Arkansas Times - November 23, 2017

RE A Vo DE tin RS g CH St O ar IC ts E N AW ov . 2 AR 5 th D S

NEWS + POLITICS + ENTERTAINMENT + FOOD / NOVEMBER 23, 2017 / ARKTIMES.COM

LONG GONE

The undoing of the head Hog

BY BEAU WILCOX

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Voting Starts Nov. 25 | Ends Jan. 13 Next year, the Arkansas Times will put out the 37th edition of our Readers Choice restaurant awards. That makes us the oldest and most respected readers survey in Arkansas. Walk in many restaurants around the state and you’ll see our posters on the walls. Be a part of the tradition: Vote online for your favorite chefs and restaurants in dozens of different categories.

Winners will be announced in the March 15 issue and an awards celebration sponsored

by Ben E. Keith Foods and Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits will be held at the UA Pulaski Tech Culinary Arts and Hospitality Institute who will prepare all the food for the celebration March 13.

Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute

NOVEMBER 23, 2017

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BRIAN CHILSON

WEEK THAT WAS

Quote of the week “Honestly, between tweeting and golfing, how does he get anything done? I don’t understand it. Maybe that’s the whole point.” — Hillary Clinton, at an event in Little Rock to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential election victory, on President Trump’s obsession with her on Twitter.

Tax bill movement The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut bill by a 227-205 vote. All four Arkansas congressmen supported the cut. Thirteen Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the bill because of elements that will be harmful to the blue or bluish states from which they hail.

The bill would hurt taxpayers in Arkansas who itemize, through the loss of deductions for state and local taxes. It would also increase the deficit and benefit the wealthy, through the eventual elimination of the estate tax and other changes.

Meanwhile, at the urging of Sen. Tom Cotton and other ultraconservative senators, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced last week that the Senate’s version of the bill would include a repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. That repeal would reduce the deficit by an estimated $316 billion over the next decade, but would also likely mean millions would lose their health insurance. It’s unclear what the addition of that repeal means for the tax plan’s future in the Senate, where Republicans control a slim majority.

The Senate was expected to consider the legislation after the Thanksgiving holiday.

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NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

and has been in custody since.

Reed went through a similar process in Oklahoma after being charged with knocking down a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Oklahoma Capitol in 2014. He was not prosecuted but referred to mental health treatment.

Reed was charged with firstdegree criminal mischief, a felony, for destroying the monument. A new version of the Ten Commandments has been made, but not yet installed. Several groups have announced intentions to sue after the monument is in place for state endorsement of religion.

Monument destroyer sent to State Hospital Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza decided last week that Michael Tate Reed, charged with demolishing the Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds shortly after it was installed, was unfit to stand trial and ordered him committed to the State Hospital to see if he could ever be fit.

A psychiatric examination was ordered for Reed, 32, in September. He drove a car into the monument June 28

Crawford challenger Chintan Desai, a regional project manager for the KIPP Delta charter school operation, is running as a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 1st District, now represented by Republican Rep. Rick Crawford.

Desai, a California native and son of immigrants from India, came to Arkansas in 2010 with Teach for America. He was a fifth-grade teacher at the KIPP school in Helena-West Helena and then worked on Teach for America

staff before returning to KIPP Delta.

Among areas of emphasis for his campaign: “making higher education more affordable, closing the income and wealth inequality, gun-control legislation that makes sense and slowing climate change.”

Extradited Jacob Scott Goodwin, 22, of Ward has been extradited from Lonoke County to Virginia to face a charge that he joined in a beating of a black man at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. His visitors in jail have included a network news crew and a local neo-Nazi.

The Clintons

OPINION

I

wasn’t particularly excited about the National media — if they didn’t, as The 25th anniversary celebration of Bill New York Times did, try to turn the event Clinton’s election. Life goes on. into a revisitation of Clinton female scanBut I joined thousands at the talk dals — ginned out

by Bill and Hillary Clinton moderated grist for the rightby James Carville and mingled at social wing resentment events Friday and Saturday nights. mill. For example: I was happy I went. It turned out to Hillary’s observabe an emotional release over Hillary tion that Fox and Clinton’s defeat in 2016 and the ensuing other outlets deliver MAX BRANTLEY national calamity. It was a reminder, too, “partisan advocacy maxbrantley@arktimes.com of what it was like to be led by grownups. positions irrespecAbout an hour into the program Sat- tive of the truth, the facts, the evidence.” urday, Carville brought up the “elephant The many references to Donald in the room” — Hillary’s 2016 defeat. I Trump drew attention, too, particularly recommend a trip to the Clinton School Hillary’s note of his obsession with her, of Public Service’s website to hear her evidenced a few hours before by the 10-minute response. It included an 800th or so attack on her by Twitter acknowledgment of her own respon- since his election. Said Hillary: “Honsibility, but rightly said the Russian estly, between tweeting and golfing, how involvement, its links with Trump and does he get anything done? I don’t underthe success of Republican vote sup- stand it. Maybe that’s the whole point.” pression tactics in key states all deserve She talked about how she’d used yoga, attention, if for no other reason than positive activities on a new political group to make sure it doesn’t happen again. and reading to help cope with her loss.

Selling tax cuts

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aking tax law is always pretty simple, despite the arcane references to S corporations, pass-throughs, carried-interest deductions and the like, which define the ways that lots of rich people get their income.

Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, you cut taxes for your favorite people and, if you think you need to show that you are a deficit hawk, you make up some of the revenue loss by raising taxes on the less favored.

If you cut the top tax rate on C corporations — that is most of the biggies — from 34 percent to 15 or 20 percent you know it’s going to leave billions of dollars more in corporate treasuries for the owners and managers to divvy up as they please. If you sharply cut the tax rate on the owners of pass-through companies, which are the vast majority of U.S. businesses, it doesn’t take a Harvard economist to know who will be the primary beneficiaries: the owners of the companies. The Republican senator from Wisconsin warns that he might block passage of the Republican tax cut in the Senate unless other businessmen (like himself ) get the same kind of tax cut that the big corporations are going to get.

If you are in the middle class and you

see that Congress is about to increase t h e st a n d a rd deduction and the child tax credit and that the new personal tax rates might affect your ERNEST income bracket DUMAS positively, you expect that you will be paying lower taxes, as President Trump promised. But if you read farther and see that much of the benefit will be taken away starting soon after the 2020 election, you know that in the long run you will be paying higher taxes. They have to take away your tax benefits to make the long-term deficit numbers come out right.

Tax specialists like the Institution for Taxation and Economic Policy and the Joint Committee on Taxation applied the changes proposed in the House and Senate bills to the IRS’s 2016 income and tax computations and project that over the next decade both will produce tax increases for the bottom 60 percent of Americans and tax cuts for many of the rest, but mostly for the top 1 percent, just like your common sense tells you they would.

That leads, finally, to my point. While determining the big winners and losers

She favors mysteries, she said, because “the bad guy always gets it in the end.”

Emotional ovations followed tributes to Hillary Clinton. There was plenty of affection for Bill Clinton, but the event felt more like a Hillary rally. Some young women, infants when Bill was elected president, told reporters when asked about whether Bill’s transgressions should be re-examined, said that they were in line for books because of Hillary Clinton, not Bill.

There weren’t many differences in the side-by-side comments of the Clintons.

Their synergy has always been part of their combined strength.

But I thought this: They are people who speak in complete sentences with an assurance built on serious study of everything from children’s health to genome mapping. They referenced again and again “Putting People First,” the 1992 campaign mantra. I confess — as someone who respects and likes Hillary Rodham Clinton, including her sharpish tongue and impatience with fools — that Bill wins the voter-connection contest. If there’s ever been another political natural like the boy from Hope — the man Barack

Obama called the Secretary of Explaining Stuff — I’ve never seen him. That is at least part of why the opposition loathed him. Drop all the anvils and sticks of dynamite they could find and they still couldn’t beat the Roadrunner.

Both spoke believably about campaigning, but you couldn’t beat Bill’s story of meeting a 19-year-old from the backwoods of Kentucky researching the frontiers of space. It was warm, funny and generous about people and their potential. As Hillary said, you can watch Bill in these little meetings (hundreds of thousands over the years) and know that he is listening, not merely politicking. I don’t think it was strictly a putdown of Trump, but also an article of Bill Clinton’s faith, when he said how much better it is to reach out to the world and build diverse communities rather than divide people and feed on resentment.

I’d have liked to Donald Trump on that stage trying to speak on Bosnia or Kyoto or CHIP (the health insurance program for kids currently in Trump administration limbo) — or even — let’s think of a gimme he’d flunk — what book he’d read recently.

from “tax reform” is usually a no-brainer, the political marketing and tinkering with the code are dark and impenetrable arts.

Take an example that is close to home.

To hold deficit increases under $1.5 trillion so that a tax bill can pass the Senate with 51 votes, congressional tax authors must raise government revenues in a few ways, like getting rid of some itemized deductions that now save taxpayers billions. So they hit on eliminating the write-off that people get for their state and local taxes.

But wait, thought the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Kevin Brady (R-Texas), and two other Texans on the committee, that will mean a whopping tax increase for middle- and upper-class Texans. See, Texans pay exorbitantly high property taxes, more than triple what we pay in Arkansas. States raise their money in different ways. Texas doesn’t have a personal income tax but raises the brunt of its revenues through property taxes, corporation taxes and extremely high extraction taxes on its rich mineral deposits.

So they changed the bill to keep deductions for property taxes but to end them for income taxes, which tend to be higher in Democratic-voting states and a few others, like Arkansas. Texans will get big federal tax cuts; the quarter-

million Arkansas families that itemize will pay more.

There are more such intricacies. Taxation is always a product of political gamesmanship.

The boldest marketing game involves persuading rank-and-file conservatives, mostly Republicans, that cutting corporate and pass-through business taxes is going to enrich them and not just the owners and executives. Polls consistently show that a vast majority of Americans, including most Republicans, believe that taxes on corporations and very high incomes have come down far too much the past 40 years.

So, the authors, backed by business groups, say the tax cuts will spur corporations and business owners to give big pay increases to their workers and start new product lines that will put millions more people to work. Never mind that it has never happened before — similar tax cuts in 1981, 1986 and 2001 were followed by recessions — and that corporate profits and reserves are already at record highs after the small 2013 tax increase on the rich.

How tax cuts for the business class and the idle wealthy will spread wealth across the continent is too complicated for anyone to explain. But polls last week showed that while most Americans don’t believe they will, most self-identifying Republicans are true believers.

Follow Arkansas Blog on Twitter: @ArkansasBlog

arktimes.com NOVEMBER 23, 2017

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A new Snyder?

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THIS BLACK FRIDAY

OPT OUTSIDE

The day after Thanksgiving, join park interpreters for an alternative to Black Friday … Green Friday.

Guided hikesa will be offered throughout the day at participating parks. This is a great chance to get outside with friends and family. Visit ArkansasStateParks.com/events for more info.

Share your photos using #OPTOUTSIDE to be a part of this movement.

ArkansasStateParks.com My park, your park, our parks

#OptOutside #ARStateParks #GreenFriday

Save the date for the first annual

CENTRAL

ARKANSAS MUSIC AWARDS 7 p.m. Jan. 23, Ron Robinson Theater Presented by the Arkansas Times and Arkansas Sounds (a project of the Butler

Center for Arkansas Studies, a department of the Central Arkansas Library System).

Learn more and nominate your favorite musicians at arktimes.com/cama

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NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

ast week, loyalists of former U.S. two-party vote in 1996 to just under 70 Rep. Vic Snyder celebrated a be- percent in 2014. lated 70th birthday and fundraised Any successful Democrat in a 2nd to aid UA Little Rock’s Center for Arkan- Congressional District race would have to sas History and Culture’s work to pro- change the equacess his congressional papers from seven tion from the coaliterms in Congress. The evening at the tion developed by Argenta Community Theater was a re- Snyder. First, it minder of the passion and talent around would be essential the campaigns of the Democrat that were for Pulaski County JAY a one-two punch of grassroots energy to become a larger BARTH and effective media work. Snyder won portion of the disa close race for an open seat in 1996 and trict’s electorate. A massive turnout operthen held on to it for seven terms as the ation in the most densely populated areas district shifted politically under his feet. of the county would make that achievable.

He did so with a personal authenticity That should also boost slightly the already that wore well with his constituency and solid Democratic advantage within the some luck, as the GOP could never pull a state’s largest county. top-tier opponent into the race. With poJust as importantly, to pull down the litical reminiscence in the air, a looming GOP margin in the suburbs, any Demoquestion was whether another Democrat crat would have to make some headway could pull off again what Snyder did in among a subset of voters in Conway, Bry1996 in a district configured exactly as it ant and, yes, Searcy made queasy by the is today minus Yell County to the far west. early months of the Trump presidency.

On the night of his first general elec- A series of special elections for the state tion victory (over Bud Cummins, who legislature in suburbs around Tulsa and would later serve as U.S. attorney for the Oklahoma City — areas much like Little Eastern District of Arkansas during the Rock — provide evidence that voters is Bush years), the election appeared lost areas like this are, indeed, turning away until the votes from Pulaski County — from Trump. Such voters are a bit like then notoriously slow to report results finding needles in a haystack; good data — came in and gave Snyder a 10,000-vote and targeted communications are the margin. While Snyder always had strong political instruments for energizing them. support in his political base, he also perSo, a massive turnout campaign in formed solidly in the more rural counties Pulaski combined with a targeted outin the district (Conway, Perry, Van Buren reach into the suburban counties presand Yell). In that first race, he eked out ents the narrow Democratic pathway in small leads in Conway and Van Buren, a district won by both current GOP Rep. barely lost Perry, and won Yell comfort- French Hill in 2014 and President Trump ably. It was only in the three suburban in 2016 with 52 percent of the vote (third counties (White, Faulkner and Saline) party candidates also got a share in each that he trailed noticeably. race). With an already closely watched While the district’s footprint has mayoral race in Little Rock, 2018 presents changed marginally, its politics has a distinctive opportunity for activation changed markedly. First, like most all of of the urban ingredient in that recipe. rural Arkansas outside the Delta, the rural Hill’s votes for the entirety of the Trump/ parts of the district have shifted decid- Ryan agenda create an array of targets edly Republican over the past decade. In for Democrats to attack before incum2014 (the last open seat race in the dis- bency solidifies his hold. With the GOP trict), only in Conway County did Demo- likely to control both the General Assemcrat Pat Hays exceed 40 percent of the bly and the governorship in 2021, the vote. With rural enthusiasm for President next two cycles may be the final hope for Trump, the three rural counties look lost Democrats in the district as it will likely to Democrats. be made safer for Republicans through More consequentially, the suburban redistricting. counties of White, Faulkner and Saline The key problem for the Democrats, have both grown more Republican. In of course, is finding the right candidate.

1996 those counties made up just a tad Two earnest Democratic candidates have over 30 percent of the total vote in the announced, but their initial fundraisdistrict; by 2014, they delivered just at 40 ing reports show an inability to raise the percent of the vote. Just as importantly, resources for the sophisticated campaign the party’s vote share in the three coun- described above. Will this generation’s ties grew from just over 55 percent of the Vic Snyder step up and give it a shot?

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Year one

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he Observer is a bit late with making phone calls to Congress and the this, but we felt we needed to courage of a bare handful of Republisay something about passing a can senators. Then, of course, there is year in Trump’s America. We won’t hit the ongoing investigation by former FBI a complete orbit around the sun with director Robert Mueller, who is doing Trump in charge until the deep freeze of his duty for God and country by putting January, of course. But this anniversary on a miner’s helmet and crawling up the is, in some ways, even more important: b-hole of the rotting whale carcass that is a full year since many of us woke up to The Trump Empire. One can only imagthe idea that we would have to get off ine the gilded bricks being shat by Donour asses and on our feet if we wanted nie T and his pirate crew right now, even to have a country worth saving in four as he distracts and obfuscates, puts on years, or eight or however long it takes his Twitter Tough Guy act and pretends to push the hateful darkness embold- not to worry while imagining himself in ened that night back to the dustbin of a jumpsuit. It is truly a joy seeing him history. made afraid for a change.

So many have responded to the call, There have been myriad bad moments getting labeled snowflakes and crybabies in the past year, of course: the tiki-torch and sore losers but marching, painting rallies of proud white supremacists; signs, protesting, making umpteen-jil- Heather Heyer mowed down in the lion phone calls to their congressmen to streets in Charlottesville by a Nazi; the warn them of the perilous drop should bowls of warm, taxpayer-funded cream they follow The Great Orange Lem- set before the jowls of the fattest of fat ming over the cliff. Speaking of, we’ve cats; the systematic dismantling of the noticed that the catcalls about snowflakes regulations and agencies that protect our have slowed. The Observer suspects it’s health and the environment; the wounds because people who voted for the golem inflicted on our international standing that is currently rampaging through the and national morale by the childish, divicountryside, destroying windmills and sive, daily assaults from a narcissist who tossing children down wells, are them- has proven he doesn’t have the temperaselves waking up to the fact that they ment to manage a Burger King restaurant, done fornicated with the canine, even much less the most powerful country as half the country warned them not to on the planet. The reality of Trump’s stick the shiny copper penny of their vote America is better in some ways than what in the electrical outlet marked “Trump.” we feared, but worse in other ways too But, as ol’ Sam Clemens once remarked: numerous to mention. But this is our It’s easier to fool somebody than it is to reality now. There is no reverse on this convince them they’ve been fooled. Might train. So keep on. Keep sticking up for we add, Mr. Twain: Convincing somebody what’s right. Know that The Observer they’ve been snookered is a damn sight is proud of you. Someday, when all this easier than getting them to admit it. is over, you can tell the children what There have been wins, of course. grandma did in The Resistance. Shorter There’s Virginia, where voters just this term: After Virginia, Yours Truly has a month crushed the hateful pseudo- feeling that a year from now, the good Trump running for governor while wip- people of this country are going to clip ing out a Republican supermajority in some political wings. And in 2020, we’re their statehouse. In a victory as sweet going to see about sending Agent Orange as a lute, one of those elected there is a packing, to skulk away the rest of his transgender woman who unseated a bigot days in his golden phallus over Fifth who once bragged he was the state’s chief Avenue. How sweet it will be. homophobe. Then there was the defeat, Three years to go, friends. They will, for now, of the Affordable Care Act repeal, no doubt, be years to remember, one way a battle won by millions of regular folks or the other. Stay frosty. arktimes.com NOVEMBER 23, 2017

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PEARLS ABOUT SWINE

The end

I

HAVE YOU BEEN THE VICTIM OF A HATE CRIME?

The Arkansas Times has joined the nonprofit news organization ProPublica’s “Documenting Hate” project, a collaboration with newsrooms across the country to track hate incidents that might otherwise go unreported. The project aims to create a comprehensive database of where hate crimes are happening and what groups are being targeted.

If you have an incident to report, submit it at arktimes.com/dochate.

Information provided will not be shared with law enforcement or to anyone outside the group working on the project.

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NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

f Bret Bielema is going to prep a video reel of the best moments he’s had during a five-year run as Arkansas’s latest polarizing head football coach, he’s ostensibly going to use something like the first quarter against Mississippi State.

With the “crowd” assembled at Reynolds Razorback Stadium looking and acting about as enthusiastic as if they were attending a symposium on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Bielema’s charges nevertheless bolted out of the tunnel with a lot of passion on a day where most figured they’d have none. Thanks to a muffed punt by the Bulldogs and the first impact play by ballyhooed sophomore defensive end McTelvin Agim all season, the Hogs were leading the No. 16 team in the country by two scores a few minutes into the game.

The defense was swarming and the offense was, well, stale. But at least the Hogs were showing that “#uncommon fight” that has been lacking for the better part of the past two seasons.

Of course, this will still enter the annals as a Bielema-coached team, all but certain to be the last of its kind, and that meant that in the second half, Arkansas was hell-bent on finding new ways to torture its followers. This time, it came in the form of groan-worthy fourth-down calls and the Bulldogs doing what every Hog opponent does: grind in the fourth quarter against a team only prepared to grind for three, at most.

Bulldogs Quarterback Nick Fitzgerald bounced back from his early gaffes to lead Mississippi State for the winning score, a somewhat risky out route from the 6-yard line with 17 seconds remaining, leaving the Bulldogs 28-21 victors in a game they really deserved to neither win nor lose. MSU Coach Dan Mullen, likely to be pursued by Tennessee or Florida after yet another highly successful year in a onetime football hellhole, is nothing if not crafty, and he thought it best to go for the jugular late instead of leaving the outcome on the right leg of his kicker on a perilously windy day.

Bielema didn’t afford his players the chance to be in that position, yet again, opting to see if his moribund offense could get a first down near midfield with the score tied at 21 at around the 4-minute mark. The message boards and social media were practically on fire when Hogs offensive coordinator Dan Enos (and let’s be clear, the shine he accu-

mulated in 2015 is long since departed, too) inexplicably called for a play-action shot 30 yards downfield on fourthand-2. Austin Allen was pretty sharp all day and clearly had overcome his shoulder woes by zipping a few sideline routes safely to his BEAU WILCOX still-untested corps of receivers, but he went long over LaMichel Pettaway on this one, and the Bulldogs were accordingly set with great field position for their final drive.

Honestly, though, it was the preceding play call that made less sense. On third-and-3, wideout Jonathan Nance slipped into the backfield to take a direct snap for the first time all season, and he ran to the short side of the field and was bottled up for a single yard. Here is where Bielema — and, by extension, Enos — would lose their present employment. In an attempt to be creative, they employed a predictable short-yardage play with personnel ill suited to maximize it.

That happened on fourth down and goal against Texas A&M last year when Keon Hatcher was sent across the formation five yards behind the line of scrimmage, all to get a few inches for a go-ahead touchdown. It was a stupid decision, exacerbated by having a receiver with modest speed execute it.

The Hogs gave that game up, too.

And such is the legacy of this head coach and whatever staff he has assembled from year to year. Yes, the Hogs have been competitive, but even when tasked with merely managing a game from start to finish, they have bungled those critical moments at a serial and cruel pace. The best players on the field are not getting the opportunity to shine like they should and, in the final analysis, bad decision-making and slipshod execution is why the Aggies and Bulldogs, conveniently, have won nine out of 10 games against Bielema. And if Arkansas cannot bat better than .100 against those two programs, both situated similarly in the pecking order behind the paragons of the conference, then how can anyone expect miracles against Alabama?

Well, you can’t, and you shouldn’t. But you can mothball those “#uncommon” sweatshirts in the same bin where you had the “BMFP” and “Undefeated in The Rock” stowed. Because this experiment has reached its merciful, miserable end.

Conger AR TIMES 2017.pdf

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11:24 AM

CANNABIZ

Agent will sell insurance to growers, dealers

A

n insurance agent in Fayetteville cratic respondents have shown majority will offer general liability insur- support since 2010. ance and worker’s compensaGallup noted that more than one in tion for medical cannabis growers and five Americans now live in a state where dispensaries, he said Monday. they can obtain marijuana legally.

Paul Dunn, who has operated the Yet the Republican Congress moved Paul E. Dunn Insurance agency for 24 last week to block a measure proposed years, said he’d researched the issue by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) and after a customer asked about a quote Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.) that would on crop insurance. have prevented the federal government Dunn’s brother died of lung cancer from punishing banks for working with and marijuana helped him keep food legal marijuana businesses. Both men down during his radiation and chemo- represent states where marijuana can therapy treatments; that’s why he sup- be obtained legally. ports the industry, he said. The poliThe congressmen consider the issue cies would be surplus line, written for one of public safety, to get cash off the entities with unique risks that aren’t streets. A security guard at a marijuana covered by regular insurance compa- dispensary in Aurora, Colo., was shot to nies. He thought it would be good to get death during an attempted robbery last in on the ground floor. “That’s where year. Perlmutter talked about the killeverything is going,” Dunn said. ing at the banking committee meeting, Dunn did not reveal the underwriter and told his colleagues, “I don’t think for the insurance. there’s a single person on this commit“I’m in favor of it [medical cannabis] tee that is in a state that doesn’t allow because of my brother, though that’s not some level of marijuana use.” According solely the reason. I think with it being to the publication Marijuana Moment, a natural herb, the good Lord wouldn’t 46 states have either comprehensive have put it here if it were wrong.” medical cannabis laws or the use of lowTHC marijuana extracts. Republicans A Gallup Poll taken last month on the committee blocked consideration shows that a majority of Republican of the amendment. voters, for the first time, support the David Couch, a lawyer who drafted legalization of marijuana, with the Arkansas’s medical marijuana law, said percentage leaping to 51 percent from there is a statewide bank interested in 42 percent last year. Could that be an allowing dispensaries to create accounts. indicator of Republican angst over the The bank wants to remain anonymous man they elected to be president? Gal- until the licenses for growers and dislup doesn’t say, but its headline writer pensaries have been issued. had a heyday with this: “Record-High After he failed to get his amendment Support for Legalizing Marijuana Use adopted, Perlmutter issued this statein U.S.” ment: “I’m appalled at House RepubliSupport by respondents identifying can leadership for denying the opportuas Democrats was at 72 percent. Inde- nity for a vote on the marijuana banking pendents were at 67 percent. The poll amendment which gets cash off the was taken of 1,028 adults in all 50 states. streets and prevents future crime in our Overall, 64 percent of Americans communities. How many more armed now favor making the use of marijuana robberies must we witness and security legal, the highest percentage since Gal- guards lives lost before we take action? lup began polling on the issue in 1969, House Republicans claim to despise nearly 50 years ago. (Just two years regulation but yet they are governing after the Summer of Love, it should be the House under one of the most regunoted. Gallup was paying attention.) In lated processes I’ve ever seen.”

1969, support was at 12 percent.

A Gallup Poll taken in July found A majority of Americans have sup- that 45 percent of people living in the ported legalization since 2013. Demo- U.S. say they have tried marijuana.

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9

Arkansas Reporter

THE

PART 1 OF 2

In DYS director, juvenile justice reformers see a potential force for long-sought change.

BY BENJAMIN HARDY ARKANSAS NONPROFIT NEWS NETWORK

T

he number of delinquent youth remanded to the Arkansas Division of Youth Services during the fiscal year that ended in July was the lowest in at least two decades, according to figures recently released by the DYS. Juvenile judges committed 451 youth to state custody in fiscal year 2017 — a 14 percent decrease from 2015, when commitments to the DYS reached 526.

The commitment rate does not reflect every youth confined in a facility in Arkansas. It excludes kids detained in county-level juvenile detention centers, as well as those who were transferred to the adult criminal justice system.

Nonetheless, the decline in DYS commitments, which appears to be driven by local efforts in several of the state’s most populous counties, has some advocates cautiously hopeful that Arkansas may be poised to finally overhaul its juvenile justice system.

Over the last two decades, most states have dramatically reduced the number of youths locked away in secure facilities, including Arkansas’s neighbors. Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana all lowered their juvenile confinement rates by double digits from 1997 to 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Arkansas’s rate decreased by just 8 percent over that period, despite an emerging consensus that confinement is usually a counterproductive and overly expensive response to delinquency. The question now is whether policymakers can translate recent local successes to statewide reform.

“There are parts of the state where things continue to be a problem and others where we’re making great progress,” DYS Director Betty Guhman told the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network. The DYS is a division of the state Department of Human Services.

A top aide to Governor Hutchinson with a background in social work, Guh10

NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

Ripe for reform

man previously served as chief of staff during Hutchinson’s tenures in Congress and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The governor named her to run the DYS on an interim basis in July 2016 and made the appointment permanent that September. Guhman seems to channel Hutchinson’s preference for cautious, deliberative incrementalism rather than DIRECTOR BETTY GUHMAN: Governor Hutchinson’s appointee to the DYS says the whole bold calls to immediate action — but she juvenile code needs revisiting. is quietly aiming for big changes.

“The whole juvenile code needs to closely with Angel from 2007 to 2013 to juvenile courts in two Northwest Arkanbe revisited,” she said. “Do you want to craft reforms aimed at reducing confine- sas counties, Benton and Washington, to start picking at this or this or this — or do ment. “When Ron Angel was in charge implement a program called the Juveyou want a whole rewrite? I think most of DYS … there was a genuine effort to nile Detention Alternatives Initiative, or everybody is supportive of a complete downsize facilities,” she said. “I worked JDAI, which has helped reduce detention rewrite. … We’re really trying to do that my whole time there trying to reduce in favor of community-based alternatives for the [2019 legislative] session, working the beds.” such as mentorships, family therapy and with judges, providers, other advocates.

“All of the prisons there should be evening reporting centers. JDAI is active … Let’s see what we can all agree on and closed,” she added, referring to the DYS in more than 300 sites throughout the try to move forward.” residential facilities. “They’re all anti- country, and Pulaski County will begin “We” means three principal players. quated, large institutions that are being implementing the program in 2018.

First, the DYS, which oversees Arkan- shown around the country, in practice In other jurisdictions, the use of a new sas’s eight residential juvenile facilities, and also through research, to be inef- risk-assessment tool has reduced conas well as diversion and aftercare pro- fective in providing the kind of reha- finement by helping judges identify varigrams. Second, the juvenile judges whose bilitative programming that youth in ous needs and risks of youth. Faulkner courts constitute the “front door” to the trouble with the law need to get back on County Circuit Judge Troy Braswell said system. Third, the nonprofit providers a positive track and contribute to their the screening process has been “a game that contract with the DYS to deliver community.” changer” since it was rolled out in his services, from managing residential After Angel left the DYS, Arthur said, court in 2016 as part of a pilot program. facilities to administering diversion and “there was just not the same kind of comBetween 2015 and 2016, Braswell said, aftercare. mitment … to changing the system to one “we cut juvenile confinement by 23 perIn recent years, reformers in Arkan- that relies less on incarceration and more cent in our district. And then for the fissas have largely focused their efforts on on keeping youth in programs that work cal year, as far as DYS commitments, we the county level rather than the state, in the community. There was lip service cut our commitment by 31 percent.” He partly because of a lack of continuity in perhaps, but nothing concretely that was noted that the juvenile crime rate seems DYS leadership since former director done to advance it.” to have dropped as well: “We also had a Ron Angel retired in 2013. Angel actively Arthur retired last December and said 7 percent reduction in charges filed by pushed for legislation intended to reduce she was not familiar with developments the prosecutor.” the use of confinement by steering fund- in Arkansas in the past year. But other “Kids are still going to get detained ing toward community-based programs advocates expressed optimism about the when it’s appropriate, but that can’t and away from secure facilities. The agency’s direction under Guhman — who, always be the answer,” Braswell said. effort foundered in the state Senate, how- unlike her two predecessors, is expected “As courts individually, and then as a state, ever, and Angel departed soon afterward. to stick around. we’ve got to do a better job of providing Angel’s successor, Tracy Steele, lasted “I think there’s reason to be hopeful, services to the family earlier on in the in the job for a little over a year, as did the but I think there’s a lot of frustration — case.” Braswell also chairs the Youth next appointee, Marcus Devine. Com- among not just advocates but folks within Justice Reform Board, a body created by mitments to the DYS, which declined the system themselves — about the pace the governor to make recommendations during Angel’s six-year tenure, rose from of change,” Jason Szanyi, a deputy direc- on juvenile justice issues.

2013 to 2015. tor at the D.C.-based Center for ChilSuch reforms have reduced both the Pat Arthur, a lawyer formerly with the dren’s Law and Policy, said. number of youths detained locally in National Center for Youth Law, worked Since 2013, Szanyi has worked with juvenile detention centers and those

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committed to DYS facilities — but only among those courts that have embraced them. Many other judges continue to lock up large numbers of kids each year, meaning confinement numbers have remained high for the state as a whole.

“Arkansas has not seen the same level of reduction in commitment to state custody as many other states,” Szanyi said.

“There’s a lot of inertia in terms of how things have been done in the state, and how they’ve been done from county to county. That can be tough to counter without a coordinated effort to reform the system. … You need someone at DYS who has a long-term vision for juvenile justice reform.

“Director Guhman is someone who has a longstanding relationship with the governor and understands the issues,” Szanyi said. “Our hope is that … with strong leadership at DYS, we can start tackling some of the issues that need to be looked at in order for Arkansas to see some very significant and beneficial changes in the system.”

Tom Masseau is the executive director of Disability Rights Arkansas, an advocacy group that performs regular observations at the eight juvenile treatment centers and correctional facilities run by the DYS. He attributes the recent decrease in commitments mostly to individual judges choosing community-based alternatives; broader statewide reform has remained more talk than action.

“The holdup is that everybody likes the idea of reform, but nobody wants to roll up their sleeves and do it,” he said. “I think when Ron [Angel] left, everything just kind of fell apart, and you had some directors who were appointed who had the best intentions but for whatever reason just couldn’t move it forward. Now, I think with Betty Guhman in there — at least based on my meetings with her, she seems very committed. ... It’s just contingent upon the legislature giving leeway to the division.”

“I see us moving more toward some serious reforms,” Masseau said. “At least, that’s what we’re going to be pushing for.”

This reporting is courtesy of the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, an independent, nonpartisan news project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans. Find out more at arknews.org.

THE

Inconsequential News Quiz:

BIG Give Thanks It Isn’t PICTURE

Worse Edition

Play while basking in the afterglow of hot limo sex!

1) Arkansas-based companies Walmart and J.B. Hunt are among the first to reserve a purchase option on a groundbreaking new technology they hope will revolutionize their trucking fleets. What is it?

A) “Speedball” system that injects liquid caffeine directly into truckers’ necks as they drive.

B) Robot basset hounds to accompany truckers as they rush Coors from Texarkana to Atlanta.

C) Cloaking device to foil determined Bears, Smokies and Jackie Gleasons in hot pursuit.

D) Tesla Motors’ all-electric “semi” big rig trucks, which — while fully loaded — can go 500 miles at highway speeds on a single charge while operating at a fraction of the fuel cost of diesel-powered trucks.

2) A 40-year-old woman was recently arrested on a burglary warrant after police investigated a report of a suspicious vehicle parked near an abandoned house on Battery Street in Little Rock. What kind of vehicle was it?

A) Popemobile.

B) Weinermobile.

C) Stretch limousine, inside which, police say, the woman and a partner were having sex.

D) Donald Trump’s campaign bus.

3) A spokesman for the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office reported a surprising crime. What was it?

A) Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay’s limo smelled super weird inside after a friend borrowed it for the weekend.

B) Somebody stole a TV from the waiting room at the Pulaski County Jail.

C) A crafty bandit keeps breaking into patrol cars and “bedazzling” deputies’ cowboy hats with glitter and rhinestones.

D) Using a 114-foot tunnel under the wire, jail inmates have been smuggling in bootsocks, infinity scarves and pumpkin-spiced lattes.

4) A 22-year-old man from the Lonoke County town of Ward was recently extradited to Virginia to face charges. According to investigators, what did he allegedly do in Virginia?

A) Smelt it, but refused to acknowledge having dealt it.

B) Denied that Virginia is for lovers.

C) Besmirched the stainless flower of Southern womanhood.

D) Participated in a mob attack on a black man during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

5) The Van, the Little Rock-based homeless outreach charity run by Aaron Reddin, recently announced it’s facing a critical shortage of blankets for our homeless neighbors.

With the need for blankets becoming more critical as the nights grow colder, how can you help?

A) Gather up a bunch of clean blankets, then reach out to Reddin via email at aaron@ theoneinc.org so he can provide you with a drop-off point.

B) Go to thewarmingproject.com, buy a case of 30 blankets for $208.80 plus shipping, and donate ’em to The Van. C) Buy a few 2.5-yard cuts of heavy fleece from a fabric shop (it’s on sale for $3.60 a yard at Joann Fabric right now), and donate that.

D) All of the above.

Answers: D, C, B, D, D

LISTEN UP

arktimes.com NOVEMBER 23, 2017

11

GONE: The Arkansas football team’s regression after the Petrino era did in Jeff Long.

A Long fall It’s curtains for the Arkansas AD.

BY BEAU WILCOX

I

BRIAN CHILSON

n the waning weeks of 2012, the Arkansas Times published a cover piece hailing Arkansas Athletic Director and Vice Chancellor Jeff Long as its Arkansan of the Year. It was during the preceding 11-plus months that Long was caught in the maelstrom of what to do with a morally compromised, wildly successful football coach that he had hired in late 2007 as his first notable act in his position.

At this point it bears mention, again, that “Arkansan of the Year” is not by default an accolade or vestige of distinction. Rather, in 2012, Jeff Long found himself in the news in Arkansas a lot, and his handling of the football coaching position at the University of Arkansas over an eight-month period drew intense scrutiny, some celebration, and heaps of criticism, too.

12

NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

That April, Long told Bobby Petrino and his 21-5 record, Sugar Bowl berth, and Cotton Bowl victory of the past two seasons to walk and walk fast.

His voice memorably trembled in anger and disappointment as he told a watchful state and region that he wasn’t going to sell his or his athletic department’s soul for a pernicious but indisputably talented employee. It was a divisive decision at the time, exacerbated by the fact that the stopgap understudy, John L. Smith, embarrassed himself and the program to the tune of a 4-8 overall, 2-6 Southeastern Conference campaign despite having a wealth of experienced players returning.

About this time five years ago, Long made the decision that ultimately hanged him last week when he was terminated by the university after

BRIAN CHILSON

a decade of unparalleled revenues, rife with disciplinary issues. The and it was evident on that April day to take that plunge. And Long underexpenditures, achievements and low- clamor from the fan base to secure Mike that he had wrestled with it to the standably wanted to retain someone water moments. Long’s tenure was, Anderson, Nolan Richardson’s trusted point of exhaustion. One corner of the who, in theory, represented a suitable principally, marked by numerous per- longtime assistant who had thrived at sporting world praised Long for valu- conduit to the Petrino era. sonnel decisions that yielded wildly Alabama-Birmingham in his first head ing integrity and honesty in a profesGarrick McGee, Petrino’s offensive disparate returns. coaching stint and then pushed Mis- sion increasingly bereft of such traits; coordinator, had just left for a head In late 2007, it appeared that Long souri to the Elite Eight in 2009, was loud the other, insufferably louder camp coaching gig at Alabama-Birmingham, was headed for celebrity status for a and impossible for Long to ignore. He trashed the beleaguered AD for scut- so he ultimately was out of the running. while, even if the circumstances were delivered, hiring Anderson in March tling an outstanding football coach for The existing staff boasted Paul Petrino, an oddity. Appointed as the succesBobby’s less abrasive brother, but it was sor to the inimitable Frank Broyles, manifestly undesirable to appoint the Long was permitted to transition into sibling of the deposed and disgraced the role and actually was afforded the former head coach. Long’s crosshairs opportunity to make his first hire landed on one genuinely credible before Broyles’ retirement was official. option, and it was John L. Smith.

Houston Nutt had departed abruptly Smith had actually preceded after a decade of helming the program, Petrino in Louisville more than a leaving a day after knocking off No. 1 decade before, and performed well LSU in Baton Rouge. enough that he drew the attention of Long, some would argue, lucked Michigan State. His run there ended into tabbing Nutt’s replacement. Bobby after five years that ironically looked Petrino, late of the Louisville Cardia lot like Bret Bielema’s at Arkansas: nals and known to be a nomadic sort, the Spartans were always competitive was miserable in his first and only seaunder Smith, but frequently folded son in charge of the Atlanta Falcons, in the second halves of games. He apparently desperate to escape an NFL was relieved of his duties there, and gig, and ready to return to the college bounced around as a position coach landscape where he had a comparabefore landing on Petrino’s staff as a tively short but indisputably successspecial teams coach. ful run. The offensive approach that Though he had just taken a head Petrino brought to the Razorbacks was coaching job weeks before Petrino’s something fresh and exotic for a proaccident, Smith found it easy to leave gram that had traditionally embodied little Weber State to return as a potena smashmouth, grinding approach. tial savior, short- and perhaps longPetrino scuffled in his first year, term, for the Hogs. Long reasoned that going 5-7, but it was evident that his it was sensible to hire someone with brand was embraced by fans and prior head coaching experience, a raprecruits alike. With transfer Ryan port with the current players, and a Mallett becoming eligible in 2009, the modest salary demand (Smith was paid Hogs improved to 8-5, winning a bowl less than a million for his ignominigame for the first time in six years and ous stint). validating Long’s unconventional and The Hogs opened the 2012 football controversial selection. The same sumseason with an easy win over a cupcake mer, Arkansas baseball was in the Coland cruised into Little Rock for their lege World Series for the second time first of two War Memorial Stadium under Dave Van Horn, so all things games in September with eyes on Alaconsidered, things were looking up on bama coming to Fayetteville the next the Hill and Long was by no means a week. All they needed to do was take public enemy. down Sun Belt Conference foe alsoPetrino’s 2010 and 2011 teams ran Louisiana-Monroe, and it would excelled further, with the former fin- CRASHED, BURNED: Long’s hire of Bobby Petrino propelled the Hogs to new heights, but set the stage for a Top 10 showdown his widely praised dismissal of Petrino marked the beginning of the end for the director. ishing 10-3 and reaching the nowthe following week. Long, presumably, defunct Bowl Championship Series couldn’t have felt better. for the first and only time and the lat- 2011, a move that has proven to be gen- momentary indiscretion.

History will regard that game as ter becoming the first Hog team to hit erally popular and profitable.

Because of the awful timing of disastrous in many ways now. Not only the 11-win mark in 34 years. After the So, in summation, the first half Petrino’s motorcycle accident with his did stalwart senior quarterback Tyler Hogs knocked off Kansas State in the of Long’s tenure was rather distin- mistress onboard, subsequent folly and Wilson suffer a head injury that would Cotton Bowl, it was evident that the guished. And then Petrino, quite liter- dismissal, Long was left with a monster knock him out of the Bama game, the state of affairs in the university’s bell ally, crashed, and conditions changed of his own making: A coaching vacancy Razorbacks blew the 28-7 lead they had cow sport was at a new apex. for the worse. in the thick of spring football is likely built, and the Warhawks crept back, And elsewhere, the successes were Petrino’s fateful, terrible life choice the most undesirable circumstance converting fourth downs, and getting numerous. Long had dispatched John had a ripple effect that, now in retro- that an athletic director in a power stops on defense thanks to Paul PetriPelphrey after the onetime Kentucky spect, was simply too much for Long conference could envision. It was obvi- no’s curious playcalling with then-freshstar player had floundered in his final to overcome. First, he had to weigh ous that Arkansas was a program in man Brandon Allen taking the snaps. three seasons as head basketball coach, the moral turpitude against the suc- decent shape, but no head coach with Kolton Browning scampered into the overseeing a losing program that was cess that his first hire had wrought, a worthy curriculum vitae was going end zone untouched on a quarterback arktimes.com NOVEMBER 23, 2017

13

BRIAN CHILSON

keeper to cement the overtime victory. nine straight thereafter, despite being Hogs broke through with a shutout ing to score and losing the game to a The impact of that loss was lasting. fairly competitive in several of the of ranked LSU at home, then blanked three-win foe in a half-capacity FauThe Hogs were roasted by the media, games. The positives were that it was Ole Miss the next week. Not only was rot Field. then the Crimson Tide seized the a young team, and the likes of Allen, the SEC losing streak gone, the RazorThat collapse was repeated in the opportunity to destroy a wounded team Hunter Henry, Alex Collins and Jona- backs were confident and bowl-bound. disastrous Belk Bowl against Virginia with a 52-0 whitewashing. Smith’s than Williams gave the Hogs a nucleus Despite a collapse against Missouri in Tech, where a couple of Bielema’s charges rebounded slightly to win for 2014. The team bolted out of the the season finale, Arkansas earned an hallmarks — discipline and leaderconference games against Auburn and gates clearly improved, but agoniz- invite to the Texas Bowl, and simply ship — suddenly went AWOL. Tight Kentucky, but then fizzled again, and ing losses to Alabama and Texas A&M pasted a mediocre Texas team there end Jeremy Sprinkle, well regarded Smith’s personal finances and bizarre were still losses. The SEC losing streak to finish 7-6. for his character, was charged with press conference behavior escalated stretched to 17 games, four of which That signaled to Long that Bielema shoplifting clothes during the team’s the mockery. When the Hogs limped were Smith’s doing, but the next 13 was worthy of a pricey, lengthy con- courtesy trip to the sponsor’s store, back to Fayetteville for a finale against coming under Bielema. tract extension. The coach made it and he was suspended for the game.

LSU, which they lost almost entirely Meanwhile, Long had also made appear to be a good decision when Then, as the Hogs frittered away a because of Smith making inexcusable the bizarre decision to replace Tom his 2015 team surged after a sluggish 24-0 halftime lead en route to an ugly coaching decisions, it was evident that Collen as women’s basketball coach start to win six of its last seven games, 35-24 loss, senior receiver Drew MorLong was going to have to chalk this with former Razorback men’s basket- including a thorough beating of Kansas gan capped off his career by spitting experiment up as a flop and that he ball manager-turned-walk-on Jimmy State in the Liberty Bowl. But there on an opponent. needed to find someone The wheels had come off, who could right the ship Bielema’s future went from expediently. settled to unsteady, and Ru mor s , a s t hey Long was suddenly going always do, circulated to be the fall guy or the for several days followhatchet man. He pledged ing Smith’s dismissal. his support to Bielema, and There was scuttlebutt notably, a $160 million staabout everyone from dium expansion was about Mike Gundy to Les Miles to begin. He went all in on a to Gus Malzahn, but it all coach who, successes aside, ended when Long made had also developed a nasty the surprise announcehabit of losing games in agoment that he had poached nizing, seemingly avoidable Bielema from Wisconways. It was a bet that he sin after he had appreultimately lost. ciable, sustained sucAs the 2017 team has cess as Barry Alvarez’s fizzled, and with Bielema’s hand-picked successor future certainly in doubt there. Many grumbled now, Long could no lonthat Bielema was ill-fitger skirt the crosshairs. ting for the job, a Big Ten After 10 years in the positransplant who wouldn’t tion, the football program know how to recruit the that once looked like his region, but Long was sold polestar became his albaon the coach’s style and tross. A failing team with Bielema’s gesture in the an embattled coach, cast THE WHEELS CAME OFF: Late last season for the Razorback football team under the leadership of Bret Bielema, wake of Petrino’s firing, against the backdrop of a who’s likely to be sent packing at the end of the season. a letter that the coach costly stadium expansion, penned to Long praising was too much for the unihim for displaying uncommon integ- Dykes. Collen had stubbed his toes in was always the specter of Long’s most versity system’s Board of Trustees to rity in the face of withering public conference play in his final few sea- controversial moves looming over the ignore. Long accepted his fate grapressure. sons, but Dykes was a complete and program — was Petrino’s firing justi- ciously and takes a cushy, four-year, Bielema would adopt that “uncom- total reach, with no head coaching fied? Did Bielema deserve the job and multimillion-dollar severance with mon” mantra as a hashtagged brand for experience and most of his credentials then the extension? Was Anderson him, and there exists a very real poshis program. The affable guy with the being as a broadcast analyst. Dykes doing enough to keep his job? — and sibility that an overhaul of the athletic younger, model-quality wife wanted to did manage to get his first team to it all came home to roost in the last department will soon transpire. assemble and compensate an excellent the NCAA Tournament despite a los- 12 months.

Even with the athletic program crop of assistants, and he worked on ing SEC record, but trended downThe football Hogs were sitting at being profitable and commendable on that aggressively, getting experienced ward from there until he was fired 7-4 last Thanksgiving, and headed to a national scale for its facilities and its coordinators and position coaches earlier this year and replaced with Missouri for the manufactured rivalry performance in the allegedly secondonboard. He would demonstrate a Mike Neighbors, a highly competent game. A win would’ve given Bielema fiddle sports, Long could not survive willingness to relieve an assistant of and successful coach at the University an eight-win regular season for the the scrutiny of his decisions related his duties if the performance wasn’t of Washington who grew up in Green- first time and Missouri, being terrible, to football, from personnel to inframatching up with his expectations. wood and relished the chance to take seemed like the perfect opponent for structure and everything in between.

The first year was, well, misera- the reins at his alma mater. that to materialize. Trouble is, after Thus, another new era for Hog athletble. Bielema’s team won its first three Bielema’s resurgence was brief building a 24-7 halftime lead, the Hogs ics begins, and it may well signal more games … and then promptly dropped but critical for Long. In late 2014, the folded in an unthinkable fashion, fail- personnel changes ahead.

14

NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

Submission Deadline:

January 1st, 2018 Acts must be able to perform minium of 30 minutes of original material with live instrumentation.

To Enter: Send streaming Facebook, ReverbNation, Bandcamp or Soundcloud links to showcase@arktimes.com and include the following: 1. Band Name 2. Hometown 3. Date Band was Formed 4. Age Range of Members (All ages welcome) 5. Contact Person 6. Phone 7. Email All musical styles are welcome.

arktimes.com NOVEMBER 23, 2017

15

Arts Entertainment Shopping list AND

An Arkansas-themed gift guide.

BY LINDSEY MILLAR, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK, DAVID KOON, STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND JACOB ROSENBERG

W

e, the staff, may not be experts, but we are opinionated, readers of the Arkansas Times will agree. And we like to think that everyone thinks like us. So here we suggest our gift ideas for your near and dear. We aren’t afraid to say, “Happy Holidays!” And “Happy Kwanzaa!”

And “Happy Hannukah!” And “Merry Christmas” And “Blessed Solstice!” And “Happy Yule!” Whatever!

for those who want to go traditional, plus a vast array of cigars, humidors and fancy tobacco pipes. There’s also a tattoo shop in the back. If there’s a smoking enthusiast in your life, get on down there.

Chances are you’ll find something to fit their desires and your budget.

— David Koon

Wonderland, 5917 Central Ave., Hot Springs.

Medical cannabis isn’t on the market in Arkansas yet and recreational weed may never be, but that has absolutely nothing to do, whatsoever — wink, wink DrunkTrunk Fabric Art — with Wonderland in Hot Springs, the The cross-stitched creations of Little biggest head shop this writer has ever Rock needlework artist Katy Griffin, up been in, bar none, in my whole life. The on her Etsy shop DrunkTrunk, range selection there is stunning: rows upon from the sublime to the profane, with rows of glassware, pipes, lighters and boatloads of kitsch and sass in between. stashboxes, in prices and quality ranging Slogans like “Don’t Let The Bastards from Kia to Benz. I’d wager it has 60,000 Grind You Down,” “Stay Sexy, Don’t Get pipes there, and that’s no exaggeration: Murdered” and my personal favorite, bongs shaped like cartoon characters “You’re In a Cult, Call Your Dad,” adorn (Spongebong Squarepants was a favorite), fabric stretched across wooden hoops, bongs designed by Snoop Dogg, bongs as do delicate renderings of flowers, shaped like couples making The Beast pinky swear silhouettes and an intricate With Two Backs, and bongs that look portrait of Michelle Obama. Got a friend like something from Walt’s diabolical getting married during the holidays? blue supermeth laboratory on “Breaking Griffin’s “Princess Bride” cross-stitch of Bad.” If air and smoke from burning ... Peter Cook’s “wove, twue wove” speech vegetable matter ... can be drawn through is perfect. Check ’em out at etsy.com/ a thing, it probably has it. Wonderland shop/DrunkTrunk or the Cox Creative also has programmable vaporizers for Center gift shop. those who want to go high-tech, and a — Stephanie Smittle great selection of good ol’ rolling papers 16

NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

LR gear potter’s trademark tree-branch handle?

For the Little Rock-proud on your gift Joy Price of Rogers, an art teacher at list, Rock City Kicks has you covered, no the Arkansas Arts Academy there, is the matter the age or fashion preference of creator of Joy Elizabeth mugs and dishes the person you’re shopping for. Those and bowls, and if they remind you a bit of LR baseball caps you see all over town? the English countryside, that’s because Most everyone got them at Rock City Price was born in Great Britain. She Kicks, which now has more than a dozen sells her work through Etsy and you can varieties of the classic NewEra snapback request custom orders. See more work varieties as well as several different on her Facebook page, Joy Elizabeth options (including camo!) in dad hat Ceramics, or if you are in Bentonville style, which means a lower profile and Dec. 16, head to The Little Craft Show a curvier bill. New this year, you can also in The Record, 104 SW A St., a couple of get that classic LR logo on sweatshirts, blocks off the square, where she’ll have baseball shirts and a polo in a new collab her series of sleeping woodland creatures between RCK and ’47. You can also find pieces.

LR toboggans (with little poms on top), a — Leslie Newell Peacock throwback cotton LR windbreaker and, perfect for any stocking, Arkansocks — RCK’s Arkansas-themed line of socks.

Shop online at rockcitykicks.com or in Little Rock (200 N. Bowman Road, Suite 13) or in Fayetteville (121 W. Township St., Suite 12).

—Lindsey Millar

“True Soul: Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax, Vol. 1 & 2” (4 LP box set) Stax Records lorded over the world from its perch in Memphis. Here in Little Rock, True Soul Records, created by Lee Anthony, just tried to survive. Captured across multiple discs that took NowAgain Records 13 years to create, this 2011 anthology captures the desperation and experimentation of the legendary Joyful mugs local label. The set comes with tons of Jane Austin fans, hearken! Here’s background information in a massive the perfect gift for the people you booklet. (There are also really cool know who love “Pride and Prejudice.” photos of ’70s Lee Anthony looking It’s not the 1895 edition with a gilded incredible.) It can be hard to find the peacock on the cover ($1,300), nor the set, so your best places to look are on Penguin Classics Hardcover ($19.20), nor Amazon and eBay — a little online crateBarnes and Noble’s Collectible Edition digging awaits you — where prices range ($16.99): People who love “Pride and between $7.99 and $35.

Prejudice” already have several copies — Jacob Rosenberg in their library. No, the perfect gift is Joy Elizabeth Ceramics’ hand-painted Sibling Rivalry Press: 2018 Mr. Darcy mug, a 19th century primitive subscription bundle image of Elizabeth Bennet’s beloved, with The vanguard of Sibling Rivalry a ship in the background and the handle Press’ website bears two words in bold painted like a tree branch ($38). There’s red print: “DISTURB/ENRAPTURE.” one for Elizabeth, too! So you didn’t The Alexander-based independent read “Pride and Prejudice,” but you love publishing house, run by Bryan Borland whimsical hand-built pottery painted and editor Seth Pennington, curates its with scenes of nesting birds and sleeping titles incisively and provocatively, with foxes and country houses, all with the those two words from poet Adrienne CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

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A&E NEWS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Arkansas Sounds, a project of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the Arkansas Times presents the first Central Arkansas Music Awards, a concert and ceremony of recognition to take place at the Ron Robinson Theater. With the help of an esteemed board, we’ve put together a list of nominees in 22 categories. Now, we need your help! Visit arktimes.com/cama to add your favorite musicians to the list of nominees by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 26.

We’ll combine your responses with those from our board, and our board will cast its final votes. Then, mark your calendars for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, where host Kevin Kerby and a panel of presenters will name the winners. Keep an eye out here and on the Times’ Rock Candy Facebook page for announcements about live performances from a few of Little Rock’s finest, and make plans to celebrate the changing landscape that makes up the Little Rock music scene.

THE HOLIDAYS ARE a time of charity and amnesty, lucky for all those of us who don’t return library books on time. From Sunday, Nov. 26, to Saturday, Dec. 2, the Central Arkansas Library System is accepting donations of undamaged, boxed or canned, nonperishable food items to any CALS branch to offset overdue library fines up to $10. Food collected from “Food for Fines” goes to the Arkansas Food Bank. For more information, call 918-3000 or visit cals.org.

AUTHOR AND LONGTIME host of “A Prairie Home Companion” Garrison Keillor, Paragould native singer-songwriter Iris DeMent and humorists Roy Blount Jr. and Calvin Trillin are among the special guests for Oxford American’s “50 Years of True Grit,” a variety show at the Ron Robinson Theater celebrating Charles Portis’ compelling novel. “ ‘True Grit’s’ literary reputation and its popularity have only grown in 50 years,” Jay Jennings, senior editor at the magazine and editor of “Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany,“ said. “We thought the book’s landmark anniversary deserved a big celebration in the state that is the setting for much of the book and the home of both the author and the magazine.” The variety show, a series of after-parties and screenings of both the 1969 and the 2010 film versions of “True Grit” take place the weekend of April 20-21.

For more information, visit oxfordamerican. org/tg50.

ARKANSAS TIMES

bike

LOCAL WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL GEM ABOUT THE TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS BASED ON thE BElOvED StOry By O. hENry

THE

GIFT

OF THE MAGI

a new musical by JEFFREY HATCHER, ANDREW COOKE and MAGGIE-KATE COLEMAN directed by JOHN MILLER-STEPHANY

ARKANSAS REPERTORY THEATRE NOV. 29 — DEC. 24 | ThErEp.Org | (501) 378-0405 Presented By

Sponsored By

Harriet & Warren Stephens, Stephens Inc.

For suitability suggestions, visit the content information section of our website or call the Box Office.

Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com NOVEMBER 23, 2017

Jesse Carrey-Beaver (Jim) and Laura Sudduth (Della) in The Rep’s production of The Gift of the Magi. Photo by John David PIttman.

ROCK CANDY

17

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

GABRIELLA MOZELLE PINEDA

FRIDAY 11/24

BLOCK FRIDAY: THE ALL BLACK AFFAIR

9 p.m. Revolution. $15-$20.

‘THE WITCHING HOUR’: New Orleans jazz outfit Noruz performs at Four Quarter Bar Friday night with the Matt Treadway Trio.

God help you if you brave the Black Friday crowds at Best Buy or Park Plaza or (gasp) that new outlet mall with the Bass Pro Shop and the Le Creuset store. You poor darling.

You’re probably going to hear Third Eye Blind or that Santana song with Rob Thomas at least twice. If you bear your breastplate upon that battlefield, and especially if you’re forced to question the inherent goodness of human nature somewhere along the way, I promise you the resulting anxiety is

nothing a little Rodney Block Collective featuring Bijoux Pighee cannot fix.

Block often describes the collective’s sound as “jazzy future house music,” and that’s pretty indicative of what happens when they play — poetic, unmetered key changes hold sway for minutes at a time and eventually give way to a sophisticated cover of a sweet track from Mariah Carey or Brownstone. The Rodney Block Collective is joined by Ricky Latt, J-Phil and more for this one. If you’ve got the family in town, it’s a fantastic bet; Block’s concerts are classy enough for your uppity aunt, but lively and warm enough that your 21-year-old niece will probably roll her eyes, give in and dance anyway.

Call 442-0649 to reserve a table.

FRIDAY 11/24

NORUZ, MATT TREADWAY TRIO

10 p.m. Four Quarter Bar. $8.

As sad as it is to have the Afterthought’s jazz shows in the rearview mirror — for the time being, anyway — it’s been exciting to see bars elsewhere in the city fill in the gaps. The Rodney Block Collective has performed at a breakneck pace all across town, for one (see the next item). The Goat Band keeps a Monday night gig at The Lobby Bar, and the Ted Ludwig Trio performs its longstanding spot at the Capitol Hotel Bar & Grill, which is to say nothing of the pioneers and up-and-comers stopping in Little Rock for the Oxford American’s Jazz Series: trombonist Steve Turre (Dec. 7), vocalist Catherine Russell (Feb. 1) and the Melissa Aldana Quartet (April 5). Count the Friday night show from New Orleans quintet Noruz at Four Quarter among those offerings, shows where the grooves are chill enough to breathe, build up and ease back down again lightly. Noruz dropped two singles from its upcoming record, “The Witching Hour,” due out March 2018, and the two tracks work well as an “A” and “B” side introduction to both sides of the band’s expansive sound.

“Alchemy,” composed by New Orleans/New York session singer Honey Savage and Noruz bassist Amina Scott, cuts right to the chase with moody modulations, sustained horns and an ethereal mission statement: “You can call me Midas/Gold feathers in my hair/I’m where the light is,” and the 7-minute “Grey Sky” takes its sweet time, blossoming from a solitary, punchy guitar sequence to an inquisitive trumpet-flute unison duet underpinned by moody Rhodes piano progressions. Perfectly, the hot jazz- and European-influenced sounds of the Matt Treadway Trio are the opening act.

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NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

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FRIDAY 11/24

ADAM FAUCETT & THE TALL GRASS, R.I.O.T.S.

9 p.m. White Water Tavern.

They say friends are the family you choose, and for this Friendsgiving, one of Little Rock’s most reliably incisive and moving songwriters is hosting at a venue his voice has filled many times over. Adam Faucett & The Tall

Grass will play a long set, it will be loud and beautiful, and the song “Dust” will probably make someone weep openly.

They’ll be joined by R.I.O.T.S., an absolute dream team of a punk rock outfit whose songs are mostly 90 seconds long and whose name stands for all or maybe none of the following: “Really, It’s Only Ten Songs,” “Reagan Is Out There Somewhere,” “Reunion: It’s Our Twenty-sixth Show” or “R.I.O.T.S. Is Over Trump’s Shit.”

FRIDAY 11/24

GENINE LATRICE PEREZ

10 p.m. South on Main. $15.

Maybe it’s the decades of highimpact cardio, or the minerals in the water in her adopted home of Switzerland, but impossibly, remarkably, Tina Turner turns 78 years old Nov. 26.

Turner’s working on a musical about her life with “Mamma Mia!” director Phyllida Lloyd, but it’s not too early

to brush up on the hits, brought to you Friday evening by Genine LaTrice Perez, the charismatic frontwoman of Lagniappe, longtime collaborator of pianist Rex Bell and possessor of the stage electricity and the vocal chops it takes to channel Tina properly. She’s joined by her full band and by vocalists CandySoul and Dee Davis, soloists in their own right. Call 244-9660 to reserve a table.

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 11/23

BECCA BONA

Lil Ronny performs at a Thanksgiving bash at Club Envy, with sets from Derrty DJ and Deja Blu, 9 p.m., 7200 Colonel Glenn Road, $15 admission before 11 p.m. Lachaz Holloway, Haywood King and Nikki Parish perform for Thanks Giving, a concert at Gigi’s Soul Cafe & Lounge in Maumelle, 8 p.m.

FRIDAY 11/24

‘SOMETHING TO SEE’: Swampbird returns to Stickyz Saturday night for a show with The Uh Huhs and Colour Design.

SATURDAY 11/25

SWAMPBIRD, COLOUR DESIGN, THE UH HUHS

9 p.m. Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack. $8.

Swampbird is one of those bands that, like Becca Mancari and Jenny Lewis, makes me feel excited about country music again, and optimistic that country can still gracefully embrace its weirder tendencies, perhaps leaning less often toward the whiskey songs, more toward the peyote and the

desert. Here’s a rare show from that quintet, gilded with a similarly rare rock set from The Uh Huhs, 2016 Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase champions and the cheeky masterminds behind the urgent, Mark Mothersbaugh-ish number “Wrong Young Lady,” terrifically showcased in a video directed by Chris Jones about a year ago. If you needed another reason, consider the slow, hovering guitar effects of Colour Design, whose layered sound pulses and curls around bleak, evocative lyrics,

mostly questions of disbelief and despondence: “Is this what we left our home for?” and “Have we passed through this night?” One more thing: If you’re in a position to do so, the Facebook event indicates this show will also serve as a donation pickup for The Van, specifically “blankets, new socks, sleeping bags, gloves and jackets/ coats” for our homeless neighbors to use during the winter months to come. If you can’t make it to Stickyz on Saturday night and feel like giving anyway, visit theoneinc.org.

Retro soul outfit Quentin Moore & The Daxtones performs at 109 & Co. for “Soul Train Friday Night,” 9 p.m. $10-$15, see eventbrite. com for tickets. Dee Dee Jones, Jeron Marshall-Isbell and Kim Pettus entertain at Gigi’s Soul Cafe & Lounge for “Madams of Music,” 9 p.m. Trinidad and Tobago-born steel drum artist Darril Edwards kicks off the weekend with a happy hour set at Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m., free, and later, Canvas takes the stage, 9 p.m., $5. Andy Tanas plays a free show at Markham Street Grill & Pub, 8:30 p.m. Club Sway hosts the Bacchus 2017 party, 9 p.m.

Big Shane Thornton performs at TC’s Midtown Grill in Conway, 9 p.m. John Neal croons at The Tavern Sports Grill, 7 p.m., free.

Spencer James goes for laughs at The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., $12. Tragikly White helps shuffle off the tryptophan with a danceable set at Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9:30 p.m., $10. Foul Play Cabaret works its burlesque magic at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 9 p.m., $10-$15.

Chicago’s Mr. White performs for “Black Friday Madness” at Next Bar & Bistro, 9 p.m., free. River City Overdrive performs at JJ’s Grill, 12111 W. Markham St., 8:30 p.m., free. Liquid Kitty takes the stage at Thirst N’ Howl, 8:30 p.m., $5. At Oaklawn Racing & Gaming, the Big Dam Horns entertain at Silks Bar & Grill, 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., free.

SATURDAY 11/25 SATURDAY 11/25

D.O.T., DAZZ & BRIE

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

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says the Year of the Woman wasn’t 1992 after all. It’s 2018. I hope she’s

right, and if she is, I hope the lo-fi yin.’) Until then, prepare for the New treasure D.O.T. and the rich, seismic Year by acquainting yourself with the sounds of Dazz & Brie are part of the two local girl gangs on this bill, easily soundtrack on a local level — no, make two of the most energetic and comthat national! (“Reign Dance” would pelling live acts playing in Little Rock make a badass campaign song. Just sa- these days.

Groovement grooves at Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m., $8. Just down the street in Argenta, Hoodoo Blues Revue plays a post-Thanksgiving set at Reno’s, 10 p.m. Steven Curtis Chapman, Plumb, We Are Messengers and Marc Martel land at the Robinson Center for “K-LOVE Christmas,” a concert of contemporary Christian holiday favorites, 7 p.m., $23$103. Conway celebrates the CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

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arktimes.com NOVEMBER 23, 2017

19

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

TUESDAY 11/28

GARRETT GRAFF

6 p.m. Clinton School of Public Service. Free.

MATTHEW MURPHY

If you’ve played “Fallout 3,” you might already know about this. Even if you don’t know what “Fallout 3” is, chances are the presidential Twitter feed has given you reason as of late to stop and think, “Gee, now, what exactly do you figure would happen in the event of nuclear war?” As you might imagine, the U.S. intelligence network has definitely done more than think on it. They have built it, and it is called Raven Rock — aka “Site R,” aka “Raven Rock Mountain Complex,” a 650-acre underground compound complete with medical facilities and cafeterias, built in the late 1950s to sequester a few

thousand people in the event of ballistic missile- apocalyptic tax plans to the ways in which we’ve induced catastrophe. Actually, there are more such made it easy for the POTUS to press the button, as bunkers, in Colorado Springs and Omaha, and all Graff put it alarmingly on NPR’s “Fresh Air” in June: have been financed and constructed with the idea “There wouldn’t be any time to double check with that the United States (or at least a chunk of leaders someone else, so we have very carefully crafted a it deemed most important) could survive the atomic system that ensures that there’s nothing that slows bomb and rebuild from the ashes. The plan is part down a presidential launch order. Those plans were of what’s referred to as Continuity of Government always predicated upon the idea that the person (COG), and author Garrett Graff examines those giving the launch order is the most thoughtful, most strategies in a book released earlier this year, intelligent, most sober-minded individual that you “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s could possibly imagine atop the nuclear command Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us and control system.” Email publicprograms@ Die.” (Cheers, everyone!) Graff’s lecture is part clintonschool.uasys.edu to reserve a seat, or call of the Clinton School’s speaker series, and will 683-5239. Or, stream it live at clintonschool.uasys. cover everything from survival biscuits to post- edu/uacslive.

‘ON MY OWN’: Brennyn Lark performs the role of Eponine in a touring production of “Les Miserables,” directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell and inspired by the Victor Hugo novel.

WEDNESDAY 11/29-SUNDAY 12/3

LES MISERABLES

more as an opera than you might a spoken play. Don’t let its length — or any of the rest — dissuade you, though. You got through “Scarface,” didn’t you? Or “The Wolf of Wall Street” or “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?” Similar run times. Just prepare yourself for an epic, not an Already a “Les Mis” devotee? Here’s what you should know: episode. Know, too, that the musical’s built astonishingly well for the Audiences and critics are going gaga for this Jean Valjean’s (Nick Cartell) tastes of a television-rich 2017 audience, as it sort of scratches the same performance of the showstopper “Bring Him Home.” Also, this touring itch as shows like “American Idol” or “The Voice” do. Expertly cast, production — only the second interpretation to get the seal of approval golden-voiced singers step into the limelight one at a time, grappling from original producer Cameron Mackintosh — is directed by Laurence with questions of ethics and economics against the backdrop of poverty Connor and James Powell, a creative team that’s steered the aesthetic and political turbulence. It’s been translated into at least 22 languages, darker and more impressionistic, abandoning the revolving stage and and the original Broadway production ran for 6,680 performances using a different orchestration. If you’re not familiar with “Les Mis,” before calling it quits. It’s still the longest-running musical in London’s be advised of the following: It’s pretty long, and it’s set in 19th century West End theater district and the second-longest running musical in France. You should also know that it’s through-sung, so excepting the the world, and there would absolutely be no “Hamilton” without it. Get pop qualities of Claude-Michel Schonberg’s score, you’ll experience it tickets at celebrityattractions.com.

7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sun., 2 p.m. Thu. and Sat.-Sun. Robinson Center Performance Hall. $26-$87.

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NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

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QC:

Live: 1.875" x 5.25"

CW: AD:

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CHEER YOUR TEAM, AS A TEAM.

WEDNESDAY 11/29

CLOWNVIS PRESLEY

9 p.m. White Water Tavern.

Internet-famous for reverse-heckling Sharon Osborne, Howie Mandel and Piers Morgan on “America’s Got Talent” in 2010, Clownvis Presley is — as his name either promises or threatens — an Elvis impersonator dressed as a clown.

His repertoire includes the following: a song called “Barack O’s Tacos (Taste the change!),” banana tricks and a holiday anthem called “Jesus Christ Eatin’ on a Chicken Wing,” sprinkled with angelic backup vocals and lyrics that implore the listener, “My Lord and My Savior, watch him savor the flavor.” The St. Louis mischief-maker once made a habit of hosting local revues in St. Louis and photobombing family snapshots and wedding photo shoots at the Saint Louis Zoo, and he’s since taken the show on the road with “The Cursive Song” and other oddities. Oh, and for the record, he doesn’t care what Sharon Osborne thinks, as he told the Riverfront Times in September of that fateful year, “because Geezer Butler’s wife loves me.”

WEDNESDAY 11/29-SUNDAY 12/31

‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY’

7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun., 7 p.m. Sun. Nadine Baum Studios, Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville. $10-$47.

If Jimmy Stewart and Charles Dickens have taught us anything with “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” it’s that the doldrums tend to kick in when the weather gets cold and the days get short, especially seeing as how capitalism’s kinda put a weird spin on that whole thankfulness thing. And, a sizable Frank Capra-directed dose of “Damn, it’s good to be alive” makes you feel, well … good to be alive! TheatreSquared’s production is Joe Landry’s adaptation of the 1946 classic flick, and puts four voice actors at the core of the era-specific story and ends up bringing a modern-day George Bailey into the mix as a twist on the classic. This one’s for anyone who’s been thrust into a philosophical quandary courtesy of “The Good Place,” or maybe just anyone who tends to get a little jittery about the idea of someone sitting around making a list of merits and offenses — let alone checking it twice. The play has a run time of 110 minutes with a 10-minute intermission. Jeff Church directs. Get tickets at theatre2.org.

Batesville native Woody Skinner will be at Wordsworth Books & Co. signing copies of his book of short stories, “A Thousand Distant Radios,” 4 p.m., free.

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SUNDAY 11/26

Brand: Bud Light Generic NFL Job/Order #: 298160 Operator: cs Item #: PBL2017169

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KING OF CLOWNS: Clownvis Presley’s work is half prank, half performance art, and he lands at the White Water Tavern Wednesday night.

holiday downtown (900 Oak St.) with Illuminate, featuring a Ferris PRINT wheel, horse-and-carriage rides and train rides and an artwalk, 2 p.m., live music, 4 p.m., and the lighting of the city’s 54-foot-tall Christmas tree, 6 p.m., free. Later in Conway, DeFrance takes its Southern rock set to TC’s Midtown Grill, 9 p.m. Alex Summerlin takes the stage at Cajun’s Wharf for happy hour, 5:30 p.m., free, followed by a performance from the Shannon Boshears Band at 9 p.m., $5. Canvas plays at Thirst N’ Howl, 8:30 p.m. Author Paula Martin signs copies of her latest, “Bone By Bone: A Love Story,” at Stifft Station Gifts & Sundries, 3009 W. Markham St., 1 p.m., free.

Paul Morphis and Jean Michel perform at Loblolly Creamery, 5 p.m. Fayetteville record label Let’s Talk Figures hosts a Tom Petty Tribute at George’s Majestic Lounge, 9 p.m., $10.

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IN BRIEF, CONT.

ENJOY RESPONSIBLY © 2017 A-B, Bud Light® Beer, St. Louis, MO

TUESDAY 11/28 The story of Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch watchmaker whose family hid Jewish refugees from the Nazi regime during World War II, comes to life on the big screen at the Ron Robinson Theater in “The Hiding Place,” 6 p.m., free. Flying Saucer Little Rock hosts 1990s-themed trivia in the River Market, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., free. Hoodoo Blues Revue performs at Bear’s Den Pizza in Conway, 10 p.m. Science Cafe pairs biology with beer for a conversation on “Hibernation: A Mammal Staycation” at Hibernia Irish Tavern, 7: 30 p.m., free. The Joint Theatre & Coffeehouse hosts Punch Line Stand Up Comedy with a “tap invasion” from Boulevard Brewing Co., 8 p.m., $5.

WEDNESDAY 11/29 The Ted Ludwig Trio lands at South on Main as part of the “Sessions” series, 8 p.m., $10.

UCA professors in philosophy, linguistics and communication host “The Science of Language” as part of the Science Wednesday series, 6:30 p.m., Kings Live Music in Conway. The Loony Bin opens up the floor for a rare Open Mic Night, 6:30 p.m.; call 228-5555 to reserve a timeslot.

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arktimes.com NOVEMBER 23, 2017

21

BELLY UP

Dining

MASSIVE: 42’s Arkansas Traveler Burger.

Revived

42 gets a winning overhaul.

42

Bar and Table is an absolutely stunning space. The original design of the restaurant at the Clinton Presidential Center was classy and understated, but the overhaul that debuted just a couple of weeks ago elevates the entire experience. Forget what you knew about the old Cafe 42. Thanks to the deft eye and skills of local design guru Garry Mertins, the new and improved 42 Bar and Table is a completely different space and vibe. We were slack-jawed at the look as we walked in.

A new entry, just to the left of the entrance to the Presidential Center, leads to a waiting area that hints at the patriotic grandeur of the restaurant. The bold design has a flag theme — the blue background

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

h ig h lig ht i ng wh ite amazing these are for $2 apiece. stars as you enter, a pin We saw the Arkansas Traveler Burger ($10) go light illuminating the by, and it’s crazy huge. The menu makes it sound 42nd star, logically. The fabulous: “1855 dry-aged ground beef with your choice opposite wall is bold of homemade blue pimento cheese” (or other cheese) with wide red-a nd- with all the usual accoutrements on a brioche bun. white horizontal stripes.

We opted for the fennel and crushed red pepper A long ba r w it h salmon ($25) with asparagus risotto. The fish was punchy red bar stools perfectly done as ordered — medium. The grilled hugs the north wall. tomato beurre blanc offset some of the spiciness of A n expa nded patio the red pepper, and the fennel sounded a perfect features heaters and note. The risotto was creamy and subtlety flavored. fire pit tables, making The chicken potpie ($14) is served in the dish in it a compelling spot which it’s baked, intensely hot. That made us delay in from which to enjoy a diving in, but it was worth waiting for: flaky browned cocktail, particularly crust, plenty of cubes of chicken breast, English peas, with the view of the carrots and pearl onions. It’s not a transcendent river and lighted bridge version of the classic, but it’s a nice choice that likely just above. will be popular.

Decor and vibe can’t The lime cheesecake ($6) was creamy and good, carry the load if the with a basil accent, something our dining companion food’s not good, but no worries here. We visited first enjoyed. for lunch, and fell back on a usual light-lunch strategy — the soup, in this case a silky mushroom bisque 42 Bar and Table that was deep brown with an intense mushroom 1200 President Clinton Ave. flavor. The half bowl is a large portion, ridiculously 501-537-0042 cheap at $4. dineatfortytwo.com Back a few days later for dinner, we chose two of the seven appetizers, all of which sounded great. Quick bite Three huge crab empanadas ($9) featured finely The new entrance directly into the restaurant makes shredded crab and corn encased in a light pastry. the whole 42 experience less of a hassle, as does The flavors worked well together, but we recommend the free valet parking offered each evening the more salt. restaurant/bar is open. Take in the views from the The bargain of the century is the Southern expanded patio. chicken biscuits ($6), three gnarly cheddar (but only lightly so) homemade biscuits sandwiching Hours small chicken filets, homemade bread-and-butter 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to pickles and honey mustard. We would have loved midnight Thursday to Saturday (kitchen closes at 10 this dish even without the small, lightly breaded p.m.) chicken filets, which weren’t as distinctive as the other three ingredients. When you think what you Other info pay for a fast-food biscuit sandwich, you realize how Credit cards are accepted, full bar.

WHAT’S COOKIN’

IF YOU’RE NOT up for cooking a Thanksgiving dinner this year, the Capital Bar and Grill in the Capital Hotel will take you, no reservations needed. The grill is serving a three-course Thanksgiving meal of soup (roasted sweet potato with orange and sage) or fall green salad (with green apples and roasted squash), a sorghumroasted turkey breast with cranberries and pumpkin pie with maple-syrup-whipped cream. That will set you back $38. The grill will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Across the street, at the Marriott, the Heritage Grille will be open for lunch (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and dinner (5 p.m. to 10 p.m.) and serve a traditional Thanksgiving menu, $30 ($15 children). Reserve at 399-8000.

The Hive, the restaurant in Bentonville’s luxe 21c Museum Hotel, will serve a four-course dinner on Thanksgiving, with three entree options: A housemade campanelle with butternut squash and rosemary, 22

NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

swordfish with Brussel sprouts and shell beans or patties and nine slices of American cheese, will be Falling Sky smoked turkey with cornbread stuffing and located at 16900 Chenal Curve, just across from the whipped potatoes. Other first-, second- and fourth- exit to Denny Road. There are also sandwiches, hot course options include (but are not limited to) pumpkin dogs, chicken tenders, house-made chips, fried agnolotti, wild mushroom tarte, sweet potato biscuits macaroni and cheese and milkshakes on the menu with smoked pork belly, sweet potato custard with … and a couple of salads. Ask for Pepsi, Pepsi, Pepsi sorghum whipped cream and pecan pie. That will run here and that’s what you’ll get. Wayback also delivers you between $45 and $54. Call 479-286-6575 to reserve. or partners with food delivery businesses at some of Or just get comfortable and go to the Flying Saucer its locations. in the River Market district, which will be open from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Thanksgiving; or the Pizzeria, 4910 Kavanaugh Blvd., which will be open at 6 p.m.

TACO BUENO, THE fast Mexican food chain, is opening at 9101 W. Markham St. It will be the second WAYBACK BURGERS, AN international chain with Taco Bueno in Little Rock and the 11th in Arkansas. restaurants as far-flung as Dubai, is coming to Little Fans of Taco Bueno are called Buenoheads and can Rock. The restaurant, which includes on its menu a towering “Triple Triple” hamburger of nine beef sign up for emailed daily deals.

Follow Eat Arkansas on Twitter: @EatArkansas

AE FEAT., CONT. Rich as a compass, and the collection has earned Sibling Rivalry Lambda Literary Awards in both gay poetry and lesbian poetry. Though it’s known as a vehicle for publishing work by underrepresented LGBTQ authors and poets, the press leans toward inclusivity, it says, and welcomes “all authors, artists, and readers regardless of sexual orientation or identity. We publish work we love. Merit trumps category.” I haven’t read a fraction of all the Sibling Rivalry press titles I’d like to devour, but I did notice a recent announcement from the publishers that promises to help me — and maybe you!

— make some headway. For 2018, it’s offering 10 titles scheduled for release next year as a bundle for a C-note (so, less than $10/book), with a flat $25 fee

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WE SPEAK SPANISH, DO YOU NEED HELP? Esse-ntials for women: Arkansas crafted handbags Lives there a woman who doesn’t want a new purse for Christmas? Well, maybe: My mother got the same new purse from the same store every year from my father, a quilted item she promptly returned the day after. (After a while, she didn’t even open the present.)

But lots of mamas (and papas, too) would welcome a brand-new bag, and Esse, Little Rock’s iconoclastic purse museum and shop, has two brands made right here in Little Rock. O’Faolain is a line of leather bags hand-cut, dyed and stitched by Bryant Phelan. In the shop is a simple, tailored “north-south” shoulder bag (it’s taller than it is wide) in a natural color with a big flap and a hasp (shown in the photograph) and a pretty little black number for going out. Both are $350. For a little bit of fun, check out the Big & Purty line of fabric clutches and fold-overs by Trace D. These are one-ofa-kind bags, featuring faces and African prints and colorful abstracts. They’re $72, and no one else will be carrying the one you choose! Wait — you’re buying for someone else, right?

— Leslie Newell Peacock

for shipping and the promise that you’ll receive anything else they publish in 2018 that’s not yet listed — “there’s always a surprise or two,” the point-of-sale site reads. The bundle includes a chapbook from Luther Hughes, editor-in-chief of the Shade Journal, a blog-turnedonline poetry journal that focuses on the experiences of queer people of color; Bushra Rehman’s “Marianna’s “Houseplants and Hot Sauce: A Beauty Salon,” of which writer Daisy Seek-and-Find Book for Grown-Ups” Hernandez (who co-edited “Colonize Sally Nixon’s book of illustrations — This! Young Women of Color on which we dubbed a “Where’s Waldo” for Today’s Feminism” with Rehman) said, grown-ups, in our write-up earlier this “When Audre Lorde said poetry isn’t a year — came out Sept. 12 from Chronicle luxury, she surely had Bushra’s work Books. It features things you can see in mind.” There’s a collection from around Little Rock, drawn into almost Arkansas-based poet and essayist Randi flattened and beautiful planes: the White Romo, “The Distractions of Living,” and Water Tavern, plant shopping, brunch.

Joseph Osmundson’s “Inside/Out,” It would be a good book for anyone, the which anyone who possesses a battered perfect thing to leaf through over coffee copy of “The Argonauts” can buy with in the morning. But for Little Rockers, it all the sense of security and mischief takes on an extra special feeling for its that “Koreanish” author Alexander closeness to some local landmarks. You Chee’s endorsement affords: “‘Inside/ can pick it up in bookstores or Amazon Out’ is like if Maggie Nelson had written for a cheap $11.96. (P.S. follow her on ‘Bluets’ about fucking men.” You’ll instagram at @sallustration). find the bundle at siblingrivalrypress.

— Jacob Rosenberg

Our sister paper El Latino is Arkansas’s only weekly – audited Spanish language newspaper.

LA VOZ DE NUESTRA COMUNIDAD www.ellatinoa rkansas.com

25 DE MAYO 2017 • VOLUMEN 17 •

GRATIS

EDICIÓN 7

¡BIENVENIDOS A ARKANSAS CENTRAL! AL” EL “ESTADO NATUR GUÍA E INFORMACIÓN SOBRE PÁG. 4 MEMORIAL DAY: SOLDADOS LATINOS COMBATIERON EN TODAS LAS GUERRAS PÁG. 2

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Arkansas has the second fastest growing Latino population in the country and smart businesses are targeting this market as they develop business relationships with these new consumers.

El Latino is a free publication available at 185 pickup locations in Central Arkansas. www.ellatinoarkansas.com Facebook.com/ellatinoarkansas

Contact Luis Garcia today for more information!

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Ian Moore Holiday Acoustic Tour Thursday, November 30, 2017 • 9pm

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23

BOOK REVIEW

‘Bullets and Fire’

Arkansas’s history of lynchings in the rearview mirror, barely.

BY MATT BAKER

I

t’s common nowadays to hear about the release night, but that’s more myth than fact. The NAACP’s of yet another video of ISIS committing another definition of lynching is the one commonly used human atrocity: torture, hangings, violence of today: “evidence that a person was killed; the killall types, including burning people alive. Seemingly, ing was illegal; at least three people were involved in these tragedies bear little resemblance to how we live the killing of the victim; and the killing was justified our own lives; they occur in places and by people far with reference to tradition, justice or honor.” Nancy removed from us, and it’s easy to write them off as the Snell Griffith’s essay outlines the four types of lynch work of violent terrorists or followers of Islamic fun- mobs. Private mobs were a small group operating damentalism. It’s too easy to shrug and forget about it; in secret; it’s estimated 30 percent of lynchings in out of sight, out of mind. Because American history is Arkansas were committed by such mobs. Terrorist our country’s weakest academic subject, most citizens probably possess a grossly insufficient understanding about the consequences of lynchings on our own soil. What if we were forced to take an unflinching look, though, at the horrors that our own ancestors, only a few generations past, inflicted upon others — torture, hangings, burning people alive — many of which were carried out based on some unsubstantiated rumor that incited a feverish mob to seek swift and violent justice? Would we, alas, sigh and shrug, say, “That was then, this is now”?

Guy Lancaster, editor of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, has compiled 10 essays in an engrossing new book, “Bullets and Fire: Lynching and Authority in Arkansas, 1840-1950,” published by the University of Arkansas Press. “Bullets and Fire” painstakingly examines the brutal legacy of lynching in Arkansas. Each essay is laden with fascinating — and unsettling — historical insights, context and details.

(The title foreshadows the fate of the hundreds of unfortunate victims.)

In addition to editing the collection, Lancaster also contributes an essay that explores the circumstances of the lynching of John Carter, arguably Arkansas’s most famous case. It’s a must-read for all Arkansans.

The essays in this book are accessible to history novices, but include plenty of fresh scholarship for those already familiar with this part of Arkansas’s history.

Some essays, such as Richard Buckelew’s telling of the Clarendon lynching of 1898, read like a modern-day true-crime tale — instantly seductive but far from middlebrow, adeptly touching on race, class and gender. mobs made no secret of their intentions, which was How prevalent was lynching? Academics use a usually to threaten and punish. Posses typically had variety of research methods — namely, studies of some level of organization and varied in size from newspaper accounts — to quantify the number of vic- a smattering of men to a hundred or more. They tims, but it’s generally agreed that there were approxi- were often respected by the community and meted mately 317 victims of lynching from 1860-1930. Not all out “justice” with impunity. Mass mobs functioned were fueled by racial animus; whites were sometimes in full view of the public, usually numbering in the victims as well, although approximately 80 percent hundreds or thousands. of all victims were black. Arkansas ranked sixth in In Arkansas, lynching reached its peak after the the nation in the number of victims. For a long time, Civil War and reconstruction; the African-American perpetrators were not arrested; in fact, lynching was population in Arkansas tripled between 1870 and 1890, practiced alongside with law enforcement, and to many migrating from other Southern states seekread the indifferent and coldly objective newspaper ing the possibility of land ownership and increased accounts of these horrendous crimes, including from economic opportunities. However, by 1890, with the the Arkansas Gazette, is sobering. drop in cotton prices and an economic downturn, Popular entertainment presents most lynchings as competition for jobs significantly increased, and this being carried out by masked men in the dead of the often pitted blacks against whites. In response to this 24

NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

new economic and social climate, the Democrat-led legislature passed laws limiting the rights of African Americans with poll taxes and laws designed to segregate black and white. White citizens took matters into their own hands: “Night riding” and lynchings were used to intimidate blacks, especially those who challenged white supremacy. (Because blacks in plantation societies did not trust the white judicial system, they sometimes exacted vigilante justice against members of their own society for murder, rape and incest.)

Nearly half of all of Arkansas’s lynchings occurred during the decade of the 1890s, and the turn of the century didn’t fare much better for African Americans, with the election of Jeff Davis as governor from 1901 to 1907. A virulent racist, he told President Theodore Roosevelt that he condoned lynching and expected proud whites to utilize the act whenever necessary.

Eventually Arkansas, like other Southern states, began to feel the backlash against lynching, notably from prominent Northern newspapers. Even the famed “hanging judge” Isaac Parker spoke out against lynching, calling it the “most revolting and disgusting acts of savagery ... .” George W. Donaghey succeeded Davis as governor and in his inaugural address he announced that he believed that law enforcement and government policy could prevent lynchings. On a national level, a Republican from Missouri, Leonidas Dyer, introduced the Dyer Bill, prescribing hefty fines for county governments where a lynching occurred.

The strongest opposition came from Southern Democrats and, incredibly, even the NAACP had concerns about the constitutionality of such a bill. The Association of Southern Woman for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL) was created in 1930 with the objective of using “white women’s moral and social leverage to educate and persuade Southern whites to end lynching in rural communities.” The group disbanded in 1941, but it’s a testament to an early instance of revoking one’s personal privilege to challenge moral failings.

If Arkansas’s history of lynchings seems far removed, consider that it wasn’t until 2005 that the U.S. Senate formally apologized for its continuous failure to create anti-lynching legislation. Fittingly, it was Arkansas’s own Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln who helped draft and sponsor that resolution.

In Lancaster’s introduction, he sums up the book’s focus this way: “... we hope to illustrate that lynching was not a disease afflicting the nation but rather one of the vital organs within the body politic of white supremacy.” The book succeeds in doing just that — and so much more. While we may no longer have poll taxes, we now have “voter ID” laws. Even though we now have video evidence from many unlawful police shootings, we still can’t agree on who the culprits are in these videos. Politicians gerrymander districts and the result is segregated representation. Gentrification is pushing African Americans out of their own communities. It is disquieting to finish this book and wonder how far we’ve really come. Maybe most people still shrug: out of sight out of mind. Maybe the dark truth at the center of our complicated history with race is that, for a myriad of reasons, many Americans simply don’t see African Americans as their American equal.

Lancaster masterfully shows us the “that was then.”

So, what are we going to do about the “this is now”?

On a cold, clear, moonless

night in the middle of winter we find the mythical town of Almost, Maine. As the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, Almost’s residents find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and often hilarious ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken.

But the bruises heal and the hearts mend – almost – in this delight DECEMBER 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 2017 $16-ADULTS • $12-STUDENTS & SENIORS THURSDAY, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT CURTAIN TIME IS 7:30 PM. SUNDAY AFTERNOON CURTAIN TIME IS 2:30 PM.

Please arrive promptly. There will be no late admission.

The Box Office and the theater open one (1) hour prior to curtain.

The House opens 30 minutes prior to curtain.

For more information contact us at 501.374.3761 or www.weekendtheater.org OUR 25TH SEASON IS SPONSORED BY PIANO KRAFT CentralArkansasTickets.com to purchase tickets and flex passes.

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arktimes.com NOVEMBER 23, 2017

Arkansas TImes 11-23-17.indd 1

25

11/3/17 2:16 PM

Holiday Gift Guide Holiday Season is Coming Up! Visit these local retailers to gear up for the holiday season of gift-giving.

perfect host gift

Colonial has the for the holidays: the Gift Pack of Scotch Whiskies. The pack includes 4- 100 ml bottles of the following: Glenmorangie Original 10 Year Old, Glenmorangie Lasanta Sherry Cask Finished 12 Year Old, Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban Port Cask Finished 12 Year Old, and Glenmorangie The Nectar D’Or Sauternes Cask Finished 12 Year Old, all for $27.99.

Let Edwards Food Giant at Tanglewood

take the

hassle out of your holidays! Not only does Edwards Deli

have your party trays for any occasion, they can also make your Thanksgiving Holiday Dinner as easy as picking up the phone. Their side items are homemade right in the store. Order your Turkey Day sides at Edwards. Stay out of the kitchen and enjoy your holiday!

Stop by Ozark Outdoor Supply

and make sure you’re prepared for cold weather and camping with an Osprey Backpack for day hiking, $160, the MSR Isopro All-Season Fuel Blend, $6.95, and Thermacell “Backpacker” Mosquito Repellent for 15 ft. by 15 ft. of protection, $39.95 and $9.99 refills.

For the whiskey and bourbon enthusiast

in your life, visit Warehouse Liquor and stock up on Crown Royal Noble, 750 ml for $54.99, and Bulleit Bourbon, 750 ml for $19.99.

26

NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

2017 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

Shop Bella Vita for these 30” Stone Drop

necklaces. These are all made with natural stones, so no two gemstones are alike! Find these beauties and more perfect local, handmade gifts when you visit Bella Vita for Small Business Saturday 9 – 4. Coffee, mimosas, and snacks will be available for shoppers.

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27

2017 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

WÜSTHOF knives, like love, are destined to last a lifetime.

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NOVEMBER 23, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

Visit the Arkansas Craft Guild to shop more gifts like these;

Townhouses with a park: a 7 inch diameter gourd bowl by artist Kathleen Keefe of Crystal Quarry Studio, a smooth yet durable tote with a small amount of “pull up” made from “Crazy Horse Leather,” typically used for work booths, by artist Michael Hicks of Ro’Ark, a Redware pottery ornament by artist Sue Skinner of SJ Pottery, and a hand-blown glass fluted bowl in corn yellow with spirals of red/yellow/blue confetti mix by artist Ron Mynatt of Callahan Mtn. Studios.

arktimes.com arktimes.comNOVEMBER NOVEMBER23, 23,2017 2017 29 5

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ARKANSAS TIMES ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

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31

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ARKANSAS TIMES

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