Arkansas Times - February 11, 2016 by Arkansas Times

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COMMENT

Lyons going downhill

It’s a shame to see Gene Lyons’ opeds go downhill with each week. First, his attempts to establish his “minority” bona fides by referring to his Irish ancestry — rather a dubious stretch of logic at best. If he was trying to negate or downplay the reality of white privilege, he failed. A nd now his t wo simpl i s t i c o p - e d s . I n e s s e n c e : socialism=bad, capitalism=good, Bernie Sanders=hippie, Hillar y Clinton=savior of the world. Rather reminiscent of the sheep in “Animal Farm.” His screeds are becoming as partisan, reductionist and shallow as those of his Republican counterpart, Bradley Gitz. Brad Bailey Fayetteville

From the web In response to John Kirk’s Feb. 4 cover story, “Arkansas and the ‘black power’ movement”: What a thrilling story. Thank you,

John Kirk, for teaching me so much about this aspect of the ongoing struggle for equality for African Americans in Arkansas. And thank you for all you do to enlighten us, and remind us that the struggle for civil rights for all is nothing near over. Rita Sklar

In response to the Feb. 4 A&E feature “How Little Rock’s Rachel Burks started a successful hip-hop label in Cameroon”: New Bell Music is a great success. Rachel and Jovi have given their all to Cameroon. What I know is, in the future, whether distant or near, New Bell will be known as the Cameroonian record label of the century. Prior to taking center stage, everyone in Cameroon knew only of JPS, based in France, and Boss Playa, also based in France, but today, there is no one who remembers those labels because New Bell is the new thing, completely and totally Cameroonian. Every other label in Cameroon is no doubt rated far behind New Bell Music and what is clear is, between New Bell Music and Cameroon, [the relationship] is a story

of true love and of musical romance. Best wishes for the future! Humphrey K. Gold

In response to the Arkansas Blog post, “Clinton, Cruz lead in new Talk Business/Hendrix College poll”: If asked, I would have predicted these results. Of course dumb Arkansas voters would go for the meanest Republican of the bunch. And the dumbest Arkansas voters on the other side will remember the Clinton name or vote for the female or never want to vote for a socialist even though there’s a big difference between a socialist and a democratic socialist. But really there’s only about 123 thinking adults in this state who know the difference. I need to say that I’m not implying you’re a dumb voter for supporting Hillary. I’d never say that. We should all go vote, but none of us should expect happy results when the voting is done in Arkansas. Maybe 20 years from now, but not now. Over here on the left side of the state our little secret liberal group on Facebook is evenly divided between Hill-

ary supporters and Bernie supporters. Most in this group are behaving in an adult fashion, but some are saying if their candidate isn’t the nominee they won’t vote in the presidential election in November. I’m telling them they have no right to call themselves Democrats if they think that way. Not that it would have probably made any difference, I threw my vote away on Ralph Nader in 2000, and I’ll regret it the rest of my life. If the next president is a Republican, and if we don’t take back the Senate, it’s Game Over anyway. This is a super important election and I really, really care because of my children. I do think that if Trump starts giving speeches about how much he hates black people, Arkansas voters will jump ship from Cruz to Trump in a heartbeat. Watch for that to happen in the near future if Cruz comes in ahead of Trump in New Hampshire. DeathbyInches

In response to the Arkansas Blog post, “Social entrepreneur writes about racism and lack of high-speed Internet in Dumas”: I live 12 miles from the state’s flagship university and my Internet speeds are only marginally better than dialup. Just like with health care, Rx and cell phones, the U.S. pays exorbitantly more and receives less than the rest of the developed world. Keyword “developed” assumes we’re still a part of that fraternity. JB In my area, the only alternative to dial-up is a satellite connection. For those who have it, many are less than satisfied. Apparently it’s not nearly as fast as promised. Also, they cite lockouts for supposed over-usage — downloading an antivirus program the apparent culprit! — and more-than-occasional lack of service due to weather. Back to dial-up: I don’t try to download even short clips now, something I could do in a few minutes with my first Internet connection maybe 20 years ago. I grumbled then, but if I could do that now, I’d probably fall to my knees and praise ... something. Doigotta More problems that can be solved with bus tickets. Gylippus That could be any small town in

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

Arkansas for both the slow or non-existent Internet speed, especially when school is out, and attitude of the locals. Gylippus is apparently satisfied that our state’s claim to fame is that we aren’t Mississippi. I would think any taxpayer in this state would want the entire economic level of the state to rise, with more college graduates who actually can find jobs here that pay sufficient to support them and their family so the taxpayers aren’t. We know the biggest company in the world is another user of “business socialism,” in their case to have the taxpayer be

Up to

their benefits department, and obviously they break the jobs down to such small segments that you don’t have to think to do them and [are] thus easy to replace if you don’t “behave.” Diogotta, thanks for the comments about satellite TV. I get the mailers from DISH, but I know that you lose the TV picture every time it rains, even south of us or even if a rain-laden cloud floats by. I figured that also happened on their Internet service. couldn’t be better

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FEBRUARY 11, 2016

1/8/16 11:28 AM

EYE ON ARKANSAS

WEEK THAT WAS

Tweet of the Week “THANK YOU to everyone in Little Rock, Arkansas tonight! A record crowd of 12K.” — Donald Trump, after last Wednesday’s rally at Barton Coliseum, which was attended by far fewer than 12,000 people. Ralph Shoptaw, the general manager of the Arkansas State Fair, took the stage before Trump’s speech to announce the crowd supposedly broke an attendance record of 11,451 set by a ZZ Top concert in 1974. But all visual evidence pointed to the contrary: Barton’s combined seating and floor capacity is 10,195, yet entire sections of seats remained mostly empty and the floor was only about half full.

The state’s largest agency has a new head: On March 1, Cindy Gillespie will replace John Selig as director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Gillespie was counselor to Mitt Romney from 2003 to 2006, when then-Gov. Romney passed his landmark health reform bill in Massachusetts. Gillespie also served as senior adviser on Romney’s 2008 presidential bid, then worked as a health care consultant for two D.C. law and policy firms in the years that followed. Don’t tell Arkansas Republicans, but “Romneycare” provided the model for “Obamacare.” (Because GOP dogma now holds the Affordable Care Act to be an assault on all that is good about America, Mitt has had to distance himself from his signature policy accomplishment in Massachusetts.) That means Gillespie’s appointment is good news for fans of the private option: As a key architect of Romneycare, she’ll likely be a good steward of Medicaid expansion in Arkansas. Gillespie doesn’t come cheap, though: Her salary will be $280,000, far more than the $162,000 paid to Selig. It will be the highest compensation for any state agency head — although, just to keep some perspective, it’s far less than what coaches at the University of Arkansas bring home. Bret Bielema’s annual salary? $4 million.

Oh, the irony The first dark money TV advertisement targeting Arkansas Associate Supreme Court Justice Courtney Goodson began airing this week. The ad, produced by Washington’s Judicial Crisis Network and part of a $336,000 6

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

RETT PEEK

Romneycare comes to Arkansas

FEAR THEIR BEARDS: Little Rock photographer Rett Peek took portraits of most of the contestants in the Arkansas Times/Root Cafe Beard Growing Contest, held last Saturday at Bernice Garden. Winners included (from left on top) Kristen Alexander, Ian Mensik, Sean Conrad (from left on bottom), Blake Bradford, Jager Felice and Mark Knoke, See more at Rett Peek Photography on Facebook.

buy, attacks Goodson for accepting campaign contributions from trial lawyer groups and an Italian yacht trip from a corporate contributor, something the Times has written about before. It also cites recent reporting in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette looking into Goodson’s finances. “The Democrat-Gazette calls Courtney Goodson ‘the ultimate insider,’” a male voice ominously intones. “Italian getaways, enriching trial lawyers — call Courtney Goodson and tell her to fight for Arkansans, not trial lawyers.” So in sum, a dark money group, its donors shrouded by a loophole protecting supposed “social welfare” nonprofits, is spending boatloads of cash to launch attack ads criticizing Goodson’s history of dubious financial backing.

Throw the book at them Prosecutors in Arkansas County filed charges last week against three Georgia men in a case in which one of the men was caught on video beating a live white-tailed deer with an accounting textbook as the animal lay injured in the backseat of a car. The video circulated on the Internet late last month, stirring public outrage and sparking an investigation from wildlife officials in both Arkansas and Georgia. Joshua Rewis, 20, was charged with misdemeanor cruelty to animals. Cody Jones, 25, and Travis Strickland, 25, were charged with criminal aiding and abetting.

Polling the Arkansas primary, by the numbers With less than three weeks to the primary and judicial elections in Arkansas, new statewide polls by Hendrix College and Talk Business and Politics were released over the weekend. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton are the favorites among their respective parties. In the Arkansas Supreme Court races, meanwhile, sizable pluralities of voters remain undecided.

REPUBLICAN PRIMARY

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

27% — Ted Cruz 23% — Donald Trump 23% — Marco Rubio 11% — Ben Carson 4% — John Kasich 4% — Carly Fiorina 1% — Jeb Bush 1% — Chris Christie 6% — Don’t know

57% — Hillary Clinton 25% — Bernie Sanders 18% — Don’t know

ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE 32% — Judge Dan Kemp 31% — State Supreme Court Justice Courtney Goodson 37% — Don’t know

ARKANSAS SUPREME COURT ASSOCIATE JUSTICE 28% — Judge Shawn Womack 22% — Clark Mason 50% — Don’t know

OPINION

Bernie Bros

ometimes I think I learned more politically relevant lessons playing ball than anywhere else. If nothing else, sports teach realism: what you can do, what you can’t, how to deal with it. Also, what’s the score, how much time’s left, and what’s the best tactic right now? But here’s something else you learn playing ball: Not everybody on your team is going to be your friend, just as people wearing different-colored shirts aren’t personal enemies. Also, spectators can be fickle. Your most passionate fans can quickly turn into your opponent’s ally. These are all useful concepts during an American primary election. An athlete in his youth, Bernie Sanders appears to understand overwrought fans. His campaign’s apology to Hillary Clinton supporters harassed online by so-called “Bernie Bros,” angry young men given to coarse attacks upon anybody — especially women — supporting his rival was a class move. “If you support @berniesanders,” Sanders aide Mike Casca tweeted from Iowa, “please follow the senator’s lead and be respectful when people disagree with you.”

Well, yes and no. See, I suspect many of these jokers are Internet trolls in the original sense: right-wing Hillary-haters seeking to foment discord among Democrats. Anybody can pretend to be anything Columnist Joan Walsh had online. Anonymity encourages people called out the Berto unmask their darkest impulses. Read nie Bros’ behavthe comments line to almost anything on ior. “When I’ve the Internet about the Clinton-Sanders disclosed that my campaign. GENE daughter works for Did a group of prominent women SenLYONS Clinton — in The ators and diplomats endorse Hillary? Nation, on MSNBC, and on social media — “Their vaginas are making terrible we’ve both come in for trolling so vile,” she choices!” writes one characteristically wrote, “it’s made me not merely defensive vulgar Sanders supporter. The discussion of her. It’s forced me to recognize how goes straight downhill from there. little society respects the passion of the Even in the relatively civilized premany young women — and men — who cincts of The Guardian, commenters to are putting their souls into electing the a Jill Abramson column sympathetic to Clinton revel in nasty sexual insults: first female president.” “Yes, please tell me how Shillary is the Walsh told BuzzFeed that while she didn’t blame Sanders, “it is disturbing to nicest corporate oligarchical servant, and see such a misogynist strain in the male how she will lovingly sell out the people left. It’s not a new thing, but it’s tough to who voted for her to her banker masters, experience.” with a twinkle in her fellating eye.” Kathleen Geier, a contributor to The Another online philosopher opines, Nation and a Sanders supporter, concedes “she can’t be good for a nation if she wasn’t the Bernie Bros are definitely “doing harm good enough for her husband.” to the cause. I haven’t seen people treat A third adds, “Hillary is a terrible camObama supporters like this, or supporters paigner and a much worse human being. of other male establishment candidates — She is thoroughly corrupt, dishonest, vile, just Hillary. So it’s definitely misogyny.” vindictive, vengeful, condescending, etc.”

Highway robbery: Hutchinson’s plan

ov. Hutchinson’s long-awaited highway program, which promises $750 million in new highway spending over the next 10 years, takes the money not from highway users, including the trucking, shipping and fuel industries, but from education, now as always the most hard-pressed function in all of state government. No, the governor doesn’t describe his highway plan that way. And, no, every single new highway dollar may not be a theft from the kids and their teachers, because it is impossible to calculate exactly how much any service of government will suffer if you transfer $750 million over 10 years from the state’s general revenues to highways. Most general revenues traditionally have gone to education, though the schools’ share has been shrinking. The governor’s plan is to take $20 million of the 2015 surplus (unspent general revenues) and give it to highways; take $20 million of the governor’s rainy-day fund (general revenues) and give it to high-

ways; take $4 million of diesel taxes that currently goes to general revenues and divert it to highways each year; take ERNEST another $5.4 milDUMAS lion of general revenues that comes from a temporary sales tax for highways and give it, too, to highways until the tax ends in about 2022; and take $48 million every year from surplus general revenues (the infamous General Improvement Fund) that legislators have been carving out for themselves to spend each year currying favor with interests in their districts and give that to highways. Let it be said that this is mostly pie in the sky. Most of that $750 million is not likely to occur because it assumes that (1) the Obama economic boom that occurred after the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2013 will continue unabated for 10 years, flushing so much money into the treasury that surpluses will pile up year

after year, (2) the growing minority of legislators fighting Obamacare will not vote to scrap the Medicaid phase of it, which has been saving the state tens of millions of dollars a year in matching funds, and swelling the coffers with perhaps a hundred million dollars a year in new receipts, and (3) all those tax cuts enacted in 2013, 2014 and 2015 to offset the growth in revenue from Obamacare will actually produce stunning economic growth and jobs rather than the lower tax receipts that tax cuts have always produced, here and elsewhere (see Washington, D.C., Kansas and Louisiana). My wager is that the governor will face grievous budget problems in 2018, if not before, and that a flattened road program will be the least of his problems. Ten years ago, education funding was the state’s gravest problem. It was supposed to be settled by the Continuing Adequacy Evaluation Act of 2004, which invoked a permanent remedy to Arkansas’s ancient problem of having the weakest education in America. An Education Adequacy Committee — the legislature’s joint committees on education — would take research on what a suitable education for all Arkansas children would cost, based mostly on what the rest of the states were doing, and that sum would be appro-

As somebody who’s gotten obscene, often threatening emails WRITTEN ALL IN IN CAPS for years, I can’t say I’m shocked. Recently a tough guy in Illinois speculated that being named “Eugene” made me a sissy; Noreen says Hillary’s a COMMIE BITCH. My photo makes her vomit. All in a day’s work. Anyway, maybe I’m looking in the wrong places, but I see no comparable venom about Bernie Sanders. My own strongest reservation is that despite his admirable qualities, I’ve seen few signs of political realism in his campaign. The Daily Banter’s Chez Pazienza sums up everything that needs to be said about “Bernie Bros,” make-believe and real: “If you’re a liberal who believes these things about Clinton —if you see her as anything other than a liberal Democrat who’s guilty of nothing more than being a politician with faults and with a plethora of enemies like every other on this planet, including Bernie Sanders — you’ve proven that the protracted smear campaign against this woman has worked. You prove that the GOP won a long time ago.” Meanwhile, both candidates’ supporters would do well to recall that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have voted together in the U.S. Senate 93 percent of the time.

priated and funded automatically, even if everything else in government had to be cut. That got the schools declared constitutional. But a committee chairman meekly acknowledged last year that what has happened the past several years is that they have determined how much money the state was likely to have the next year and how much of it could be carved out for education without harming the rest of government and that was the amount appropriated as “adequate.” That is precisely what the 2004 act says is illegal. Since 2004, Arkansas has fallen steadily farther behind both the region and the country in things like teacher pay. But it produced giant lagniappe each year for the legislators to spend on supporters back home. This is Gov. Hutchinson’s program, but it is not too generous to say that he would probably like it to be much different — say, like it was under his Republican predecessor Huckabee, who always raised taxes rather than cut services or transfer funds. The reality is that if Hutchinson’s party has one tenet now, it is that all taxes are terrible and to be avoided at all cost. By the way, the last time the taxpayers themselves spoke on the subject was 2012, when they voted 58 percent to 42 percent for $1.3 billion in highway debt and new taxes. www.arktimes.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

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A generational Bern

ur first vote tells a good deal about how we’ll be voting the rest of our lives. By the time of that first vote, the political socialization process has “baked in” our political attitudes. Before that, family, peers and the social context in which we have come of age all have influenced the ways in which we process information to form our political attitudes and ideology. Of course, those attitudes can be significantly altered by emotionally charged events and persons who become most important to us in later years, but the foundation has generally been established by our late teens. As the bumper stickers on cars on my own campus of Hendrix College remind me daily, voters who will cast their first votes in the 2016 primaries appear to be disproportionately supporting Bernie Sanders. First, the country’s youngest voters skew Democratic; Harvard University’s Institute of Politics survey of young voters in December shows, first, that 18- to 29-year-olds favored a Democrat winning the White House in 2016 by a 56-36 percent margin. Within that group of voters, Sanders is running up unmatched margins. In the Iowa caucuses, for instance, an extraordinary 84 percent of those under 30 caucused for Sanders (and he did even better with the subgroup under 25). While President Obama’s support among young voters in 2008 in that state and elsewhere was overwhelming, it paled in comparison. (At this writing early Tuesday morning, we only know the outcomes of the vote in Dixville Notch and a few other villages in New Hampshire, but all expectations are that young voters in that state’s primary will likely support the Vermont senator by an even larger margin than their Iowa peers). In trying to understand the septuagenarian Sanders’ support among young voters, analysts have focused on an “authenticity gap” between him and Hillary Clinton. Many argue that such perceived “authenticity” — stylistic and substantive — is the sine qua non of political leadership for younger Americans. Others argue that it is not just what Sanders says and the frumpy brusqueness with which he says it that is driving the Vermonter’s support with the young, but instead his campaign’s exceptional use of targeted social media to speak to young voters and inspire them to #Feel-

TheBern on various social media outlets. But it’s not just the messenger or the mechanics JAY of his messaging. BARTH Instead, ideological dynamics are at the root of Sanders’ support with first-time voters. And that is what will have lasting electoral importance. Some are drawn to Sanders because of his view on economic issues; members of this generation are feeling particular agitated about their own economic futures in a society increasingly defined by economic inequality. While the bulk of Americans are concerned about economic inequality, a larger number of younger voters feel that some “revolutionary” action is needed to correct this trajectory before it’s too late. (Indeed, only 9 percent of 18to 29-year-olds are turned off by Sanders’ embrace of being a democratic socialist, according to the Harvard survey; 66 percent said it made no difference and 24 percent said it made them more likely to support him). Statistician Nate Silver has argued that, more than economics, it is Sanders’ libertarian streak that is driving younger voters, who are increasingly secular and distrusting of institutions, to Sanders. Thus, it is concerns about the irregularities in the criminal justice system and the government’s collecting of phone records that is really driving the Sanders voters. (By this argument, Sanders’ momentum stole the energy that Sen. Rand Paul envisioned using to make a run at the GOP nomination.) Still, whether it is economic liberalism or libertarianism (or a complicated mixture of the two), it is an ideological distinctiveness in this generation that seems to be driving the support for Sanders. Despite his strong start, Sanders remains a decided longshot to win the Democratic nomination in 2016, partly as a result of his struggles to gain the votes of Democrats closer to his own age. But, particularly in concert with their slightly older peers who supported Obama in droves and an increasingly diverse American electorate, the movement that he is leading is likely to have ramifications well after he is gone from the political scene. The 2036 election cycle is looking pretty good for progressives at this point.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

Signing Day takeaways

ay what you will about National Signing Day’s absurdist pageantry — you’d be right, in fact — but in Arkansas, there are some inescapable certainties that usually denote it. For beginners, when was the last time some late-adolescent wunderkind sat at a table on the first Wednesday in February and plucked a Razorback hat out of an array of them? We’ve become accustomed to this trickery and yet we bite on it every time. Tyrie Cleveland from Houston went to Florida, per his high school coach, to play for a passingoriented offense, paying no heed to the fact that Dan Enos was at the helm of one of the country’s most lethal, varied and disciplined throwing attacks in 2015 while the Gators’ attack was utterly nil once Will Grier got suspended. Later in the day, five-star cornerback Kristian Fulton of New Orleans went to LSU, an almost-preordained commitment given his ties to the region and program, but we all tuned in for the Periscope feed and clicked it off posthaste when the Louisiana product uttered those three letters. Let’s not kid ourselves: Arkansas, for all its incredible progress as a program the past two seasons, still sits in the second tier (or third, depending on how many tiers you like to construct) of the SEC. Bret Bielema and his staff are, without equivocation, the best nationwide recruiters that the program has ever employed. They work tirelessly, and it’s plainly evident from the results, even if the rankings still suggest that the Hogs’ classes are on the periphery of greatness rather than squarely in the center of it. The real quality of the class, as always, will be measured in a couple of years, but Bielema’s first forays out on the trail have yielded productive, stellar, disciplined players. The attrition has been minimal, and the development of lower-rated players into high-impact guys has been palpable. Alex Collins and Denver Kirkland are leaving, but their faith in this program assuredly had them tempted to return, and their ability to confidently embark into the professional waters shows that even as the new coaching administration took over in late 2012, with mere weeks to stockpile a slew of talent in the wake of a lost, John L. Smith-shepherded 4-8 wreck, it

did so with fervor and purpose. Because the actual event acts as a sort of endgame moment for BEAU the signing period WILCOX (and it really isn’t, but it’s by far the climactic point), everyone gets to freak out when the likes of Cleveland and Fulton end their teasing and go elsewhere. It serves to obfuscate the dividends that months of toiling paid. To wit: *Arkansas not only signed Hope defensive end product McTelvin Agim, the highest-rated defensive recruit in this state since the genesis of the rating systems, it got him on campus early. There’s no question that inking him and bringing him onboard disposed of any needless signing day charades, but it also secured a gifted, Jadeveon Clowneylevel player for spring ball. The impact of Agim’s arrival cannot be glossed over. *Devwah Whaley initially ditched us for Georgia, sure, but once Mark Richt was gone, he reversed course and spurned Texas and others. With Collins leaving, and with Rawleigh Williams’ long-term health being a concern after the lick Auburn put on him months ago, getting a banner bellcow type of runner in the backfield was a priority. Whaley was, and is, the best of the bunch that Arkansas had targeted. *Defensive tackle Briston Guidry is a monster in the making, and as one of four ESPN300 prospects to sign, he’s got the chance to pair with Agim on the defensive line for three years or longer and be another adept run-stopper in the mold of Demarcus Hodge, Darius Philon, Taiwan Johnson, et al. But he comes in with a different sort of pedigree and level of appeal — the Hogs beat out the high-level SEC compatriots for his services, but also got the Louisiana product to spurn Big 12 and ACC appeal as well. *This could be the deepest linebacking class ever brought to the hill, with Giovanni LaFrance doing a late switch to join Alexy Jean-Baptiste, Dee Walker and DeJon Harris in the fold. None of these constitute headliners at first glance, but LaFrance has impressive size already, and Harris in particular seems suited to become a dominant figure in the second level.

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THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Paz y amor

he Observer has been friends for many years with North Little Rock’s Steve Nawojczyk (pronounced “Nah-Voy-Check,” which took almost an equal number of years for us to get rolling off the tongue), the exPulaski County coroner made famous by the documentary “Gang War: Bangin’ in Little Rock” for taking to the streets of Little Rock at the height of the gang violence of the 1990s to educate kids on the horrors of what guns in the wrong hands can do. Steve is a good egg, somebody who really gives a damn, and has been giving said damn for a long time. And so, The Observer was happy to lift a glass to him for a job well done when we heard he was retiring from his nearthankless job with the state on Dec. 1 of last year. The jubilation was short-lived, however, as we soon learned that, three days after he hung up his spurs and called it quits on the world of work, the doctor called to tell him he had prostate cancer. Steve has since had some kind of robot surgery on his innards, and is waiting for follow-ups to tell if he’s shipshape or will require more remodeling. The Observer went through some waiting like that a few years back, and we can tell you from experience: You just don’t know how scary the hour between midnight and 1 a.m. can be until you’ve spent it staring at the bedroom ceiling at a moment like that, watching all your grinning demons dance across the plaster in the moonlight. Steve, that good egg, has been keeping his spirits up by writing on Facebook, where The Observer has followed his weekend adventures with his dog, the lovely Feebi, for a while now. He’s always been a great writer, always ending his missives with the prayer “Paz y amor,” but his troubles of late have really kicked him up into a higher gear of introspection, still with the generous dash of humor we’ve come to expect from him. The other day, he posted something that struck Yours Truly as so damn pretty, we had to share, with Mr. Nah-VoyCheck’s permission.

There are real angels in the world, kids. Steve is one of them. Now he’s getting a little help and hope from the others who walk among us: “After being home a day or two, connected to a catheter which I carried in a paint bucket rather than strapping it to my leg, I was limping along in Kroger with a shopping basket in one hand, the paint/piss bucket in the other, wearing my fat person sweat pants. Well, the fat pants began falling (I’ve lost 40 pounds since October in this little skirmish, so my clothes sort of hang on me) and a nice young lady asked if I needed help. She ended up walking behind me carrying her shopping basket with one hand and holding up my pants with her other. That was fun. “I have a neighbor who has been a neighbor for 25 years. Two of her boys were murdered in gang violence within a year of one another and she herself has suffered with many illnesses while raising her sons’ kids. I was in the backyard feeding the birds, carrying my paint/ piss bucket when she came outside and walked over to the fence. She wanted to know what was wrong with me. When I told her, she began weeping, which of course made me cry. As we hugged one another over the fence. I assured her things would be fine. “She told me that about a week ago she had been looking through some of her important papers and found that my signature, as coroner, was on one of her son’s death certificates. It was also on her mother’s death certificate as well as one of her sisters who had died in a fire. “Isn’t it a strange world? Here we stood crying in the backyard and it all was related to death and health and hope. “Being pissed at each other over trivial things is such a waste of energy. We’re all in this shit together, kids. No matter what your politics or religion, we are all in this world together, and unless we band together when we need to, we will lose to the real enemies we each have. “So there. Paz y amor.”

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FEBRUARY 11, 2016

THE

Arkansas Reporter

Night at the circus A dispatch from Donald Trump’s rally at Barton Coliseum. BY BENJAMIN HARDY

went to the Donald Trump rally last week to see what I could see. I saw a sea of cheaply produced red caps. I saw a man in a horse suit. I saw a presidential candidate tell thousands of Arkansans — seemingly out of nowhere — that Alabama “has a hell of a football team,” yet still solidly win the crowd over in the end. Maybe he really is just good at winning? In retrospect, Barton Coliseum was a perfect venue for the narrative of blight and pathos that Trump peddles, of a limping, faded America become the butt of the world’s jokes. Milling about for hours with a restive crowd on a vast concrete floor lent a vague sense of being lost in a refugee crisis, although one with good signage and access to concessions. I spoke to Bob Gardner, a doctor for the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare Administration who’s been in the National Guard for 35 years. Gardner also likes Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump’s leading rivals for the nomination, but like many people I spoke to, the specter of terrorism has fueled his interest in the billionaire. “[ISIS] is not going to go away,” he said. “I’ve studied the whole philosophy of radical Islam for several years now, and it’s not an ideology that wants to be tolerant of us.” Does that mean he supports a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., as Trump has proposed? “I have nothing against the religion of Islam. But, when it comes to protecting my family and my country, then I have to put that as a priority first,” he said. Gardner 12

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

HE DID NOT MAKE BARTON COLISEUM GREAT AGAIN: But Donald Trump did put on a show.

used a dubious analogy that’s circulated in recent months: Not all snakes are poisonous, but we can’t tell which are deadly and which are harmless in this situation. “Until you can identify which ones are poisonous and which ones are not, we don’t have a choice.” Unlike some Trump supporters, Gardner isn’t a fan of his candidate’s eagerness to say outrageous things and lob insults. “I think that’s probably his weakest suit. ... But I think he will be very good at picking out people who will be his chief officials. The president’s not an entity unto himself. He has to surround himself with really good people — secretary of defense, secretary of the treasury ... . He’ll probably have to be a little bit more diplomatic. But everyone’s got strong and weak suits.” For a woman named Vicki, a North Little Rock mother of two grown children in the military, the main appeal is economic. She’s always voted Democratic, she told me, but now she’s sold on Donald Trump’s insistence he’ll do things different and better, even if the details can be generously described as sketchy. “We’re tired of the politicians telling us the same story. ... Especially for the poor people — we’re going to get you out of this, get you out of that. And we believe in them, you know? ... I just think maybe we need some change — maybe we need somebody who ain’t

so political. Somebody who does know business and how to run things and get us out of what we’re in, because we’re all in it together, and we’re all struggling. ... I’m on disability and I see it every day.” “I just think somebody really needs to listen to what we’re saying out here.” Is a billionaire really the person to do that? “I think they’re all rich,” she replied. “I know, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and I wasn’t even born with a plastic spoon in my mouth, you know what I’m saying? But I just hope he might look down upon us little people, poor people — and I’m speaking for myself, being poor — and I just hope he listens to us.” Why her conversion to the GOP? “Obama. He was supposed to be for all of us poor people, he really was. Both times [in 2008 and 2012] I was right for him, yes sir. … And I still like him. I mean, he’s my president. But I just don’t like the way he turned out and did us all.” She was unclear about what exactly fueled her disillusionment. “Well, No. 1, all the Obamacare. ... I don’t know, I just don’t think he did us right. ... I think he’s biased about a lot of things. I’m ready for a change.” I had to ask: If Vicki is looking for a change for the poor, what about Bernie Sanders? “He scares me. He wants to raise taxes 90 percent? People like me will die. I’ll just end up with nothing. ... [and] I never hear Bernie talk about

the vets. Donald Trump mentions them all the time. I don’t know; I just don’t like him.” Trump’s plane was grounded in Nashville, Tenn., and he ended up being about two-and-a-half hours late. When he finally showed, he gave a sermon — fresh after his disappointing secondplace finish in the Iowa caucus — centered on the venality of politicians. “Actually, I think I came in first,” he said of the Iowa contest, explaining how Ted Cruz stole the election by circulating rumors on caucus night of faded evangelical favorite Ben Carson dropping out of the race. Cruz operatives did indeed pull this dirty trick — though it’s not why Trump lost the state. He lost because Cruz outperformed him. Of course this would be Trump’s go-to strategy when faced with defeat: Cry foul and declare victory in the face of reality. “That voter fraud. These politicians are brutal ... . They are a bunch of dishonest cookies, I want to tell you,” he said. “This political stuff is dangerous” — a man nearby began wildly clapping — “and these political people are really dishonest.” Soon thereafter, the first round of protesters was tossed out of the stands by security — a collection of young folks, many of them people of color. “Traitor!” someone near me yelled. Another: “Get ’em outta here!” Trump turned to wave bye-bye as several gave him the finger. “I didn’t think we’d see that in Little Rock,” Trump said sadly. “They’re not from here!” shouted a young man in front of me, eager to defend our collective honor. Trump then launched into perhaps the flimsiest paean to Arkansas that I’ve ever heard, telling a confusing story about a friend (or was it two friends?) who were dying of cancer. “Goners,” Trump said. But they came to Arkansas and were cured by Dr. Bart Barlogie, formerly of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “They came to Arkansas; they’re fine today. Amazing!” He seemed to credit the state, collectively, for performing this miracle cure. “So — congratulations, folks. That’s pretty good.” “The Natural State!” someone yelled.

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“It was really pretty amazing,” Trump said. Then he turned back to the subject of Cruz, complaining that the senator lately has accused him of supporting Obamacare. “Everybody in this room knows I’ve been opposed to it so strongly.” The truth, he said, is that Cruz pushed for the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Roberts later upheld the core provisions of the Affordable Care Act on two separate occasions. Therefore: “Ted Cruz gave us Obamacare.” (A man next to me shook his head and grumbled, “no he didn’t.”) Trump referenced a stopover in Mobile, Ala. “You do like Alabama right? Right?” he asked, inexplicably. He grinned. “You have to say, they have a hell of a football team, right?” There were some laughs, but people seemed disturbed. A wave of boos began; Trump was unshaken, or maybe he didn’t notice. He definitely didn’t care. A solo protester near me seized upon the moment. “Call the Hogs!” he began shrieking. “Call the Hogs!” Finally, he got Trump’s attention. “Whoops, do I hear somebody shouting? Is he a friend or foe?” Trump said, peering in our direction. “Friend or foe?” In the tiny increment of silence that followed, the man yelled out, “RAZORBACKS!” Trump heard, and smiled amiably. “He’s a Razorback!” he announced. The crowd reflexively cheered and cheered. Trump was placated, but a few minutes later the same guy began screaming “SANDERS! BERNIE SANDERS!” and security hustled him outside. The biggest applause line of the night concerned ISIS: “We gotta knock the shit out of ’em and keep going! We gotta be done with it,” Trump boomed. People went absolutely wild, and I suspect many were cheering at least as much for a leading presidential candidate saying the word “shit” as they were for the sentiment itself. And then this: Trump castigated Washington, D.C., for failing to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies, as do other developed countries. This is an issue on which Donald Trump is entirely correct, and on

THE

BIG PICTURE

ARK ANSAS TIMES RECOMMENDS:

Valentine’s Day Edition E O V

ike being without a family on Christmas, being single on Valentine’s Day is a cultural doublebind: Even if you don’t give a damn about any of it, saying you don’t only makes it sound more like you do. What’s there for us to do but shut up and read about other people’s heartbreak instead? I suggest you try the short stories of Antonya Nelson, an author who captures the stuttering relationships of everyday life with the preternatural hyperrealism of a Chuck Close portrait: You startle and squint and think, “What’s going on here? Is this some kind of trick?” In my opinion, Nelson writes the best contemporary short fiction this side of Lorrie Moore, and, like Moore, she finds her characters out in the trackless middle of things — middle age, middle class, middle America. In “The There There,” a story in her most recent collection, “Funny Once,” the protagonist is a divorcee in Telluride, Colo. Not quite bitter, not quite content, she’s settling into the long haul of maybepermanent singledom. “There was no man,” Nelson writes. “In middle age, she had no patience for new intimacies; the groundwork was exhausting, all the accumulated details of some other person’s life, the number of siblings, the catalog of troubles, and the high potential for some ludicrous deal-breaking belief in magic or miracles or money.” Amen. Happy Valentine’s Day. — Benjamin Hardy

n this Valentine’s Day I recommend the music of Joan Armatrading, who was born in the Caribbean and raised in England. Some of her best songs are sprawling folk dirges — uncomfortable and jagged, like Van Morri-

alentine’s meal plan: Buy a pound and a half or so of hanger steak, which is significantly cheaper than filets or ribeyes, but just as delicious. Cook it, on the grill or on the stovetop, on high heat until it’s somewhere between 125 and 130 degrees and let it rest. Boil diced potatoes, mash and butter them. Roast Brussels sprouts (Google “David Chang-style Brussels sprouts for an easy, killer recipe). Or, hell, just buy a salad mix. With a decent loaf of bread and bargain-bin wine, you’ll have what your partner will probably view as a fancy meal even though you didn’t spend son or Robert Wyatt — and much money and didn’t exert some of them are odd, synth- yourself too much. — Lindsey Millar pop slow dances. Here are four to start with: “Woncha Come On Home,” “Willow,” “Love and Affection,” “The Weakness in Me.” The last is especially scarring; imagine Joni Mitchell warbling over the “Twin Peaks” theme song. It’s a great Valentine’s Day anthem because it’s about confusion. So really — and maybe this is what I actually mean to say — it’s not at all a great Valentine’s Day anthem. — Will Stephenson

ven in 1621, men were trying to convince hesitant women to have sex with them. I know this because of the droll poem by Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress,” which begins “Had we but world enough, and time/ This coyness, Lady, were no crime.” The would-be lover tells his coy mistress that she deserves an eternity of his admiration: “An hundred years should go to praise/Thine eyes and on they forehead gaze; two hundred to adore each breast/But thirty thousand to the rest;/An age at least to every part,/And the last age should show your heart.” But … the lover hears “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near” and unless coy mistress gives it up now, it may come to pass that “Thy beauty shall no more be found,/Nor in thy marble vault, shall sound/My echoing song: then worms shall try/ That long preserved virginity,/ And your quaint honor turn to dust,/And into ashes all my lust./The grave’s a fine and private place,/But none, I think, do there embrace.” Instead, the would-be lover urges, “Now let us sport while we may,/And now, like amorous birds of prey/Rather at once our time devour.” In other words, let’s get it on! Marvell, who could resist you! Or any man who could argue like that. Gents, memorize the whole poem, all 46 of its seductive lines, or tuck a copy into a box of chocolates. — Leslie Newell Peacock

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30 www.arktimes.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

NOT A LOVE STORY Because Valentine’s Day is a garbage holiday, here are tales of woe, heartbreak and missed connections.

Break-up sex A plan goes awry. By Anonymous

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

’ve been on OK Cupid since 2009, off and on. It can be really quality, but you have to have patience. Every now and then a gem will pop up — like this guy, John (all the names have been changed). This was in 2013. I remember I was at the climbing gym, looking at my phone, and thought, “Who the hell is this? Where did he come from?”

He’s someone you’d never think you’d find in Little Rock; he was fascinating. He’s Syrian-born, Frenchraised and lived in America since he was 16. He’d been traveling around the world for 18 months. He was a photographer and had this really pretty life that he painted on OK Cupid. So I message him, and we meet up at the White Water Tavern — and it’s,

like, talk for hours. This guy was brilliant. He had his Ph.D. from MIT. He spoke like five languages. And then, to top it all off, he was handsome — like, super good-looking — and humble. So humble. This was like the package deal. We just sat outside and talked and talked and talked. It was starting to get cold, and he puts his arm around

me. I’m like, oh my God, this guy is perfect! So I say, “Hey, let’s go drink some hot tea at my house.” We sit and drink tea and talk and make out on the couch. We say goodbye at, like, 3 in the morning. It was this fabulous evening — I’ve never connected with anyone that fast and easy. We made arrangements to meet up a few days later. He shows up at my house, and he’s acting very different. Significantly more downtrodden; he’s bummed. He’s like, “I have something to talk to you about.” He was in college when his parents became citizens, so he was too old to get citizenship with them. In order to stay in the States, he went through grad school straight through without any breaks. Now he’s like, SOL. He breaks it to me that, basically, he came back home to the U.S. expecting that he would get a work visa and hang out here indefinitely. But he wasn’t really up on his game: It’s October, and there are no work visas available, because they go, like, on the first day. He had a limited number of (nonconsecutive) days that he could stay in the States, and he wanted to come back to be with his family for the holidays, so he was like, “I’ve got to leave — it’s just a matter of time, now or later.” We’re faced with this dilemma. Do we pursue the relationship? He kind of left it up to me, but I felt so strongly about him, immediately. In my mind, I thought, “Maybe this could extend beyond the month. Maybe we could make something work. And then I thought, “Just knowing this person is worth it,” because he was so fascinating, and so kind. He was … lots of things. So I said, “Let’s just do it. Let’s enjoy the time we have together, and, you know, go with it.” We had a really good month and a half, and I just totally fell for him. Like, face-planted, you know? When he left, it was a huge heartache. I knew it was going to be, and I did it anyway. He went to Mexico City because it was cheap. He got a shitty little apartment there and worked on writing and doing things he needed to get done. But it was weird. We’d left on really good terms, and then he was MIA. Like, incommunicado. I would email him and stuff, and I got a little obsessive about it. He’d say, “Look, I’m not avoiding you — I’m just really struggling here. I’m being a recluse.” I was concerned about his well-being, because he sounded so

And then I thought, “Just knowing this person is worth it,” because he was so fascinating, and so kind. He was … lots of things. stressed. I wanted to be there for him, but he wouldn’t let me. It was really painful and frustrating. It was a total turn from the attentive partner that I’d seen the previous month — aloof and emotionally unavailable. So then he came back for the holidays, and we met at Flying Saucer. It was New Year’s Day. We’re just like, hanging out, but he’s not the same. It is the same, because I can look in his eyes and feel the same. But it’s not the same, because he’s a little bit more — just a little bit — standoffish, or guarded. I’m like, dammit, what is this? And then he tells me about this girl in Mexico. He had met her at some point while he was traveling the previous year, and they had had a romance. He had briefly told me about her before — but apparently she came to Mexico and lived with him, and he never told me. I was so hurt. I was sitting there crying, and I was like, “Why weren’t you just open with me? You could have told me this, and I would have understood. I know that there’s other women in your life, I know that you have feelings for this woman — like, I can get that, and it’s so much easier, actually, if you were honest.” So we’re talking, and he’s apologizing — he knows he should have told me, he feels really guilty. And then … I don’t know how, but we moved on from the painful conversation, and eventually he brings up this conversation we’d had before he left. About threesomes. He was one of those guys who would talk about anything, so we had talked about our love lives in detail. It was something we’d said, like, “Maybe one day we’ll do that.” And then we’re sitting there at the Saucer, and he brings this up kind of out of nowhere. By then, I was hanging out with this other guy, Tom. We were real casual and there was no commitment or anything there. But — well, he had

brought up the same thing a week or two before, and when I had asked Tom, you know, a preference of male or female, he said he didn’t care. So I said to John, the Syrian guy, “There … is … some potential here.” I realize that that’s kind of nuts. But I thought, “I can be really pissed at this guy — or I can just take it for what it’s worth and enjoy what I can enjoy now, which is something that I’m very interested in enjoying, and he is, too. Let’s just go with it, you know?” And at that point I had already had to get over him, in a sense, because of this whole last two months without contact. John had said he was more interested in a female partner, which, I’m not really interested in that? I’d much prefer to have two guys, rather than a guy and a girl. I realize most men are the opposite. So I told him, “I think we could make that happen with this guy.” And he was like, “Well, yeah, I was really interested in the other …” And I was like, “But — we could do both. Because I think I know a girl, too … .” And he’s like, “OK. Deal.” The problem is that we have like a week and a half to make both of these happen. So I call Tom and asked him if he meant it when we talked about a threesome a couple of weeks ago. And how about tonight? And he’s like, “Sure.” We grab some whiskey from the liquor store and head over to Tom’s house, and I’m like, “Hey. This is John. This is Tom.” They had never met each other. But the cool thing about it was that they were both, like, my lovers and I knew them both very intimately. We sat around for maybe a half hour, drank a little bit, just chatting with each other. Tom had Beyonce’s new album, which she had just dropped online. He put that on repeat, and we just — when I hear that album

now, that’s what I think about. It’s a pretty sexy album, and it was a pretty sexy night. I thought it was just absolutely spectacular, actually. So then I talk to my female friend. She and I had had really open sexual conversations before, and she’s a very open person, and she had expressed interest in that situation, although not necessarily with me. She’s somewhat interested, albeit somewhat skeptical. She was like, “Well, how about I hang out with you guys and we get to know each other?” She wanted to ease into it, which we really didn’t have time to do, considering the short schedule. And then … what happened is that I start my period. This is a huge kink in the works. I mean, it’s one thing to have sex with a guy on your period; it’s another thing to have a threesome. I’m not gonna go there. And, eh, I didn’t really want to do the girl? I was doing it to be fair, and, you know, for exploratory purposes, but it wasn’t really my thing. So I call John to break the news — A, she’s not that interested and wants more time to ease into this, and, B, ah, the situation has changed. He blows up. He explodes. I knew he was going to be disappointed, but his disappointment was more like a 5-year-old’s tantrum. He accused me of manipulating the entire situation. He was like, “You did this on purpose,” and I was like, “Well, I wasn’t super excited, but I was going to do it for you,” and he just went off. We met for coffee before he left the country. I think the big element was that he had cheated on his girlfriend with me. You know, maybe he was thinking, “I’m going to be with her forever, and this is my last chance to do this.” I don’t know what their situation was — monogamous or not. I didn’t ask. But he was basically, like, “I have to break this to her now,” and he never got the experience that he had really wanted — just the one that I had really wanted. We ended on decent terms. Somewhat strained. And then, a little later, he told me that he thought it best we not talk anymore, because they were moving to Europe together. I talked to him a couple times after he told me not to — just curious — and he took it the wrong way and blocked me on everything. I haven’t talked to him since. To my knowledge they’re still together, living in Berlin. —As told to Benjamin Hardy www.arktimes.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

BODY BY THE ROCK: Dahlgren's Second Life avatar is modeled on Dwayne Johnson's body.

Napoleon Dynamite, fresh out of jail Chain-smoking and talking about his ex-girlfriend on a first date. By Anonymous

T When Second Life got real A relationship became complicated. By Skip Dahlgren

oon after I became active on the virtual community known as Second Life, I became friendly with several women, some of whom I engaged in online romance. Given the sophistication of the Second Life programming, one’s avatar, or virtual alter ego, can engage in any sort of relationship or intimacy possible in real life, albeit with the avatars doing the physical interactions while the individuals meet mind-to-mind. The intensity of such connections can be powerful and very real. One woman I began associating with regularly, whom I’ll call Andrea, soon occupied more and more of my time. We shared many interests in life and seemed extremely compatible. She was married, and her husband also was on Second Life, but they lived an open marriage in real life and went their own ways online. I have never been married, but have always preferred to retain at least some level of openness in my relationships. As Andrea and I spent more time together and became more deeply involved, she arranged to come to visit me in Little Rock, and we spent 16

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

an intense weekend together, the first of several during the time we were involved. However, from the moment when she returned home from the first visit, her openness was gone, replaced by extreme jealousy. She began to insist that I no longer associate with any of my other online women friends, some of whom I had also been having intimate virtual relations with. I told her that I wasn’t willing to do this, so she began stalking my avatar, breaking in on me whenever I was with another friend and viciously insulting them. I arranged for us to meet with an online relationship counselor in an attempt to save what was left of our situation, but after a couple of sessions, it was quite certain that she was completely unwilling to accommodate, so I broke off the relationship. Within a week, she was sexually involved with the counselor online and soon thereafter traveled from the U.S. to Great Britain to be with him in real life. The end of this debacle with Andrea left me battered and bitter and unable for some time to resume any meaningful dating relationship.

his was probably close to 20 years ago. I was just out of college and my friend set me up with a friend of her boyfriend. Sure. Why not? It’s early September in Little Rock, so it’s hot. I wore a cute skirt and top and sandals. He showed up in Napoleon Dynamite ski boots, jeans and a turtleneck. OK, maybe he’s cold-natured. Then we go to eat. Not somewhere fun. I was thinking Cafe Prego or even The Faded Rose would be nice. Nope. Applebee’s. In the smoking section where he proceeds to chain-smoke through dinner and talk about the following things: 1. His ex-girlfriend. 2. How much he still loved above exgirlfriend. 3. How amazing their sex life was. 4. How he still lives with his parents. 5. How he just got out of jail. 6. Maybe we can go to a movie after dinner? Um — nope. Busy. Got to go to work early tomorrow. (By the way, when he started in on his sex life — talking about how his ex was

Asian and super kinky, so lots of S&M, swings and whips and chains — I just did my best to keep a straight face and remember everything because while I knew there would be no second date, there would be an outstanding story in this). He takes me home. I say thank you and get out of the car. I go up to my apartment door, and he follows me. I tell him thank you again, and he leans in for a big stinky chain-smoking kiss. “Thanks — I don’t kiss on the first date.” (Not true, but true enough right then) and he responds with, “Well, I do.” Thank goodness the phone rings (remember, pre-cell phone), so I run inside and slam the door and lock it. It’s my mom, who was going to leave a message to tell me she hoped my date went OK. Her response was priceless. “Well, since it’s 7 p.m. and you’re answering the phone, can I assume there won’t be a second date?” There was not a second date, but he did send me flowers and called me repeatedly asking me out. I tried to be nice, but the gentle letdowns weren’t working. It took a good firm “this isn’t going to work; please don’t ever call me again” to get him to leave me alone.

Valentine’s with Tony Hawk Also, mariachis and food poisoning. By Matthew Rowe

hen I was 20 years old and a student at the University of Arkansas, my two friends Jimmy and Andrew and I decided to spend our Saturday night by getting out of the doldrums of the dorm and going to a Mexican restaurant known for its delicious, gut-busting food. We didn’t realize that it was Valentine’s Day until the host told us it might be hard for us to get a table on Valentine’s Day, Ohhergod, what were we thinking? We

said we’d wait, because we obviously had nothing better to do, and because we seriously underestimated people’s desire to eat gut-busting food with the person they loved. Thanks to the creative problemsolving of the restaurant staff, the three of us wound up sitting shoulder-toshoulder, directly across from a mariachi band that had been hired that night. I watched a man sing with all his might about the affairs of the corazon. I acci-

dentally made eye contact with one of the members of the band while he was scanning the room. I watched the structural integrity of a spit valve on a trumpet fail. The cheese dip was solid, though. We returned to the dorms to play Tony Hawk Underground on the Xbox, which had been won earlier in the year by easily gaming a local Taco Bell email contest. Shortly after returning, Jimmy, feeling the effects

of food poisoning, began projectile vomiting. Andrew took the lead in the cleanup, and I continued to complete goals on Tony Hawk Underground. Andrew left to go to the pharmacy and came back having smashed his car into a vehicle barrier, leaving a pretty gnarly indent on the front of his Saturn. Jimmy continued to vomit. I damn near beat Tony Hawk in one sitting, though.

7th Street Tattoo We know

LOVE HURTS!

but sometimes LW·V ZRUWK WKH SDLQ

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By appointment OR walk-in! (501)372-6722

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FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Sweet tarts By Anonymous

I Shop shop LOCAL ARKANSAS TIMES 18

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ARKANSAS TIMES

once had a Tinder date that resulted in me being his registered companion for free f lights for a year. I once had three online dates in one night (the third was by accident). There was the time a standup comedian recognized me from Tinder and worked it into his comedy sketch (embarrassing but hilarious).

By Anonymous

ne time on a first date a guy read me poetry he had written and looked at me expectantly, so I said, “That’s really nice,” and he said, “Yeah, I wrote that for a former girlfriend, she loved it.” And then I sat

on a barstool and it collapsed underneath me.

By Anonymous

few years ago, when I was on eHarmony, I was matched up with a gentleman who happened to be a plastic surgeon. That fact didn’t give me a very positive first impression (I imagined a superficial man with a big ego and unrealistic expectations about women), but one of my goals going into online dating was to keep an open mind. There’s a chance he doesn’t spend all day doing breast augmentations, I thought. Maybe he also fixes cleft palates with Doctors Without Borders. After a few email exchanges, we

arranged to meet for lunch. I arrived early, and as I was looking out onto the parking lot, I saw a Hummer drive up. Please don’t be him, I thought. An attractive man in scrubs got out. It was him. He was in fact a cosmetic surgeon. Doing breast work and tummy tucks were his specialty; he even pointed me toward his website to check out the before-and-after pictures. He was proud of his work. Then, I guess because we were on the subject, he looked at me and said, “Yeah, I know yours are real. They’re nice.” I think I gave him a hesitant ‘thank you,’ after an uncomfortable silence. It was awkward from beginning to end. And that was the end.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 11 2016 Begins 7 p.m.

in ML Harris Auditorium on the Philander Smith College campus, free and open to the public. For more information call

Them dumplin’

501-370-5354.

No tickets or RSVPs required.

An infatuation with a party bus driver. By Rachael Borné

couple of years ago, I met a guy named Lloyd who owns a fleet of school buses that he races in rural Arkansas. We were both attending an idyllic farm wedding of a couple he had, on occasion, chauffeured by way of his party bus side business. On the night of the wedding, he was in charge of shuttling guests back to their cars after it got too dark for drunk people to walk successfully on unpaved ground. The ceremony was outdoors, at a beautiful spot tucked beneath Petit Jean Mountain. The couple said, “I do,” and the crowd released the contents of pressurized confetti tubes onto the grassy field around us. Cows grazed in the distance, just beyond a barbed-wire enclosure. A 10-piece soul band from Memphis brought serious grooves to the stage. There was an adorable canoe filled with beers, and I ate many helpings of pimento cheese from miniature Mason jar containers. It was a party. Lloyd rolled up to the scene after the ceremony. He had driven over

from his hometown of Morrilton. My sweetheart at the time, Max, and I were immediately drawn to him. We chatted with Lloyd for the better part of the night, infatuated and entertained by his vibe. He was a real good ol’ boy, and a dreamer, too. He gave us a tour of his party bus and humored our questioning with enthusiastic and heartfelt responses. The interior of the bus was graffitied with the signatures of previous passengers, the rows of seats replaced with little booths, like in Waffle House. The front console had been gutted and replaced with bumping speakers. On the tail end of the bus was a slogan that read, “Don’t be Tardy to the Party.” Lloyd himself looked just as you’d expect — handlebar mustache, cowboy boots and starchy blue jeans. He was tall with a modest but present belly, and his favorite filler word seemed to be “yu-up,” with a wide dip in the middle. Back in the day, Lloyd and his buddies operated an outlaw school bus

speedway in North-Central Arkansas. He told us he still owned 19 buses, and he invited Max and me to Morrilton so we could experience the thrill of the dirt track. “You can go as fast as you want,” he told Max. We were mesmerized and excited to have a new friend. Weeks later, we couldn’t stop talking about Lloyd. We wanted to drive those buses. Over dinner one night, we decided to give Lloyd a call to scheme our trip to Morrilton. On speaker phone, his twang rendered his words a little muddled and distant, but he was still the character we remembered. He asked what we were cooking up, and I answered: chicken and dumplings. We quickly finished the call with no concrete plans. Maybe we’d visit. Maybe we wouldn’t. Two days later, I was at the Container Store shopping for a laundry hamper. My phone dinged with a text message. It was from Lloyd: “Been thinkin’ ’bout them dumplin’.” I never spoke to him again.

Bree Newsome

Always sensitive to the essential roles that art and symbols play in shaping culture and consciousness, Bree Newsome courageously scaled the 30-ft flagpole in front of the South Carolina statehouse and removed the “stars and bars” declaring, “This flag comes down today!”

900 Daisy Bates Drive Little Rock, AR 72202 www.philander.edu

www.arktimes.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Arts Entertainment AND

True believer A Q&A with Tyrone Jaeger. BY WILL STEPHENSON

yrone Jaeger is a professor of English and creative writing at Hendrix College and the author of a new short story collection, “So Many True Believers,” which will be published by Queen’s Ferry Press on Feb. 16. His fiction has appeared in the Oxford American, The Literary Review and the Southern Humanities Review, and his novella, “The Runaway Note,” was published in 2012. The stories in Jaeger’s new book flirt with the fantastical — whether UFO cults or the mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs — but they are most startling and compelling for their humanity, their ability to give us access to a narrator’s pained, neurotic, hopeful interiority. Lauren Groff, author of last year’s National Book Award-nominated “Fates and Furies,” calls Jaeger’s new book “gentle and melancholy, a story collection linked like a set of Christmas lights, a series of bright bulbs glowing against the cold and dark night.” Mark Richard calls it a “wonderful book of songs from a single musical; heartbreak songs, songs of wonder and disbelief.” Jaeger will read from the book at Hendrix on March 1, along with poets Jessica Jacobs and Hope Coulter, and an official book launch will follow on March 29, at the Oxford American Annex. We spoke recently about short stories, solitude and the influence of Arkansas on his fiction. What do you think short stories can do better than novels? When Peter Ho Davies visited Hendrix some years ago, he said that the difference between a short story and a novel is that you can hold an entire short story in your head. I like this; it suggests that we can experience and come to know a short story in a very intimate manner. A novel, 20

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ARKANSAS TIMES

even a short novel, becomes more elusive and mysterious, a thing we cannot quite possess. Davies also said that a novel can get away with a bad ending while a short story cannot. A story entirely depends on the resonance of the ending. For me, when I write a short story, I feel like I can swing for the stands, just really let loose.

Richard’s first story collection, “The Ice at the Bottom of the World.” J. D. Salinger’s “Nine Stories” and everything by Flannery O’Connor made me want to write stories. Barry Hannah’s “Airships” is a rush, and the stories that make up his novel “The Tennis Handsome” are delightfully depraved. I read that you’d worked on the title story for several years before publishing it in the Oxford American. How do you know when a story is finished? You’re asking the wrong person — I never know when something is done. Stories are like an oil painting where the paint never really dries, which means that you can get back in there and keep pushing the paint around. Six months after Erin McKnight from Queen’s Ferry Press accepted “So Many True Believers” I had what amounted to a panic attack and con-

vinced myself that the collection was a mess. So I went back and reworked many of the stories, tightening the connections. The center piece, a story called “These Are My Arms” doubled in length. After I sent the revisions to Erin, I didn’t hear from her immediately — it was probably only a few days, but my anxiety stretched time — and I convinced myself that she hated the revisions and would refuse to publish the book. Fortunately, she loved the revisions. I knew the stories were done after Erin painstakingly edited the manuscript. The stories were done when she said they were done. Has Arkansas exerted any sort of noticeable influence on your fiction? “Mercy Comes Calling” is set on Lake Conway. The summer my wife and I moved to Arkansas, we frequently ate at The Fish House, a restaurant

What are the story collections you’ve returned to most over the years? One of my favorite story collections is “Jesus’ Son” by Denis Johnson. The prose hums, and the situations in the book are often grim; there’s an underlying humor and brutal selfawareness that fascinates me. Recent loves are Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit From the Goon Squad” and George Saunders’ “Tenth of December” (all of his story collections are great). You can’t beat the sentences in Isaac Babel’s “The Red Cavalry Stories.” Sometimes when I sit down to write, I will copy a few sentences from the collection as a kind of stretching exercise. An example: “The orange sun is rolling across the sky like a severed head, gentle light glimmers in the ravines among the clouds, the banners of the sunset are fluttering above our heads. The stench of yesterday’s blood and slaughtered horses drips into the evening chill” (from “Crossing the River Zbrucz”). WRITER TYRONE JAEGER: Belief in stories “allows people to endure.” As a young writer, I learned a lot from Mark

ROCK CANDY

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

where they have a combo meal called “The Snag.” I ate a few of those, and having had waited tables in my youth, I started writing a story about a waitress that lived on Lake Conway. The lake, with its trailers, fishing shacks and bald cypress spurred my imagination, and somehow I ended up writing a story about euthanasia. My first book, “The Runaway Note,” is set in a surreal version of the Catskills (the Kaats Kills), but I conjured the book’s spirit from “The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You,” a book-length poem by Arkansas writer Frank Stanford. To me, “The Runaway Note” is very Arkansas. I grew up in New York’s Catskills Mountains, and it seems to me that rural/urban distinctions might shape people more than regional distinctions like North and South. The Catskills cultivated my ability — my desire — to be alone for long stretches of time, which is vital for me as a writer. A couple of your characters are teachers — how has teaching affected your work? Teaching has affected my work in many ways. For one, teaching makes me a better reader, which in turn improves my writing. Teaching has proven to be some of my best subject matter. For about 10 years, I taught at a couple of different private high schools — one in Orlando, Fla., and the other in Denver, Colo. — that were geared towards at-risk youth. Those students had a profound influence on me. Many of them had horrible experiences in public schools, and it became my mission to connect with them and get them interested in the world. Sometimes I succeeded, often I failed. They taught me a lot. I’m still writing from the imprint they left on me. Does writing come easy for you, or is it a painful, arduous process? Yes, writing comes easy for me and it’s also a painful, arduous process. I love writing. I hate writing. I never want to write again, and I want to write all day, every day. Writing is dreaming for me, and I can dream most anywhere. I dream best on a computer.

you imagine these stories relating to one another? Well, the stories are connected via character and the Nat Mota School, so characters recur in different stories. But they also relate through shared motifs or refrains. There’s a Joan Didion quote that I sometimes think about: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” Didion points toward the human inclination to interpret the observable world, to create motive and causality, to impose narrative especially where it’s not readily apparent. My corollary to Didion’s statement,

which is perhaps the crux of the collection, is that we need to believe the stories we or others create about the world. Subjective reality is a scary business. The stories in “So Many True Believers” explore how belief, no matter how misguided or ill-conceived, allows people to endure. Belief is tied to mystery, or suggests mystery, and in a world where information about anything is instantly at our fingertips,

mystery is sometimes in short supply. We need more mystery. We’re better people when we bathe in mystery — really, what else is there? You live in Conway, though you aren’t from Arkansas originally. Do you ever feel an urge to move somewhere bigger, or with more of a built-in cultural infrastructure? I live with my family in the woods on a lake just outside of Conway. On our little ridge, we have solitude and beauty. The only time I miss living in a city is when I’m visiting one.

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Certain images and elements recur in these stories — mermaids, a specific high school in Denver. How did www.arktimes.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY WILL STEPHENSON

FRIDAY 2/12

‘EMMETT TILL: THE MURDER THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD’ 6 p.m. Sturgis Hall. Free.

THE GREAT DESTROYER: Low plays at Low Key Arts in Hot Springs at 8 p.m. Thursday, $20.

THURSDAY 2/11

LOW

8 p.m. Low Key Arts. $20

Low, the beloved indie rock band that has released 11 albums since forming in 1993, has often been described as funereal, minimalist, inscrutable or aloof. Like Jeb Bush, they were once pegged as “low energy,” and the label stuck. They used to embrace it. An early promo biography read: “Low is a trio from Duluth, Minnesota, who make very slow music. That’s

not the only thing there is to their music, or even the most important thing, but it’s what you’ll notice first.” Originally considered in the context of celebrated earlier introverts like Galaxie 500, their dirgelike tempos and hushed sparseness over time began to be considered as stylistic markers that merited the creation of a new subgenre — slowcore — a label rejected by most of the groups it described, like Bedhead and Codeine. They made dour guitar rock that both simulated depres-

sion and perfectly complemented it. Listen to the music Low has released in the last decade, though, and this description will seem inadequate, if still essentially understandable. Their arrangements have become more sophisticated, their instrumentation more diverse. The band’s music has always been grounded in the downbeat vocal duo of singers Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker — who are married, and Mormon — and their harmonies have only gotten subtler and more dynamic.

THURSDAY 2/11

FRIDAY 2/12

ARKANSAS TIMES MUSICIANS SHOWCASE

SINBAD

This week’s semifinal round of the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase features The Uh Huhs, a Little Rock garage punk band that released its debut 7-inch last year on Fast Weapons Records; soulful blues-rockers Love and a Revolver; Oddy Knocky, the new project from Paul Bowling of Trusty and Glittercore; and Trey Johnson & Jason Willmon, an acoustic-and-harmonica blues duo. This round’s winner will join SOULution and Sean Fresh & the Nasty Fresh Band in the Showcase finals, which will be held at Revolution on Friday, Feb. 26.

Sinbad was born David Adkins, but after his discharge from the Air Force in the 1980s, he rejected the name in tribute to Sinbad the Sailor, a Persian folk legend who traveled the world battling monsters and accumulating precious jewels. It’s a fitting name. He distinguished himself first on the stand-up circuit, and later as a featured player on sitcoms like “A Different World.” He got his own show in the early

8 p.m. Stickyz. $5.

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

7:30 p.m. Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA. $27-$35.

Historian Devery Anderson will appear at the Clinton School’s Sturgis Hall this week to discuss his new book on one of the most devastating and legendary crimes of the 20th century American South, in which 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi by a group later acquitted by an all-white Mississippi jury. The incident was galvanizing to the emergent civil rights movement, and has been explored and written about countless times over the years. But as the late Julian Bond wrote in the book’s foreword, “You may think, as I did, that you know the totality of this tale, but you will learn much that is new, as I did. That is because Anderson has tracked down every source; read every testimony, description and transcript; interviewed every living witness; and read the memories of the departed.” The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger calls it “the most research-intensive and comprehensive book ever produced about the 1955 murder.”

’90s, “The Sinbad Show,” but like most children of the ’90s, I remember him better for his film roles. There was “Houseguest,” in which he impersonated a dentist to escape a debt to the mob, and “Good Burger,” in which he played a character named Mr. Wheat, whose car was crushed at the end by an enormous hamburger. Even better, there was Disney’s “First Kid,” in which he starred as a Secret Service agent forever one step behind the mischievous president’s son, and “Jingle All the Way,” which remains one of the saddest, truest and angriest Christmas films I’ve ever seen.

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 2/11

SATURDAY 2/13

MONDAY 2/15

‘THE SHINING’

BILLY JOE SHAVER

If you’ve seen the 2012 documentary “Room 237,” you know that despite what it claims to be about, Stanley Kubrick’s horror classic “The Shining” is actually about the Holocaust, the faking of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the genocide of the Native Americans and the myth of the Minotaur. Among other things! The fact is, this film is gloriously ambiguous in ways that few Hollywood genre efforts are permitted to be. I’m interested in just about anyone’s interpretation, except for maybe Stephen King’s. (King, who wrote the novel, hated Kubrick’s adaptation, presumably because he has awful taste in movies.) It’s a Rorschach test, a treatise on the horrors of writer’s block, solitude, marriage, alcoholism, childhood and hedge mazes.

Unlike Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver was never going to record a “Stardust.” Unlike Kris Kristofferson, he couldn’t act. Of the remaining first-generation outlaw county artists, Shaver is the one who best embodies the ragged, hopeless principles of that moment. He didn’t just sing about “Old Five and Dimers,” he sang about “Old Five and Dimers Like Me.” He was one of them. He lost fingers in a sawmill accident, did stints in the Navy and the rodeo, shot a man outside of a bar in Lorena, Texas. (“Where do you want it?” he supposedly asked the guy.) Waylon Jennings, who has never been accused of either innocence or credulity, recorded a whole album of Shaver’s songs because they said what he wanted to say. Bob Dylan once sang that he was “listening to Billy Joe Shaver, and I’m reading James Joyce.” It’s a great line, because it asserts both the strangeness of that comparison — Shaver and Joyce — and the rightness of it.

7 p.m. Ron Robinson Theater. $5.

9 p.m. White Water Tavern. $25.

A STEVEN SPIELBERG FILM

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

'CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND': Screens as part of the Arkansas Times Film Series at Riverdale 10 Cinema at 7 p.m. Tuesday, $7.25

TUESDAY 2/16

‘CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND’ 7 p.m. Riverdale 10 Cinema. $7.25.

The Arkansas Times Film Series continues Tuesday with a screening of Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” a New Hollywood masterpiece that combines intimate human drama with blockbuster spectacle at its most profound and hypnotic — certain special-effects sequences approach pure visual abstraction, like fireworks. Richard Dreyfuss stars as a man who,

following a “close encounter” with a UFO, becomes unhinged in his obsessive search for answers and fulfillment. His life is either derailed or injected with new purpose by the search, depending on your perspective. (The film is stubbornly, admirably ambivalent on this score; the moral questions it poses are unusually complex for an alien epic.) Roger Ebert called it “an astonishing achievement ... one of the great moviegoing experiences.” The critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called it “the best expression of Spielberg’s benign, dreamy-eyed

vision,” and I’d agree with this: Unlike “Jurassic Park” or “War of the Worlds,” in which the inhuman exists only to be shot at, “Close Encounters” is about curiosity and wonder. It’s the only alien invasion film I’ve ever seen more concerned with the cosmic, metaphysical strangeness of the encounter than with the violence that follows it. I first watched it on a small wood-paneled TV at my great-aunt’s house in Tampa, Fla. Even there, it seemed bigger and grander than most Hollywood epics, and sadder, too.

WEDNESDAY 2/17

GIRLPOOL

8 p.m. Kings Live Music, Conway.

Girlpool is a duo from L.A. made up of college-aged singers Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad, who make neurotic, melancholy, percussionless indie rock that feels fragile and

Jeremy Haft, author and professor at Georgetown University, gives a talk at the Clinton School for Public Service’s Sturgis Hall titled “Unmade in China: The Hidden Truth about China’s Economic Miracle,” 6 p.m., free. Comedian Matt Sadler is at the Loony Bin at 7:30 p.m., $7 (and at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, $10). Mary “Melodious Red” Tucker performs at The Joint at 7:30 p.m., $10, as part of Rodney Block’s new “Block Party” concert series. Ecstatic synth-pop group BUHU plays at Vino’s with Open Fields and Ryan Saunders, 8:30 p.m., $6. Jazz-funk group Twice Sax plays at the Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7.

FRIDAY 2/12 “Driving Miss Daisy,” the 1989 drama starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, screens at Ron Robinson Theater at 7 p.m., $5. Local comedy troupe The Main Thing performs its new production, “Little Rock and a Hard Place,” at The Joint at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, $22. Randall Shreve & The Devilles play at Stickyz with Moonshine Mafia, 9 p.m., $8. Birmingham, Ala., indie-pop group Future Elevators plays at the White Water Tavern with Little Rock’s Bad Match, 9:30 p.m.

SATURDAY 2/13 “Disney Live! Mickey and Minnie’s Doorway to Magic” comes to Verizon Arena at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., $21.50-$56.50. “The Wizard of Oz” screens at Ron Robinson Theater at 2 p.m., $5. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center hosts a screening of the film “Love Jones,” starring Larenz Tate and Nia Long, at 6 p.m., $10. The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra presents “Broadway Rocks,” a collaboration with Broadway singers, at Pulaski Academy’s Connor Performing Arts Center, 7:30 p.m. (and 3 p.m. Sunday), $19-$58. Santa Cruz metal trio Archer plays at Vino’s with Hell Camino and Junkhead, 9 p.m., $6. Eureka Springs Americana group Mountain Sprout plays at Stickyz, 9 p.m., $10.

SUNDAY 2/14 homemade. Their songs are earnest and fraught with self-searching vulnerability, a kind of Lilith Fair-ready intensity reimagined for the generation of Rookie Magazine and “Broad City.” They sing about each other, their problems and anxieties. It’s a nostalgic

and explicitly childlike perspective; their debut album is called “Before the World Was Big.” Spin called the record “unflinchingly honest” and Pitchfork said that it “brims with a mysterious power, a charged and palpable sense of hope and awe.”

John Hughes’ high school classic “Pretty in Pink” screens at Cinemark Colonel Glenn 18 (formerly Rave) at 2 p.m. (and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday), $5.25. Megadeth lead guitarist Marty Friedman performs at Stickyz with Holy Grail at 7:30 p.m., $20 adv., $25 day of.

www.arktimes.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

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

9690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. LGBTQ/ SGL Youth and Young Adult Group, 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St.

FILM

“Driving Miss Daisy.” Ron Robinson Theater, 7 p.m., $5. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www.cals. lib.ar.us/ron-robinson-theater.aspx.

THURSDAY, FEB. 11

LECTURES

MUSIC

Almost Infamous (headliner), Smokey (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com. Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase. With The Uh Huhs, Love and a Revolver, Oddy Knocky and Trey Johnson & Jason Willmon. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $5. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com. BUHU, Open Fields, Ryan Sauders. Vino’s, $6. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com. “Inferno.” DJs play pop, electro, house and more, plus drink specials and $1 cover before 11 p.m. Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Low. Low Key Arts, 8 p.m., $20. 118 Arbor St., Hot Springs. Mary “Melodious Red” Tucker. The Joint, 7:30 p.m., $10. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-3720205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Open Jam. Thirst n’ Howl, 8 p.m. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com. Open jam with The Port Arthur Band. Parrot Beach Cafe, 9 p.m. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com. Twice Sax. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 9 p.m., $7. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

COMEDY

Matt Sadler. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $7. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

#ArkiePubTrivia. Stone’s Throw Brewing, 6:30 p.m. 402 E. 9th St. 501-244-9154. Little Mania Ultimate Midget Wrestling. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $10 adv., $15 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new.

“Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement.” A talk by author Devery Anderson. Sturgis Hall, 6 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn,1:30 p.m. post time. $2.50$4.50. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-6234411. www.oaklawn.com.

SATURDAY, FEB. 13

MUSIC

RUST IN PEACE: Megadeth lead guitarist Marty Friedman performs at Stickyz with Holy Grail, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, $20 adv., $25 day of.

FRIDAY, FEB. 12

Upscale Friday. IV Corners, 7 p.m. 824 W. Capitol Ave.

MUSIC

Adam Faucett and the Tall Grass, Ryan Wilcox. Vino’s, $7. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www. vinosbrewpub.com. All In Fridays. Envy. 7200 Colonel Glenn Road. 501-562-3317. Donna Massey & Blue-Eyed Soul (headliner), Richie Johnson (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-3755351. www.cajunswharf.com. Future Elevators, Bad Match. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Randall Shreve & The Devilles, Moonshine Mafia. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $8. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com. Route 66. Agora Conference and Special Event Center, 6:30 p.m., $5. 705 E. Siebenmorgan, Conway. Salsa Dancing. Clear Channel Metroplex, 9 p.m., $5-$10. 10800 Col. Glenn Road. 501-217-5113. www.littlerocksalsa.com. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

“Little Rock and a Hard Place.” An original production by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Matt Sadler. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., $10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com. Sinbad. Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 7:30 p.m., $27-$35. 350 S. Donaghey, Conway.

DANCE

Ballroom dancing. Free lessons begin at 7 p.m. Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center, 8-11 p.m., $7-$13. 12th and Cleveland streets. 501221-7568. www.blsdance.org. Contra dance. Park Hill Presbyterian Church, 7:30 p.m., $5. 3520 JFK Blvd., NLR. arkansascountrydance.org.

EVENTS

40th annual Arkansas RV Show. Statehouse Convention Center, Feb. 12-14. 7 Statehouse Plaza. LGBTQ/SGL weekly meeting. Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 501-244-

LECTURES

“Unmade in China: The Hidden Truth about China’s Economic Miracle.” A talk by Jeremy Haft, author and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Sturgis Hall, 6 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn: 1:30 p.m. post time, $2.50-$4.50. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411. www.oaklawn.com.

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

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Archer, Hell Camino, Junkhead. Vino’s, 9 p.m., $6. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com. Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, “Broadway Rocks!” A collaboration with Broadway singers performing classic Broadway songs. Connor Performing Arts Center, Pulaski Academy, 7:30 p.m., $19-$58. 12701 Hinson Road. El Campo, Dead Tree, Chris Denny, J. Beauford. Maxine’s. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www. maxinespub.com. K.I.S.S. Saturdays. Featuring DJ Silky Slim. Dress code enforced. Sway, 10 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-492-9802. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Mountain Sprout. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $10. 107 River Market Ave. 501372-7707. www.stickyz.com. Pickin’ Porch. Bring your instrument. All ages welcome. Faulkner County Library, 9:30 a.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org. Rock Candy (headliner), Chris DeClerk (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com. Stupid Cupid Party. Revolution, 7 p.m., $10. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www. rumbarevolution.com/new. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 8 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-370-7013. www. capitalbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

“Little Rock and a Hard Place.” An original production by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Matt Sadler. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $7-$10. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www. loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

40th annual Arkansas RV Show. Statehouse Convention Center, through Feb. 14. 7 Statehouse Plaza. Disney Live! Verizon Arena, 1 and 4 p.m., $21.50$56.50. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

Falun Gong meditation. Allsopp Park, 9 a.m., free. Cantrell and Cedar Hill Roads. Hillcrest Farmers Market. Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. 2200 Kavanaugh Blvd.

FILM

“Love Jones.” Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 6 p.m., $10. 501 W. 9th St. 501-683-3593. www. mosaictemplarscenter.com. “The Shining.” Ron Robinson Theater, 7 p.m., $5. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www.cals.lib.ar.us/ ron-robinson-theater.aspx. “The Wizard of Oz.” Ron Robinson Theater, 2 p.m., $5. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www.cals. lib.ar.us/ron-robinson-theater.aspx.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn: 1 p.m. post time, $2.50$4.50. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-6234411. www.oaklawn.com.

SUNDAY, FEB. 14

MUSIC

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, “Broadway Rocks!” A collaboration with Broadway singers, performing classic Broadway songs. Connor Performing Arts Center, Pulaski Academy, 3 p.m., $19-$58. 12701 Hinson Road. Irish Traditional Music Session. Hibernia Irish Tavern, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Marty Friedman, Holy Grail. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 7:30 p.m., $20 adv., $25 day of. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com. Synrg, Terrigh Barrnett, DJ Hudson. Revolution, 7:30 p.m., $10-$40. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new.

EVENTS

40th annual Arkansas RV Show. Statehouse Convention Center, through. 7 Statehouse Plaza. Artists for Recovery. Located in the Wesley Room, a secular recovery group for people with addictions, open to the public. Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, 10 a.m. 1601 S. Louisiana.

FILM

“Pretty in Pink.” Cinemark Colonel Glenn 18 + Xtreme, Feb. 14, 2 p.m.; Feb. 17, 2 and 7 p.m., $5.25. 18 Colonel Glenn Plaza Drive. 501-6870499.

SPORTS

Horse racing. Oaklawn: 1:30 p.m. post time, $2.50-$4.50. 2705 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-623-4411. www.oaklawn.com.

MONDAY, FEB. 15

MUSIC

Billy Joe Shaver. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $25. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Monday Night Jazz. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., $5. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196.

www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com. Open mic. The Lobby Bar. Studio Theatre, 8 p.m. 320 W. 7th St. Richie Johnson. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

TUESDAY, FEB. 16

MUSIC

The Hudson Falcons, Fiscal Spliff, Peace Boner. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Jeff Ling. Khalil’s Pub, 6 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Kevin Blake Goodwin. Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro, 6 p.m., free. 200 River Market Ave. 501-375-3500. www.dizzysgypsybistro.net. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Music Jam. Hosted by Elliott Griffen and Joseph Fuller. The Joint, 8-11 p.m., free. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com.

COMEDY

Stand-Up Tuesday. Hosted by Adam Hogg. The Joint, 8 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

EVENTS

Trivia Bowl. Flying Saucer, 8:30 p.m. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-8032. www.beerknurd. com/stores/littlerock.

FILM

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Part of the Arkansas Times Film Series. Riverdale 10 Cinema, 7 p.m., $7.25. 2600 Cantrell Road. 501-296-9955.

LECTURES

Larry Sampler. A talk by the assistant to the administrator in the office of Afghanistan and Pakistan affairs at USAID. Sturgis Hall, noon. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17

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MUSIC

Acoustic Open Mic. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com. Brian and Nick. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com. The Dangerous Idiots, Go Fast, Four on the Floor, The Hacking, American Lions. A memorial show for TC Edwards. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $8. 107 River Market Ave. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com. Drageoke with Chi Chi Valdez. Sway. 412 Louisiana. Girlpool. Kings Live Music, 8 p.m. 1020 Front St., No. 102, Conway. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.arktimes.com

Arkansas Times 02-11-16.indd 1

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

1/26/16 2:27 PM

MOVIE REVIEW

AFTER DARK, CONT. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 President Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Mark Currey. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 5:30 p.m. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbistroandbar.com. Open Mic Nite with Deuce. Thirst n’ Howl, 7:30 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

COMEDY

Gabriel Rutledge. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m.; $7. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com. The Joint Venture. Improv comedy group. The Joint, 8 p.m., $7. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

FILM

'HAIL, CAESAR!': George Clooney stars.

“Pretty in Pink.” Cinemark Colonel Glenn 18 + Xtreme, 2 and 7 p.m., $5.25. 18 Colonel Glenn Plaza Drive. 501-687-0499.

All ‘Hail’

“The Good Story: Inspiring Leadership.” A talk by author and M.I.T. professor Leigh Hafrey. Sturgis Hall, 6 p.m. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

LECTURES

The Coen Brothers return to frantic comedy in “Hail, Caesar!” BY GRANT TAYLOR

hen I first saw “No Country for Old Men,” at some North Georgia multiplex in the middle of the night, I was much younger and a little less obsessed with greed and destruction than I am now. I had no debt and fewer stitches, but I was still an idiot. I blinked in the darkness, breathing loudly during long periods of silence, as cowboys and lawmen fled or were pursued and slaughtered for whatever reasons. There was no music. I hardly felt like standing up by the end, and as the credits appeared onscreen, an old woman in front of me slapped her thighs and asked no one, “What was the point?” I didn’t know. Except, apparently, that our reward would be the grave. I blame the Coen brothers for making me talk this way, and I blame Cormac McCarthy a little. That movie is a brutal tragedy, and it’s full of the language of existential despair. I never read the book. On the other hand, “The Big Lebowski” is full of nihilists, pornographers, the perversions of the elite and John Goodman’s long, beautiful strands of profanity. Like most of the Coen’s movies, the whole thing is about a mix-up. I always laugh when Donny dies, because it’s everyone’s fault. Millions of people saw “O, Brother, Where Art Thou?” (and bought the soundtrack) and were singing about sorrow after everything 26

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

is destroyed in a flood. And they were smiling! Those two are comedies! “Hail, Caesar!” asks the same questions about futility and defeat and purpose as the others, and that’s a comfort in some ways, because it is also funny. There is a suitcase full of money and a cowboy and a benign narrator, adding perspective and transitions between acts. Although they ask a lot of questions, the Coen brothers have few answers for us, as ever. Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a “fixer” who buries crises caused by various Hollywood types and actors for Capitol Pictures. He is religious and punctual, goes to confession, wears a smart-looking watch and a small mustache. He is trying to quit smoking. A man from Lockheed Corp. in a Chinese restaurant offers him a job, offers him cigarettes. His current job is a disaster. He manages the egos of the studio’s talent, covers up their affairs and benders and pregnancy scandals, and pays a ransom when one of them, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), is abducted. I don’t think Mannix sleeps in the movie at all. Baird is the star of the other “Hail, Caesar!” — the movie within the movie, the classic tale of the Christ — and plays a Roman converted by the power of the cross or the blood or the garment. Baird’s character freezes and becomes doe-eyed when he sees Jesus watering

some slaves. You never see his face, but you see the light of his face reflect off of Clooney’s heavy makeup. He is handsome, but for a second I imagined Will Ferrell playing Peter O’Toole. Jesus is tall with red hair. Some Communist writers who call themselves “The Future” feel cheated out of payment for scripts they’ve written, abduct Whitlock, discuss the politics and psychology of the era, give him finger sandwiches, deliver decent one-liners, and introduce some of the heavier concepts in the movie. With their wide Communist mustaches they chain-smoke and discuss “the dialectic.” I almost felt overwhelmed watching Mannix’s daily responsibilities compound, but I got used to the pace once I realized the stakes. The plot is secondary to the feel of “Hail, Caesar!” It all takes place over one day in 1952 or so. The people are at work and humanity is a farce. The relatively new threats of television and communism will disrupt the accepted order, but not yet. So Mannix goes about his business: helping DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) adopt her own child, watching Burt Gurney (Channing Tatum) do a six-minute tap routine, answering his phone the second it rings, checking his watch and going back to confession. But mostly it’s light enough to let go. Maybe two or three people in the whole movie learn something. As busy as Mannix is, he still takes time to watch the dailies or wait in the shadows of a soundstage, watching a take. He would like to be master of his absurd world, because life may be meaningless, but it keeps on going, and a lot of it is an illusion.

POETRY

Wednesday Night Poetry. 21-and-older show. Maxine’s, 7 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-321-0909. maxineslive.com/shows. html.

ARTS

THEATER

“Bus Stop.” A play by William Inge, directed by Tamara Boggs. Studio Theatre, through Feb. 21: Thu.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m., $16. 320 W. 7th St. “Fault.” An original new work by TheatreSquared director Robert Ford. Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, through Feb. 28: Thu.Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., Sun., 2 p.m., $22-$25. 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600. theatre2.org. “Mamma Mia!” Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m.; through Feb. 13, 8 p.m.; through Feb. 14, 2 p.m.; Sun., Feb. 14, 7:30 p.m., $40-$78. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600. Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, Mon., Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m.; Wed., Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m., $27-$40. 350 S. Donaghey, Conway. “Once on This Island: A Musical.” A Tonynominated musical set in the Caribbean, based on the novel by Rosa Guy. The Weekend Theater, through Feb. 28: Fri., Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 p.m., $20. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. www. weekendtheater.org. “Peter and the Starcatcher.” Arkansas Repertory Theatre, through Feb. 14: Wed., Thu., Sun., 7 p.m.; Fri., Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat., Sun., 2 p.m., $45. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www.therep.org. “Thirteen Clocks.” A children’s play by James Thurber. Arkansas Arts Center, through Feb. 14: Fri., 7 p.m.; Sat., Sun., 2 p.m., $12.50. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

NEW GALLERY EXHIBITS, EVENTS ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: 46th annual “Mid-Southern Watercolorists Exhibition,” Feb. 12-April 17; “Admiration,” painting by William Adolph Bouguereau, on

loan from San Antonio Museum of Art, Feb. 16-May 15; “Life and Light: “Nathalia Edenmont: Force of Nature,” 10 large-scale photographs, through May 1; “Photographic Travels through Latin America with Bryan Clifton,” through Feb. 14. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000. BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Painting 360: A Look at Contemporary Panoramic Painting,” Underground Gallery, opening reception 5-8 p.m. Feb. 12, 2nd Friday Art Night, show through April 30; “Earth Work: Photographs by Gary Cawood”; “Arkansas Pastel Society National Exhibition,” both through Feb. 27; “Photographic Arts: African American Studio Photography,” from the Joshua and Mary Swift Collection. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790. ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORP., 200 River Market Ave., Suite 400: “Behind the Ink,” printmaking demonstration, in association with exhibition “Printmakers Under 30,” work by Ben Watson, Daniella Napolitano, Catherine Kim, Kristin Karr and Regan Renfro, 5-8 p.m. Feb. 12, 2nd Friday Art Night. www. arcapital.com. CORE BREWING, 411 Main St., NLR: “x3mex: A Solo Exhibition,” through March 18. GALLERY 221 & ART STUDIOS 221, Second and Center streets: New works by Kasten McClellan Searles, through Feb. 27, reception 5-8 p.m. Feb. 12, 2nd Friday Art Night. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 801-0211. HEARNE FINE ART, 1001 Wright Ave.: “Colored Porches: Views from Within a Cultural Icon,” work by Arkansas artist Rex DeLoney,

reception 5-8 p.m. Feb. 12, talk by the artist 1 p.m. Feb. 13. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. 372-6822. HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM GALLERIES, 200 E. Third St.: “Arkansas Contemporaries: Then, Now and Next,” work by Arkansas artists Bryan Massey, Warren Criswell, Katherine Strause, John Harlan Norris, Katherine Rutter, Grace Mikell Ramsey and others, opens with reception 5-8 p.m. Feb. 12, 2nd Friday Art Night, with music by Shannon Wurst, craft cocktails by Pink House Alchemy, show through May 8; “Joe Barry Carroll: Growing Up … In Words and Images,” through April 17. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351. L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Ducks in Arkansas,” paintings by Louis Beck, through February, drawing for free giclee 7 p.m. Feb. 18. 660-4006. LOCAL COLOUR, 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Valentine Show,” pottery by Nancy Conley, sculpture by Jane Hankins, new works by Richard DeSpain, Bill Garrison and Richard Stephens, 7:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 11. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 265-0422. MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, 9th and Broadway: “I Walked on Water to My Homeland,” mixed media by Delita Martin, opening reception 6-8 p.m. Feb. 12, with talk by the artist, music by Acoustix. 683-3610. Pine Bluff ARTS AND SCIENCE CENTER FOR SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS, 701 S. Main St.: “A Flower’s Shade: Installation by Dawn Holder,” Feb. 11-April. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 1-4 p.m. Sat. 870-536-3375.

ARKANSAS GLASSHOPPERS, INC. Presents the 30th Annual DEPRESSION ERA & VINTAGE GLASS Show and Sale!

Join us Saturday, February 27 • 9am - 5pm and Sunday, February 28 • 11am - 4pm $5 admission covers both days. Parking is free. Hall of Industry, State Fairgrounds, Roosevelt & Howard Streets, Little Rock

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Twenty-four outstanding dealers from 14 states will display over 175 tables of sparkling glassware, pottery, and kitchen items of the era. Elegant glassware will also be available. SPECIAL DISPLAY BY JAMES HAYES INTERACTIVE PRESENTATIONS: Table Settings by Laura Lavender • Identification Marks by Daniel Ulz Call (501) 868-4969 for more information or email bgmarglass@sbcglobal.net, ARGlasshoppers@aol.com

www.ARGlasshoppers.org www.arktimes.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Dining

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

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

WHAT’S COOKIN’ BLUE CANOE BREWING Co., the craft brewtopia at 425 E. Third St. in Little Rock — a local hit since brew buddies Laura Berryhill, Ida Cowan and Patrick Cowan opened the taproom in December 2014 — will soon have a sister space next door: a 50-seat restaurant with a simple Tex-Mex menu. Berryhill said the restaurant will be called Taco, Beer, Burrito. As you might have guessed from the name, the menu will consist of variations on exactly those three items. Berryhill said the restaurant, in the old Brown Sugar Bake Shop location at 419 E. Third St., will have Blue Canoe brews and other local craft beers on tap. She said the liquor-permitting process is in the works, as are the renovations to the space, including a new bar and refitted kitchen. They’re shooting to open in April.

DINING CAPSULES

AMERICAN

1515 CAFE This bustling, business-suit filled breakfast and lunch spot, just across from the state Capitol, features old-fashioned, buffetstyle home cookin’ for a song. Inexpensive lunch entrées, too. 1515 W. 7th St. No alcohol. $-$$. 501-376-1434. L Wed.-Fri., D Mon-Sat. 4 SQUARE CAFE AND GIFTS Vegetarian salads, soups, wraps and paninis and a broad selection of smoothies in an Arkansas products gift shop. 405 President Clinton Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-244-2622. D Mon.-Sat., L Sun. ANOTHER ROUND PUB Tasty pub grub. 12111 W. Markham. Full bar, CC. $-$$. 501-313-2612. D Mon.-Thu., LD Fri.-Sun. BONEHEADS GRILLED FISH AND PIRI PIRI CHICKEN Fast-casual chain specializing in grilled fish, roasted chicken and an African pepper sauce. 17711 Chenal Parkway. Beer and wine, CC. $-$$. 501-821-1300. LD daily. BOULEVARD BISTRO AND BAR Fantastic casual fine dining with nightly specials. The gnocchi is divine. Great sandwiches and breakfast, too. 1920 N. Grant St. Full bar, CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-5949. BL daily, D Mon.-Sat. CAFE@HEIFER Serving fresh pastries, omelets, soups, salads, sandwiches and pizzas. Located inside Heifer Village. 1 World Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $. 501-907-8801. BL Mon.-Fri. CAPITAL BAR AND GRILL Big hearty sandwiches, daily lunch specials and fine evening dining all rolled up into one at this landing spot downtown. Surprisingly inexpensive with a great bar staff and a good selection of unique desserts. 111 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-370-7013. LD daily. CAPITOL BISTRO Serving breakfast and lunch items, including quiche, sandwiches, coffees and the like. 1401 W. Capitol Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-371-9575. BL Mon.-Fri. CATCH BAR AND GRILL Fish, shrimp, chicken 28

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

Deaditerranean At Zoe’s Kitchen.

ust in case you don’t have time to read everything that follows, we’ll do a one-word review on Zoe’s Kitchen, the fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain that has recently opened local outlets in West Little Rock and Park Plaza Mall. Ready? Zzzzzzzoe’s. The fast/casual/fresh trend has its ups and downs. Yes, you can now get completely custom burritos, pizzas, wraps and sandwiches that actually taste like something you might want to eat, and in about as much time as it would take you to order and receive a prepackaged gutbomb at a fast-food joint. The downside is, when fast/casual/fresh misses the mark, it’s usually fast/bland/disappointing, not to mention rather expensive. Fast is good. Delicious is better. All the quirky designer decor in the world can’t make up for dull food. Sadly, Zoe’s seems to be a concept that misses the mark, serving up Mediterranean-influenced grub that often tastes … well … is beige a flavor? Hard to see how one can prepare the cuisine of one of the most colorful and flavorful regions in the world so it makes you want to fall fast asleep, face down in your Greek salad, but somehow, they’ve done it. For a starter, we tried the red pepper hummus ($5.29), which came with wedges of pita bread. While the pita bread was soft, warm and fairly delicious, the hummus itself turned out to taste mostly like nothing, devoid — other than the dollop of red pepper goop in the middle — of the tangy, spicy, lemony, garlicky and/or peppery goodness that elevates hummus from mere smushed chickpeas into a substance we can eat by the pail if somebody doesn’t knock us away from the trough. Our dinner companion agreed that the goop that’s shipped to your local Kroger from God knows where in a plastic tub is better than Zoe’s hummus, and that’s being generous. Moving on, we tried the Mediterranean chicken ($9.29), while our companions sampled the chicken roll ups with a side of pasta salad ($7.69) and the Greek chicken pita with braised white beans ($7.59).

Everything arrived quickly and hot, beautifully arranged on lovely plates. Pretty is as pretty does, however, and there ain’t no ugly like boring. The Mediterranean chicken — grilled chicken breast and caramelized onions with a Greek side salad and pita bread — sure looked tasty. Once we dug in, though, we found what turned out to be possibly half a boneless chicken breast, so lacking in flavor that it might as well have been boiled. Ditto on the onions: beautiful, but dull as dishwater. How you make a grilled onion taste like it’s made of cellophane, we don’t know, but

dry. Ditto again for our other companion’s chicken pita, which was a snooze, lovely to look at, but seemingly without any seasoning. Our pal did brag on the braised white beans, however. Pro tip: When white beans of any sort are the star of a meal, it should tell you something. The gold standard when we’re on a review run is always this: If we were dining on our own dime instead of being treated to din-din by our Rich Uncle Alan, would we return? With Zoe’s Kitchen, the answer is a resounding no. While it’s likely a good choice if you’re counting calories or on some kind of restricted diet — there are quite a few vegetarian options, and it is a healthier choice for those watching their waistline — life is just too short to pay (with sodas) nearly $40 for what we got, especially when it had all the zing of a military MRE.

IF BEIGE WAS A FLAVOR: The chicken pita at Zoe's Kitchen.

mission accomplished. We’d substituted a side of their marinated slaw for the braised white beans that normally come with the dish. Though the menu had boasted slaw that included feta, scallions and a light vinaigrette, what we got literally tasted like dry, shredded cabbage. The same song was sung by our dining companions. The chicken roll ups looked fine, with feta, tomato, caramelized onions and salsa for dipping, but tasted somewhere between nursing home fare and eating a Styrofoam cup. Ditto on the pasta salad, which was almost completely

Zoe’s Kitchen 12900 Chenal Blvd. 227-0704

Quick Bite If you’re feeding a crowd (and weren’t persuaded by our review), Zoe’s offers family meals that feed four to six for $39.99, with your choice of chicken or veggie kabobs, grilled chicken breasts, chicken marinara or chicken or spinach roll ups, plus two fresh sides, hummus, pita bread and a Greek salad. Hours 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily Other info All credit cards accepted, no alcohol.

BELLY UP

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

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. and burgers, live music, drinks, flat-screens TVs, pool tables and V.I.P. room. 1407 John Barrow Road. Full bar. 501-224-1615. BLD daily. CATERING TO YOU Painstakingly prepared entrees and great appetizers in this gourmetto-go location, attached to a gift shop. Caters everything from family dinners to weddings and large corporate events. 8121 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-614-9030. Serving meals to go: LD Mon.-Sat. CIAO BACI The focus is on fine dining in this casually elegant Hillcrest bungalow, though excellent tapas are out of this world. The treeshaded, light-strung deck is a popular destination. 605 N. Beechwood St. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-603-0238. D Mon.-Sat. DOE’S EAT PLACE A skid-row dive turned power brokers’ watering hole with huge steaks, great tamales and broiled shrimp, and killer burgers at lunch. 1023 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-376-1195. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. DOUBLETREE PLAZA BAR & GRILL The lobby restaurant in the Doubletree is elegantly comfortable, but you’ll find no airs put on at heaping breakfast and lunch buffets. 424 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-372-4371. BLD daily. FIVE GUYS BURGERS & FRIES Nationwide burger chain with emphasis on freshly made fries and patties. 2923 Lakewood Village Drive. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-246-5295. LD daily. 13000 Chenal Parkway. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-225-1100. LD daily. FLYING FISH The fried seafood is fresh and crunchy and there are plenty of raw, boiled and grilled offerings, too. The hamburgers are a hit. It’s counter service; wander on through the screen door and you’ll find a slick team of cooks and servers doing a creditable job of serving big crowds. 511 President Clinton Ave. Beer and wine, All CC. $$. 501-375-3474. LD daily. FLYWAY BREWING A popular pico brewery that also serves up quality pub food and snacks. 314 Maple St. NLR. Beer, CC. $$. 501-350-8868. L Fri.-Sun., D Wed.-Sun. GINO’S PIZZA AND PHILLY STEAK You can get a pretty good Philly steak here in the wee hours. 8000 Geyer Springs Road. No alcohol, CC. $. 501-562-0152. LD daily. THE GRAND CAFE Typical hotel restaurant fare. 925 S. University Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-664-5020. BD daily. GREEN LEAF GRILL Cafeteria on the ground floor of the Blue Cross Blue Shield building has healthy entrees. 601 S. Gaines. No alcohol, CC. 501-378-2521. LULAV A MODERN EATERY Bistro-style menu of American favorites broken down by expensive to affordable plates, and strong wine list, also group-priced to your liking. Great filet. Don’t miss the chicken and waffles. 220 W. 6th St. Full bar, CC. $$$. 501-374-5100. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. LULU’S CRAB BOIL Cajun and Creole fare from the Chi family. The crab fingers and po’ boys are standouts. 5911 R St. Full bar, CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-2388. LD daily. THE MAIN CHEESE A restaurant devoted to grilled cheese. 14524 Cantrell Road. Beer and wine, CC. $-$$. 501-367-8082. BLD Mon.-Sat.

MILFORD TRACK Healthy and tasty are the key words at this deli/grill that serves breakfast and lunch. Hot entrees change daily and there are soups, sandwiches, salads and killer desserts. Bread is baked in-house, and there are several veggie options. 10809 Executive Center Drive, Searcy Building. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-223-2257. BL Mon.-Fri., L Sat. NEXT BISTRO AND BAR Live music, on the outdoor patio in nice weather, bar with specialty drinks like house sangria. No cover 2611 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. 501-663-6398. POTBELLY SANDWICH SHOP Tasty, affordable sandwiches from fast-casual chain. 314 S University Ave. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. 501-6604441. LD daily. PURPLE COW DINER 1950s fare — cheeseburgers, chili dogs, thick milk shakes — in a ‘50s setting at today’s prices. 8026 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-221-3555. LD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. 11602 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-4433. LD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. 1419 Higden Ferry Road. Hot Springs. Beer, All CC. $$. 501-625-7999. LD daily, B Sun. RACK’UM SPORTS BAR AND GRILL Burgers, pub food and free Wi-Fi. 2817 Cantrell Road. Full bar. 501-603-0066. D daily. THE RELAY STATION This grill offers a short menu, which includes chicken sandwiches and hamburgers. 12225 Stagecoach Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-455-9919. LD daily. THE ROOT CAFE Homey, local foods-focused cafe. With tasty burgers, homemade bratwurst, banh mi and a number of vegan and veggie options. Breakfast and Sunday brunch, too. 1500 S. Main St. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-414-0423. BL Tue.-Sat., BR Sun. WHICH WICH AT CHENAL Sandwiches in three sizes, plus cookies and milkshakes, online or faxed (501-312-9435) ordering available. Also at 2607 McCain Blvd., 501-771-9424, fax 501-771-4329. 12800 Chenal Parkway, Suite 10. No alcohol. 501-312-9424. WING LOVERS The name says it all. 4411 W. 12th St. $-$$. 501-663-3166. LD Mon.-Sat. WING SHACK Wings, catfish and more. 6323 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol. 501-562-0010.

ASIAN

A.W. LIN’S ASIAN CUISINE Excellent panAsian with wonderful service. 17717 Chenal Parkway H101. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-8215398. LD daily. OISHI HIBACHI AND THAI CUISINE Tasty Thai and hibachi from the Chi family. 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-603-0080. LD daily. PHO THANH MY It says “Vietnamese noodle soup” on the sign out front, and that’s what you should order. The pho comes in outrageously large portions with bean sprouts and fresh herbs. Traditional pork dishes, spring rolls and bubble tea also available. 302 N. Shackleford Road. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-312-7498. LD daily. SEKISUI Fresh-tasting sushi chain with fun hibachi grill and an overwhelming assortment of traditional entrees. Nice wine selection, also serves sake and specialty drinks. 219 N. Shackleford Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-221-7070. LD daily.

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FEBRUARY 11, 2016

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. SHOGUN JAPANESE STEAKHOUSE The chefs will dazzle you, as will the variety of tasty stir-fry combinations and the sushi bar. Usually crowded at night. 2815 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-666-7070. D daily. THREE FOLD NOODLES AND DUMPLING CO. Authentic Chinese noodles, buns and dumplings. With vegetarian options. 215 Center St. No alcohol, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-3721739. LD Mon.-Fri.

BARBECUE

CHIP’S BARBECUE Tasty, if a little pricey, barbecue piled high on sandwiches generously doused with the original tangy sauce or one of five other sauces. Better known for the incredible family recipe pies and cheesecakes, which come tall and wide. 9801 W. Markham St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-225-4346. LD Mon.-Sat.

EUROPEAN / ETHNIC

ARBELA MIDDLE EASTERN GRILL Excellent Middle Eastern fare. Try the falafel. 323 Center St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. 501-374-2633. L Mon.-Fri. KEBAB HOUSE Turkish-style doners and kebabs and a sampling of Tunisian cuisine. Only place in Little Rock to serve Lahmijun (Turkish pizza). 11321 W Markham St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. LD Mon.-Sat. MYLO COFFEE CO. Bakery with a vast assortment of hand-made pastries, house-roasted coffee and an ice cream counter. Soups and sandwiches, too. 2715 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer, CC. $-$$. 501-747-1880. BLD Tue.-Sun. SILVEK’S EUROPEAN BAKERY Fine pastries, chocolate creations, breads and cakes done in the classical European style. Drop by for a whole cake or a slice or any of the dozens of single serving treats in the big case. 1900 Polk St. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-661-9699. BLD daily.

ITALIAN

CAFE PREGO Dependable entrees of pasta, pork, seafood, steak and the like, plus great sauces, fresh mixed greens and delicious dressings, crisp-crunchy-cold gazpacho and tempting desserts in a comfy bistro setting. Little Rock standard for 18 years. 5510

Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-5355. LD Mon.- Fri, D Sat. GRADY’S PIZZA AND SUBS Pizza features a pleasing blend of cheeses rather than straight mozzarella. The grinder is a classic, the chef’s salad huge and tasty. 6801 W. 12th St., Suite C. Beer and wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-1918. LD daily. MELLOW MUSHROOM Popular high-end pizza chain. 16103 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-379-9157. LD daily. RADUNO BRICK OVEN AND BARROOM The South Main neighborhood’s renaissance continues with Raduno, an upscale pizza joint that also features sandwiches and unique appetizers (think mushroom gratin). 1318 S. Main St. Full bar, CC. $-$$. 501-374-7476. LD Tue.-Sat., L Sun. ROMANO’S MACARONI GRILL A chain restaurant with a large menu of pasta, chicken, beef, fish, unusual dishes like Italian nachos, and special dishes with a corporate bent. 11100 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-221-3150. LD daily. ZAFFINO’S BY NORI A high-quality Italian dining experience. Pastas, entrees (don’t miss the veal marsala) and salads are all outstanding. With a more affordable lunch menu. 2001 E. Kiehl Ave. NLR. Beer and wine, All CC. 501-8347530. LD Tue.-Fri., D Sat.

LATINO

BAJA GRILL Food truck turned brick-andmortar taco joint that serves a unique MexiCali style menu full of tacos, burritos and quesadillas. 5923 Kavanaugh Blvd. CC. $-$$. 501-722-8920. LD Mon.-Sat. CANON GRILL Tex-Mex, pasta, sandwiches and salads. Creative appetizers come in huge quantities, and the varied main-course menu rarely disappoints, though it’s not as spicy as competitors’. 2811 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-664-2068. LD daily. CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL Burritos, burrito bowls, tacos and salads are the four main courses of choice — and there are four meats and several other options for filling them. Sizes are uniformly massive, quality is uniformly strong, and prices are uniformly low. 11525 Cantrell Road. All CC. $-$$. 501-221-0018. LD daily.

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FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

NIGHT AT THE CIRCUS, CONT.

which he’s more closely aligned with Obama, Sanders and Hillary Clinton than he is his fellow Republicans. “These people are taking money from the special interests, and the lobbyists, and the drug companies are an example, and that’s why we don’t negotiate the cost of drugs. … So they’re selling it pretty much at a retail price — can you believe it? So we’re the biggest user in the entire world, and we’re paying like you walk into a drugstore and buy something over the counter … all because the drug stores, and the drug companies, have such power over our politicians.” The explanation was jumbled, but the message was comprehensible enough: Companies are making obscene profits off of necessary prescriptions, and the government rolls over and lets them do it. And this is from the GOP frontrunner. Trump is many things, but he’s not your average Republican candidate. To wrap up, he took questions from the crowd. “President Trump, I’ve heard talk about Christian churches losing their tax exempt status,” one man asked. “Under you, will we have more protections?” “I love the question … you know, with the evangelicals, I do amazingly well. I’m leading with evangelicals,” Trump said, sounding like he was talking shop with a pollster instead of addressing a crowd in the heart of the Bible belt. “Christianity is under siege, folks. It’s under siege. If I said some of the things I said about Christianity that I have said about, uh, other things, I would have had not the same difficulty.” Trump talks about Christians as if they’re a group to which he does not

belong. That is clearly in fact the case. The fascinating thing is that such a large number of them don’t find this to be much of a problem. In a recent New Yorker article, Ryan Lizza contrasted the philosophical and strategic differences between the Trump and Cruz insurgencies, and on Wednesday night, as I watched Trump disinterestedly toss a bone to aggrieved evangelicals, I realized another distinction. Yes, they’re both men thriving on the darker political emotions — fear, anger, grievance, despair, tribalism — but they’re fueled by different paranoid visions of ruin. Though Trump paints a picture of a fallen nation, it’s always framed in terms of a fall from strength — not a fall from grace. Morality simply seems foreign to him. His narrative is ominous, but it’s less explicitly apocalyptic than Cruz’s vision of an America in which evil stalks the land, abortionists murder babies by the millions and the government’s totalitarian ambitions unfold a little further every day. Trump rarely talks about the federal government as sinister; he talks about it contemptuously, as a collection of stupid, venal losers. Still, that doesn’t mean he won’t happily accept evangelical paranoia into his fold as well. “You can’t say Merry Christmas anymore,” he told the crowd. “If I win, folks, we’re all going to be saying ‘Merry Christmas.’ That I can tell you. … Folks, I love you, you’re special. SEC, get out and vote, we’re gonna change, this is change, we’re gonna Make America Great Again. Thank you, everybody.”

Did you know that Old Chicago was founded in Colorado in 1976 - and named after a pinball machine? The founders were friends who wanted a place to drink delicious beer, eat good food, and hang out - so they created it. We continue to honor that original intent today by offering the latest and best craft beers, supporting local breweries, and serving up an extensive menu to match. Come hang out. 4305 Warden Rd, North Little Rock • (501) 812-6262 • www.oldchicago.com

SENIOR WEB DEVELOPER Senior Web Developer sought by Transamerica Life Insurance Company in Little Rock. Code, test, identify, implmt & docs tech’l solutions to business challenges utilizing web & related technologies. Microsoft .NET framework 2.0/3.0/4.0 (ASP. NET Webforms/MVC & C#2.0/4.0), Web services & XML technologies (ASMX, WCF), Databases (SQL Server 2008 /Oracle). Reqs: Bach’s deg in Info Systems, Comp Sci or technically related field. Min 5 yrs work exp. Master’s deg in Info Systems, Comp Sci or related tech’l field w/ 3 yrs of exp is also acceptable. Work exp must incl 3 yrs of web dvlpmt exp using Microsoft .NET framework, web services & XML technologies. To apply visit Transamerica. com. All Transamerica companies are equal opportunity employers

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF PULASKI COUNTY, ARKANSAS PROBATE DIVISION IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF MCCLENNON JACKSON, DECEASED CASE NO.: 60PR-16-25 Name of dependents:Lucy Drogba-Jackson, widow Jacqueline Jackson, daughter Last known address:1008 Anemone North Little Rock, AR 72117 Date of Death: November 16, 2015 On January 5, 2016, an affidavit for collection of small estate by distributee was filed with respect to the estate of, McClennon Jackson, deceased, with the clerk of the probate division of the circuit court of Pulaski County, Arkansas, under Ark. Code Ann. § 28-41-101. On January 19, 2016, an amended affidavit for collection of small estate by distribute was filed with respect to the estate of, McClennon Jackson, deceased, with the clerk of the probate division of the circuit court of Pulaski County, Arkansas, under Ark. Code Ann. § 28-41-101. The legal description of the real property listed in the affidavit is as follows: S-T-R: 06-1N-10, Lot/Block: 222/, Subdivision: FAULKNER CROSSING PH 4, Parcel Number: 14N9000522200 Also known as: 1008 Anemone, North Little Rock, AR 72117 All persons having claims against the estate must exhibit them, properly verified, to the distributee’s attorney within three (3) months from the date of the first publication of this notice or they shall be forever barred and precluded from any benefit of the estate. The name, mailing address, and telephone number of the distributee’s attorney is: Theodis N. Thompson, Jr. THOMPSON LAW FIRM, PLLC 415 N. McKinley St. Suite 280M Little Rock, AR 72205 501.503.5095 This notice first published January 28, 2016. (C) Publication of this notice shall be as provided in §§28-1112 (b)(4) and 28-40-111(a)(4).

ARKANSAS TIMES MARKETPLACE

GROW grow LOCAL ARKANSAS TIMES

RESEARCH STUDY

• Men and women ages 18 - 60 • Healthy volunteers or persons suffering from depression • No major medical illness • 1 visit to complete questionnaires and interviews • 1 visit to complete brain imaging scan • All responses are kept confidential • Monetary compensation provided Principal Investigator: Dr. Ricardo Caceda, UAMS

CONTACT NOLAN KORDSMEIER 501-526-8487

ARKANSAS TIMES

MARKETPLACE TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.375.2985

ARKANSAS TIMES PUBLISHER

The SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS division of The Arkansas Times has a position open for a Publisher. If you have sales experience and enjoy the exciting and crazy world of advertising then we’d like to talk to you. We publish 4 publications: Savvy, AR Wild, Food & Farm and Shelter as well as corresponding websites and social media. What does all this translate to? A high-income potential for a hard working advertising executive. We have fun, but we work hard. Fast paced and self-motivated individuals are encouraged to apply. If you have a dynamic energetic personality, we’d like to talk to you. PLEASE SEND YOUR RESUME AND COVER LETTER TO ELIZABETH AT: ELIZABETHHAMAN@ARKTIMES.COM EOE.

www.arktimes.com

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Experience the

SPRING ROAD TRIP

on the Arkansas Times Art Bus

SATURDAY, APRIL 2 to

Join us for an art-filled day among the beauty inside Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and outside among the grounds and trails with our hosts, Dr. Gayle Seymour and Barclay McConnell. Walk the trails enjoying the breathtaking landscape and natural beauty surrounding Crystal Bridges

NEW THIS YEAR! TWO DEPARTURE LOCATIONS LITTLE ROCK & CONWAY!

Tour Frank Lloyd Wright’s newly opened Bachman-Wilson House

109

per person

See Two Special Exhibitions: Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention & The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip

PRICE INCLUDES: Tickets into Special Exhibitions Boxed lunch en route Dinner at a NW Arkansas favorite Round-trip Bus Transportation

ARKANSAS TIMES

RESERVE YOUR SEAT BY CALLING 501.375.2985 OR EMAILING KELLY LYLES AT KELLYLYLES@ARKTIMES.COM

Bus Transportation by Arrow Coachlines

Dr. Gayle Seymour is an Associate Dean in the UCA College of Fine Arts and Communications and a Professor of Art History with the UCA Department of Art. Barclay McConnell is the director of the Baum Gallery of Fine Art at UCA a and Faculty Member of the UCA Department of Art. Admission into Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is free. Like our Bus Trips page for details, updates and other perks! facebook.com/arktimesbustrips 32

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

ARKANSAS TIMES

TIM HURSLEY

CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART