Arkansas Times - September 20, 2018 by Arkansas Times

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 / ARKTIMES.COM

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

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arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

WEEK THAT WAS

Quote of the week

BRIAN CHILSON

“I hope these data scare the pants off people in Arkansas.” — Dr. Christopher Gorton, a member of the federal Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission in an article in The New York Times about the more than 4,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in Arkansas who have lost their coverage for the rest of the year because of Arkansas’s first-in-the-nation work requirement rules. Gorton must not be familiar with Arkansas Republicans.

More sentenced for corruption

Former state Rep. Micah Neal has received a probationa r y sentence, including one yea r of home conf inement, for what Ju d g e T i m o t h y B r o o k s c a l l e d a n “ u npre ce dent e d” re duc t ion in sentencing g uidelines for his cooperation in the case in which he’s pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks from more than $600,000 in state money he helped direct to Ecclesia College. The judg e g ave h i m a t h re e year probationary sentence, with the first year to be served in home confinement. He’ll be electronically monitored. He must perform 300 hours of communit y ser vice. He was ordered to make $200,000 in restitution. Meanwhile, Oren Paris III, the former president of Ecclesia, who pleaded guilty to paying kickbacks in return for state money funneled t o t he col le g e , w a s s ent ence d to three yea rs in federal prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $621,500. 4

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

The state Finance and Administration Depa rtment has a sked At tor ney G enera l L esl ie Rutledge to sue to recover at least $600,000 of the $700,000 in tax money sent to the private Ecclesia College in a scheme orchestrated by legislators who took kickbacks from the money.

ADEQ recommends denial of hog permit

The A rka nsa s Depa r t ment of E nv i ron ment a l Q u a l it y h a s recommended denial of a new permit for discharge of waste by the C&H Hog Farm in Newton County. The reasons cited by the depa r tment for deny ing the reg ulation 5 permit include the underlying karst geolog y, which ca n a llow waste to mig rate a nd cont a m i n ate g rou ndwater. K a r s t r e q u i r e s s p e c i a l de si g n considerations for containing waste, the department said. It also said that the existing operation may be contributing through application of waste on fields to impaired quality of Big Creek and the Buffalo River.

The decision is by the Of f ice of Water Quality for a permit for storage a nd la nd application of liquid waste. It will be open for public comment for 30 days. A public hearing will be held Oct. 9. A f ter t he comment period, t he de ci sion w i l l be up to t he director of the depa rtment, Becky Keogh. Her decision could be appea led to t he Pollut ion Control and Ecolog y Commission. The hog farm slid into operation out of public view by applying initially for a general discharge permit that doesn’t require a public hearing process. Once approved, it began the application for what’s known as a regulation 5 permit, which is the type denied. The PC&E Commission has ruled that the earlier permit will die if the regulation 5 permit is denied. C&H, backed by Arkansas Farm Bureau, is fighting that ruling in circuit court. Buffalo River preservation groups are attempting to intervene.

A return to local control on the horizon

A s t a t e B o a r d o f E duc a t io n meet i ng la st week i ncluded a n e xc h a n g e o f i n f o r m a t io n t h a t indicates there could be a return of local control of the Little Rock School Dist rict by 2020, which wou ld r e q u i r e a s c ho ol b o a r d election in November 2019. Board Chairman Jay Barth asked the department legal counsel about the status of return of local control. Under l aw, s t at e cont r ol c a n’t last more than f ive years unless boundary changes or other special issues ident if ied by aut horit ies delay that. Cou r t ney Sa la s-Ford, a department attorney, said the law was clear about the restoration of local control in January 2020, five years after a state takeover of the district, in a 5-4 vote, for low test scores in a handful of the district’s four dozen schools. Loca l control mea ns a school board. And, Salas-Ford confirmed to Barth, that means an election in November 2019. The election process would have to beg in in June 2019. In light of what SalasFord sa id, boa rd member Susa n Chambers said it was time for the state board to be making plans.

Moving deck chairs

overnor Hutchinson has promised to soon reveal his ideas for “transforming government” — a reorganization aimed at reducing the number of departments that report to the governor. Will goodness and merciful efficiency follow? History tells us it’s more likely to be a rearrangement of the deck chairs on the good ship Arkansas. Here’s what we know for sure. He won’t propose to combine the multiple retirement agencies for state employees. Pesky retired judges, teachers, highway workers, State Police and bureaucrats under one umbrella? Not good. He does want to combine the Department of Correction with Arkansas Community Correction. Both do some incarcerating. The latter handles probation and parole and is woefully understaffed. Same

OPINION

MAX BRANTLEY

for the seams-burst- maxbrantley@arktimes.com ing prisons. Creating a new department will help? Not likely without more money. Sheila Sharp got booted at Community Correction for not cutting staff as close to the bone as the governor wanted. Then there’s some wacky stuff going around. Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr proposes to combine some 24 agencies, from his own to the tow truck and mobile home regulatory boards, under his command. The better to have an excuse to build the executive palace he’s long wanted to build across from the Capitol. Apparently under serious discussion is an idea to combine, among others, the Economic Development Commission, Parks and Tourism and Heritage. All aim, I guess, at luring people to the state for business or pleasure. A mountain of ad money would

Tables turned

rett Kavanaugh’s dilemma over televised news cona prep-school tussle with a girl ference that he had provokes many proverbs, but one not had sex with that seems most apropos is “what goes “that woman, Miss around comes around.” Lewinsky.” A sexKavanaugh finds himself this week in ual dalliance in the ERNEST the boots that 20 years ago he personally White House was DUMAS shoehorned onto President Bill Clinton — disgusting though facing questions under oath about a sexual not illegal, but with Republicans in lockescapade, an attempted rape in Kavana- step control of the House of Representaugh’s case, that he must not admit to his tives they might nail him on obstruction family, friends or the American people. of justice and perjury if Kavanaugh and The capstone of his life and his dream, Starr could force him to lie under oath. a seat on the Supreme Court, would be Monday, unless something happens, forever out of reach. Kavanaugh will face his accuser, Dr. You may remember the Clinton inci- Christine Blasey Ford, and both will be dent in 1998, although not Kavanaugh’s under oath. If he admits to some drunken role, which came to light in the release of frolicking with her, consensual or not, internal documents from the Whitewater when they were teenagers, his nominaindependent counsels’ eight-year inves- tion will be dead. If her testimony is comtigation of the Clintons’ speculative 1977 pelling and his not so much, his future land deal in Marion County. Desperate is sealed. to advance his party’s goal of impeachKavanaugh’s denial is backed by the ing and removing the hated Democrat, other participant in the alleged attack, his Kavanaugh insisted to his boss Kenneth high-school drinking buddy Mark Judge. Starr that Clinton be put under oath and High school friends of Kavanaugh, includmade to deny each tawdry dalliance with ing two old girlfriends, signed statements Monica Lewinsky of which, unknown to that among girls he was a sober, gallant Clinton, they had secret evidence. Kava- and respectful lad. naugh knew that Clinton would have to The senators who will question Kavalie because his marriage and romance naugh and Ford surely will subpoena with the American people would be over. Judge, the only person apparently who Clinton had already told the country in a can affirm or deny that it happened. Judge,

be the prize for the megaboss of this mega agency, maybe Mike Preston, the first-class flyer at AEDC. Under serious consideration too is a Homeland Security Department, rounding up the State Police, Emergency Management, the drug czar and others. Republicans love to talk about the homeland. I’m expecting “transformation” to shortly become campaign fodder. It might appeal to voters. But remember the disastrous merger of the Department of Human Services with the Department of Health, soon undone. Also look at the behemoth created by rolling multiple agencies into the DHS. It’s produced the rehoming scandal, the behavioral services scandal, the feeding program scandal and a reputation for callousness toward courts and the unfortunate people it serves. Efficiency is supposed to be understood by gullible voters to mean reduced spending. You save money by cutting costs. Most costs are people. Mega agencies will mean new six-figure bosses. They will need entourages — secretaries, flacks and, if they’re like Attorney General Leslie Rut-

ledge, lots of guys with earpieces and sidearms driving big, black SUVs. All of the disparate divisions will remain, unless we propose to end securities regulation or oversight of the real estate industry. If history is a guide, losses will come in jobs or pay at the lowest level, the place where most services are delivered. See the parole officers who struggle to keep up with their workload and whose unmet needs cost former Community Correction’s director Sharp her job. See the efficiency in cutting off Medicaid to thousands of poor people because they don’t have computer access. The governor is exactly right in thinking that a merger of financial services for different types of retired state workers doesn’t make sense. But mushing the groundskeepers at Toltec Mounds State Park under the umbrella of AEDC boss Preston’s Department of Chinese Corporate Welfare does? A final scary thought: What if the vindictive Stacy Hurst, now presiding over the colonnaded Department of Arkansas Heritage building, emerged even higher on the new Arkansas bureaucratic superstructure?

a right-wing journalist, published a memoir in 1997 titled “Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk” about life with his buddies at a rich boys’ prep school in Georgetown. One character, obviously a nom de plume, is an often drunken classmate whom he calls “Bart O’Kavanaugh,” who at one point vomits and passes out in a car after leaving a party. Dr. Ford described both Kavanaugh and Judge as deliriously drunk the night of the attack. Some senator might ask either Kavanaugh or Judge, if he is subpoenaed, if Bart was Brett. The venue must look pretty safe to Kavanaugh. The woman seems to have no corroborating witnesses and he has a loyal buddy. There will be no proof that it happened and his party will only need to keep a couple of wavering senators in line. Still, the whole episode reinforces the single reason that Brett Kavanaugh should not be on the Supreme Court: He is an incorrigible partisan, the kind of person the framers thought should not get a lifetime appointment to the court because he would not bring independent judgment but a partisan obligation to great public issues. Otherwise, he has all the current pedigrees for the high court: graduate of a tony prep school, both undergraduate and law degrees from Yale, and a member of the rightwing Federalist Society. Kavanaugh was an assistant to Starr when he was President George H.W.

Bush’s solicitor general, and both lost their jobs with the election of Clinton. When Starr was named the Whitewater prosecutor after the first one exonerated the White House in the suicide of Vince Foster, Kavanaugh joined his team to continue the pursuit of Foster’s White House killers. After three years and millions of dollars he had to acknowledge that the deeply depressed Foster had killed himself with his father’s antique pistol and went back to private practice. In a famous panel discussion on the future of the independent counsel law, he doubted that presidents should be pursued for criminal acts while they were in office, a notion that he has since repeated and that made him Donald Trump’s first choice for justice. Almost as soon as he had uttered the idea, the Monica Lewinsky story broke and Kavanaugh raced back to Starr’s team to lead the pursuit of Clinton. It meant forcing the president to do something illegal, like tell a lie under oath, and he did. Of course, as his supporters point out, he changed his mind just as Starr was about to present his recommendations in a confidential report to Congress. He worried that making all the lurid sex details available to Republican senators, who would leak them, would cause a political backlash against Starr and his team, which it did. Politics, not the law, is his lodestar. So it will always be with Brett Kavanaugh.

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arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Character judgment

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

robably it’s not possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt whether or not Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted then-15-year-old Christine Blasey Ford at a high school house party back in 1982. However, that’s not the issue. Kavanaugh’s not being charged with a crime, but with being a creep. No less an authority than that great American (and Kavanaugh’s former boss) Kenneth Starr says, “[I]t’s too late for there to be any serious consideration at this stage.” But what’s the rush? Republicans thought it was just fine to leave a Supreme Court seat vacant throughout 2016 for purely partisan reasons. There’s no compelling reason for hurry now. Except that the longer this spectacle continues, the likelier it appears that Kavanaugh will be forced to withdraw. Gun-shy Republicans in close congressional races may insist upon it. Because, see, chances are the judge doesn’t actually know if he forced the young girl into a bedroom, tried to tear off her clothes, pinned her down and clapped his hand over her mouth to silence her screams, or if he didn’t. That’s because there’s plenty of circumstantial evidence that Kavanaugh spent his years at Georgetown Prep getting hammered: knee-walking, toilet bowl-hugging, where-am-I-and-how-did-I-get-here blackout drunk. The other fellow Ford named as her attacker was his prep school pal, a conservative opinion writer named Mark Judge. Judge denies everything. “It’s just absolutely nuts,” he said. “I never saw Brett act that way.” However, Judge has also published two memoirs of his own struggles with drugs and alcohol. His book “Wasted: Tales of a Gen-X Drunk,” features one “Bart O’Kavanaugh,” who “puked in someone’s car the other night” and “passed out on his way back from a party.” Also, in his high school yearbook, Kavanaugh himself claims membership in something called the “Beach Week Ralph Club” and the “Keg City Club.” (Ralphing, of course, being slang for projectile vomiting.) There are coarse sexual references, too. At Yale, Kavanaugh belonged to a fraternity notorious for carousing. As recently as 2014, he gave a humorous speech to the Yale Law School Federalist Society on the theme of “how drunk were you?” in law school. None of this is a crime either, but it definitely lends credibility to Ford’s memory of Judge and Kavanaugh’s intoxication that awful night. She says that she only got

away because while Kavanaugh was holding her down GENE and tearing at her LYONS bathing suit, Judge piled on, they all three tumbled to the floor and she managed to escape — locking herself in a bathroom until she heard Beavis and Butt-Head stumble away. As I say, the nominee may honestly remember none of this. But does he recall getting blackout drunk? I doubt he wants to answer that question. What people sometimes don’t understand is that heavy drinkers can carry on carousing and making idiots of themselves for hours before passing out cold — often with no memory in the morning. Perhaps this is all terribly unfair to Kavanaugh. But it’s an important job he wants. Then, too, as Digby Parton comments, “[w]hen it comes to unfairness and character assassination, he’s an expert.” Few in Little Rock have forgotten his years-long harassment of Vince Foster’s family after the White House attorney’s suicide. At the behest of the incompetent Starr, who got his own investigative tips from Rush Limbaugh, Kavanaugh made their lives miserable. Parton: “He spent three years and $2 million attempting to dig up dirt on the dead man, at one point demanding that Foster’s teenage daughter give the authorities specimens of her hair — an apparent attempt to prove or imply that a hair found on Foster’s jacket had belonged to Hillary Clinton.” Failing at that, Kavanaugh next served as one of Starr’s chief leakers in the Monica Lewinsky affair. Bill Clinton’s sexual sins brought out the Torquemada in him. “It is our job,” he wrote colleagues in Starr’s office in an email, “to make his pattern of revolting behavior clear — piece by painful piece.” Revolting, no less. Prominent among the questions he thought the president needed to be asked under oath and on camera was this: “If Monica Lewinsky says that you ejaculated into her mouth on two occasions in the Oval Office area, would she be lying?” Pervert or prig? You tell me. Next Kavanaugh wrote the infamous Starr Report, whose salaciousness shocked most Americans, helping Clinton get away with it and humiliating Lewinsky, whom they seemed to regard as collateral damage. All perfectly in character, it seems to me.

No sympathy

h, to have the privilege to look at Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders through an objective lens. I sure can’t, and I am to the point where if I hear one more progressive or even centrist Democrat claim they disagree with her policies then in the next sentence point out that she is “so good at her job” or she has taken on a “tough role,” I may scream. Sanders wakes up every day and chooses to lie and dodge and prop up a sexist and racist president. I just don’t get the love affair that so many, especially men, who claim to be allies of the poor, of women, of immigrants and of people of color have with her. Maybe it’s because some of them knew her long ago when her daddy was governor. I’ve heard she was friendly and charming then. I only know what I see on camera week after week, and I’m not seeing anything that Arkansas should be proud of. The New Yorker just did a long piece on Sanders and how she got to where she is now. They point out she has had a front seat to politics her entire life. And now she’s one of the stars. Local girl done good. She could walk away any day and have a job at her network of choice, probably for higher pay than she makes now. But all of that does not make her any less complicit (that word isn’t just reserved for Ivanka) in the separation of children from their families at the border, from denying refugees a safe home, and now by standing by a Supreme Court nominee who, in addition to signaling he will vote to control women’s bodies, has been accused of sexual assault. I wonder if these same members of Sanders’ fan club would also say upon seeing a child being abused, “You know, I disagree with that man beating that child over there, but he sure does have good form and follow through.” I’m sure some of you by now are rolling your eyes and thinking being uncivil to poor Sanders. I’ll say what I’ve previously said in this space: “Civility is the anthem of the privileged.” When you are one of the groups Sanders and Trump work to marginalize, whether through executive orders, Supreme Court nominees or candidate endorsements, when Sanders’ name comes up, we aren’t immedi-

ately looking to tell her job well done. To continue AUTUMN to see allies talk TOLBERT about her as if we should be proud of her accomplishments is a slap in the face to those fighting to protect their neighbors from the Trump administration. One of those fighters is my good friend, Blanca Estevez, who, as part of a nationwide effort to reunite families, spends time driving asylum seekers hundreds of miles to pick up their children and grandchildren from detention facilities where the Trump administration has shipped them after separating them at the border. I see the toll that this work takes on her as she hears first hand the stories of the men and women who leave everything to come here to escape gang and sexual violence in their home countries. Blanca was brought here from El Salvador by her grandmother. Now, a citizen, she works to extend the same benefit to others. She, unlike Sanders and Trump, sees the value in those who share her brown skin and who come here with very little except the desire to raise their children in a better place. She is an Arkansan we can be proud of. I’m not sure the exact moment I stopped being open-minded about Sanders. Maybe I lost most of my objectivity with her family after my hometown was devastated by a school shooting and her dad smugly promoted his book about the event and kept all of the profits. The only feeling I’m able to muster toward her now is disgust. And for those of you who are worried about my soul, don’t bother with the pious emails this week reminding me I’m headed to hell unless I forgive and repent. I’ll take all that up with my pastor on Sunday. Save your energy and email Sanders instead. Since so many of you are convinced she is good at her job, ask her if being good at something means she should continue to do it. Maybe if enough Arkansans remind her of who she apparently used to be, she will have a change of heart. But if not, and we welcome her home to Arkansas after all she has said and done, then we will be complicit, too.

Please join us for an exciting evening as Community Health Centers of Arkansas recognizes honorees Senator John Boozman, Muskie Harris, Delta Dental of Arkansas and Forevercare, at our inaugural masked ball. Proceeds from this benefit formal will help support the Franklin Community Health Complex. Tickets may be purchased thru Eventbrite. Event details to follow.

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

Worst ever

et’s get this out of the way: Arkansas hasn’t had two consecutive weeks of football this torturous ever. Period. It was agony watching a confident team spiral into confusion and disarray in the final 20 minutes against Colorado State, but having North Texas come into your house and basically clear out the joint with a 34-10 first-half spanking en route to a 44-17 final? This is the sort of thing that causes teetotalers to become sots in a matter of hours. There is also precedent that gives some hope where it appears a paucity of it exists. When the team lost to The Citadel to open the 1992 season and Jack Crowe was canned the following day, the team responded relatively well by thrashing fellow SEC newcomer South Carolina with interim coach Joe Kines in charge, and then those Hogs did the unthinkable three weeks later, upsetting No. 4 Tennessee at Neyland Stadium. Danny Ford’s 1995 team gagged its opener against SMU, but recovered quickly to upset Alabama (let’s be clear — we are NOT adopting that level of optimism here) and then win the SEC West for the first time. In 2001, Houston Nutt had a helpless looking team that started 1-3 and, thanks to a Carlos Hall blocked field goal against South Carolina and the emergence of Matt Jones, that team turned its fortunes around and went to a Cotton Bowl on the strength of a six-game winning streak. Bret Bielema’s 2015 team entered the year with high hopes and a national ranking, only to bottom out badly in losses to Toledo in Little Rock and Texas Tech in Fayetteville, but those missteps were rectified by the team shortly thereafter and the squad ended up winning eight games, including the Liberty Bowl. The trouble with this team, though, is that head coach Chad Morris clearly has lost any semblance of vision for it only a quarter of the way into a long, arduous season. In the opener, Arkansas found it hard to establish a running game so it redoubled its efforts in that respect against the Rams, only to mysteriously abandon the ground attack when the team needed to rely on it the most in the waning stages of the third quarter. Against the Mean Green, a team capable of winning double-digit games on the strength of its deft quarterback Mason Fine, the Hogs again scuffled and Devwah Whaley was totally neutralized early. Whaley amassed a career-best 165 yards against Colorado State; he’s bookended that, however, with a whopping 40 aggregate yards on 19 rushes in the other

two games. The trickery that UNT employed on a punt return was, of course, the talk of the first half as BEAU WILCOX the visitors built their unthinkable lead. But the postgame remarks about that play were troubling: Mean Green return man Keegan Brewer deked the Hogs’ gunners into thinking he had fair caught the ball, then even chatted with them casually when they murmured about the lack of a whistle blowing the play dead. Brewer never signaled accordingly, and never stopped moving, even if his initial steps mimicked a lope to the sideline. By the time he took off, Arkansas’s special teams unit looked foolishly, hopelessly and inexcusably unfit. Combine those lapses with Cole Kelley throwing four picks before finally getting a permanent seat, and the remaining fans raining down the boos, and this was unquestionably a bottom-five moment for Arkansas. Losing is one thing. Losing to North Texas at home is another. Losing in such a garish fashion, looking ill-prepared and uncommitted? Lord help us if we thought the John L. Smith experiment was a farce — the 2018 season is shaping up in a way that almost defies logic. Morris is wearing a pretty weathered countenance already, too. Yes, his first SMU team went 2-10, and by the time 24 months had passed from that, he had molded the downtrodden Mustangs into a winning team. But even in the leanest of lean years, Arkansas could be counted on to win nonconference games against opponents who resided on the fringes of the FBS, the old Division I-A. Morris may not survive the year if this team flops to a program-worst 1-11 or 2-10 (only Tulsa, which just lost to Arkansas State, remains on the out-of-SEC slate), and frankly, should he? This cupboard is most assuredly not bare. Whaley is a proven talent who has had success in this league; receivers Jared Cornelius, Jonathan Nance and Jordan Jones have all made impact plays in highstakes games. McTelvin Agim was a purported generational talent coming out of Hope, and Randy Ramsey, Bumper Pool, Briston Guidry and the like came into the program with enough fanfare to bring Arkansas fans a sense of calm amid all the storms of recent years. The urgency with which Morris and his staff must operate just pinged off the meter, though, and an unsettling gauntlet against Auburn, Texas A&M and Alabama looms at the worst possible time.

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Fuel and fire

he Observer is a person who always needs some new adventure out there on the horizon to look forward to. A trip booked a few months out, a class to teach or take at some point, even a new restaurant we’d like to get to and get thrown out of after they catch us filling up a Ziploc bag with free ketchup. So it goes. Currently, the thing we’re looking forward to in September is the East Coast Timing Association Arkansas 1-Mile Challenge, which is going down on the runway of the old Eaker Air Force Base in Northeast Arkansas at the end of the month. Now known as Blytheville International Airport — as if Blytheville actually needs an International Airport, with flights to Madrid, Paris and Standard Umpstead — the one thing that the airport has going for it these days is an 11,602-foot runway, built to the exacting standards of Uncle Sam before the airbase closed in 1992. While the Air Force has long since winged off to places where the tax dollars fly free, that runway is still good for going really, really fast. For the past few years, the East Coast Timing Association has been meeting up there on the regular and throwing anything with a motor down the runway as fast as it’ll go: cars, trucks, go-karts and motorcycles, some of them going from zero to over 200 miles per hour along the onemile strip. Pushing a brick of steel, iron, aluminum, rubber and plastic through the air as fast as possible by burning dead dinosaurs is a very American thing to do, and we’re planning on being there to watch a bunch of vehicular loonies do it better than pretty much anyone else on the planet. It’s gonna be a hoot. Though we’re currently driving a Honda with two balding tires and a whopping 120 horsepower under the hood, The Observer has had a long love affair with speed, started originally courtesy of Hot Wheels cars but nurtured to fuller flower by our uncle, who used to take The Observer and our brother out on the freeway in his Datsun on nights when he was supposed to be babysitting us and see if he could snap off the speedometer needle. Not

quite upstanding babysitter behavior, but it was a start of a lifelong fascination. We moved on to lusting after our brother’s friend’s 1969 Dodge Charger, a former “Dukes of Hazzard” General Lee clone with a bright yellow paint job done with a brush and an engine bay filled with a stout 440 big block. We were aboard that one during landspeed attempts on the freeway at night as well. Above 130 miles an hour in a car with only lap belts (never used), the engine settled into a deafening rumble that seemed to come from inside your body, the big ol’ Dodge on tires bought who knows where and in what condition seemed to get up and float along on the very air. How close we came to going home to Jesus on those nights, we’ll never know, but we would have died happy. From there, we moved on to our own rigs: a 1963 Chevrolet coupe we built in high school from the ground up before wrapping it around a tree just before the junior prom, and a 1981 Chevy pickup that was the test bed for a 355 small block we built with these two hands. Four bolt main block, new pistons, aluminum intake and a pair of the famous Chevrolet “double hump” heads we scrounged from a junkyard derelict. It was a whole summer’s worth of slaving on the roof, poured into an engine that, in actuality, probably didn’t make as much horsepower as a 2018 GMC Yukon does these days. But what a thrill it was to fire it, smell the new paint on the block and heads heating up, and know the highspeed ballet of mechanical parts slinging around inside that block had been assembled not by some nameless drone on an assembly line in Detroit, but by Yours Truly. And the first time we laid twin, smoking black marks on the world? It was like the heaven we’d likely come close to in the backseat of our brother’s friend’s Charger. Education and marriage, child and mortgage, put a damper on our Need for Speed long ago, but The Observer is thinking of getting back into it. After we’re in proximity of speed in Blytheville, it may be an urge that’s impossible to resist.

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arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Arkansas Reporter

THE

Dropped

More than 4,000 Medicaid beneficiares lost coverage because of new work requirement rules. BY BENJAMIN HARDY ARKANSAS NONPROFIT NEWS NETWORK

o v e r n o r H u t c h i n s o n Hutchinson said. “I think it would be announced last week that common sense judgment of the people 4,353 Arkansans have lost of Arkansas that we should not continue health care coverage for the to pay $30 million per year for that cost.” remainder of 2018 due to three months Most of those who lost coverage in Sepof noncompliance with the state’s first- tember did so because they failed to report of-its-kind Medicaid work requirement. any work activities at all for June, July and Those beneficiaries are now locked out of August. Hutchinson listed a few scenarios the Arkansas Works program for the rest that might result in people not reporting. of the calendar year, though they can re- “One, they could have … obtained other apply in January. insurance coverage,” he said. “Or it could Earlier this year, the Trump admin- be that they moved away out of state withistration approved Arkansas’s request to out notifying DHS. Or it could be that they impose a work requirement on certain ben- simply don’t want to be part of the workeficiaries of the Medicaid expansion, com- force. They’re able-bodied, but … they don’t posed of low-income, nonelderly adults. desire to do it.” Under Hutchinson’s direction, the ArkanCritics of the work requirement say Arkansas Works beneficiaries already do sas Department of Human Services began some people may be unaware it applies work — and because low-income people the new policy in June. The DHS is rolling to them or may be under the mistaken often cycle in and out of employment — it out the mandate in phases, but eventually impression that simply working regularly is not clear whether the job gains the govabout 167,000 people ages 19 to 49 will — as opposed to reporting those hours — is ernor cited were due to the requirement. be required to report 80 hours of “work enough to stay in compliance. Others may Earlier in the afternoon of Sept. 12, Demactivities” each month or else show an have difficulty reporting online; Arkansas ocratic gubernatorial candidate Jared Henexemption. (A majority should qualify for has among the lowest internet access rates derson held a press conference criticizing an exemption.) Research shows most Med- in the nation. The governor said he hoped the new rule. “We have become the first icaid expansion beneficiaries are already that was not the case, noting the large vol- state in the country to impose an internet working, but to stay in compliance with ume of letters, phone calls and emails sent requirement to create a new bureaucracy the requirement, they must also report by the DHS in an attempt to inform benefi- between some of our most vulnerable cititheir hours each month through an online ciaries of the new policy. In response to a zens and their access to health insurance,” portal created by the DHS. question about the online-only reporting Henderson said. The governor said Sept. 12 that his aim system, he said the insurance carriers are In the past, Henderson said, Arkansas is not to remove beneficiaries from Arkan- providing “registered reporters” autho- has led the way in expanding insurance sas Works. rized to receive beneficiaries’ information coverage — a reference to the state’s estab“I’d like to see those that are being cut over the phone and assist them in logging lishment of ARKids insurance for children off from the system lower. We’d like to see hours. under Republican Governor Mike Huckathem all in compliance,” he said. The goal of the requirement, Hutchin- bee and its more recent embrace of MedicHowever, Hutchinson also noted that son said, is to push more low-income peo- aid expansion under Democratic Governor terminating coverage for those benefi- ple into the workforce, adding that “more Mike Beebe, making it an outlier among ciaries will save the state money. Under than 1,000 Arkansas Works enrollees have Southern states. Arkansas’s unusual approach to Medicaid found employment” allegedly due to the Now, he said, “I see us leading in the expansion, beneficiaries are provided with mandate. He cited the story of a woman opposite direction.” private insurance plans (sold by carriers on in Harrison who received notice of the The coverage losses reported in Septemthe individual marketplace, such as Arkan- requirement, sought assistance at an Arkan- ber are almost certain to multiply, in part sas Blue Cross and Blue Shield), and the sas Workforce Center and is now enrolled because the DHS is rolling out the requireMedicaid program pays their premium and in school to become a licensed practical ment gradually. In June, a first cohort of other cost-sharing. The average monthly nurse while working one day per week. about 27,000 beneficiaries became subject premium is about $570. (Educational hours also satisfy the terms to the mandate. Of that group, about one in “In this instance, 4,350 times the $570 of the mandate.) six did not report 80 hours of work activiper month insurance cost results in a $30 “I think there are a great deal of success ties for June, July and August, resulting in million cost to the taxpayers to maintain,” stories,” he said. However, because most their termination this month. If a similar 10

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

DEFENDING THE WORK REQUIREMENT: Governor Hutchinson with Daryl Bassett, director of Arkansas Workforce Services.

ratio should hold true for the entire 167,000 eventually subject to the requirement, tens of thousands could lose Medicaid in the months ahead. “A pretty significant portion of the population has now lost coverage, when you look at the number of people who are required to report,” Marquita Little, health policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, said. “We know that number is going to continue to increase as the state phases in the work requirement.” The DHS has sent a letter to those individuals who recently lost coverage informing them that they are locked out of Arkansas Works until the end of the year. If they failed to report due to “an emergency or serious life-changing event” or due to a technical error — the DHS reporting portal has experienced problems recently — they may still request a “good cause” exemption from the agency. Otherwise, unless they now qualify for another Medicaid category or assistance on the individual insurance marketplace, they have no obvious insurance coverage options. For those who have newly joined the ranks of the uninsured, the letter suggests they visit a community clinic

Tune in to our “Week In Review” podcast each Friday. Available on iTunes & arktimes.com

or a federally qualified health center to seek medical care. Little said that was not a sufficient solution. “I think our health care system has changed significantly in response to Medicaid expansion,” she said. “The charity care system is not what it once was. I worry about a large group of people becoming uninsured and that system being unable to absorb an increase in the number of people they’re serving. “If one of the main issues is that people aren’t receiving the information about it — if they’re not getting the mail or if they don’t understand the notices — continuing to do that probably won’t be effective.” Meanwhile, the Arkansas work requirement remains the subject of a federal lawsuit seeking to halt its implementation. The plaintiffs, who are three Arkansas Works beneficiaries, say the state is attempting to undermine the goals of the Medicaid expansion by throwing up roadblocks to coverage; they say the Trump administration erred in approving a waiver that allowed Arkansas to proceed with its plan. Earlier this year, a similar suit in Kentucky succeeded in blocking that state’s work requirement program before it got off the ground. But Hutchinson says the work requirement will only improve the Arkansas Works program. At his Sept. 12 press conference, the governor said the requirement represents a “proper balance of those values that we hold important to us in Arkansas.” He reiterated his support for Arkansas Works as a whole and noted that he has defended it from fellow Republicans who have sought to defund the program. “I fought hard to maintain Arkansas Works, despite odds against it, despite enormous criticism,” Hutchinson said. “Compassion and common sense says this is a good program for those that are trying to move up the economic ladder and to better themselves. It’s also about providing assistance to those who need it. And it is also about the value of work and responsibility.” This reporting is made possible in part by a yearlong fellowship sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists and supported by The Commonwealth Fund. It is published here courtesy of the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, an independent, nonpartisan project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans. Find out more at arknews.org.

THE

Inconsequential News Quiz:

BIG Snitches Get PICTURE

Stitches Edition

Play at home, while imagining Mike Huckabee in his most form-fitting Speedo. 1) Jerald Deral Jones, 30, a criminal defendant on trial in Miller County on charges of robbery and false imprisonment, didn’t even make it through his recent trial before catching another charge. According to investigators, what did Jones do that got him arrested again DURING his trial? A) After firing his attorney, he showed up for court in a seersucker suit, telling the jury he planned to “Matlock that shit.”

B) He hired a stealthy day laborer to repeatedly lift the judge’s robe with a leaf blower, replicating the famous scene from “The Seven Year Itch.”

C) He allegedly attempted to intimidate one of the just-

selected jurors, with investigators saying he followed the man to his car and delivered an apparent warning about snitching, which landed Jones a whole new charge of jury tampering.

D) He put the SYSTEM on trial, man.

2) Mike Huckabee is, unfortunately, back in the news after advocating for a law that would make the beach in front of his $3 million mansion in Santa Rosa, Fla. private property instead of allowing public access up to the high tide line, as has long been the rule. Which of the following is part of the Huckster’s argument for making the beach in front of his palatial manse a Huckonly stretch of sand? A) Huckabee’s sons are timid and easily startled

creatures, and need the beach undisturbed so they can lay their eggs by moonlight, cover the nests with their flippers, then disappear back into the sea.

B) He’s had to pick up dog poop, plastic wrappers and used condoms from the beach.

C) The sight of Mike and Janet in their swimwear

has already permanently blinded four unsuspecting tourists.

D) Every time Mike tries to tell a passerby on the

beach one of his jokes, the person rushes into the waves and drowns himself.

3) Vice President Mike Pence will be in Little Rock on Sept. 21. Why is Pence coming to town? A) A cover shoot for the October issue of Distinguished White Asshole magazine. B) Not to put on a fake mustache and guiltily haunt the city’s seedier gay bars, no matter what you may have heard. C) To stump for Republican U.S. Rep. French Hill. D) Donald Trump’s bowels are expected to reach critical mass during that morning’s round of Twitter on the Shitter, and the Secret Service wants Pence outside the projected blast radius.

4) Recently, the website Wallethub.com posted the results of a study that crunched 31 key metrics — including the overall depression rate, income and job data, and the perceived level of life satisfaction as seen in polling — and the results revealed something interesting about Arkansas. What did the study reveal? A) One in four Arkansans dies from eating a contaminated funnel cake. B) Annually, the residents of Rose City drink three times as much vodka as they do water. C) Arkansas is reportedly the 49th unhappiest state in America with only West Virginia being more bummed. D) That Arkansas residents should really be more optimistic because, statistically, it can’t really get much worse than this. 5) From the “You Win Some, You Lose Some” file, something weird happened to Tyson Foods executive Noel White on the same day the company announced he was being promoted to the position of president and CEO of the giant corporation. What happened? A) His every waking moment is now haunted by millions of silent, glowing-eyed chickens only he can see. B) The president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals challenged him to a loser-quits wrasslin’ cage match. C) His house caught on fire, requiring the assistance from the Fayetteville and Tontitown fire departments to extinguish the blaze.

D) The super-secret recipe for Chicken McNuggets was revealed to him, and, after 30 straight minutes of vomiting and dry-heaving, he announced he was going vegan. Answers: C, B, C, C, C

LISTEN UP

arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF PROFILES OF LITTLE ROCK MAYORAL CANDIDATES.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSASâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

BRIDGE BUILDER

Frank Scott Jr. wants to close the gap on a Little Rock divided by race and class. He’s also a proponent of 30 Crossing, the bridge expansion project that has split the mayoral field.

BY LINDSEY MILLAR

rank Scott Jr. often reminds voters that he was “born, raised and still resides in Southwest Little Rock.” A banker, pastor, former Arkansas Highway Commissioner and former senior policy adviser to Gov. Mike Beebe, Scott, at 34, is the youngest candidate in the five-man race to become the next Little Rock mayor. That he’s amassed an impressive resume at such a young age and is widely considered to be one of the top three mayoral contenders, along with Baker Kurrus and Warwick Sabin, owes to hard work, yes. But Scott says it’s also especially because he was “blessed” with opportunities at certain crucial points in his life.

“You look at a lot of folks I grew up with who are either dead or in jail or not on the right path. I could’ve been just like them. That’s something that sits with me. I don’t forget where I come from, hence the reason why I haven’t left where I come from.” As vice president at First Security Bank, Scott’s daily commute takes him from his home off Chicot Road in Southwest Little Rock, along Interstate 430 and through the still bustling development of the western stretch of Cantrell Road to the bank’s Little Rock headquarters at Ranch Drive. Scott says the drive is a daily reminder of Little Rock’s inequities. “We still have deep-seated racial issues in our city that have not been effectively addressed because we haven’t had a leader that truly understands all aspects of the city. We haven’t had a leader that can build bridges in the city.”

Scott’s longtime friend state House Minority Leader and Rep. Charles Blake (D-Little Rock) said Scott has a background that’s unique among the field. “There’s a different scope when you’ve grown up in a system, benefited from the system and seen how it’s hurt you, and know how city government works, how politics works, how south and north of I-630 work.” Scott points to economic development and diversity and inclusion as areas he’s particularly qualified to address. In some ways, for Scott, those are two sides of the same coin. “This city represents close to 50 percent black and brown brothers and sisters,” he said. “When you look into the highest levels of business and commerce, it doesn’t reflect that, particularly in leadership and management positions. A number of cities in the South have made greater strides in terms of diversity in the marketplace: Birming-

PUSHING FOR A UNIFIED CITY: Frank Scott Jr. grew up in Southwest Little Rock, but also spent a lot of time at his grandmother’s house on Wolfe Street. arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

BRIAN CHILSON

A POLICY WONK: That’s how former Gov. Mike Beebe describes Scott, who now works as a banker and an associate pastor.

ham, Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas and Memphis.” As mayor, he says he’ll be “chief growth officer” for the city. “The mayor has to make certain the city of Little Rock becomes a businessfriendly city.” He sees his clients getting businesses going or deals done in Northwest Arkansas in two to three weeks, whereas it often takes two to three months for his clients in Little Rock to make similar projects happen. He says if elected he’ll form a red tape commission to try to eliminate impediments to growth. Little Rock needs to do more to grow its own and take care of existing business owners, according to Scott, but it also should do a better job recruiting. He plans to aggressively target small to mid-sized companies with headquarters in cities with direct flights to and from Little Rock. Some critics have wondered if Scott, because of his banking career and connections from his time on the Highway Commission, might be too in thrall to establishment business interests and the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. “I’m going to be very blunt,” Scott said in responding to that assessment. “I’m going to be the chief 14

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

growth officer. I’m going to lead on economic development. I’ll be the driver and the chamber will be in the passenger seat.” As for being too connected with business interests, Scott said he’d be a candidate of the people. He’s similarly blunt when asked whether he would like to see Little Rock become a “strong mayor” city, where the duties of the city manager become the mayor’s. “I’m running for mayor for the existing form of government,” he said. “I’ll be the CEO. I’ll look at the city manager as a COO. I think it’s the mayor’s job to cast a vision for the city, … create a legislative agenda for the city and work with my COO and the city board to make sure we pass things … and implement it with agency staff. I’m not running to cut anybody’s ribbons.” *** Scott credits his mother, Brenda, for making sure he got the most of his educational opportunities. He remembers her waking at 4 a.m. to wait in line to apply for him to attend Horace Mann, then a magnet junior high, and later making sure that he applied to attend Parkview Arts and Sciences Magnet High School.

Scott kept up with his studies, played tight end and defensive end in football and studied modern dance and ballet in junior high and high school. He said he was drawn to dance when he heard football stars of the day like Ki-Jana Carter and Rashaan Salaam had taken classes to help them with their footwork, but, “I also realized I’d get to hang out with more women,” he said with a laugh. He namedrops famed dancers Vaslav Nijinsky and Isadora Duncan and says he’s still got a plié and fondu in him and remembers ballet’s first, second and third positions, but he’s yet to demonstrate them on the campaign trail. At 14 years old, Brenda gave birth to Frank Jr.’s older sister. Frank Jr. came along six years later. To support the family, while the couple were still teenagers, Frank Sr. unloaded boxes at Safeway and Brenda worked as a secretary. Frank Sr. went on to become a longtime Little Rock firefighter; he retired a few years back. Because Brenda had to provide for the family during and after she attended high school and wasn’t able to continue her education, Scott said his “mother made damn certain that I went to college.”

He attended the University of Memphis and majored in business. While there, he volunteered for prominent local Democrats like U.S. Rep. Harold Flowers Jr. and pioneering state Rep. Lois DeBerry. During his senior year, his classmates voted him Mr. University of Memphis, an honor given to outstanding campus leaders. Scott was the first person in his family to graduate from college. After graduation, he managed a Target distribution center in Maumelle and, when he began supervising the weekend shift, his schedule allowed him to become a fulltime volunteer on Mike Beebe’s ultimately successful first campaign for governor in 2006. After the election, Scott joined the Beebe administration as a policy adviser, eventually becoming a senior policy adviser and director of intergovernmental affairs. Kurrus and Sabin have often been identified in the race as the policyminded candidates. Scott may not talk about it as much in his campaign, but he was a policy wonk during his time in government, working on infrastructure issues and what became the private option, Arkansas’s initial unique version of Medicaid expansion, Beebe said.

“He could delve deeply into an issue and dissect it and point out the pros and cons and potential pitfalls,” the former governor said. “And he had the ability to look forward and around the corner … at what might be the next issue that some policy would suggest. He was a deep thinker, but he was also pragmatic.” At night during his time working in the Beebe administration, Scott got his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He left the governor’s office in 2012 to become a vice president at First Security Bank, where he focuses on commercial lending and strategic development. In 2013, Beebe appointed Scott to the Highway Commission to finish the term of John Burkhalter, who resigned to run for lieutenant governor. Scott was 29, which made him one of the youngest appointees to the highway commission — and also one of the few black appointees. Scott hadn’t helped bankroll Beebe’s campaigns, either; highway commission appointments traditionally have gone to major political supporters. “He didn’t fit the mold of highway commissioners, but that didn’t bother me because I understood how smart he was,” Beebe said, adding that he’d been pleased with Scott’s tenure on the commission, which ended in January 2017. But Scott has taken plenty of flak from others for one vote in particular during his time on the commission: his support of the 30 Crossing project that will replace and dramatically expand the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River and reroute traffic through downtown Little Rock. Scott said it was important to him, when considering whether to support the project, to know that it wouldn’t adversely or disproportionately affect minority communities in the East End and Hanger Hill. “Being a son of a mother who walked the Ninth Street corridor as a young kid, I know the history and past of 630,” Scott said, alluding to the I-630 project decimating a once-thriving center of culture and commerce for African Americans in Little Rock. “When I was figuring out whether I’d support 30 Crossing, I wanted to make sure 30 Crossing was not 630,” Scott said. Satisfied that it would not be, he pushed to make sure that the public had ample opportunity to weigh in. Those public comment

sessions helped improve the plan, he said. “The original project was not good at all. The current project, after a number of iterations, is it perfect? No. Is it good? Yeah.” Scott said 30 Crossing was necessary to keep the 125,000 people who travel the corridor every day safe. “We don’t want to be Minnesota,” he said, referring to the 2007 collapse of the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River, which killed 13 people and injured 145. As to another form of public safety that’s captured more attention in

the mayoral race, Scott said crime in Little Rock isn’t a disease, but rather a symptom of the city not addressing poverty and education. While he’s glad to see the department make strides in filling vacancies, he said the city would need to work hard to fill those positions that, through general attrition and retirement, were likely to come open in the next years. He wants the force to be fully staffed in order to create a culture of community policing, in which officers aren’t just patrolling in their cars, but also on foot. Asked if investiga-

tive stops, which earlier in the year had become a favored tactic of the Little Rock Police Department, constituted community policing, Scott said, “Heck, no. Community policing is getting out of your car and saying, ‘Hi, how’re you doing?’ ” LRPD officials have described investigative stops as community policing in the past. “I’ve got a suit and tie on today,” Scott said. “When I have some [Air Jordan sneakers] and jeans and my LR hat on, and I’m downtown for CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

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Jeff Horton

• W W W. B O S W E L L M O U R O T. C O M arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

DOMINIQUE DE LEON

HOT SPRINGS CONVENTION CENTER, 134 CONVENTION BLVD.

WELCOME TO THE SPA CITY

HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, ARKANSAS. 21, 13, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1, 1…and the countdown is over! Spa-Con is here! Its Golden Spiral will waft us away on fierce and foxy, clouds in my Coffy, patterns, poetry, visual extravaganza and lateral thinking stretching all the way from Sanskrit to Tool and from Marvel to DC. Ah me…enough about Fibonacci and waxing mathematic, comically speaking. It cannot be overstated, if you’re a veteran Spa-Con goer, you know we’re not an overly serious lot but we are seriously honored that you’ve come back again for Year 3! If it’s your first time with us: Wilkomen, Bienvenue, WELCOME! This year it seems we, ever vigilant, are vastly concerned that our fans and guests have fun and feel safe. We sort of think of ourselves as a next-generation convention. As such, we’d like to invite you to stop any Spa-Con Control member that you spot and let them know what we’re getting right and that which you think we can improve. We’re fond of feedback and your opinions matter to us. Tell us what you think about your experience. As ever, we thank you, so much, for coming and spending time with us. We hope you enjoy the Spa-Con convention and enjoy Hot Springs National Park. Evolutionarily yours, Red M, and all of us here at “Spa-Con Control” PS: We hope you’ll keep judging characters by their character, aiming to misbehave, never fearing an occasional wrong turn and running screaming to come to next year’s convention, September 20-22, 2019. If you “don’t want to go to bed yet [because] it’s still dark out,” consider hanging out with us for a bit! And remember, you “can’t keep track of [someone] when [they’re] incorporeally possessing a spaceship. Don’t look at me.”

TICKETS

$35 Weekend Pass • $20 One Day Pass $10 Expo Only Pass • $125 VIP Pass Kids 12 and under free Garland County Library Card holders free access to Expo Hall www.spa-con.org ISSUE DATE, 2011 • PUB TITLE 2 16 SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 ARKANSAS TIMES

NIGHTINGALE VIXEN

FRIDAY, SEPT. 21, 2018 4:00PM

Registration opens – Hot Springs Convention Center, Grand Lobby ARTEMIS Spaceship Bridge Simulator opens – Room 203 A Narrow Escape room opens – Grand Lobby Virtual Reality Lab opens – Room 205 RPG Gaming opens - Rooms 104, 105 & 102 Laser Tag opens – Bank OZK Arena Note: Expo Hall does not open until Saturday at 10AM.

NORMAN REEDESQUE

10:30AM Make Your Own Dice Bag - Leatherworking with Beastman Caravan – Room 207

11:00AM Drawing Comics from an Arkansan’s Perspective – Room 202 Pokemon Tournament registration – Expo Hall NHECM presents: Harry Potter Wildlife – Expo Stage

11:30

5:00PM

Star Wars Origami – Kid-Con

Tri-Lakes CASA Superhero Run packet pick-up – Grand Lobby

12NOON

7:00PM

OPENING CEREMONY & FROGGY FRESH CONCERT – HORNER HALL

8:30PM Midnight Madness begins – Horner Hall VIP After-Party – Will’s Cinnamon Shop, 1001 Central Avenue

SATURDAY, SEPT. 22, 2018 8:00AM

Tri-Lakes CASA Superhero Run packet pick-up – Grand Lobby

9:30AM Tri-Lakes CASA Superhero Run begins – Convention Blvd.

10:00AM

Spa-Con Showdown Smash Bros Video Game Tournament begins – Bank OZK Arena Pam Grier: From Quentin Tarantino to Jack Hill, 50 years of the baddest one-chick hit-squad! – Room 208 Helmet Fabrication with Nightingale Vixen & Dominique de Leon – Room 207 Maxwell Blade presents 10 Minutes of Magic! - Expo Stage Harry Potter Sorting Hat – Expo Stage (12:15 start) Pokemon Tournament begins – Expo Hall

1:00PM Photo Session with Pam Grier – Room 201 RPG Game Mastering 101 w/ Ross Watson, Jonathan Westmoreland, Tony Dutra & Brendan LaSalle – Room 202 Kids Cosplay Showcase – Expo Stage

Registration opens – Hot Springs Convention Center, Grand Lobby Expo Hall opens – Hall A, B, C, D. (10AM – 7PM) A Narrow Escape room opens – Grand Lobby ARTEMIS Spaceship Bridge Simulator opens – Room 203 Virtual Reality Lab opens – Room 205 RPG Gaming opens - Rooms 104, 105 & 102 Kid-Con opens, activities all day – Expo Hall Party Gaming opens – Room 103 War Gaming opens – Plaza Lobby Laser Tag Arena opens – Expo Hall Spa-Con Showdown Video Game Free Play Session – Bank OZK Arena

1:30PM

10:15AM

Imperial Gladiators Stormtrooper Competition with the 501st Legion - Expo Stage

Tri-Lakes CASA Superhero Run Awards Ceremony – Expo Hall Stage

VERONICA TAYLOR

TIMOTHY LIM

YouTube – How to Become a Sensation! Featuring Froggy Fresh & Money Maker Mike – Room 208 Pokemon Stress Balls – Kid-Con

2:00 PM Meet & Greet with Pam Grier – VIP Lounge R.A. Mihailoff, aka, Leatherface III autograph signing – Expo Hall Michael Berryman autograph signing – Expo Hall Engineer Your Own Light Saber w/Mid America Science Museum – Kid Con

2:30 PM

SEAN MAHER

SPA-CON TO HOST MAINSTREAM CINEMA‚S FIRST HEADLINING, FEMALE ACTION STAR

PAM GRIER BY O.M. CALLETT

ARVELL JONES

DRAGULA

3:00 PM Butch Patrick: All about Eddie Munster and His Hot Rod Cars! – Room 202 Cut and Paste: An In-Depth Hands-On Collage Workshop with Sonny Kay – Room 207 Princess Storytime with Ginny Di and Nightingale Vixen – Expo Stage

4:00 PM Extreme Costumes: How to Build and Walk in a 12-Foot Tall Robot Cosplay – Room 208 LEGO Challenge – Kid-Con Cosplay Wig Design with NipahDUBS – Room 202

4:30PM NHECM presents: Harry Potter Wildlife – Expo Stage

GUSTAV CARLSON Teen Cosplay Showcase - Expo Stage. How to Make School Fun with the HSU Legion of Nerds - Room 202 Kids RPG Gaming – Kid-Con

11:30AM Harry Potter Sorting Hat – Expo Stage

12NOON Sean Maher: Life Onboard The Serenity – Room 208 Howlpop Presents – Tales of a Tailcoat Workshop – Room 207 Green Screen Photos – Kid-Con

12:30PM Blast-a-Trooper with the 501st Legion - Expo Stage

1:00PM

5:00 PM

Let’s Write a Parody with Ginny Di – Room 202 Sean Maher photo session – Room 201

Armor Construction with the 501st Legion – Room 202 Kids RPG Gaming – Kid-Con

1:30PM

7:00PM

THE COSPLAY CLUB & CONTEST (AGES 18 & OLDER) –HORNER HALL Teen Cosplay Party (ages 12-17) – Room 209

10:00PM VIP After-Party - Core Brewing, 833 Central Avenue (21+)

SUNDAY, SEPT. 23, 2018 10:00AM

Registration opens – Hot Springs Convention Center, Grand Lobby Expo Hall opens – Hall A, B, C, D. (10AM – 4PM) A Narrow Escape room opens – Grand Lobby ARTEMIS Spaceship Bridge Simulator opens – Room 203 Virtual Reality Lab opens – Room 205 RPG Gaming opens - Rooms 104, 105 & 102 Kid-Con opens, activities all day. Perler Beads – Kid-Con Party Gaming opens – Room 103 War Gaming opens – Plaza Lobby Laser Tag Arena opens – Expo Hall Spa-Con ShowdownVideo Game Free Play Session – Bank OZK Arena

Kids Cosplay Showcase – Expo Stage

2:00PM Veronica Taylor: The Voices of Pokemon and More – Room 208 The Walking Dead Experience w/ Negan Unchained & Norman Reedesque – Room 202 Harry Potter Carnival Games – Kid-Con Meet and Greet with Sean Maher – VIP Lounge R.A. Mihailoff, aka, Leatherface III autograph signing – Expo Hall Michael Berryman autograph signing – Expo Hall

2:30PM Comics Drawing Workshop with David Lasky – Room 207 Live RPG Gaming - Expo Stage

3:00PM How to Become a Member of the 501st Legion – Room 202 Why Do We Love Japanese Popular Culture? with Dr. Bill Tsutsui – Room 208

4:00PM

THE SPACADEMY AWARDS!! – HORNER HALL

5:00PM

10:30AM Shrinky-Dinks with Emergent Arts – Kid-Con

VIP After-Party - Bubba Brews, 528 Central Avenue

11:00AM

SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

Retro Video Gaming – Bank OZK Arena

BUTCH PATRICK

MICHAEL BERRYMAN

BLAXPLOITATION—it’s arguably a good thing that the seventies saw this sub-genre of film bringing more people of color onto the big screen. In this day and time, it feels a bit like a cheat for me to have to tell you, Pam Grier is a black actress, who paved the way for ladies of action, for years to come. I’d rather just tell you she was and is a GREAT actress, who made a much wider space for women on the screen. Why does it matter what her color is? Because, it does—in this day and time to pretend otherwise is to open oneself up to being deemed either sadly uninformed or chronically, willingly blind. That, and let’s just admit shall we, that anyone billed as “the Godmother of them all…the baddest, one-chick, hit squad that ever hit town” has to be pretty amazing.

NEGAN UNCHAINED

Pam has said she’s proud of ALL her work from Jack Hill’s Foxy Brown all the way to Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. She speaks of the seventies as a woman’s movement that worked to sell women’s equality not its domination. In other words, she wanted what all women want, parity above the level of livestock. It would seem that: Emmy nominated, SAG award nominated, Satellite Award nominated, and Golden Globe Award nominated, Ms. Grier, helped all women make strides in that direction by being seen and being seen as her true self—she’s a female action hero with some serious acting chops honed over a lot of years on both stage and screen. Spa-Con is thrilled to have Ms. Grier grace them with her presence. She’s more than a role model of whom women of all colors can be proud, she stands for something bigger. She stands for standing up. How timely in these years to have the opportunity to meet a woman who, by her actions and life, supports other women and the men who rally beside them. Spa-Con is Fandom Convention in its third year. This multi-genre entertainment and comic convention promises something for everyone who enjoys getting their Geek on. It’s not just comic books and sci-fi/fantasy-related film and television, this convention includes pop culture and entertainment elements spanning virtually all genres. PUB TITLE • ISSUE DATE, 2011 3 arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 17

11 2 8 5 AM AM PM PM 4 CHANCES EVERY WEEKDAY 1 KEYWORD COULD GET YOU $1,000 18

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSASâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;TIMES

LISTEN TEXT & WIN

brunch on the weekend, I may be treated differently [by police if I’m stopped]. We have to have a police force that understands Little Rock and its identity and understands the need for implicit bias training and de-escalation techniques training.” Scott also said he would advocate for the creation of a review committee independent from the police force to consider allegations of police misconduct and police-involved shootings. Mayor Mark Stodola and the Little Rock Board of Directors have come under fire for not advocating more forcefully for the Little Rock School District. “Within city leadership, we should no longer be silent on educational issues,” Scott said. He said he would push to get the Little Rock School District back under local control, adding that once that happened, he would be involved in recruiting candidates to make sure the school board was as strong as it could be. Last week Scott rolled out an Opportunity Agenda for education. “What I’ve learned as a banker, the only way you can only have influence over something you don’t own is by becoming a strategic investor,” he said. To that end, he’s proposing that the city fund a summer reading academy to focus on gradelevel reading. It would work in partnership with the LRSD, the Central Arkansas Library System and the Arkansas Campaign for GradeLevel Reading. “We know that if a child isn’t able to read by the time they’re in third grade, we’re gonna lose them to the streets,” he said. The agenda also includes plans to establish a chief education officer to serve as a liaison between the city and the LRSD and focusing on truancy, which has become rampant in some LRSD schools. Asked about charter schools, Scott said it was clear they had an “effect on the LRSD,” but said they were a state issue. “As a mayor, I have to make sure that all schools are positive and there’s no segregation. I don’t have a problem with charter schools … until they start to cherry-pick.” *** Scott was in his 20s and working in the Beebe administration before he ventured into the Hillcrest neighborhood. A co-worker said, “Let’s meet after work on Kavanaugh” and Scott remembers, saying to himself,

“‘Where’s Kavanaugh?’ I grew up never going north of Park Plaza Mall.” That sort of geographic isolation often tracks with race and poverty, but Scott noted that the growing West Little Rock population is increasing its diversity, but its residents are often reluctant to go downtown. He thinks a reimagined War Memorial Park could “serve as a bridge-builder for the city.” He’s in favor of repurposing the golf course from 18 holes to nine and building Little Rock’s version of Central Park, possibly with a youth sports complex included.

If there’s a central theme to Scott’s campaign it’s that he’s the person who can unify Little Rock. “We’ve got all these issues before the city, but if we don’t start making significant strides from being disconnected to connected, nothing else matters. That’s my why. I’ve got policy for days. I’m a policy wonk. I can give you all those answers.” But Scott said the city has to be healed first. When he gets on a roll, it’s easy to imagine Scott delivering a sermon. He’s an associate pastor and lifelong

member of the Greater Second Baptist Church. He preaches at Greater Second Baptist at least once a month and every two months at the Department of Correction’s Tucker Max unit. Because of that background, some have wondered if his notion of equality would extend to LGBT issues. “I’m running to unify the city,” Scott said in response. “That doesn’t only include race or culture; it includes sexual orientation and gender identity. In Little Rock, you have to have one city … and I’ll be a staunch supporter for equality.”

Unneeded, broken or obsolete. If it’s electronic, unplug it and drop it off. We’ll recycle it for FREE! Tuesday, September 25, and Wednesday, September 26 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Verizon Arena VIP Parking Lot North Little Rock Do the right thing and bring the right stuff. For a list of acceptable electronics, go to:

RecyclingUnplugged.com

Electronics Recycling Unplugged is a FREE drop-off collection for individuals, residences, businesses, non-profits, churches, governments, and schools, living and doing business in Pulaski County. Electronics Recycling Unplugged is a public service of the Regional Recycling & Waste Reduction District in Pulaski County. 501-340-8787 • regionalrecycling.org arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Arts Entertainment AND

I’D SING IT LOUD

A Q&A with poet Andrea Hollander.

oetry takes on many voices, not all of them the voice of the poet. Andrea Hollander’s poetry, contained in several volumes for the last three decades or so, is written unapologetically from her own natural voice. Often, mundane objects and situations cast a dark shadow of her grief — a shadow that, as we are led along, reveals itself to be more like a penumbra, casting the subtle light of recovery. Hollander was born in Berlin and lives in Portland, Ore., but spent a good deal of her life in Stone County. In “Arkansas to Oregon” — a poem from Hollander’s newest collection, “Blue Mistaken for Sky” — there is a sentiment central to Hollander’s entire body of work: “I’d sing it loud/as if every word was mine.” This is poetry of movement and migration — geographical, syntactical and emotional.

It is an interesting continuity — the way one’s life can unfold serially through a sequence of memories. Could you explain what you mean by “memoir poem?” I have an idea of what you mean by the form, but why, then, write autobiographically in a poem as opposed to a sustained book of prose? The narrative-lyric poems in this collection, if read from first poem to 20

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

There seems to be a lot of grief over the breakdown of relationships in these poems, yet some semblance of resolution in the form of epiphany. Often that grief and those epiphanies are brought about through the sensual detail you find in ordinary objects. Could you discuss the relationship you have to objects and your memory? Yes, reviewers of my four previous full-length poetry collections have also noticed the epiphanic nature of my work. I believe that a poem is an act of discovery and that such discovery occurs mainly through the senses. This is also the way memory is evoked: We walk through an unfamiliar neighborhood, for example, and spot a mimosa tree in someone’s yard; immediately we are reminded of a childhood visit to a beloved relative who had such a tree in her yard.

BROOKE BUDY

Your new book is called “Blue Mistaken for Sky.” What was the preparation for it? How long did it take to write? Because I write mostly what could be called memoir poems, one book unfolds from the previous one. I began to draft poems for “Blue Mistaken for Sky” in the fall of 2012, after the manuscript for my previous collection, “Landscape with Female Figure: New & Selected Poems, 19822012” (Autumn House Press, 2013), went to press. I suppose the new book took about five-and-a-half years to complete.

BY JACKSON MEAZLE

its neighbors. But placed alongside them in a carefully arranged sequence, I explore the nuance and complications of feeling over time.

A MOMENT OF OBJECTIVITY: Andrea Hollander’s newest collection, “Blue Mistaken for Sky,” uncovers what she calls “a personal experience, namely that of being the victim of marital betrayal.”

last, trace the journey of a personal experience, namely that of being the victim of marital betrayal. An examination of this kind of loss ignites the memory of other losses. By the time the book comes to a close, the reader has journeyed with the poet-speaker to a place of acceptance and healing.

As to your question about my not writing “a sustained book of prose,” I am a poet, first of all. This is my medium. It is the way I explore experience and the way I hope to evoke such experience in readers. In this book, it is my intention that each poem be able to stand alone without

One inventive poem early on in the sequence is “As If Written by the Other Woman.” I like the “as if” in the title. It invokes you attempting to see your own grief from the other side of adultery, seeing pain from the “near” opposite perspective. It’s kind of an early revelation for the whole book, or at least it was for me. Could you talk about this poem’s place in the sequence? Galway Kinnell has said that for him, “poetry is somebody standing up and saying with as little concealment as possible what it is for him or her to be on earth at this moment.” For me, the most important part of his statement is “with as little concealment as possible.” I wrote “As If Written by the Other Woman” in order to put myself in the place of one of the other women in my ex’s life, to try to empathize with her. What surprised me when I drafted the poem was how much compassion that other voice has, CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

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

A&E NEWS “Karate Kid” Ralph Macchio has been named the Grand Marshal of the 2019 Hot Springs’ World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Since its inception in 2003, the parade has grown in popularity, but not in length: Its claim to fame is its tiny route — the 98-foot length of Bridge Street in historic downtown Hot Springs. The 2019 parade takes place Sunday, March 17. The History Channel’s “American Pickers” is looking to pick in Arkansas; private collectors (“no stores, malls, flea markets, museums, auctions, businesses or anything open to the public,” the announcement reads) are encouraged to call 1-855-OLD-RUST or email americanpickers@cineflix.com with their story. Nominations are open for the Arkansas Arts Council’s 2019 Arkansas Living Treasure Award, through Nov. 16. The Award is bestowed annually to an individual who “excels in the creation of a traditional craft and who preserves and advances his or her craft through community outreach and by teaching others,” according to a news release. “Preserving our state’s traditional crafts and recognizing their importance to our culture is essential to building and maintaining a creative economy in Arkansas,” AAC Executive Director Patrick Ralston said. “In the past, we’ve recognized artists from sculptors to luthiers.” See the “Programs” link at arkansasarts.org for more. The Arkansas Chamber Singers have announced a new season, with works by Britten, Purcell, Emerson, Dan Forrest and Martin Shaw on the program for a fall concert, 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, at The Cathedral of St. Andrew and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 7, at Calvary Baptist Church. A free holiday concert goes up for three performances at the Old State House Museum, Dec. 7-9; and on March 14, the ensemble performs Haydn’s “Creation Mass,” 7:30 p.m., St. James United Methodist Church. See archambersingers.org for more. New quarter-century, new name: The Little Rock Wind Symphony, in its 25th anniversary season, is changing its name to Little Rock Winds. Under the direction of Conductor Israel Getzov, Little Rock Winds kicks off the year with a Bernstein Birthday Bash, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, at Second Presbyterian Church. See lrwinds.org for more.

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THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

FRIDAY 9/21

THIRD FRIDAY ARGENTA ART NIGHT

THURSDAY 9/20

5 p.m. Various galleries, Argenta Arts District. Free.

MALCOLM HOLCOMBE

8:30 p.m. White Water Tavern. $10.

as the album’s through line. His sanguine lens tints the ominous footsteps of a soldier’s march (“Black Bitter Moon”) the same hue as it paints leftover fried chicken on Christmas morning (“Merry Christmas”). If you haven’t given it a spin following its Sept. 14 release, consider foregoing it until you see Holcombe live. Dude’s delivery is an exercise in teetering at the edge of a precipice; his chair wobbles on two legs as he rocks backward, his guttural mumble-turnedyowl having gripped this listener so firmly during a previous Little Rock stop that she barely had the wherewithal to notice he’s a fingerstyle virtuoso. Dana Louise opens the show.

BRIAN CHILSON

It’s hard to ignore the poignancy here. The release for an album called “Come Hell or High Water” from Malcolm Holcombe — a sage whose North Carolina homeplace is triangulated in the space between the Great Smoky Mountains and the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests — comes amid that region’s reckoning with Hurricane Florence’s grim, water-logged aftermath. Holcombe’s “Come Hell or High Water” grapples with those same ideas of human catastrophe, self-imposed and otherwise. And, sweetened as it is by assists from Arkansan Iris Dement and her husband/collaborator Greg Brown, it’s Holcombe’s austere, gruff resignation that acts

‘AMBIENT ANIMAL’: Princeaus performs at Maxine’s in Hot Springs with the Fayetteville-based Crash Blossom and the Luxemburg Trio.

Thea Foundation’s Arts Reconstruction program, which lends professional development and advanced arts materials to local visual arts teachers, celebrates with a 5 p.m. reception for its new joint media group exhibition, “Connections,” with works from teachers across Central Arkansas, up through Sept. 27. The works of Sandra Marson, Charlotte Rierson and Judith Beale is up at the Argenta Branch of Laman Library for “3 Artists, 3 Visions,” 420 Main St. Greg Thompson Fine Art at 429 Main St. continues “The Best of the South,” an annual showcase from artists of note around the region, with works from Carroll Cloar, Dale Nichols, Mark Blaney, Arless Day, William Dunlap, Charles Harrington, Pinkney Herbert, Richard Jolley, Dolores Justus, John Harlan Norris, Sammy Peters, Edward Rice, Kendall Stallings, Glenray Tutor and Donald Roller Wilson. At Argenta Gallery (413 Main), Michael Shaeffer and Andrea Bolen’s fashion-film mash-up, “Fashion and the Moving Image + 1681,” continues, and at 711 Main Street, painter Barry Thomas turns his paintbrush to the Arkansas sunlight’s rays across swaths of earth at Barry Thomas Fine Art & Studio. At 419 Main, Seis Puentes, Argenta Nutrition and The Latino Art Project present a Pop Up Art Shop at Argenta Nutrition, with another Latino Art Project at Core Brewing with “Into the Blue,” a collective study on the color blue, 411 Main Street. And, though Literacy Action of Central Arkansas has sold out of its team entries for The Bee — an adult spelling bee at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub at 201 East Broadway — you can still go and participate in the audience spell-off, 6:30 p.m., $20-$40.

FRIDAY 9/21

CRASH BLOSSOM, LUXEMBURG TRIO, PRINCEAUS

9 p.m. Maxine’s, Hot Springs. $5.

R.E.M.-style harmonies, a frontman with a soaring voice and all the sonic variety Fayetteville’s East Hall Recording has come to be known for: That’s Crash Blossom, and with fellow Fayetteville pop confection Luxemburg Trio, they’re taking Fayettenam to Spa City with this show. They are joined by the ever-evocative Princeaus, a classically trained baker/composer/pianist whose electronic, ethereal work draws as much from Korean folklore as it does the stigmatization of mental illness in America, and whose powerful sense of movement and color is going to look stunning against the glow of red lights at Maxine’s. Go let yourself be mesmerized, for one, by the gorgeous sampler of tracks on Princeaus’ Bandcamp page called “Ambient Animal (teaser)” as soon as you’re anywhere near a set of headphones. 22

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

AT THE SECOND-EVER FRANK STANFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL: John Burcham Erwin, Graham Hamilton, Zach Harrod and Bill Willett lead “It Was a Flood: Frank Stanford’s Life in Film,” a discussion on a forthcoming documentary about the revered Arkansas poet.

IN BRIEF, CONT.

THURSDAY 9/20

FRIDAY 9/21-SATURDAY 9/22

FRANK STANFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL

6 p.m. Fri., 9 a.m. Sat. Various venues, Fayetteville. Free.

Just like there are musicians’ musicians, there are poets’ poets, voices that, for reasons of coincidence or some aggregated aversion to breadth and complexity, are adored by artistic kin, and met by the general public with a resounding “meh” or “tl;dr” Frank Stanford was one of these voices, obscure to most anthology readers even decades after his suicide in 1978 and obscure even still to some. Those to whom he’s not obscure can probably identify with some of what University of Massachusetts Professor of Poetry Dara Wier said about Stanford — an endorsement I encountered when revisiting Matt Henriksen’s 2015 piece on Stanford for the Arkansas Times. “Every year there are two or three poets who discover Frank Stanford’s poems for themselves for the first time. Their work pauses while they take in his powerful registers and his passionate visions. Then their work starts up again, more urgent, more full of brave announcements and address, less fearful and less tentatively distancing.” In a weekend-long “Salud!” to that spirit, Typo Magazine and the Open Mouth Reading Series will host the second-ever Frank Stanford Literary Festival, 10 years after the first one. Photographer Deborah Luster and poet Forrest Gander — both collaborators of the late C.D. Wright — will be featured on Saturday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, alongside panel discussions of Stanford’s work; a preview of John Burcham Erwin and Zach Harrod’s documentary “You: Frank Stanford’s Life in Film”; a late-night reading of C.D. Wright’s “One With Others”; and actor/filmmaker Graham Hamilton in “As A Friend,” a theatrical interpretation of Stanford’s life as seen through the eyes of the eponymous Forrest Gander novel. Friday night programming is a pair of marathon readings: “ ‘With the Approach of the Oak’: An Open Mouth and Typo Reading,” 6-9 p.m., Fenix Gallery, 16 W. Center St.; and “ ‘Let’s Put on a Pot of Coffee and Write All Night’: A Late Night Poetry Reading” at Nightbird Books, 205 W. Dickson St, 10 p.m. See openmouthreadings.com/frank-stanford-fest for a full schedule.

“AfriCOBRA NOW: Respect — Celebrating 50 Years,” curated by Garbo Hearne, honors co-founder Jeff Donaldson and all contributors to the AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) artist collective and, with live music from Afrodesia, kicks off Mosaic Templars Cultural Center’s 10th anniversary festivities with an opening reception, 6 p.m., free. The ACANSA Arts Festival continues with performances from guitarist Laurence Juber at The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse, 7:30 p.m., $25, a cappella group Voiceplay at Pulaski Technical College’s Center for the Humanities and Arts, 8 p.m., $25, The Upright Citizens Brigade at Argenta Community Theater, 7 p.m., $30, and comedian Kevin James Doyle at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre Annex, 9:30 p.m., $20, see acansa.org for a full schedule. Comedian Michael Mack brings “the faces of rock” and other song parodies to The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., $8-$12. MacArthur Museum of Military History hosts Arkie Pub Trivia at Stone’s Throw Brewing, 6:30 p.m. Soul singer Charlotte Taylor takes her sultry voice to the stage at Cajun’s Wharf, 9 p.m., $5. Zoo Brew at the Little Rock Zoo pairs local brews with “Bear Pong,” live music, food trucks and more, 6 p.m., $30-$35. An airplane hangar at Drake Field in Fayetteville is home to three nights of runway shows for Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week, see nwafw. com for details. Elsewhere in Northwest Arkansas, a drumming circle at Springdale’s Turnbow Park kicks off Africa in the Ozarks, a partnership between Arts Center of the Ozarks and Afrique Aya Dance Company to include West African opera “Tradition of the Mask,” see acozarks.org for details. Stuttgart’s Grand Prairie Center hosts a visit from scientist Kevin Delaney, 6:30 p.m. In El Dorado, Charley Crockett performs for Murphy Arts District’s Thursday Night Live series at The Griffin Restaurant, 8 p.m., free. The Gold Show Drag Show struts its stuff at Maxine’s, 9 p.m., $5. The Little Rock Folk Club hosts a show from Claude Bourbon at Hibernia Irish Tavern, 7:30 p.m., $15. The Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa hosts “A Step Back in Time” with torch singer Sylvia Stems, 7:30 p.m.

FRIDAY 9/21 Pianist Tatiana Roitman Mann plays at the New Deal Salon, 2003 S. Louisiana St., as a guest of the ACANSA Arts Festival, 7 p.m., $20, and the first of two performances of “Warriors Don’t Cry,” based on the life of Melba Patillo Beals, goes up at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 7 p.m. Fri., 2 p.m. Sun., $20. Kevin Kerby-fronted barroom rock outfit Mulehead plays a set at Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m., $7. The Rodney Block Collective and vocalist Bijoux perform for an end-of-summer party

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 25 Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

FRIDAY 9/21-SUNDAY 9/23

SPA-CON

4 p.m. Fri., 8 a.m. Sat., 10 a.m. Sun. Hot Springs Convention Center. $10-$25.

For three super-nerdy days, the Spa City is home to all things sci-fi, RPG, cosplay and video games during Spa-Con, kicking what’s already a stellar downtown people-watching opportunity up several levels. Check out our Q&A with Pam Grier on page 28, and see the full schedule at spa-con.org. Grier — action heroine, equestrian and certified badass — is joined by Arvell Jones, founder of the Comic Art Workshop and a comic book artist with a long history at both Marvel and DC Comics; Butch Patrick, best known for his work as TV’s “Eddie Munster”; Sean Maher of Joss Whedon’s “Serenity” and The CW’s “Arrow”; rapper/YouTube star/enigma Froggy Fresh; and voice actress Veronica Taylor, the voice behind an animated April O’Neill on the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series, Ash Ketchum on the Eng-

lish-language adaptation of “Pokemon” and Sailor Pluto on a dub of the “Sailor Moon” series. Comic book and graphic art enthusiasts can chat with artists Byron Buslig, Chad Maupin, David Lasky, Gustav Carlson, Kody Sandwich, Nate Jones, Nikki Dawes, Stacy Bates, Timothy Lim and Yale Stewart, or attend workshops from Low Key Arts Director Sonny Kay, Hendrix College President/ Godzilla expert Bill Tsutsui, Henderson State University Comic Studies Program Director Dr. Randy Duncan, gamer/DJ Courier Coleman, leathersmith Beastman Caravan or game designer Ross Watson. There’s an escape room, a virtual reality lab, laser tag, a wildlife meet-and-greet themed around the creatures of the Harry Potter universe, a visit from The Mystery Machine of “Scooby Doo” note, plus a full panel of cosplay

SUNDAY 9/23

SUNDAY 9/23-WEDNESDAY 9/26

OLIVIA GATWOOD

BANNED BOOKS WEEK FILM SCREENINGS

6 p.m. Kollective Coffee + Tea, Hot Springs. $5.

Were Puddles Pity Party not headed to Little Rock in December, poet/performer/ Title IX Compliance educator Olivia Gatwood might be the most YouTube-famous person to land in Central Arkansas this fall, with slam performances of poems like “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” and “Ode to My Bitch Face” and “When I Say That We Are All Teen Girls” garnering hundreds of thousands of views — and, one can hope, opening a few ears and eyes to the ubiquitous way misogyny pervades our social interactions. Gatwood’s work is deeply — and compellingly — connected to girlhood and womanhood; a poem printed earlier this year by The Missouri Review tackles the way teen girls often find themselves grasping to understand their own worth and sexuality, newly under the male gaze: “ … it didn’t matter if you were a virgin/or not, it mattered how you used it/like currency, a sack of nickels/on the bar top./it was before any of us/believed we were good at anything/so we became good at our bodies,/at talking about them like we were/greyhound bitches, lean & itching/to break through the race.” Gatwood speaks at Kollective Coffee + Tea as a guest of Low Key Arts and Wednesday Night Poetry and will undoubtedly have her latest release, “New American Best Friend,” on hand. According to her website, it “reflects her experiences growing up in both New Mexico and Trinidad, navigating girlhood, puberty, relationships, and period underwear.” Joaquina Mertz opens the show. 24

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

stars — Nightingale Vixen, Nipahdubs, Ginny Di, Dominique de Leon, Negan Unchained, Norman Reedesque and a guy who built a giant, elaborate robot costume for Bumblebee of “Transformers” fame. And, something wicked this way comes from the concurrent Hot Springs Horror Film Festival (see the full schedule at hotspringshorrorfilmfestival.com), which presents Spa-Con visits from Michael Berryman (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Weird Science”) and R.A. Mihailoff (“Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III”). Keep your Health Points bar at full charge with a walk around Bathhouse Row or — if your wallet’s flush like that — with a SpaCon VIP pass, $125, which gets you into afterparties at Core Brewing, Bubba’s Brews and the onsite VIP lounge.

6 p.m. CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

In the name of free and open access to information comes Central Arkansas Library System’s Banned Books Week, an annual event from the American Library Association that puts censorship on notice, highlighting books that have been challenged, banned or bound by restrictions in schools and libraries. Bret Easton Ellis’ “American Psycho” gets a 6 p.m. screening at CALS Ron Robinson Theater on Wednesday, Sept. 26, following a performance from vocalist/guitarist Randall Shreve and a discussion on violence culture and the diagnosis of our antihero Patrick Bateman led by psychotherapist Linda Vanblaricom and film/English scholar Felipe Pruneda Senties. “Carrie” will be screened at Ron Robinson at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, with a preceding prom invitation, 6 p.m., and the Thompson Library (38 Rahling Circle, Little Rock) hosts a Hogwarts-themed party in honor of the 20th anniversary of all Harry Potterdom. Being screened elsewhere around the CALS network of libraries are: “Cujo,” “Bridge to Terabithia,” “James and the Giant Peach,” “Animal Farm,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “The Lorax,” “Where the Wild Things Are,” “The Adventures of Huck Finn,” “The Color Purple,” “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Matilda,” “Lord of the Flies” and the entire “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.” See cals.org/ banned-books-week for a full schedule of events by location.

‘ODE TO MY BITCH FACE’: Slam poet and educator Olivia Gatwood performs at Kollective Coffee + Tea in Hot Springs Sunday evening.

‘I HAVE TO RETURN SOME VIDEOTAPES’: The Central Arkansas Library System’s Banned Books Week celebration includes a screening of “American Psycho,” the film inspired by Bret Easton Ellis’ gory 1991 lampoon of high-roller materialism.

IN BRIEF, CONT.

SATURDAY 9/22

BRAZILIAN PARTY: JUNNIOR DO CAVACO

9 p.m. Club 27.

People have been having a lot of fun without you, tucked away in the one place you never bothered to look: the River Market. Even more preposterously, they’ve been doing it with EXERCISE. Specifically, salsa lessons in a ballroom. At Club 27, the passion project of spouses Sarah Catherine Gutierrez and Jorge Gutierrez — whose love connection was made, by the way, in dance class — people gather every Friday night for an informal lesson (no partner/experience required) followed by an open floor for dancing to salsa, bachata, merengue, cumbia, reggaeton and other Latin rhythms. This Saturday, they’ll forego that Friday routine and host a dance party with traditional Brazilian pagadao music, followed by a DJ set. Once upon a time, it was January and we all swore we’d try new adventures, remember? Here’s one.

SUNDAY 9/23, SUNDAY 9/30

NASTY WOMEN OF COMEDY

7:30 p.m. The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse. $15.

If there’s a shred of good to come of the president of the United States’ demonstrated contempt for women, it’s that the misogyny pendulum finally swung far enough to rattle people, and to rally groups of people like this — a shared bill of wildly clever comedians who are reclaiming their time on stage. Ashley Wright-Ihler of the club’s Joint Venture improv troupe hosts sets from Amber Glaze of “Hot Mess in the Morning” on KHLRFM, 106.7, “The Ride”; Playa Mook of Drafts & Laughs; Lisa Michaels of Memphis’ Group Therapy and Midtown Queer; as well as sets from Portia Murphy, Summer Vega and Kayla Esmond of The Joint’s sketch comedy troupe Tyrannosaurus Sketch. See Eventbrite for tickets.

at South on Main, 9:30 p.m., $15. Go for Gold, Slick Grip and Vera Forever share a bill at Vino’s, 8 p.m., $8. Pipe organist Kimberly Marshall plays works by Bach, Andre Raison, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and others, 8 p.m., St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, free. Willi Carlisle and Dazz & Brie join barroom baritone Dylan Earl & The Reasons Why at the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. Literacy Action of Central Arkansas hosts The Bee, an adult spelling bee at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, 6:30 p.m., $20-$40. Randall Shreve takes center stage for “The Fabulous Freddie Mercury Tribute” at the Rev Room, 10 p.m., $15-$25. Mister Lucky entertains at Cajun’s, 9 p.m., $5, or come early and catch Richie Johnson’s happy hour set, 5:30 p.m., free. John Oates & The Good Road Band perform at Oaklawn Racing & Gaming’s Finish Line Theater, 7 p.m., $40-$55. Flatland Cavalry takes fiddle and Lubbock, Texas, tales to Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $10. The Kris Lager Band returns to Kings Live Music, 8:30 p.m., $5. Psychedelic Velocity plays a free show at Markham Street Grill & Pub, 8:30 p.m.

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SATURDAY 9/22 The Toadies take post-“Possum Kingdom” tunes to the Rev Room, with Recognizer and Illusionaut, 8 p.m., $20$25. At the White Water Tavern, Royal Thunder shares a bill with Headcold and Or, 9 p.m. The Heifer International Campus hosts Barnaroo, with international food, crafts and barnyard animals, 10 a.m., free. The Buh Jones Band entertains at Stickyz, with Dad Bod, 9 p.m., $5. Henry and the Invisibles take the stage at Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m., $8. Jason Lee Hale & The Personal Space Invaders jam at Thirst N’ Howl Bar & Grill, 8 p.m. The 2018 Arkansas Walk for Apraxia kicks off at Laurel Park in Conway to benefit children with apraxia of speech, 10 a.m. Cedric the Entertainer, Eddie Griffin, George Lopez and D.L. Hughley share the stage at Verizon Arena for The Comedy Get Down, 8 p.m., $49-$75. The ACANSA Arts Festival concludes with Big Piph’s stage play “The Glow” at Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, 8 p.m., $20, jazz pianist Chuchito Valdes at The Rail Yard, 8 p.m., $25, and dance illusionists Momix at Pulaski Tech’s CHARTS, 8 p.m., $40. Sam Pace & The Gilded Grit share a bill with Adam Faucett and Kill Vargas at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 9 p.m., $7. The I-40 Ramblers perform at Cajun’s on the deck, while LLC entertain on the indoor stage, 9 p.m., $5.

SUNDAY 9/23 Jonathan Brown, author of book/ vinyl record “Aggressively Vulnerable,” speaks as a guest of the Argenta Reading Series at 421 Main St. (Argenta United Methodist Church), with Erin Wood, 6 p.m., see argentareadingseries.com for more.

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arktimes.com SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’

Central Arkansas Fermenters hosts Little Rocktoberfest 6-9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, at Dickey-Stephens Park, with tastings of regional and local craft beer as well as a variety of home brews. A bratwurst dinner is included in the ticket price, $35-$45. VIP admission, $65, gets you a glass taster and lanyard, a Rocktoberfest coozie and admission an hour early. See littlerocktoberfest.com for tickets. A flagship restaurant in Hot Springs’ Park Avenue District — the northernmost part of the city along Arkansas Highway 7 — is moving downtown. Deluca’s Pizzeria at 407 Park Ave. has developed a cult following in the Spa City despite its tuckedaway locale and its four-day work week, and will relocate to 831 Central Ave. in the heart of historic Bathhouse Row after nearly five years in business. The last day of business at the Park Avenue location will be Sept. 29, and Deluca’s will reopen downtown in mid-October. The Raindrop Foundation Little Rock holds its 8th annual Turkish Food Fest at the Raindrop Turkish House, 1501 Market St., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 22. Ebru (water marbling), tile painting and live music are on the menu as well as homemade kebabs, gyros, lahmajoon (Armenian pizza), kofta (meatballs), salads, desserts, pastries and other appetizers. Admission is free. Arkansas is one of six states where the Houston-based Raindrop Turkish House has outreach programs, with a mission to “establish bridges between the Turkish and American cultures and communities by providing easily accessible educational, social, and cultural services … with the intention of contributing to global peace at the grassroots level by sharing Turkey’s heritage of tolerance and understanding.” See raindropturkishhouse.org for more. Indiafest is also this weekend, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. in the First Security Ampitheater in Riverfront Park. Apparel, jewelry, curries, lassi, dosa, chicken biryani, rice pudding and more will be available for purchase. Admission is free; see the “Ticket Presale” link at indiafestar.com to purchase food tickets in advance and to see a breakdown of cuisine by region. The Little Rock Zoo hosts its annual Zoo Brew Thursday, Sept. 20, with brews from BJ’s Brewhouse, Central Arkansas Fermenters, Fementables, Flyway Brewing, Golden Eagle, Lost 40 Brewing, Rock Town Distillery and Stone’s Throw Brewing; food from Adobo to Go, Bragg’s Big Bites, Cotija’s, Hot Rod Weiners, Katmandu Momo, Loblolly Creamery and Reggae Flavas; a “Bear Pong” tournament; and music from Moxie, The Karla Case Band and Harp. See Eventbrite for tickets, $10-$30. 26

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

HOT DIGGITY DOG: The chili dog is the ticket at Crazee’s.

Where everybody knows your name Crazee’s still a welcoming waterin’ hole.

“A

nd, that, my friend, is a pickle fry,” she said, plopping the basket on the table. Margie, who’s been serving at Crazee’s for over a decade, had described them to us perfectly. “They’re not spears. It’s a pickle, cut in the shape of a french fry, and then fried. They’re good.” She was right. They were less greasy than chips and easier to eat than a fried spear, which are often too easily detached from the batter surrounding them. A dip of ranch makes them even more satisfying. Fried food is a fixture at Crazee’s. Margie is, too, and so is much of the clientele. She’s seen a lot over the years.

Follow Eat Arkansas on Twitter: @EatArkansas

Servers and cooks come and go. She right by the front door; neon beer signs watched the restaurant turn from smok- (BUSCH-HHHHHH); and a couple of ing to nonsmoking, which ticked off pool tables. Tables are scattered about. some regulars, but won over others who Service is friendly. wanted to bring their kids to their favor“I just wanted to have a place where ite hangout (as well as folks who didn’t anyone could come in and get treated like to leave smelling like a cigarette). the same and feel comfortable,” says “I guess we lost some, but we gained a Linda Houff, Crazee’s owner since 1993. few too, so it balances out.” “When we opened it up, everybody had Crazee’s is a neighborhood bar’s their own place. The bookmakers had neighborhood bar. It’s got everything: their bar, gay people had their bar. a hardcore set of regulars (who used to Everybody was split up and everybody be immortalized in caricature along the kept in their own group. I just wanted walls — the cartoons were taken down a place where everyone could come and for cleaning when Crazee’s switched feel like they were welcome. I try to to nonsmoking and just haven’t made keep it basic, maybe too basic at times.” it back yet); there’s a popcorn machine Twenty-five years later and they’re

BELLY UP

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

still at it. It’s a great place to catch up over beers, watch the game, have a casual business lunch, or shoot a little pool. The food does its job, too. A half-order of chicken wings (five of them) only runs you $6.95. We tried the good ol’ Buffalo version. The wings are fried in a significant amount of batter. It gives the Buffalo sauce plenty to stick to, so they come out bright orange with a side of blue cheese dressing and some celery that no one touched. The sauce is flavorful — not too hot — and the wings themselves are hearty. They go just fine with cold draft beer. The chili dog ($9.25) was a crowdpleaser. A foot-long dog comes smothered in chili and slaw. Simple enough, but the slaw gets your attention. For one, there are tomatoes in it, which we’ve rarely if ever seen. But there’s another flavor there we couldn’t quite pin down. “That is an old country family recipe,” Houff says. “The taste you probably taste the most is garlic. But it’s kind of a lazy way to make slaw. You chop it up chunky instead of doing it like you’re supposed to. You either really like it or you don’t like it at all.” There’s an entire section of the menu dedicated to burgers and you really can’t go wrong with any of them. There’s the MexBurger, the Jalapeno Bacon Cheeseburger, the Patty Melt. We always go with the Mushroom

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Burger ($9). You get a good-sized patty with grilled mushrooms and onions, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and Swiss cheese. But the best part is probably the buttery burned edge of the bun, which the cooks here nail every time. It’s a small thing, but it makes a big difference. Crazee’s is one of those rare places where the food isn’t really the reason you go there, but it’s good enough to bring you back. Houff hopes to keep the place going as long as she can. “I’m old enough to retire,” she says. “But I’ll probably be there another few years. All my kids are grown. It gives me something to do.”

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THE ACTOR PREPARES: Action film trailblazer Pam Grier pays a visit to Arkansas for Spa-Con in Hot Springs.

Hit squad for hire Pam Grier talks stallions, Stanislavski and stuntwork. BY OMAYA JONES

T 2018

RUNNER-UP

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

he first thing Pam Grier mentions when I join her on the phone is her family in the Carolinas, who are in the path of Hurricane Florence, and it’s clear that Grier’s connection to them is preserved in spite of a stacked appointment book. Grier, 69, recently finished shooting a movie Diane Keaton and pilot with Dax Shepard called “Bless This Mess,” she’s the brand ambassador for blaxploitation-focused streaming service “Brown Sugar,” she’ll accept the 2018 Ad Astra Award at the Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita, Kan. — one of many festivals she’ll attend this year — and her 2017 film with Florence Henderson, “Bad Grandmas,” is still in heavy rotation. “I’m a senior now,” she told me. “I’m embracing my age, and I’m embracing my history.” Grier visits Hot Springs for Spa-Con this weekend; see the To-Do List for a full rundown

of events. I spoke with Grier ahead of that Arkansas visit, about an hour before her horses would come galloping in for supper. You were working as a receptionist when vet theater agent Hal Gefsky told you about an opportunity to work with “The Pope of Pop Cinema” Roger Corman? They said, “Would you like to be an actor?” … I wasn’t in acting school, I wasn’t at Juilliard or an academy. I thought, “I want to be a cinematographer. I really like making movies or commercials or whatever, but I don’t think I can be an actor. I don’t know how to be an actor.” Plus, I’d already had some emotional trauma as a child, and an adult in college, and I didn’t know if I would have to reveal any of that. I’m too shy to really be an actor, yet I was explosive in my emotions. I

didn’t have to learn how to get angry. I had it at my fingertips. So when I met Roger, he said “Oh, you’re perfect. We’ll teach you. You’ll be good, and I’ll make sure we don’t fire you.” I told him he’d have to talk to my mama on the phone and convince her. I’d raise the bar by learning Stanislavski. I still have that book, “The Actor Prepares.” Stanislavski says there’s no such thing as a small movie, so that’s how I approached it. In your 2010 book, “Foxy: My Life in Three Acts,” you mentioned “exploitation film” director Jack Hill. Can you talk about your experience filming under his direction? Jack was a very progressive director. Women had more opportunity, and at the time the Women’s Movement was happening as well. Women had more opportunity to ride motorcycles and shoot with guns and be in the military and be on equal footing. He and Roger Corman, they really opened the door for me to show that there were frontier women who handled guns. My grandfather taught all the girls in our family to hunt and fish and shoot and drive the boat and the tractor and do everything that men could do, and a lot of directors would not allow that. Another thing I read was that you got the role of “Coffy” in Hill’s 1973 film because you could do your own stunts. They taught me how to do stunts. After I’d done the first five or six movies for Roger Corman, they gave me a threepicture deal at American International Pictures, and I said, “That’s more stunts. I’ve got to have a stunts person.” So Bob Minor was a coordinator who helped me find a stunt woman who was my size, my coloring, who liked horses. It helped save me, because you can only do a stunt once or twice and then it begins to hurt. You’re also an equestrian, and you worked with a horse named Donatello — Donatello! He was a black stallion! Stallions are very dangerous. If they smell a mare in heat, they can run through fences, jump into traffic, kill people trying to get to the mare. He was the lead stunt horse [for “Coffy”], and they knew I could ride horses. I said, “What if there’s a mare around?” They said there weren’t, but there were! I was on Donatello, and a crew member popped a towel on the horse’s flank to spook him — and make him

run. So the horse takes off, and everybody’s behind us following on horses. I thought for sure there were gonna be people with broken necks. I tried to ride out his energy for at least 10 or 15 minutes, just to stay on, make sure he doesn’t hit anybody or get killed himself. And I rode his energy out and I rode him through Fellini’s set. I thought for sure they were going to deport me. I didn’t know if I ruined the shot or not. But they loved it. They thought it was funny. There I was running through on a wild horse with my leopard skin, my ’fro, and I’d run through the cardboard ocean liner of “Amarcord.” You’ve said your mom was “Coffy,” and your aunt was “Foxy Brown?” My mom was a nurse, always caring for the neighbors who couldn’t get to the ER. Many of the nurses took care of people in the kitchen. Women came over in labor. We’d come home and there’d be someone in a bathtub giving birth to a baby. And my aunt — she was a political radical. She wanted to ride motorcycles and she wanted to be a pirate. She wanted to be an architect. Because of inequality, she just couldn’t do those things, and it was very frustrating for her. She had a fabulous Harley and she was in a club of people who had Harleys and people would say, “Get off that. You’re a girl, it’ll hurt your innards.” And now I read that there’s a film adaptation of your memoir? We’re talking about that now. We’ve got Jay Pharoah to play Richard Pryor. Idris Elba wants to be in the film. We want him to play Daddy Ray, my grandfather. I’d like to have Ryan Reynolds play John Gaines. I was a student, so I was really able to listen to him, and protect myself from the fast lane of Hollywood. John said, “I don’t want you in the fast lane. I’m grooming you to take you to the mainstream and build your brand. Listen to me and you’ll go as fast as you want to go.” And I did. John was my true mentor — he and Gloria Steinem. She was the editor of Ms. Magazine and put me on the cover. I was the first woman of color to be on the cover. Pam Grier appears at Spa-Con noon, Saturday, Sept. 22, in a panel called “Pam Grier: From Quentin Tarantino to Jack Hill, 50 Years of the Baddest One-Chick Hit Squad,” Room 208, Hot Springs Convention Center. See spa-con. org for details and passes.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Friday • Sept. 21 • 9 p.m. & 11:59 p.m. • $5 Saturday • Sept. 22 • 8 p.m. & 11 p.m. • $5 Ron Robinson Theater • Library Square

Banned Books Week, Sept. 23-29, 2018 Get a complete list of events online.

Carrie (r)

Tuesday • Sept. 25 • 7 p.m. • Free

Ron Robinson Theater • Library Square Join us at the prom (6 p.m.) before the movie. Black tie optional.

American Psycho (unrated) Wednesday • Sept. 26 • 7 p.m. • Free

Ron Robinson Theater • Library Square Activities prior to the movie include discussion of the psychology of Patrick Bateman (6:15 p.m.) and a mini concert by Randall Shreve (6:45 p.m.).

J.N. Heiskell Distinguished Lecture:

James Fallows

Thursday • Sept. 27 • 6:30 p.m. • Free

Ron Robinson Theater • Library Square Fallows will speak about his book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America.

Library Square is located at 100 Rock St.

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A&E CONT. not for the husband, but for the wife. As the book opens, the betrayals have already occurred and the marriage has ended. What follows the opening poem, which makes these two facts clear, is an attempt to answer what I assume might be some of a reader’s questions, so I placed poems as if each were an answer, one following the emotional logic of the next.

Another poem that struck me as a moment of clarity and objectivity was “Arkansas to Oregon.” It has a sense of music as exorcism. What’s your relationship to Arkansas and Oregon? I like your notion that particular poems express “a moment of clarity and objectivity.” With every poem I write, I try to be as clear and objective as possible. This was especially important in this book, which focuses on very emotionally charged experiences. My relationship with both Arkansas and Oregon is intimate. Although I left Arkansas in 2011 after the divorce, my love for the state will continue for the rest of my life. When I moved

to Stone County (15 miles south of Mountain View), I was 30 years old and six months pregnant with my now 41-year-old son. His father and I bought 80 acres of land, built our own house, and several years later restored a derelict hotel in town and transformed it into the Wildflower Bed & Breakfast, which we ran for 15 years. During my final 22 years in the state, I served as the writer-in-residence at Lyon College in Batesville. I visited Oregon in the mid-1990s and thought then that if I ever left my beloved Ozarks, Portland would be my next home. And it has indeed become exactly that. I was attracted to this city’s relatively small size, its excellent and extensive public transportation, and its friendly citizens, who remind me of Arkansans. The poems throughout “Blue Mistaken for Sky” take place in both locales, as well as in New Jersey, where I spent the bulk of my childhood

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