m o f t he De p a r t m e n t o f A rk a ns as H e ri t a g e

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Butler Center Galleries (401 President Clinton Ave.)

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About the free 2nd Friday Art Night Trolley

FREE TROLLEY RIDES!

The Arkansas Destinations wheeled trolley makes stops at all of the participating 2nd Friday Art Night venues. Each participating location has a designated pick up and drop off spot outside their venue. If the trolley stop is not clearly marked, just inquire inside the venue on where the trolley will pick you up. The 2nd Friday Art Night trolley takes about 15 - 20 minutes to drive the Art Night loop and runs continuously from 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.

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arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

Arts Entertainment SANTIAGO CENDEJAS

AND

(Shin) Dig It Ten Questions with Robert Locke.

MUSIC OF THE MID-SOUTH: Robert Locke and colleagues’ fanzine has morphed into am ambassadorial collection of the sounds of Arkansas.

he wanted to keep and what he wanted to sell in the booth. Who works with you at Shindigmusic, and what are you all working on these days? On top of bringing Arkansas music to the online community, you’re involved in some television now, yes?

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

Shindig is comprised of co-founder Justin Bates, writer/feature editor Dave Morris and our comrades in arms at Emerg Entertainment, Kim Smootz and Travis Smith. After a year and a half being mostly sequestered in Northwest Arkansas, we’re confident enough to take Shindig on the road to Conway, Hot Springs, Jonesboro, El Dorado and, of course, Little Rock. There’s always a lot happening in the state, and it’s time we try and see it all. We talked about doing TV in the very he musical spheres of Central and Northwest Arkansas can seem worlds apart, but one musician, early days of FayetteSound, but we didn’t get very serious about it until last sumcollector and blogger has been hard at work building a bridge between them. Robert Locke mer. Since then, Shindig has been working on a few television projects in associais co-founder of Shindigmusic, an online testament to the wealth of music coming out of The tion with Fayetteville Public Television. Think: vintage MTV, circa 1993. We’ll Natural State and surrounding environs, delivering the gospel of Midsouth metal, rock ’n’ roll, folk, hip- have more to say on that very soon.

hop, electronica and more at shindigmusic.net. We caught up with Locke about Arkansas music, a project called The Record Exchange and Shindig’s inception. When was Shindigmusic founded (or “FayetteSound,” as it was named then), and what was your primary goal?

based band called Farmikos. Do you guys all keep up with each other — and with the project — now that you’re living in Arkansas?

We founded in the summer of 2016 as more of a traditional punk-rock-inspired fanzine. Soon, we evolved into a more refined media outlet with our primary mission being the development of a proper music industry within the state. Any musician that’s lived in Austin, Nashville or Los Angeles will know what I mean by that.

Thanks. We do chat from time to time, depending on what’s happening with the band. I chatted with Joe Holmes maybe a week or so ago about some music he’d recently been working on. Haven’t spoken with Robert Trujillo in a long while. He’s been a bit busy with Metallica, so you know how that goes.

In addition to your work with Shindigmusic, you’re actually a beast of a singer, primarily in a Los Angeles22

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

You were also one of our judges in the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase this year. Were there any bands that surprised you, or that you espe-

cially dug? I’ve been a pretty big supporter of both the Couch Jackets and Jamie Lou & The Hullabaloo for a while now, but I was definitely excited by what I saw in Sabine Valley, The Rios and Deep Sequence. What is The Record Exchange? The Record Exchange is a little record booth at Fayetteville Funky Yardsale in Fayetteville. A friend of mine had a father who passed away a few years ago who had a massive vinyl record collection. I helped him go through around 40,000 LPs, 7-inch singles, cassettes and other assorted awesomeness to decide what

Let’s assume there are at least five dead Arkansans who have changed the course of music history. Who are they, in your eyes? Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The “Godmother of Rock and Roll.” Without a doubt, an essential figure in the early development of rock ’n’ roll. She blurred the lines between gospel, blues and boogie. Big Bill Broonzy: Broonzy replaced a recently deceased Robert Johnson at the famous 1938 “From Spirituals to Swing” concert at Carnegie Hall, and helped usher the blues into becoming a cultural phenomenon. Johnny Cash: What can I say that hasn’t already been said about Johnny Cash? Levon Helm: “Music from Big Pink” was released in 1968. By 1969, everyone from The Beatles and The Stones to The

ROCK CANDY

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A&E NEWS Grateful Dead and The Byrds had stripped back the psychedelia and were going back to rootsy basics. I don’t think that was a coincidence. Glen Campbell: Simply the greatest musical talent Arkansas has ever given the world. Sam Anderson: Station manager Sam Anderson doesn’t get much credit for altering music history, but he certainly did so with the creation of “King Biscuit Time” on KFFA in Helena. The magnitude of this radio show is probably immeasurable but it gave us Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Lockwood Jr. and Pinetop Perkins and influenced everyone from Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf to Elvis Presley and Levon Helm. Five “desert island,” can’t-livewithout albums? Led Zeppelin, “Physical Graffiti.” Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Deja Vu.” Soundgarden, “Superunknown.” Radiohead, “OK Computer.” Pearl Jam, “Yield.” Five “desert island,” can’t-livewithout albums from Arkansasconnected musicians? Johnny Cash, “At Folsom Prison.” The Band, “Music from Big Pink.” Glen Campbell, “Wichita Lineman.” Sonny Boy Williamson, “The Real Folk Blues.” Al Green, “Greatest Hits.” Is there anything that defines an “Arkansas” sound? Not sure we have anything to define specifically as an “Arkansas” sound. This state is a melting pot where music from Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana all collide. I guess we’re somewhat of an incubator for music happening elsewhere. It’s always evolving. “Arkansan” or “Arkansawyer?” Arkansan for sure. Arkansawyer sounds a little dumb.

RIVERFEST EVENT DIRECTOR Jack Daniels did not yet have a tally of the reinvented Memorial Day weekend festival’s attendance or profit, but did say, “Bottom line: We were looking for more people. We didn’t have as much support as we thought we would get from folks coming out, and we have some good ideas why, but there are some other things I think we need to study. And we’re event folks — we study this stuff.” Putting together the festival on a compressed timeline and returning it to its Memorial Day weekend spot, he said, was “a challenging proposition.” Daniels, part of the Universal Fairs entertainment group that revived RiverFest for a 41st year after it was announced that the 40th year would be its last, added: “Overall, we were very humbled by the support of our sponsors,” noting the presence and enthusiasm on the part of representatives from Oaklawn Racing & Gaming, Arkansas Federal Credit Union and AMP Energy. “That kind of activation from sponsors in general is really rare. They worked it as partners.” When asked about a 2019 RiverFest, Daniels said the company is “actively planning.” THE ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA announced in a press release last week that the 2018-19 season – Maestro Philip Mann’s ninth – will be his last at the podium. The release cited that under Mann’s leadership, the ASO had experienced “dramatic programmatic growth, with the addition [of] several performance series, innovative initiatives, greater statewide impact, more weeks of classical repertoire, and a period where the ASO has played for more people in more places than at any point in its history.” It said that “despite a two-season stretch away from the Robinson Center during renovations, the ASO has remained financially sound during Mann’s tenure.” ASO CEO Christina Littlejohn echoed that sentiment in the news release, saying the ASO is “a thriving, financially stable organization” and adding that the search for a new music director would not immediately begin. “The ASO leadership will take time to consider the best long-term decisions for the community,” Littlejohn said, “and will invite new ideas from patrons about how to position the ASO for continued growth and stability for generations to come.” Following the 2018-19 season and Mann’s subsequent departure, Mann will become the ASO’s first-ever “Music Director Laureate.” Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

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THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND JACOB ROSENBERG

THURSDAY 5/31 BRIAN CHILSON

MESSTIVAL AFTER DARK 6-9 p.m. Museum of Discovery. $10 (Free for Members).

Alert all parties: There’s going to messes.” After you get grimy, don’t be a giant Slip ’N Slide. On the event worry, there’s a human car wash, too. description page for “Messtival After Plus, pizza from Damgoode Pies and Dark” — the Museum of Discovery’s beer from Stone’s Throw Brewing. second annual 21-plus extravaganza There are few opportunities to have of messy indulgence — the world this kind of fun. Have you seen the “EXPLOSIONS” is capitalized. But smile of a child recently? A lot of you c’mon! SLIP ’N SLIDE! For cheap, think it’s because they’re cute kids on Thursday night, you can get dirty that they smile like that. No. It’s bewith adult fun — and nothing about cause they’ve recently been on a Slip that sentence is R-rated, because I’m ’N Slide and know how true joy feels. talking about the museum’s promise Regain your child smile Thursday. JR of “making slimy, foamy and muddy

‘O POSSUM, MY OPOSSUM’: Couch Jackets play at Kings Live Music in Conway this Friday, with an opening set from Daniel Grear.

FRIDAY 6/1

BONNIE MONTGOMERY, DOT 9 p.m. White Water Tavern.

FRIDAY 6/1

COUCH JACKETS 8:30 p.m. Kings Live Music, Conway. $5.

To hear Couch Jackets live is to witness four young men bouncing up and down for 25 minutes straight, and to know what it feels like when your face hurts from smiling. It’s sunshine music to the fullest, with mid-song fever-dream vignettes, and their latest — “O Opossum, My Opossum” — is a perfect baptism into the Conway musicians’ stoner universe. Escapism hasn’t sounded this chaste since Shonen Knife; it’s beachside football and three-day chin stubble and a lip-sync cameo from Buzz Lightyear and directives like “Relieve the strain/Have noodles carried out/Chopped on ur dayview/Personal piece of mouth.” Bonus: The fellas are super sportsmanlike about supporting their local musicmaking peers; head to the band’s Facebook page for a link to Brennan Leeds’ “Arkansas Bangers” playlist on Spotify. SS

Here’s to a time not far in the fu- pure delivery and affinity for clean ture when a stellar Friday night bill of melodies. Then, flip the switch and bands consists entirely of women and cue up the video for DOT’s “I Like nobody thinks twice about it. For now, You,” from a Capitol View Studio though, shows like this one at the concert in support of DOT-adjacent White Water Tavern still represent a project Trust Tree Programs, a blosseries of small triumphs in a music in- soming arts and leadership summit dustry inching slowly toward actual- for girls to “find and fine tune their ized gender equality, and it’s a hell of creative voices with the guidance of a lineup. To pregame, check out Bon- uniquely experienced female mennie Montgomery’s latest, “Forever,” a tors, facilitators, and guest artists.” concept album swirling with jailbird Grace Stormont, a Mountain Viewflirtations (“Going Out Tonight,” in based banjoist and guitarist with a country music’s grand tradition of gorgeously deep-seated voice and a equivocal song titles that land as penchant for championing Ozark piopunchlines) and Tuscan violin orna- neers like Almeda Riddle, also shares ments, tied together by Montgomery’s the stage. SS

SUNDAY 6/3

AN EVENING WITH BUCKETHEAD 8:30 p.m. Rev Room. $20-$25.

He’s here — Brian Patrick Carroll, the creator of 300-plus studio albums, the one-time lead guitarist for Guns N’ Roses, the perpetual wearer of a Michael Myers-style mask with a KFC bucket as a hat and the guy

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

who Ozzy said plays “like a motherfucker.” Ever eccentric, always virtuosic, Carroll gave a lengthy, candid interview to a podcast called “Coming Alive” last October in which the typically shy musician discussed his

technique in terms of an “intense” last decade — the deaths of both his parents, how the costume allows him to be more self-expressive, his recent diagnosis with heart arrhythmia and a revelation born of spotting

a shooting star and reading a book called “Foundation: Redefine Your Core, Conquer Back Pain and Move with Confidence.” SS

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 5/31

SHERVIN LAINEZ

‘LUCKY 88’: Speedy Ortiz lands at Stickyz on Friday night.

FRIDAY 6/1

SPEEDY ORTIZ 9 p.m. Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack. $15.

What is rock music nowadays? Look at Speedy Ortiz. The new Speedy Ortiz album was going to come out in 2016, and it was going to be about love, and then lead singer Sadie Dupuis threw it away because of the election. “The songs on the album that were strictly personal or lovey dovey just didn’t mean anything to me anymore,” she said in a press release that came with the new album — “Twerp Verse” — which is decidedly not personal: in sound, in themes, in approach. Instead, in Speedy Ortiz’s third effort, the Massachusetts band bangs on more synths than ever before, soars over their pop-friendliest hooks, and Dupuis asks the maladroit world, “You siphoned out the feeling / Can’t you act responsibly?” Big ideas, big sound — anyone can connect with this. No more the early Liz Phair bedroom lo-fi for Speedy Ortiz. In a zeitgeist-infused music video for the single “Lucky

88” (directed by a wonderful movie reviewer, Emily Yoshida), everyone gets turned into slime as consumerism masquerades as convenience — Dupuis orders any desire via an app on her phone. Oddly, political rock has, of late, leaned into pop and electronic and hip-hop. In a fractured world where politicians no longer swoon about our commonality, political music has taken on the role of uniting. Speedy Ortiz’s new work is a crowd pleaser. There’s plenty of angst, still, but there’s also a maturity now, added with a sense that the world’s become so ridiculous it’s funny-but-not-even-funny. Nihilism mixes with a need to act. “I don’t care anymore,” Dupuis swings, and fights backs sarcastically a moment later, “Swear I don’t care anymore.” Here comes that mountain of a pop guitar riff — can’t we at least all agree it rocks? JR

The World Series of Comedy continues at The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., $12. Webb Wilder & The Beatnecks bring “Human Cannonball” and other Southern rock riffs to Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, with The P-47s, 8 p.m., $15-$20. “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” the touring Broadway production of Carole King’s biography in song, continues at Robinson Center Performance Hall, 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. through June 3, $28$83. Arkansongs hosts Arkansasthemed trivia at Stone’s Throw Brewing, 6:30 p.m., free. Mourning View and Won Run share a rock ’n’ roll bill at the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. New Orleans synth-rockers Particle Devotion land at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 9 p.m. Lance Daniels plays a happy hour set at Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m., free. Les Pack sits in with the Clyde Pound Trio at the Ohio Club in Hot Springs, 7 p.m. “Menopause: The Musical” continues its run at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat., dinner at 6 p.m.; 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sun., dinner at 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. through July 7, $15-$37. Katrice “Butterfly” Newbill performs with her band Irie Soul at El Dorado’s Griffin Restaurant, 8 p.m., free. The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse hosts “Tyrannosaurus Sketch: Part Two,” a sketch comedy show, 7:30 p.m., $8.

FRIDAY 6/1 Vocalist Ramona Smith gives a concert at Cajun’s Wharf, 9 p.m., $5, or come earlier and catch Andy Tanas, 5:30 p.m., free. The Oxford American Jeff Baskin Writers Fellowship celebrates its outgoing fellow Molly McCully Brown and welcomes a new one with a luncheon, 11:30 a.m., Junior League of Little Rock, $150 suggested donation. FreeWorld brings its horn arrangements to Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m., $7. Jason Boland & The Stragglers bring their new album, “Hard Times Are Relative,” to the Rev Room, 9 p.m., $15. The Main Thing’s “Orange Is the New White,” a two-act political comedy, continues at The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse, 8 p.m. Fri.Sat. through June 16, $24. Murphy Arts District brings Hank Williams Jr. (and all his rowdy friends) to the Griffin Music Hall in downtown El Dorado for a concert, with opening sets from Pat Green and Mary Heather and The Sinners, 7 p.m., $50-$60. Tan the Terrible headlines “Quarter Life Crisis,” a hip-hop bill at Rev Room featuring sets from Tsukiyomi, Cool Chris, Fresco Grey, Desi Doom and more, 9 p.m., $10$12. Galleries on Central Avenue CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

THE

TO-DO

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BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND JACOB ROSENBERG

EBRU YILDIZ

SATURDAY 6/2

OPEN STUDIOS LITTLE ROCK 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Various galleries and workspaces. Free.

It’s one thing to see an artist’s chance to show off their studios along work on a gallery wall, and quite an- with their art as a sort of “open house” other to see it in the space where it for makers. Head to the Bobby L. Robwas created – contextualized by the erts Library of Arkansas History and creator’s other pieces, their tools of Art (401 President Clinton Ave.) for a choice and the environment they’ve roadmap of studios open for visits and set for making their work. This event plan your (self-guided) route from from the Little Rock Arts + Culture there. SS Commission gives local artists a

AFTER-PARTY: Brooklyn’s Shilpa Ray joins Dazz & Brie, Couch Jackets and Oh, Mercy on Hill Wheatley Plaza for a party following Hot Springs’ annual Running of the Tubs.

AUDUBON ARKANSAS

FRIDAY 6/1-SATURDAY 6/2

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNING OF THE TUBS 6 p.m. Fri., 9 a.m. Sat. Hill Wheatley Plaza. Free.

You know the drill: There’s a madcap event up in Hot Springs this weekend and you should go because it’s going to be good ol’ gaudy fun. On Saturday morning, teams will compete to race bathtubs filled with water and decorated around themes (fire department, police department, hardware store) down Bathhouse Row. Crowds will dress as if they’re entering the shower — in a 1950s movie, maybe, with full regalia of robes and shower caps. Kids will bring squirt guns and spray the racers. And this will be the 13th year of Stueart Pennington’s World Championship Running of the Tubs. You can dip in and out for events as you please. Things kick off Friday evening with The Judging of the Tubs at Hill Wheatley Plaza from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The next morning, at 9 a.m., the tubs are off. Awards are presented at 11 a.m. Then, there’s an after-party with some of Arkansas’s best musicians — Dazz & Brie at 2 p.m., Couch Jackets at 4 p.m. and Brooklyn’s Shilpa Ray at 6 p.m., among others. Go online and catch a blurry video of the first bathtub race from 2006. There, you can get advice from some stranger who watched the inaugural race: “These guys won because they got a bunch of big guys.” JR

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ARKANSAS TIMES

MAY THE FOURCHE BE WITH YOU: Audubon Arkansas and Friends of the Fourche host Fourche Fest this Saturday at Benny Craig Park, with eats from Corky’s Ribs & BBQ and live music from the William Staggers Trio.

SATURDAY 6/2

FOURCHE FEST 10 a.m. Benny Craig Park, 4610 Gum Springs Road, Little Rock. Free.

First things first: It’s pronounced “fush.” And it’s the gigantic watershed that holds and filters much of Little Rock’s runoff water, filtering it along the way. It’s also a huge bottomland ecosystem, home to migratory birds, 300-year-old bald cypress trees and around 50 different kinds of fish. Or maybe even more! We’ll know after this event, at which the results of a “Bioblitz” biological survey of the

Fourche will be revealed. Friends of Fourche Creek and Audubon Arkansas will be giving guided canoe floats, there will be gear provided for those who want to fish from the Fourche’s banks, face painting, eats from Corky’s Ribs & BBQ (11:30 a.m.), a bike rodeo and live music from the William Staggers Trio. Bring a folding chair or a picnic blanket and get to know your local swamp. SS

IN BRIEF, CONT. and nearby are open 5-9 p.m. for the monthly Hot Springs Gallery Walk.

SATURDAY 6/2

MONDAY 6/4

THE POSIES 8 p.m. Capitol View Studio. $21.

By some enigmatic formula ing shown on the flatscreen by the based on any given era’s distance stage, as Stringfellow put it in our from another era, the ’90s are kicky interview. “We found that we would again, and that means that a whole like to create conditions where slew of bands whose heyday peaked there’s no other information other just before the turn of the century than the show — an aesthetic that have spots on retrospective U.S. we choose to present, and the auditours with names like “I Love the ence’s reception to that; there’s no 90s!” Unsurprisingly — to anyone distraction from the emotional conwho knows their ethos, at least — tent that we’re pushing.” This year, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of marking the 30th anniversary of the The Posies have taken a different band’s inception, Auer and Stringpath. When we spoke with String- fellow are back on tour in advance fellow in 2016, he and Auer had just of the re-release of a handful of Pochristened Capitol View Studio — sies essentials as CDs and as LPs: then a brand-new concert space and “Frosting on the Beater,” “Amazing recording studio — with a show. It Disgrace” and “Dear 23.” They’ll was part of a series of performances play at Capitol View Studio again as in small or unusual venues, intend- part of that celebration, with Canaed to let fans experience the music dian songwriter/powerhouse/your without Miller Genuine Draft neon new favorite Gibson shredder Terra signs or Monday Night Football be- Lightfoot, along for the ride. SS

TUESDAY 6/5

‘METROPOLIS’ 6 p.m. CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

As long as class conflict exists having inspired not only filmmakers, (so, forever?), we’ll probably glean but legions of musicians – Janelle new meaning from Fritz Lang’s 1927 Monae, Madonna, Lady Gaga and St. silent stunner “Metropolis.” With Vincent, most transparently. “Mean oppressed proletariat under- tropolis” was a harbinger of sci-fi world “City of Workers” and a shiny effects to come; a visual masterindustrialized 1-percenter’s reign at piece that involved a cast of around its core, it’s served as a point of de- 30,000 extras, exceeded its budget parture for public discourse about by three and a half times; and, in a the perils of mechanization and the feat of pure irony, catalyzed the ininevitable dangers of disproportion- vention of analog special effects that ate distribution of wealth, with an CGI would later copy. It’s screening immediacy and symbolism that’s next week at CALS Ron Robinson far outlived its circa-1920s German Theater, a fitting choice for the big context. What’s more, the lack of screen and guaranteed to be more dialogue means that those themes genuinely chilling than any of its are rendered through expression, horror staple companions on CALS’ imagery and remarkable dystopia- “Terror Tuesday” series. SS meets-Busby Berkeley spectacle,

Daikaiju, Spirit Cuntz and Revenge Bodies perform at E.J.’s Eats & Drinks, 9 p.m., $5. Melissa Cundief, author of “Darling Nova,” reads from her work as a guest of the Argenta Reading Series, with an opening reading from Trey Moody, 7 p.m., Argenta UMC, 421 Main St., North Little Rock, donations. Vocalist Bijoux reprises “Bijoux Does Badu” with a second round of Erykah Badu picks at South on Main, 9 p.m., $15. Texas country rocker Josh Ward lands at Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, with an opening set from Jake Worthington, 8:30 p.m., $12$15. Soul-blues singer Charlotte Taylor performs at Hibernia Irish Tavern, 8 p.m. Steak enthusiasts gather at War Memorial Stadium for the PK Grills Cookout, 8 a.m., register at pkgrills.com. Rock Candy takes the stage at Cajun’s Wharf, 9 p.m., $5, or catch Greg Madden at happy hour, 5:30 p.m., free. TK Cowboy and David Rasico put on the “Dueling Piano Show” at Kings Live Music in Conway, 9 p.m., $5. The Lucas Parker Band entertains at Smoke & Barrel Tavern in Fayetteville, 10 p.m., $5. Elsewhere in Fayetteville, Opal Agafia & The Sweet Nothings host an album release party at George’s Majestic Lounge, 8:30 p.m., $7-$10. The Walmart AMP in Rogers hosts a show from comedian Jim Gaffigan, 8 p.m., $30-$100. Granger Smith (and his Youtube-viral alter ego, Earl Dibbles Jr.) performs at Magic Springs Theme & Water Park’s Timberwood Theater in Hot Springs, 7 p.m. The Funkanites get funky at the White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m.

TUESDAY 6/5 The Arkansas Travelers take on the Tulsa Drillers, 7:10 p.m. Tue., 5:10 p.m. Wed. (double header), 7:10 Thu.-Fri., Dickey-Stephens Park, $7$13. Gigi’s Soul Cafe & Lounge hosts a Jazz Jam, 7:30 p.m. Lisa Wingate signs copies of her book “Before We Were Yours” at Wordsworth Books & Co., noon, free. William Blackart and Richard Michael Hall share a bill at the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY 6/6 NYC’s Darwin Deez shares a bill with Listen Sister and Spirit Cuntz at E.J.’s Eats & Drinks, 9:30 p.m., $5. Stephen Neeper & The Wild Hearts warm things up at Stickyz for a show from The Stone Foxes, 8:30 p.m., $10. The “Movies in the Park” series kicks off with a showing of “Wonder Woman” at sunset, First Security Amphitheater, Riverfront Park, free. Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

HOT SPRINGS HAPPENINGS

JUNE 2018 in Hot Springs

For a complete calendar of events, visit hotsprings.org SPONSORED BY OAKLAWN

JUNE 1-10 JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH

JUNE 5 HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE PLAYERS 40TH ANNIVER-

The Pocket Community Theatre presents James and the Giant Peach! Adapted for stage by David Wood, the story of James Henry Trotter is a delightful tale for young and old alike. Join Miss Spider, Old-Green-Grasshopper and all the other characters. Friday and Saturday performances are 7:30 p.m. with 2:30 matinees on Sundays. Adults $20, children 12 and under $5. Reservation and ticket info: 623-8585. pockettheatre.com.

SARY CELEBRATION The Hot Springs Village Players have been creating outstanding community theatre for four decades and a celebration is in order! The 40th Anniversary Celebration will be a spectacular tribute to community theatre, including a special anniversary video, a journey down memory lane fashion show with costumes from HSVP productions, theatre tours, prize drawings, food, spirits and more! Free event with a cash bar, 5-8 p.m. at Woodlands Auditorium.

JUNE 2-3 THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RUNNING OF THE TUBS Costumed teams load up in authentic bathtubs outfitted with wheels and trek down the street. The audience is encouraged to get in the spirit and bring water guns, wear your house slippers, your shower cap, or your robe, to join in all the fun while watching the parade! Admission is free to the public while entries to the parade are $25 per team. To register or view a full schedule, visit myhotsprings.com/events.

JUNE 3-16 HOT SPRINGS MUSIC FESTIVAL, SEASON 23 The Hot Springs Music Festival’s mission is two-fold: (1) to provide performance experience and mentorship opportunities to especially talented international preprofessional musicians and (2) to provide high-quality music performances and performing arts-related activities at reasonable cost to residents of and visitors to Arkansas and the Hot Springs community. Tickets are available on a first-come first-served basis. Students under 17 or of any an age with a valid student ID can attend any concert for fo $5. Check out the schedule at www.hotmusic.org. JUNE 7 FLAVOR OF THE PARK JUN Get your taste buds ready to sample tasty foods and drinks Ge from your favorite Chamber-member eateries, breweries fro and caterers. Admission price includes samples of food, an beer, wine and soft drinks. Don’t miss the most delicious be event of the season! Advance tickets are $20, $25 at the ev door. Visit www.hotspringschamber.com for details and do tickets! 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. tic

JUNE 22-24 JURASSIC QUEST XL “OUT OF

JUNE 7 MOVIES AT THE MARKET Movies at the Market is a free outdoor movie series that will be held every Thursday in June. Movies are screened at sunset in the Farmers Market, 121 Orange Street next to Transportation Plaza. Audience may enter the venue starting at 7:30 p.m. Picnics welcome but glass containers are prohibited. Snacks available for purchase. June 7: Grease June 14: The Land Before Time June 21: Leap! June 28: Despicable Me 3 28 28

MAY 31 31, 2018 MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT ARKANSAS TIMES

EXTINCTION” Jurassic Quest is America’s largest and most realistic Dinosaur event and the only event that has true-to-life size dinosaurs! Guests will walk through the Cretaceous period, the Jurassic period, and the Triassic period, and experience for themselves what it was like to be among living, breathing dinosaurs. In collaboration with leading paleontologists, each dinosaur was painstakingly replicated in every detail. They roar, move, and some even walk around. After the exhibit, there are multiple dinosaur-themed attractions and activities to enjoy. For tickets and the schedule, visit www.jurassicquest.com/ hot-springs.

JUNE 16-17 MAN OF LA MANCHA Enjoy a fully staged production of “Man of La Mancha,” a beloved musical tale inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ 17th century novel, Don Quixote. The Muses Performance Troupe of world class professional performers will present this whimsical and hilarious yet poignant and impactful musical. “Man of La Mancha” takes place during the height of the Spanish Inquisition and tells the story of Alonso Quijana, a kind but insane gentleman, who has set reality aside to become Don Quixote De La Mancha, a brave knight on a passionate quest to revive chivalry, right wrongs and bring justice to an unjust world. Shows at 6 p.m. on June 16 and 3 p.m. on June 17. Admission is $30. Get your tickets at themusescreativityproject. mybigcommerce.com/tickets! JUNE 17 STARDUST BIG BAND The Stardust Big Band continues to draw dancers from Memphis, Shreveport, Texarkana, Monroe, LA, and of course Little Rock, Fort Smith and Pine Bluff! The next Stardust event at the Arlington Resort Hotel is on Sunday, May 6. Starting at 3 p.m., admission is $10 and free for students K-12. Bring your young people for a live “Big Band” experience! There is a cash bar from which you can bring your beverage into the ballroom and water will be served at the tables. For more information, call 501-767-5482. JUNE 21 DINO AT THE DISCO Dinosaurs and disco may both be extinct but they are coming back alive for Mid-America Science Society’s

SPA-CON ANNOUNCEMENT

SPA-CON 2018 will be hosting legendary AfricanAmerican actress PAM GRIER in September! SpaCon fans may know her best for her recent role in the hit science fiction series Smallville. Grier is also famous for her award-winning role in Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarrantino’s homage to the “Blaxploitation” movie genre.

Dino at the Disco, just in time for adults ages 21 and older to come out and enjoy the newly opened Oaklawn Foundation DinoTrek. As always, there will be refresh-

8:25 a.m. Saturday, Lake Hamilton

Pam Grier

ments and signature drinks courtesy of Tri-Lakes Liquor and some “Bronto-Que” courtesy of Stubby’s BBQ. Admission is only $5. Starts at 6:30 p.m.!

JUNE 16 THE 6TH ANNUAL TINKERFEST Tinkerfest is a day-long festival of hands-on science fun for the whole family with makers, artisans, businesses and educators from around the state coming together to provide real first-hand experience related to science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. For more information, visit www.midamericamuseum.org.

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Hot Springs

Live Music Calendar MAGIC SPRINGS THEME AND WATER PARK 2018 SUMMER CONCERT SERIES June 2: Granger Smith featuring Earl Dibbles Jr. June 9: Queensryche, Warrant, and Great White June 16: Crowder June 23: Martina McBride June 30: Kansas Concerts are included with park admission. Season passes are on sale for $64.99. More info at magicsprings.com.

JUNE 1 (FRIDAY)

JUNE 9 (SATURDAY)

Moxie @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn

JUNE 18 (MONDAY)

JUNE 25 (MONDAY)

R&R @ the Big Chill Mister Lucky @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn John French @ Rolando’s The First Resort Band @ the Ohio Club

The Shotgun Billies @ the Big Chill Two Gun Hattie @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn Jeff Hartzell @ Rolando’s The Ohio Club Players @ the Ohio Club

Steve Malec @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 19 (TUESDAY)

Chasing Juliet @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 2 (SATURDAY)

JUNE 10 (SUNDAY)

JUNE 20 (WEDNESDAY)

Grayson Goff Band @ the Big Chill The First Resort Band @ the Ohio Club

R&R @ the Big Chill Mister Lucky @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn Rick Mckean @ Rolando’s The Ohio Club Players @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 3 (SUNDAY)

Nightflying Anniversary Party @ the Big Chill Larry Womack @ the Ohio Club

Larry Womack @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 11 (MONDAY)

Steve Malec @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 12 (TUESDAY)

Chasing Juliet @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 13 (WEDNESDAY)

JUNE 4 (MONDAY)

Hump Night Blues Band @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 5 (TUESDAY)

Steve Malec @ the Big Chill Christine DeMeo @ Rolando’s Clyde Pound Trio with special guests @ the Ohio Club

Steve Malec @ the Ohio Club

Chasing Juliet @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 6 (WEDNESDAY)

Hump Night Blues Band @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 14 (THURSDAY)

JUNE 15 (FRIDAY)

JUNE 7 (THURSDAY)

Trey Stevens Band @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn Jeff Hartzell @ Rolando’s The Ohio Club Players @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 8 (FRIDAY)

Trey Stevens Band @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn Aaron Balentine @ Rolando’s The Ohio Club Players @ the Ohio Club

Dave Almond @ the Big Chill John French @ Rolando’s Clyde Pound Trio with special guests @ the Ohio Club

The Shotgun Billies @ the Big Chill Two Gun Hattie @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn Rick Mckean @ Rolando’s The Ohio Club Players @ the Ohio Club

Chasing Juliet @ the Ohio Club

The First Resort Band @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 21 (THURSDAY)

Christine DeMeo @ Rolando’s Clyde Pound Trio with special guests @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 22 (FRIDAY)

Heavy Suga and the Sweetones @ the Big Chill The Big Dam Horns @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn Jeff Hartzell @ Rolando’s The Ohio Club Players @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 23 (SATURDAY)

The Gable Bradley Band @ the Big Chill The Big Dam Horns @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn Aaron Balentine @ Rolando’s The Ohio Club Players @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 24 (SUNDAY)

Larry Womack @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 16 (SATURDAY)

JUNE 17 (SUNDAY)

Larry Womack @ the Ohio Club

ARLINGTON LOBBY BAR The Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa has live entertainment and dancing every Friday and Saturday evening from 7-11 p.m.!

30 30

MAY 31 31, 2018 MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT ARKANSAS TIMES

Christine DeMeo @ Rolando’s

JUNE 26 (TUESDAY)

JUNE 27 (WEDNESDAY)

JUNE 28 (THURSDAY)

Steve Malec @ the Big Chill Christine DeMeo @ Rolando’s Clyde Pound Trio with special guests @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 29 (FRIDAY)

Joe Hall & Grant Pierson and Ste @ the Big Chill Moxie @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn John French @ Rolando’s Larry Womack, Jacki B Band @ the Ohio Club

JUNE 30 (SATURDAY)

Joe Hall & Grant Pierson and Ste @ the Big Chill Moxie @ Silks Bar & Grill, Oaklawn Aaron Balentine @ Rolando’s Larry Womack, Jacki B Band @ the Ohio Club

Hey, do this!

JUNE

Don’t forget to vote for BEST OF ARKANSAS!

To vote, visit arktimes.com/best2018.

MAY 29 – JULY 7

Murry’s Dinner Playhouse presents MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL! Four women at a lingerie sale with nothing in common but a black lace bra and memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats, not enough sex, too much sex and more! This hilarious musical parody set to classic tunes from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s will have you cheering and dancing in the aisles. Call 562.3131 for tickets!

JUNE 8

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre presents Lerner and Loewe’s MY FAIR LADY. This classic musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion follows the ups and downs of Professor Henry Higgins’ attempt to turn a poor cockney flower girl into a well-spoken gentlewoman. Opens June 15 at Reynolds Performance Hall. Tickets and info at arkshakes. com/tickets ■ MONKEYSOOP, MOURNING VIEW, and MORTALUS play at Four Quarter Bar, 9 p.m. – 2 a.m. Monkeysoop is a progressive grunge trio, balancing dynamic guitar melodies with grunge-pop vocals.

JUNE 16

VERIZON ARENA EVENTS 6/11: WWE Monday Night Raw 6/12: Shania Twain 6/29: The Outlaw Music Festival Tour Tickets at verizonarena.com.

Food, Music, Entertainment and everything else that’s

FUN!

JUNE 1

HANK WILLIAMS JR. will be playing at the MAD Amphitheater in El Dorado, 7 p.m. Hank, Jr. has surpassed superstar status to become a true American icon who has helped shape our country’s cultural landscape with his unbridled creativity. Get your tickets at eldomad.com. ■ Join United Cerebral Palsy of Arkansas at their 10th annual UCP GOLF SCRAMBLE, benefiting the Teddy Darragh Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Starts at 8 a.m. at Rebsamen Golf Course. Four-person team entries are $400 and include breakfast, lunch, awards, and cart fees.Tickets and info at centralarkansastickets.com. ■ FREEWORLD, an independent, regionally touring, ever-evolving Memphis-based musical ensemble, plays at Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. $7.

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre kicks off their 2018 season with THE WINTER’S TALE. Jealous King Leontes suspects his wife of infidelity, setting in motion a series of events at times both heartbreaking and heartwarming in this magical story of love, irrationality, adventure, and redemption. Opens June 8 outdoors on the lawn in front of McAlister Hall at UCA! Tickets and info at arkshakes.com/tickets. Art lovers, don’t miss SECOND FRIDAY ART NIGHT, the after-hours art night held every second Friday of the month. Hosts include Historic Arkansas Museum, Matt McLeod Fine Art Gallery, Bella Vita Jewelry, Nexus Coffee and more! Get more info at facebook.com/2ndFridayArtNight.

JUNE 15

THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE @ THE GRIFFIN 6/2: Josh Walker, Django Walker 6/7: Front Cover Band 6/9: Chris Loggins 6/16: Monty Russell 6/19: Much Ado About Nothing 6/23: Dave Almond 6/30: Chris Loggins

JUNE 9

Enjoy a night of refreshments, a silent auction, and music by award-winning guitar trio Finger Food at the Gates Rogers Foundation’s SOUTH FORK NATURE CENTER FUNDRAISING CONCERT! South Fork Nature Center is one of Arkansas’s premier conservation and environmental education centers. Event will be held at the Fairfield Bay Conference Center. Tickets are $45, doors open at 6:30 p.m. Get your tickets at centralarkansastickets.com. ■ RED OAK RUSE play from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Four Quarter Bar. $7.

Downtown Little Rock Partnership is bringing a new, “quiet” food truck event to downtown: the EAST VILLAGE STREET FOOD JAM PRESENTED BY RICELAND. Enjoy delicious local fare, a beer garden, live music, and a Kid’s Zone, all on the lawns of the Clinton Presidential Center. Tickets are $5! Tickets and more information at centralarkansastickets.com. ■ Sample grilled meat paired with the perfect bourbons at this great TASTING BAR PAIRING EVENT, at Colonial Wines & Spirits! 1-7 p.m.

JUNE 20

Sample grilled meat paired with the perfect wines at this TASTING BAR PAIRING EVENT, at Colonial Wines & Spirits! 4-7 p.m.

JUNE 1-3

Celebrity Attractions presents BEAUTIFUL – THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL at the Robinson Performance Hall! This musical tells the inspiring true story of Carole King’s remarkable rise to stardom. Tickets and show times at celebrityattractions.com.

JUNE 10

Celebrate Flag Day at the MacArthur Museum’s STARS AND STRIPES CELEBRATION, featuring the Little Rock Wind Symphony in concert on the lawn of the museum. Free admission and free Blue Bell ice cream! Bring your own lawn chair. 7 p.m.

JUNE 21

Quapaw Quarter Association presents their Preservation Conversations Lecture Series 2018: “THE ORIGINAL CITY OF LITTLE ROCK, ESTABLISHMENT OF PULASKI COUNTY, 1818”, by Mike Hood. Reception starts at 5:30 p.m., lecture at 6 p.m. Held at Curran Hall, 615 E. Capitol. Free and open to the public! ■ Old Chicago Conway is kicking off the summer with a bang with the BREWERS DINNER! Excite your taste buds as they select and pair great summertime brews with their delicious summertime guest favorite menu items! Certified Beer Experts will guide you through a 4-course meal, each paired with one of their select rotating craft beers. You’ll also receive a souvenir and a goodie bag from some local breweries. 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. Limited room available so get your tickets now at centralarkansastickets.com!

JUNE 3

Don’t miss the 15TH ANNUAL CONWAY PRIDE PARADE AND FESTIVAL! 2-6 p.m at Simon Park!

JUNE 5

REINVENTED VINTAGE re-opening at 1222 S. Main in Soma.

JUNE 14-17, 21-24, 28-30

The Studio Theatre presents a new musical: TUCK EVERLASTING. Winnie Foster yearns for adventure but when she becomes entwined with the Tuck family and learns of the magic behind the Tucks’ unending youth, she must fight to protect their secret from those who would do anything for a chance at eternal life. Curtain at 7:30 p.m., doors open at 7 p.m. The Lobby Bar is open at 6 p.m. for all your beverage needs. Tickets at centralarkansastickets.com.

JUNE 22

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre presents HENRY IV: PART ONE, the stirring and exciting historical tale of young Prince Hal, who enjoys spending his time in the tavern with the large and lusty Falstaff. When his father calls on him to fight for England, Hal must decide where his true loyalties lie. Opens June 22 at Reynolds Performance Hall. Tickets and info at arkshakes.com/tickets.

JUNE 7

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW are playing with Joshua Hedley on the Clinton Presidential Lawn! Tickets are $30 and $35 the night of. Visit crowmedicine.com/tour to buy your tickets in advance. ■ NICK DITTMEIER AND THE SAWDUSTERS play from 7-10 p.m. at Four Quarter Bar. Free show.

JUNE 15

Arkansas Times and Knob Creek present PIG & SWIG, along with Rock City Harley! Whiskey tastings from Knob Creek, Basil Hayden and Jim Beam Black. Plus, sample porkbased delicacies prepared by local chefs. At the Heifer Project Pavilion & Urban Farm. Live music by Dizzy 7. Early Bird ticket price is $20. Get tickets at centralarkansastickets.com.

JULY 5

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre presents MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. In this one-hour Family Shakespeare adaptation, Beatrice and Benedick have sworn off love and each other. Their friends and family intervene to transform these sworn bachelors into a happy couple. Will these tricks finally put an end to their “merry war?” Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre is also happy to offer a sensory-friendly performance of Much Ado on July 5 at 2 p.m., to accommodate all individuals with sensory processing deficits, including those on the autism disorder spectrum. Tickets at tickets.uca.edu and more details at arkshakes.com/accessibility.

HERBERT BROADWAY, La’Changes owner, has been cooking up his delicious chicken wings in Little Rock for 20 years. The secret to his award-winning wings is consistency and a little secret ingredient. Join him Aug. 18 hlding on to his 1st place position! Stop by La’Changes and taste for yourself. Broadway will be there cooking up all the good stuff for his patrons. When asked if there was one thing he would say about his wings, Herbert said, “Feel it, understand it, taste it. You don’t have a loyal customer come in to pick up to-go every Monday for 20 years if you aren’t doing something right!” And Herbert is doing it right! Winner – Best Chicken Wings – Wingstock, 1st Chicken Wing Competition LEFT: Herbert Broadway, La’Changes owner and winner 2017 Wingstock Chicken Wing Competition

3325 W. ROOSEVELT ROAD, LITTLE ROCK, AR

FOR MORE INFO AND TICKETS: WWW.VERIZONARENA.COM/CONCERTS-SHOWS/WINGSTOCK-WING-BEER-FESTIVAL/ arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

Liveic Musy b

Enjoy an Over the Top Hollywood Inspired Night as the Arkansas Times Honors the Winners and Finalists Of the Best of Arkansas Readers Poll.

Proceeds Benefiting the Arkansas Repertory Theatre

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSASâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;TIMES

LOCAL RECREATION Place to Swim Cheap Date Park Resort Golf course Weekend Getaway Gym/Place to Work Out Hiking trail Place to mountain bike Place to canoe/kayak/tube Marina LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT Rock band or artist Country band or artist Hip-hop artist or group Jazz band or artist DJ Live music venue Dance club Karaoke Trivia Live music festival Local actor/actress Local theater Artist Author Poet Photographer Comedian Filmmaker Neighborhood festival Late-night spot Gay bar Sports bar Bowling alley Movie theater Museum Performing arts group Place to gamble LOCAL FOOD AND DRINK Food festival French fries Onion rings Cheese Dip Ribs Wine list Arkansas-brewed beer Liquor store Sushi Salad Business lunch Brunch Happy hour Cocktail Baked goods

Milkshake Vegetarian Caterer Outdoor dining LOCAL PEOPLE AND POLITICS Politician Athlete Liberal Conservative Best Arkansan Worst Arkansan Best Little Rocker Worst Little Rocker Best Little Rock City Board Member Worst Little Rock City Board Member Charity Charity event Philanthropist Misuse of taxpayer funds/property LOCAL MEDIA Radio station Radio personality TV station TV personality TV meteorologist TV sports Newspaper writer Blog Website Podcast Twitter feed Instagram feed LOCAL GOODS AND SERVICES Grocery store Women’s clothing Men’s clothing Hip clothing Children’s clothing Vintage clothing Lingerie Shoes Antiques Furniture Garden store or nursery Landscaper Hardware/home improvement Eyewear shop Farmers market Outdoor store Bicycle shop Gun store Commercial art gallery Mobile phone provider Internet service provider

Residential real estate agency Commercial real estate agency Pest control and termite service Auto service Auto stereo Travel agency Hotel Private school Public school Apartment complex Bank Home, Life, Car Insurance company Commercial insurance agency Lawyer Barbershop Hair Salon Nail salon Spa Diet/Weight Loss Center Jeweler Pharmacy Physical therapist Massage therapist Med spa Cosmetic dentist Auto dealer RV/camper dealer Motorcycle dealer Home entertainment store Sporting goods Toys Florist Plumber HVAC Repair Gift shop Veterinarian Dry cleaners Artisan Designer/decorator Hobby shop Music store Bookstore Pawn shop Landscape design Funeral home Retirement community Yoga studio Chiropractor Tattoo shop Vape shop Investment adviser Company to work for

arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

BELLY UP

Dining

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

WHAT’S WHAT’S COOKIN’ COOKIN’

A RESTAURANT DEVOTED TO raw food is set to open the weekend of June 8 in Hot Springs, owner and chef Marci Smith says. In the Raw Downtown is the brick-and-mortar baby of the In the Raw Test Kitchen and Juice Bar food truck that Smith opened in August. The menu is entirely plant-based and raw (though the kitchen does toast the bread for its sandwiches, Smith told the Times). An example: the Tejano Taco, which combines romaine lettuce, a sunflower-seed taco filling, sweet red pepper cashew cream and salsa. Smith creates all her own sauces and dressings. Smith got into vegan and raw foods after she did a juice cleanse and lost 15 pounds and felt healthier and happier. The restaurant is at 919 Central Ave., formerly occupied by the Lazy Hog Saloon. CATHEAD’S DINER, chef Donnie Ferneau and pastry chef Kelli Marks’ new endeavor in the East Village, now has an opening date: Wednesday, June 13. The restaurant will serve Ferneau’s Southern food with a flair and Marks’ cakes and donuts cafeteria-style, and will have a bartender/ barista preparing special coffees and drinks. The address is 515 Shall Ave., in the Paint Factory building; telephone 613-7780. THE NEW RESTAURANT that will take the place of Revolution Restaurant behind the Rev Room will be called Live Life Chill, a Facebook page indicates. The buyer is Sam McFadin, owner of the John Daly Steakhouse, sources say. Sarah K. Meyer of Conway filed an application for Live Life Chill LLC with Alcoholic Beverage Control to serve mixed drinks. The Rev Room, owned by Chris King and Suzon Awbrey, will continue to offer live music. Life Life Chill’s address is 300 President Clinton Ave. MATTHEW MCCLURE, EXECUTIVE CHEF at The Hive at 21c in Bentonville, and guest chefs Jamie Bissonnette of Boston restaurants Coppa, Toro and Little Donkey; New York City chef Anita Lo; Jason Paul Roth of Heirloom at the 1907 in Rogers; and Luke Wetzel of Bentonville’s Oven & Tap are preparing the multicourse meal at the No Kid Hungry Dinner at 21c Museum Hotel in Bentonville on Monday, June 4. The tickets will benefit efforts to end childhood hunger in Arkansas. There will be a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30 p.m., with a live auction to follow. The ticket price is $150. Email Jessica DiBenedetto, jdibenedetto@ strength.org for tickets. 34

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

START HERE: With Core’s cheese curds and marinara sauce.

Another brewpub on the block Core comes to SoMa.

entral Arkansas, a question: Have we reached peak local brewery? No scoffing, now. We’re serious. This is more than an existential question. Truly, how many local breweries can our community reasonably support? After years of the good folks at Vino’s Brewpub operating the lone brewery in town, followed by the happy growth at Diamond Bear, we are now nearly overrun with variety and experimentation. It’s definitely a happy problem to have. The last few years have brought us, in no particular order, Stone’s Throw, Flyway, Blue Canoe, Rebel Kettle, Lost Forty, Damgoode Pies and now a new Core Public House on South Main in Follow Eat Arkansas on Twitter: @EatArkansas

Little Rock ( joining its sister Core location in North Little Rock’s Argenta neighborhood). Core Brewing Co., established in Springdale in 2010, is opening pubs across the state. In addition to Little Rock and North Little Rock, thirsty Arkansans can also find Core Public Houses in Springdale, Rogers and Fort Smith. Two of those thirsty Arkansans darkened the Core door on a recent happy hour excursion in search of food and drink and to learn what this place was all about. The pub has a very casual atmosphere, with local art for sale on the walls and ’90s music videos playing during our visit. The crowd was pretty sparse (us and two other patrons), and

we settled in quickly for drinks. A pub is only as good as its beer, and we are happy to report that Core has some excellent choices. The bar featured 12 different Core beers on tap, and the bartender was happy to let us sample the choices until we found what we liked. The Arkansas Red ($5, $3 during happy hour) was crisp and refreshing without an overpowering flavor. We also favored the somewhat stronger Ouachita IPA ($5, $3 at happy hour), which should please any lover of hoppy ales. Happily, Core also has a full bar with several signature cocktails and beer cocktails featuring local spirits and brews. Our companion very much enjoyed Core’s salute to its dachshund logo — the “Shake Your Wiener” cocktail ($6, featuring Rocktown Basil Vodka and lemonade). Core’s kitchen duties are handled by Foghorn’s Express, a venture growing out of Northwest Arkansas’s Foghorn’s Wings, Burgers & More sports bar chain. Foghorn’s menu is focused largely on standard bar fare, but with some surprising and welcome choices.

STEAK•SEAFOOD•SUSHI WWW.BENIHANA.COM 2 Riverfront Place, North Little Rock, AR 501 374 8081

TWELVE ON TAP: From IPAs to hoppy ales.

We set out to try an unusual-forArkansas bar appetizer, the cheese curds ($7.99) with marinara sauce. They were surprisingly flavorful, lightly fried and a great (if somewhat heavy) start. This choice is definitely one to order with a few friends. The menu includes several familiar bar food options: burgers, chicken tenders, wings, and the like. My companion ordered the Foghorn’s Philly ($10.99), the pub’s take on the classic Philly cheesesteak sandwich. She was unimpressed: The meat was dry. Additionally, the french fries that accompanied the sandwich were somewhat overcooked. Our table also took a chance on one of Core’s “3 Cheese Mac Bowls” ($10.99 each). Core offers three different selections of macaroni and cheese: the Deluxe Mac (topped with boneless wings and a choice of sauce), the BBQ Pork Mac (topped with smoked pulled pork) and the Cheese Burger Mac (topped with ground beef, dill pickle chips and a signature sauce). We opted for the BBQ Pork Mac, which was excellent. The large portion of pulled pork was tender and zesty, and paired surprisingly well with the macaroni. Core’s menu highlights its 16 signature sauces and eight dry rubs. On a return visit for a takeout lunch, we tried Core’s chicken wings in two sauces:

Core Public House 1214 S. Main St. 353-2489 facebook.com/coresomalittlerock Quick bite

In addition to a wide variety of beers, Core also brews its own root beer.

Hours

3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday and Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday, noon to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Other info

Happy hour 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Kung Fu and spicy garlic Parmesan. The wings were meaty and tender and perfectly cooked. The Kung Fu sauce was reportedly teriyaki-based, but we couldn’t detect that; the spicy Parmesan was better. Research also revealed that Core’s Yossarian beer (an excellent New England-style IPA) was the perfect to-go refreshment for hot Arkansans doing weekend yard work. Returning to our question: Have we reached peak local brewery in Central Arkansas? Our answer is definitely not, and we will gladly endure the beer battles to come while welcoming the arrival of Core’s brews to the capital city.

Seafood Boils and Catering! Book your event today! 1619 REBSAMEN PARK RD. 501.838.3888 thefadedrose.com

serving better than bar food all night long June 1 - FreeWorld 2 - Vanimal Kingdom 7 - Nick Dittmeier and the Sawdusters (8pm - free) 9 - Red Oak Ruse 15 - Monkeysoop,Mourning View, Mortalis 16 - The Mike Dillon Band Open until 2am every night!

415 Main St North Little Rock • (501) 313-4704 • fourquarterbar.com arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

MOVIE REVIEW

A PORTRAIT OF THE PILOT AS A YOUNG MAN: Alden Ehrenreich (Han Solo) and Joonas Suotamo (the Wookiee) star in the standalone “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”

Origin story

‘Solo’ doesn’t quite thread the needle. BY SAM EIFLING

mong the fun reveals in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” the standalone flick about that universe’s most magnetic character, is that an Empire military recruiter gave Han Solo his name on the spot, Ellis Island-style. Han, then just a young orphan and fugitive, was escaping his crudhole home planet, staying a step ahead of the local law and chasing a dream of becoming a pilot. “Who are your people?” the stately recruiter says, the vague care in his voice softening his familiar dark uniform. Han says he has no one. So the recruiter gives him the poetic surname that always made Harrison Ford sound like he was going stag on an intergalactic

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

mission … to get rich, sure, and maybe save the day while he was at it. That formula worked wonders: a ranking by the magazine Empire (no relation) tabbed Han as the No. 3 movie character of all time, a healthy lead over Luke (No. 50) and even Luke’s dad (No. 9). We have a new Han now in Alden Ehrenreich, a 29-year-old Californian who managed to put together a tidy acting resume while remaining low-profile enough that he could step into such an iconic role sans baggage. To date, his finest on-screen moment likely was a meta behind-the-scenes moment on the Coen Brothers’ old-school Hollywood comedy “Hail, Caesar!”

that saw him as a cowboy-heartthrob named Hobie Doyle bumbling through a dramatic reading, with an exasperated director (played by Ralph Fiennes) desperately trying to guide him through. Ehrenreich was hilarious as a simple, starry-eyed kid hopelessly out of his depth. You really believed. That scene kept replaying in my head as I tried to figure out why he wasn’t quite holding up in “Solo.” The short answer is, few performers in history have managed such swagger as circa-1980 Ford, and Ehrenreich has impossibly big shoes to fill. On top of that, the production of “Solo” was famously a mess, including a midstream director switch (to the perfectly capable Ron Howard). You’ve got to thread the needle here, making Solo more complex than he’s ever been, revealing traumas and losses of his youth, while maintaining and evolving the signature arrogance that makes the character such a hoot. (To pull that off … why, that would take the best pilot in the galaxy!) If Ehrenreich suffers in the comparison (not quite funny enough and, paradoxically, also not enough of

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a jerk), then you might as well enjoy “Solo” for its strengths. This is still a romp fit for popcorn and Junior Mints on a summer’s afternoon, bringing us a glimpse of Han’s young crush Qi’ra (an inscrutable Emilia Clarke, making the most of the “Game of Thrones” pause), letting us meet Chewbacca for the first time (speaking a little Wookiee has perks for Han), and gracing us with Donald Glover as young Lando Calrissian. As a gambler and playboy and Millennium Falcon pilot and snake and allaround bon vivant whose greatest love in life may be his social justice-minded droid L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Lando feels like the #lifegoals for Han to emulate, and the movie picks up a pluck in its step when he’s around. We know the fates of Chewie and

Lando well enough; the wild card in this episode is Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett, a mercenary who serves as something of a mentor and foil for Han. Trying to reunite with Qi’ra and preening his way into a space-cowboy future that only he sees, Han has ambition without discipline. Beckett, as the weary smalltimer hoping to nail one final score, offers a late-career glimpse of Han’s best-case long-term trajectory (sans a Rebellion to give his life meaning). Machiavellian yet not without his soft spots, Beckett is a fun addition to this cartoon. The adventure might even continue with him, had not “Solo” wryly winked at a 40-year-old nerd debate and left no doubt as to whether Han shot first. arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

ALSO IN THE ARTS

THEATER

under 6. 374-4242.

“Orange Is The New White.” The two-act political comedy show from The Main Thing. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. through June 16. $24. The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse. 301 Main St., NLR. 372-0205. “Menopause: The Musical.” Murry’s Dinner Playhouse puts “the change” to the tune of hits from the ’60s and ’70s for this parody revue. 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat., dinner at 6 p.m.; 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sun., dinner at 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. May 29July 7. $15-$37. 6323 Colonel Glenn Road. 562-3131. “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.” The touring Broadway production of Carole King’s biography in song. 7:30 p.m. Tue.Sat., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. May 29-June 3. $28$83. Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. 244-8800. “Always A Bridesmaid.” Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten’s comedy goes up at the Hot Springs’ Five Star Dinner Theatre. 7 p.m. Sun.-Mon. through July 30, with additional performances at 7 p.m. June 2 and June 16. $28-$44. Five Star Dinner Theatre, 701 Central Ave. 318-1600.

FINE ART, HISTORY EXHIBITS MAJOR VENUES ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: 60th annual “Delta Exhibition,” works by artists from Arkansas and contiguous states, through Aug. 26; 57th “Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition,” through July 22. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000. ARTS & SCIENCE CENTER FOR SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS, 701 S. Main St.: “Fire and Fiber,” works by metalsmith David Clemons and fiber artist Sofia Gonzalez; “UAPB & ASC: Five Decades of Collaboration,” work by Tarrence Corbin, Earnest Davidson, Fred Schmidt, Dr. William Detmers and others from UA Pine Bluff in the ASC permanent collection, through Nov. 3. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 870-536-3375. ARTS CENTER OF THE OZARKS, 214 S. Main St.: “Octavio Logo: Exodus,” artist reception and conversation about immigration. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 479-751-5441. BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Mid-Southern Watercolorists Juried Exhibition,” through June 30; “Howard Simon: Art and Illustrations,” through June. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790. CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL MUSEUM VISITOR CENTER, Bates and Park: Exhibits on the 1957 desegregation of Central and the civil rights movement. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily. 374-1957. CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, 1200 President Clinton Ave.: “Louder than Words: Rock, Power & Politics,” through Aug. 5; permanent exhibits on the Clinton administration. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., $10 adults, $8 seniors, retired military and college students, $6 youth 6-17, free to active military and children 38

MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way, Bentonville: “The Garden,” works from the collection, through Oct. 8; American masterworks spanning four centuries in the permanent collection. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed., Fri.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat.Sun., closed Tue. 479-418-5700. DELTA CULTURAL CENTER, 141 Cherry St., Helena/West Helena: “Over Here and There: the Sons and Daughters of Arkansas’s Delta at War,” commemorating the centennial of World War I. 870-338-4350. ESSE PURSE MUSEUM & STORE, 1510 S. Main St.: “What’s Inside: A Century of Women and Handbags,” permanent exhibit. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sun. $10, $8 for students, seniors and military. 916-9022. FORT SMITH REGIONAL ART MUSEUM, 1601 Rogers Ave.: “Will Barnet: Forms and Figures,” through June 3; “The Essence of Place: David Halpern Photographs from the Gilcrease Collection,” through July 29. 18. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 479-784-2787. HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. 3rd St.: “Secret Stories: Anais Dasse and Holly Laws,” paintings and sculpture, through Aug. 5; “The Medium is the Message: Experimental Photography in Arkansas,” photographic works by Esther Nooner, Kristoffer Johnson, Helen Maringer, Kaia Hodo and Grace Ann Odom, through July 8. Ticketed tours of renovated and replicated 19th century structures from original city, guided Monday and Tuesday on the hour, self-guided Wednesday through Sunday, $2.50 adults, $1 under 18, free to 65 and over. (Galleries free.) 9 a.m.5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351. MacARTHUR MUSEUM OF ARKANSAS MILITARY HISTORY, 503 E. 9th St. (MacArthur Park): Closed through August for renovation. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. 376-4602.

Market Ave.: “The Spider Who Didn’t Like Flies,” paintings by Sulac. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. SOUTH ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, 110 E. 5th St.: Recent works by Gay Bechtelheimer, through June 28. 870-862-5474. UA LITTLE ROCK, Windgate Gallery of Art and Design: Works in all media from the permanent collection by Mamma Andersson, Heidi Hogden, Helen Phillips, Alecia Walls-Barton, John Harlan Norris and others, through July 10. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 569-8977. UA PINE BLUFF, 1200 University Drive: “Live or Not to Live, That Is the Question,” paintings by Markeith Woods, John Brown Watson Memorial Library, through August. 870-575-8896. UA PULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE, 3000 W. Scenic Drive: “Champion Trees of Arkansas,” color pencil drawings by Linda Williams Palmer, through July 27, Windgate Gallery, Center for Humanities and the Arts (CHARTS), 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.Thu., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. 812-2760. SMALLER VENUES ARGENTA GALLERY, 413 Main St.: “About Face,” photographs by Larry Pennington, sales benefit the Argenta Arts Foundation. 416-0973. ARTISTS WORKSHOP GALLERY, 610A Central Ave., Hot Springs: Paintings by Jan Briggs and Bonnie Ricci. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun. 623-6401. BOSWELL MOUROT FINE ART, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd.: New works in glass by Kyle Boswell, paintings by Kathy Bay. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 664-0030.

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8208 Cantrell Road: “… to be cont’d,” retrospective of the art of the late founder of the gallery, N. Scott, through June. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, 224-1335, 9th and Broadway: “Arkansas Divine 9: CHANCELLOR HOTEL, 70 N. East Ave., An Exhibit of Arkansas’s African-American Fayetteville: “Fenix at the Chancellor,” Greek Letter Organizations”; permanent work in all media by members of artists’ exhibits on African-American entreprecollective, through July 3. neurship and work by African-American artists. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 683-3593. CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 509 Scott St.: “Polaroid, Pinholes, Photograms and MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, 500 President Processes,” photographic art by Blue-Eyed Clinton Ave.: Interactive science exhibits Knocker Photo Club members Allan Baland activities for children and teenagers. lard Bryan, Cindy Adams, Darrell Adams, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., $10 Lynn Frost, Mary Chamberlain, Rachel ages 13 and older, $8 ages 1-12, free to Worthen, Rita Henry and Vince Griffin, members and children under 1. 396-7050. through June 28. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 9 a.m.-noon Fri., 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Sun. 870OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 538-7414. W. Markham St.: “A Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans,” through fall EMERGENT ARTS, 341-A Whittington 2019; “Cabinet of Curiosities: Treasures Road: “The V Show — Subtle and Explicit from the University of Arkansas Museum Female Imagery,” works that highlight the Collection”; “True Faith, True Light: The female form, Gallery Walk reception 5-8 Devotional Art of Ed Stilley,” musical p.m. June 1. instruments, through 2017; “First Families: Mingling of Politics and Culture” permaGALLERY 221, 2nd and Center Sts.: “Art nent exhibit including first ladies’ gowns. as Speech,” works by area artists. 11 a.m.-6 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 801324-9685. 0211. RIVER MARKET BOOKS AND GIFTS GALLERY 26, 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “You (COX CREATIVE CENTER), 120 River Are Not Alone,” new drawings by Robert

Bean and Diane Harper, through July 12. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 664-8998. GALLERY CENTRAL, 800 Central Ave., Hot Springs: Work by artist Bob Snider and others. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 318-4278. GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR: “Southern Abstraction,” work by regionally recognized artists.10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 664-2787. HEARNE FINE ART, 1001 Wright Ave.: “Rural Artistry,” mixed media sculpture and paintings by Sylvester McKissick, through June 28. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. 372-6822. JUSTUS FINE ART GALLERY, 827 A Central Ave.: “Warming Trends,” paintings by Dolores Justus, Laura Raborn, Geri Much, Dustyn Bork and Rebecca Thompson, wood sculpture by Robyn Horn, Jill Kyong and Sandra Sell, turned wood by Gene Sparling and photographs by Beverly Buys, opens with reception 5-9 p.m. June 1, Hot Springs Gallery Walk. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 321-2335. L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd: “Backyard Birds,” works by Louis Beck, giclee giveaway 5:30 p.m. May 31; “Go West Young Man!” June exhibit. 660-4006. LAMAN LIBRARY ARGENTA BRANCH, 420 Main St., NLR: “Flowers and Facades,” work by Dustyn Bork and Heidi CarlsenRogers. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat. 687-1061. LEGACY FINE ART, 804 Central Ave., Hot Springs: Blown glass chandeliers by Ed Pennington, paintings by Carole Katchen. 8 a.m.-5 LOCAL COLOUR GALLERY, 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Artists collective. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 265-0422. M2 GALLERY, 11525 Cantrell Road: “Ink,” printmaking by Evan Lindquist, Warren Criswell and Neal Harrington, with photographs by Linda Harding and Austin printmaker Annalise Gratovich. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Mon. 225-6257. MYLO COFFEE CO. ROASTERY, 3604 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “In Between the Lines,” artwork by Raque Ford and Jerry Phillips, 4-6 p.m. Wednesdays through July 8; yoga classes, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through June 29, $10 per class, portion donated to arts and education programs. 4-6 p.m. Wednesdays. 747-1880. THEA FOUNDATION, 401 Main St., NLR: “Meet Me in the Water,” paintings and a mural by Katherine Rutter. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (closed noon-1 p.m.) weekdays. OTHER MUSEUMS JACKSONVILLE MUSEUM OF MILITARY HISTORY, 100 Veterans Circle, Jacksonville: Exhibits on D-Day; F-105, Vietnam era plane (“The Thud”); the Civil War Battle of Reed’sosage Bridge, Arkansas Ordnance Plant (AOP) and other military history. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $3 adults; $2 seniors, military; $1 students. 501-241-1943.

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ILLEGAL DUMPS CONTROL OFFICER The Pulaski Inter-District Used Tire Program is looking for an IDCO (Illegal Dumps Control Officer) to manage and eradicate illegal dumping in Pulaski County and waste tire illegal dumping in a nine-county area of central Arkansas. The Pulaski Inter-District is headquartered in downtown Little Rock and serves other regional solid waste management districts in the central Arkansas area.

Arkansas State Parks Creative Services Coordinator (Exhibits Coordinator) POSITION AVAILABLE IN LITTLE ROCK: As coordinator of the State Parks creative services team, supervises a medium-sized staff and is project manager for planning, design, and production of interpretive exhibits, signs, and publications for the 52-park system statewide. Closes June 8, 2018. ArkansasStateParks.com/employment/

Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Trial Court Essex Probate and Family Court 36 Federal Street Salem, MA 01970 (978) 744-1020 Docket No. ES18A0027AD In the matter of KAITLIN TAYLOR HAWES-TYNDALL CITATION G.L.c. 201 §6 To Justin Charles Tyndall L.K.A. Little Rock, Arkansas and persons interested in a petition for the adoption of said child and the Department of Children and Families of said Commonwealth, 280 Merrimac Street, 2nd Floor, Lawrence, MA 01843. A petition has been presented to said court by Bobby James Rand of Lynn, MA, Kristen Lee Hawes of Lynn, MA requesting for leave to adopt said child. If you object to this adoption you are entitled to the appointment of an attorney if you are an indigent person. An indigent person is defined by SJC Rule 3:10. The definition includes but is not limited to persons receiving TAFDC, EACDC, poverty related veteran’s benefits, Medicaid, and SSI. The Court will determine if you are indigent. Contact an Assistant Judicial Case Manager or Assistant Judicial Case Manager or Adoption Clerk of the Court on or before the date listed below to obtain the necessary forms. IF YOU DESIRE TO OBJECT THERETO, YOU OR YOUR ATTORNEY MUST FILE A WRITTEN APPEARANCE IN SAID COURT AT SALEM ON OR BEFORE TEN O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING (10:00 AM) ON JULY 23, 2018. Witness, JENNIFER M. R. ULWICK First Justice of this Court Date: April 26, 2018 Pamela Casey O’Brien, Register of Probate

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Assignment will be considered an Independent Contractor and not eligible for benefits. Candidate will be required to sign a terms of service agreement. Qualifications for this assignment include the following: • A Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university or equivalent work experience • Good oral and written communication skills • Good computer and math skills • A team player • Environmental interest • A professional appearance • A good driving record • Preferred knowledge of laws, statutes, regulations, ordinances and violations pertaining to solid waste management and illegal dumping • Ability to complete designated mandatory training for IDCOs • Ability to conduct on-site investigation of areas affected by illegal dumping • Starting fee: $40,000 - $45,000 Please submit all resumes to Desi Ledbetter at desi.ledbetter@ regionalrecycling.org Deadline for resumes to be received is June 8, 2018 at 4:30pm. Pulaski County Regional Recycling & Waste Reduction District 300 South Spring Street, Suite 200 Little Rock, AR 72201 501.340.8787 • www.regionalrecycling.org WE ARE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. arktimes.com MAY 31, 2018

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MAY 31, 2018

ARKANSASâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;TIMES

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