Arkansas Times - January 8, 2015 by Arkansas Times

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JANUARY 8, 2015 / ARKTIMES.COM

ST. RUTH In the darkest hour of the AIDS epidemic, Ruth Coker Burks cared for hundreds of people whose families had abandoned them. Courage, love and the 30-year secret of one little cemetery in Hot Springs. by David Koon

2015

New Italian Chinese Japanese Mexican “Fun” Indian Other Ethnic Food Truck Vegetarian/Vegan Bakery Barbecue Sandwich Breakfast Brunch Catfish Fried Chicken Deli/Gourmet to go Hamburger Pizza

Since 1981, Arkansas Times has asked readers to vote for their favorite restaurants. Our annual Readers Choice Restaurant Awards are the first, and most renowned restaurant awards in the state. We’re introducing new rules for the survey this year: From Jan. 12 through Jan. 30, vote online at arktimes.com/ restaurants14 for your favorite restaurants in Central Arkansas and around the state in the 35 categories listed here. You may only submit your votes once, but you can return to your ballot as often as you need during the voting period. Only online votes will be accepted. After Jan. 23, we will determine the top four vote getters for each category. Those four and last year’s winner will then advance to a final round of voting that will run Feb. 16 through March 6. The winners will be announced in the April 2 issue of the Arkansas Times, and the awards party will be held on April 7 at the Pulaski Technical Culinary and Hospitality Institute. We’re excited about this new voting system and look forward to your participation and the final results.

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JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

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association of alternative newsmedia

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VOLUME 41, NUMBER 18 ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, 201 EAST MARKHAM STREET, SUITE 200, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $42 for one year, $78 for two years. Subscriptions outside Arkansas are $49 for one year, $88 for two years. Foreign (including Canadian) subscriptions are $168 a year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is 75¢, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $2.50 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all single-copy orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

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JANUARY 8, 2015

COMMENT

Time for road fix

White pride

Anyone who knows anything about Economics 101 knows that this is the best time to do a major fix in how we pay for our road system. For several years Congress has been making up the shortage the trust fund has run up in our attempt to maintain our highways. The biggest problem is how the trust fund is funded. A set amount of tax on a gallon of gas has to keep up with inflation or you have to reduce service. How much do you think prices have increased over the last 20 years? The gas tax hasn’t changed one cent. Could you live on your pay from 20 years ago? And Congress still has no intention to deal with it! This tax is one of the fairest out there: The users of the system pay the entire tax. To get things back on a sound footing Congress should do one of two things. They should raise the federal gas tax to 25 cents a gallon or change the fixed tax per gallon to a percentage of the cost of a gallon. The first option would put muchneeded funds into the trust and assure engineers can keep our roads at current levels of service. We’ve been and are still going backward due to underfunding. We’re talking 6.5 cents a gallon more. About a dollar on a fill-up to get the trust fund stable. A dollar! That’s not going to break you with current fuel prices. The other option Congress could do is make the gas tax a percentage. To make every thing neutral, since no one wants to raise taxes, the current percentage on $2.25 per gallon of gas is around 8.25 percent. Congress could make the federal tax rate 8.25 percent and not change a thing in the current environment. What this would do is let the tax stay on par with the cost of the fuel. As prices climb, so would the trust fund. We used to have the best road system in the world. But because we’ve not kept funds coming in to maintain it, we are slowly going down the list of first-class roads in the world. Now is the time to take care of the trust fund. Contact your congressman and tell them you can afford the extra buck a tank and raise the rate to 25 cents. Or at least make it a percentage, if nothing. Steve Heye Little Rock

I am really taken aback by comments made by your paper regarding a billboard put up by Thom Robb. Personally, I can’t say that I know the man. However, I am white, and I am proud of being white, and by no means a racist. I have Hispanic neighbors and no problems. Black neighbors and no problems. But from what I’ve read, you consider it wrong to be proud of being white. Remember that the next time your paper donates to the NAACP or United Negro College Fund. Anything pro-black or pro-any other race is OK, but anything prowhite is racist? I have to ask then, who is the real racist? Folks that are proud of being whatever color they are (including white) or those ridiculing those of a specific color? Like what you have done? C. Kem Columbia, Utah

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

Word flub In an item in “The Week That Was” (Dec. 25) you wrote, “The amount of hours ...” Doug Smith is spinning in his grave! Obviously, it should read, “The number of hours ...” A later reference to “The number of Arkansas Congressmen” was correct. Mike Watts Little Rock

Plant flub Although the sentiment behind the article in your Big Ideas issue to plant with native plants [Dec. 18, “Go native with plants”) instead of introduced exotics for the benefit of the environment is commend-

able, the misinformation is deplorable. Of the eight species of plants that the author cites by name as wonderful examples of “native” species to plant, three (blackberry lily, Queen Anne’s lace and spotted knapweed) are unequivocally not native to North America, much less Arkansas, and the latter two are troublesome invasive weeds that negatively affect native ecosystems. Spotted knapweed is an especially nasty and detrimental weed in North America and great pains are being taken to try to eradicate or at least control it. The simplest research on these plants should have brought to the author’s attention the status of these species ... most of the first items that are retrieved when performing an Internet search on “spotted knapweed” contain headline references to its “invasive” nature. Providing such inaccurate information that the public is likely to take as fact given the source greatly undermines the effort that groups like the Arkansas Native Plant Society and other competent professionals in the fields of botany, ecology and natural resources management have put forth to create an educated and informed public regarding these issues. Brent Baker Arkansas Native Plant Society member

From the web In response to “The Internet gap in Arkansas education” (Dec. 25) by Benjamin Hardy: Good luck getting decent speeds to some of the more rural schools. No big provider is going to lay down the cost or infrastructure to get to them. There are fixed wireless solutions,

but even that technology requires bandwidth from somewhere. Lbishop I have spent my career in small rural school districts. Speeds were always lightning fast. Don’t know why they haven’t been going after the APSCN software for the last couple of decades. APSCN was adapted from a suite of software named Pentamation used in very large corporations. Many years ago the State Department [of Education] asked for suggestions. There is even school management software available open source (free) developed in South Africa, as well as scheduling. Maxifer In response to “Unrestricted high explosives, available at a sporting goods store near you” (Dec. 17) by David Koon: Fear mongering at its best. Way to go AT. Scott Connaway Fear mongering?!? How many US citizens in the last 10 years have been arrested for building/using/ threatening to use explosives? Hello! You can go to Sports Authority and buy your premade high explosive in unregulated large quantities, pack a car with it, drive it to the Capitol building or target of choice, and set it off with a cell phone from wherever the F you want! It’s not fear mongering, it’s concern that crazy people do crazy shit with high explosives all the damn time, and we shouldn’t make it easier for them to kill indiscriminately. Any terrorist with a fake ID or less could buy this without any trouble, and how would we find them after? D burn

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JANUARY 8, 2014

EYE ON ARKANSAS

WEEK THAT WAS

Quote of the week “As much as I have loved doing the show, I love my country more, and feel that it may be time for me to enter a zone of comfort to engage in the conflicts that have almost destroyed the bedrock foundations of America.” —Mike Huckabee in an email announcing his departure from Fox News while exploring the possibility of a presidential run in 2016. The former Arkansas governor has been a commentator at Fox since his last presidential bid fizzled in 2008, but he’s been criticized recently for testing the waters of 2016 while continuing to film his show.

BRIAN CHILSON

ind. m r e v Ne

THEIR HONORS: Karen Baker (center) takes oath with justices Courtney Goodson (left) and Jo Hart for the Arkansas Supreme Court on Jan. 6. The addition of Rhonda Wood to the Court gives it a first-ever female majority.

Transmission failure Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) announced on Dec. 30 that it’s dropping plans to build a major power transmission line across Northwest Arkansas, a project that was fiercely opposed by the environmental group Save the Ozarks and others. The $116 million proposed project would have run a line 60 miles between Benton and Carroll counties, near the shores of Beaver Lake. SWEPCO says the project was deemed unnecessary by Southwest Power Pool, the entity that oversees the reliability of the electricity grid in an eight-state region of the central United States. In a blog post, Save the Ozarks declared, “We won!”

Spare the pepper spray, spoil the child Chad Day, a reporter at the Democrat-Gazette, did the state of Arkansas a service last month by uncovering abuses at the Yell County juvenile detention center. Among the punishments at the lockup: pepper-spraying kids for talking back or being uncooperative, and use of a restraining device known as “The Wrap,” which tightly binds the offender’s arms and legs. Sometimes, pepper spray and restraints were used in combination. The state stopped send6

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

victory by renting a billboard featuring a little girl holding a puppy.

Big political money, by the numbers

$4.2 million

The amount of money in 2014 given by Ron Cameron, a Little Rock poultry tycoon, to candidates and causes affiliated with the GOP.

Cameron’s ranking among top nationwide political donors last year, according to Politico. Warren Stephens and his wife, Harriet, are No. 21, at $3.3 million.

$323 million The lowball number for the total amount given by the 100 biggest national donors in 2014 (not counting hundreds of millions in hidden cash funneled through political nonprofits that don’t disclose their funders).

$356 million

The total amount given by the 4.75 million Americans who donated $200 or less to political candidates or causes in 2014.

ing youths to the facility Dec. 24. An investigation is underway.

Knights of Irrelevance In Harrison, the billboard wars con-

tinue. A group called the Knights Party of Zinc — formerly the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan — has leased a billboard for a year that declares, “It’s NOT Racist to Love Your People!” above a link to “WhitePrideRadio.com.” One feels for Harrison, a town with a number of citizens who are trying hard to shed the racist image of its past. Upon reflection, though, it’s also sort of heartening to see the KKK so pitifully diminished. There was a time not so long ago when the Klan was a force to be feared across the South; today, it thinks it’s scored a great

Justice delayed … New Year’s Day came and went with no word from the Arkansas Supreme Court on marriage equality. (A federal court hearing a different, parallel suit acted quickly to strike down Arkansas’s ban on same-sex marriage, and the state has appealed to a higher federal court, as expected.) While the state waits for the Arkansas Supreme Court to act, changes in its membership of the bench may or may not shape the eventual outcome in 2015. Incoming justice Robin Wynne will succeed the retiring Donald Corbin. Another justice, Cliff Hoofman, is also retiring, but Hoofman recused himself from the issue earlier, and an appointed special justice took his place to hear the same-sex marriage case. Traditionally, the appointed special justice would see the case through to its resolution, even after Hoofman’s successor, Rhonda Wood, takes his place on the court. But, with the stakes high, some on the court may want to break with custom. We’ll be watching.

OPINION

Little Rock school troubles

n the Sunday Arkansas DemocratGazette, former Little Rock School Board member John Riggs said, as he’d told me six months ago, that it was time for the state of Arkansas to take over the Little Rock School District on account of academic deficiencies in six schools. He fears budget problems when desegregation funding ends and thinks governance of the district is broken. Also Sunday, I reported on the Arkansas Blog about a letter written by School Board member Leslie Fisken. She said her colleagues, save Greg Adams, are rude, inconsiderate and mean to Superintendent Dexter Suggs. Governance, in other words, is broken. The events weren’t coincidental. Fisken’s letter went to Vickie Saviers, a member of the state Board of Education who is chairing a committee that was to hold a meeting on Wednesday of this week and make a recommendation to the full Board of Education about a remedy for Little Rock. The four-member committee includes two people — Saviers and Diane Zook, aunt of Gary Newton, paid by the Walton billionaires to lobby for charter schools — who would love

Arkansas to strip governance from a majority-black board of a majorityblack district just out of federal court. Is the state willing to go so far with other districts —including charter school chains — with underperforming schools? Or is it just the Little Rock teachers union and civil rights lawyer John Walker that sticks in its craw? Fisken should be ignored. She alone wouldn’t join the six other board members on a plan to address academic deficiencies. Who’s dysfunctional? Even some friendly to a state takeover aren’t friendly to the idea of a takeover on Fisken’s apparent model: Superintendent Suggs as the state’s puppet. Suggs hasn’t been nearly bold enough. He has, however, been friendly to Fisken, including relative to her part in the Republican Party’s attempt to use school district information to harm Clarke Tucker in his race for House against Stacy Hurst. The smear backfired spectacularly. School Board member Jim Ross replied to Fisken’s complaint. He made a calm, specific case that the board is trying to overcome years of failure to reach the neediest kids and that she had misstated circumstances. The reformers probably don’t want

to catch all of the Little Rock School District bus. Better to cream off the kids from higher income homes with motivated parents and then bray that charter schools “work,” while decrying the sorry Little Rock School District. Just this year, Diane Zook’s nephew Gary Newton, the Walton-paid lobbyist, led creation of a white-flight middle school in upscale Chenal Valley. He wants to make a needed school construction tax hostage to a demand for a white-flight high school for West Little Rock. He seems to want Central High School destroyed as a center of academic excellence. The Waltons would be happy to finance escape hatches for all those who’d prefer to go to school with their own kind and leave a remnant, publicly forsaken district to deplore. They can always count on the bad news finding a prominent position in Walter Hussman’s daily newspaper. Fisken’s lonely complaint was the lead story in Monday’s Democrat-Gazette. If there be a school takeover, let’s not follow the corporate model. The Waltons don’t get only the parts they want and junk the rest. They get it all. No child left behind.

coverage before the Supreme Court said states could opt out of it. Beebe, the shrewdest politician of our time, knew since the country right away, in 2010, that Democrats had climbed out of lost the one-sided propaganda war over the recession Obamacare and he never uttered one about the time, in word for it — or against it, for that matter 2009, that the first — even though Obamacare and the Obama house of Congress stimulus saved his state health budget ERNEST passed Obamacare. more than a billion dollars between 2010 DUMAS Health economists and 2013. give varying degrees of credit to the Then Beebe also surely knew that, Affordable Care Act, both the sweeping whatever his role in getting the private reforms that have insured 10 million option passed, the credit in Arkansas people — some 300,000 in Arkansas — should go first to the three nimble young and the payment and care innovations Republican legislators who came up with that the law instigated. the idea of substituting pure Obamacare In the Mike Beebe-John Brummett — the subsidized plans on federal and valedictory last month at the Second state insurance exchanges — for cheap Presbyterian Church, Brummett asked vanilla Medicaid and then twice getting the immensely popular governor to enough Republicans to go along to pass identify the greatest legacy of his eight the appropriations. His successor, Asa years. Surely, Brummett said, it was Hutchinson, is struggling with how to passage of the “private option,” the keep the private option going this winter expansion of Medicaid that will soon by seeming to tweak it in some way that reach 250,000 of Arkansas’s lowest- Obama might resent. No, Beebe said, he figured his legacy earning grownups. No, that wasn’t it, the governor said. would be the dramatic payment reforms Beebe may have figured that if credit he is making in Medicaid and beyond, was to be given it should go first to the which he said had sharply curtailed people who wrote and passed Obamacare, Medicaid and private spending growth which mandated adult Medicaid while improving care. It was the so-called

“patient-centered medical home.” He hoped that Arkansas would show the country that getting away from the old fee-for-service model would drive a stake in the heart of skyrocketing health spending, which has driven the nation’s fiscal crisis for 45 years. Beebe’s weekly column, which also bragged about the project, said the medical-home/bundled-payment system, which began in 2013, preceded the Affordable Care Act. But it didn’t. It was a big feature of Title III of the law, which proposed a number of demonstration projects that states and insurers were to undertake to improve the quality and efficiency of medical care. When the House version of the act adopted the models in 2009, they caught the eye of many in the health care field, including Andy Allison, Arkansas’s Medicaid director at the time. He and Beebe talked about attacking Arkansas’s mushrooming Medicaid share and this might be the way to do it. Arkansas, by the way, is not alone. Medical homes, supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid under Obamacare, are burgeoning across the country. But you never mention Obamacare. Not all the good news is, well, good. The University of Arkansas

to see more charter schools in Little Rock, no matter the damage to the district. State takeover MAX of the district has BRANTLEY been discussed maxbrantley@arktimes.com everywhere power congregates — the state board, the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Capital Hotel gatherings of the oligarchs: Walton, Stephens, Hussman clans — who power the school “reform” lobby. I confess my own sympathy to the idea. Good intentions abound on the School Board and with Superintendent Suggs, but progress has been modest. I’m also tired of the district being waved as a bloody shirt by the Billionaire Boys Club. I’d like to see what they can do with a majority black and impoverished school population locked in a territory exempt from the growth and young families of new higher income neighborhoods in the city. Symbolically, it won’t look good for

Credit ACA for quality care

“T

here is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit,” Ronald Reagan marveled, stealing a line from Harry Truman, who borrowed it from a British translator of Plato and Thucydides. Here is a slight corollary: “... if you don’t give credit to unpopular sources.” As you have guessed, I’m referring to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and the black president whose infamous name was attached to it five years ago as a way to defeat it. The good news in the health care field has been coming weekly for three years, almost as often as the New York Times stories about some new perceived glitch caused by Obamacare, like the return this month to 2010 Medicaid payment rates for primary-care doctors. But Obamacare rarely gets credit for the good news. New figures show that spending on health care in the United States for the last statistical year, 2013, grew at the lowest rate since the federal government began tracking it 55 years ago. Spending flattened at the depth of the recession in 2008, but it has remained nearly flat

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30 www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

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SEHABLAESPAÑOL El Latino is Arkansas’s only weekly circulation-audited Spanish language newspaper. Arkansas has the second fastest growing Latino population in the country, and smart business people are targeting this market as they develop business relationships with these new consumers.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

The cult of gun-toting

hat Idaho mother shot to death by her 2 year-old son in a Walmart store? Judging by Veronica Jean Rutledge’s biography, you can be just about certain that she’d driven to the store wearing a seat belt, with her little boy buckled carefully into his car seat. By all accounts, Rutledge, age 29, was that kind of mother: loving, diligent and careful — an entirely admirable young woman. In the aftermath of the tragedy, photos of her shining face are almost unbearable to contemplate. A high school valedictorian, Rutledge graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in chemistry. She was a promising research scientist at Batelle’s Idaho National Laboratory, working on reducing the toxicity of nuclear waste. It would appear to follow that her child’s home environment was carefully child-proofed, with household poisons stored safely away and dangerous objects placed out of reach. Rutledge probably would never have dreamed of letting her son play outside unsupervised, nor left him alone in the bathtub. And yet she carried a loaded semiautomatic handgun in her purse on a post-Christmas shopping trip and left it unattended in a shopping cart, where the child took it out and somehow pulled the trigger. Rutledge died instantly there in the electronics aisle. Very likely her son is too young to understand or remember what happened, although it will shadow his life forever. In the immediate aftermath, Terry Rutledge, Veronica’s father-in-law, gave an ill-advised interview to a Washington Post reporter expressing anger that anybody would use the tragedy “as an excuse to grandstand on gun rights,” as the article put it. “They are painting Veronica as irresponsible, and that is not the case,” he said. “… I brought my son up around guns, and he has extensive experience shooting it. And Veronica had had handgun classes; they’re both licensed to carry, and this wasn’t just some purse she had thrown her gun into.” Oh no, it was a designer item produced by an Illinois firm called Gun Tote’n Mamas with a zipped compartment for carrying a concealed handgun — given to her as a Christmas present from her husband. Nevertheless, Rutledge made an incomprehensible blunder, and it cost her life. The blunder, as I see it, of car-

rying a loaded handgun — with a chambered round, no less — as a kind of fashion accessory, a GENE totemic item sigLYONS nifying her cultural identity. Her close friend Sheri Sandow explained that for all her academic accomplishments, Rutledge was “as comfortable at a campground or a gun range as she was in a classroom.” OK, fine, but why Walmart? Not because she was fearful, Sandow explained. “In Idaho, we don’t have to worry about a lot of crime and things like that,” she said. “And to see someone with a gun isn’t bizarre. [Veronica] wasn’t carrying a gun because she felt unsafe. She was carrying a gun because she was raised around guns. This was just a horrible accident.” Indeed, she needn’t have felt unsafe. The most recent homicide in Blackfoot, Idaho, where the family lived, was six years ago. But when a hobby verges upon obsession, you’re talking about cultlike behavior. Spend a few minutes browsing around Guns.com and maybe you’ll see what I mean. Current features include Kid Rock’s gun collection, and the effects of shooting a giant Gummi Bear with a 12-gauge. Cool! In a recent New Yorker article Adam Gopnik explains the political psychology of guns. The great majority of Americans agree that there should be sensible limitations on the possession and use of tools whose function is killing, “while a small minority feels, with a fanatic passion, that there shouldn’t. In a process familiar to any student of society, the majority of people in favor of gun sanity care about a lot of other things, too, and think about them far more often; the gun crazy think about guns all the time, and vote on the issue with fanatic intensity.” Hence handguns as costume jewelry, totems signifying one’s membership in the NRA tribe. Terry Rutledge, however, can rest easy. If the 2012 Newtown, Conn., massacre failed to bring reform, his daughter-in-law’s death won’t change anything significant. Except possibly the behavior of anybody tempted to pack heat around little children.

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PEARLS ABOUT SWINE

Bowl win builds buzz

here was something peculiar about the pregame tenor for this humble little thing called the “AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl.” (Rolls off the tongue like drool, huh?) If you walked the polished floors of Houston’s Galleria or popped into any of the city’s countless upscale eateries, you saw red, and it wasn’t outrage from the credit card slip. Conversely, burnt orange wasn’t all that prevalent, and when you did see that familiar, lamentable hue, the fine people so adorned seemed almost reluctant about it. Arkansas Razorback fans descended on the South’s most sprawling city with a force and fury that presaged the defensive effort that their beloved team thrust upon the Texas Longhorns. Before a crowd of 71,000-plus that assuredly was the most zealous bunch to ever watch two college teams fight to clear .500, the Hogs simply overwhelmed the 'Horns 31-7 on Dec. 29 at NRG Stadium. In so doing, they created immense buzz for a 2015 season that now, against all odds, portends rather well. Hog signal caller Brandon Allen was game MVP, perhaps more a credit for season-long stoicism in the face of withering criticism than actual game performance. Don’t be mistaken: The rising senior will be a genuine asset next fall ,and his modest effort against Texas (160 passing yards, two well-thrown first-half touchdowns and zero turnovers) was precisely what was required, but this was a game where defensive coordinator Robb Smith’s unprecedented magic act had its true encore. Texas mustered an FBS season-low 59 total yards and seven first downs, and wouldn’t have pierced the end zone at all but for a woeful kickoff hiccup by the Hogs late in the first half. It was plainly evident that Charlie Strong’s charge to craft the Longhorns anew is on a far slower track than the one Bret Annual Open House Bielema is overseeing. Arkansas got Now accepting invigorated by Allen’s strike to Demetrius Now accepting Sunday, January 28, 2007 applications for Wilson in the first quarter — the senior’s applications for the the 2007-08 first TD 2010-11 school year. Freshman Entrance Exam reception of a frustrating final school year. Now accepting applications for the February 10, year — and then completely seized control Saturday, 2007 when a botched handoff by the Longhorns 2014-15 school year. ended with Taiwan Johnson emerging Annual Freshman Entrance Exam AnnualOpen OpenHouse House Freshmen Entrance Exam from a scrum in the end zone with the ball CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL Sunday, Saturday, February 2014 Sunday,January January 26, 25, 2014 2015 Saturday, February 7, 8, 2015 for another touchdown moments later. It FOR BOYS 12:30 - 2:30 12:30 - 2:30 6300 Father Tribou Street was 17-0 on the scoreboard but with the Little Rock, Arkansas 72205 way Smith’s unit was attacking, it might Website 501-664-3939 as well have been triple that, especially CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL www.lrchs.org with Texas being one of the least producFOR BOYS lrchs.org tive squads in the offensive-minded Big 12. 6300 Father Tribou Street Bielema spent much of Year Two in Little Rock, Arkansas 72205 Fayetteville steadfastly reminding us that 501-664-3939 all those agonizing losses were not, in fact, reason to implode the philosophy

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but rather tough but necessary validation. He was proven correct in November with the Hogs blanking BEAU LSU and Ole Miss WILCOX on consecutive, chilly Saturdays in November, and the season-ending loss at Missouri, though painful, seemed to galvanize the team for its first bowl in three years. Seniors Trey Flowers and Martrell Spaight smelled the lure of professional contracts and wreaked havoc on Texas ball carriers; Darius Philon and Johnson, meanwhile, auditioned for preseason All-SEC consideration with excellent work in the middle. The Hogs also played clean, as Bielema likes to put it, with no penalties of any kind until the outcome was decided in the fourth quarter and no giveaways. Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins masterfully did the tandem grind work again, amassing 181 combined yards on the ground without really breaking loose for too many highlight-worthy runs. The end calculus was yet again a smothering possession disparity (Arkansas controlled the ball for more than 42 minutes) and that allowed the defense to be fresh even as the final seconds rolled off. The Hogs even eschewed a final scoring opportunity in the interest of civility, kneeling out the clock after pounding it inside the Texas 5-yard line. The celebration was as beautiful as the circumstances merited. A good 25,000 in red belted out the fight song and alma mater with the other side of the stadium having long since emptied, and Bielema beamed proudly, embracing seemingly anyone who would move within his reach. In the days that followed, Arkansas got something perhaps more reassuring in the form of a bizarre three-day stretch where the meat of the SEC West got summarily tenderized in an 0-5 run that started with LSU frittering away chances in a loss to Notre Dame and ended with Alabama’s Hail Mary against Ohio State falling harmlessly to the ground. Arkansas is emerging from the grave just as some of the contemporaries are descending back toward Earth. Timing has rarely been on the side of the program, but we’re almost a whole week into 2015 and the year hasn’t offered any sour notes for Razorback fans yet. These Pearls are strung in memory of a lifelong Hog fan and UA graduate. Jake, my friend, may your new luxury skybox offer you a resplendent view of the seasons ahead. — BW

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Resolutions 2015

o more blaming it on the cat. No more driving with a knee while eating a sloppy, two-fisted burger. Eat better, for God’s sake. Watch the calories. Step on a scale every once in a while. Hit the gym. After hitting the gym, remember to wipe off the shimmering pool of my soul I leave behind every time I pedal The Bike to Nowhere for an hour, because that’s just gross. Also: Would it kill you to eat a vegetable every once in a while that isn’t pickle, lettuce and onion? Try to make Momma and Daddy proud. If ever on television after witnessing a tornado strike, come up with something more illuminating than “it sounded like a freight train.” (Suggestions: “like the fingernail of God on a blackboard,” “like the snoring of Death,” “like the crack and cry of doom.”) Try not to look like a pompous ass on TV, with your Snoring Death and your Cry of Doom. In fact, try not to wind up on TV for any reason, as there’s nothing on there that’s worth a damn, not since “Breaking Bad” went off the air, anyway. Avoid being digitally memorialized for posterity, especially while drunk. Know that YouTube fame is a harsh mistress. Be kinder to folks. Be kinder to myself. Never drive angry. Obey the speed limit, and all posted road signs. Yield. Get that thing checked out at the doctor, and that other thing checked out at the mechanic. Stop arguing with strangers on the Internet. Get it through that thick skull of mine that I’m never going to sit in the nursing home and regale the other old codgers with thrilling tales of the time I really schooled bigbadjake91 on Reddit while he was running his fat, empty head about Hillary Clinton. Know that the heat of any anonymous online burn I might inflict on someone will not, in fact, melt that person’s sense of self-worth like a Hershey bar on a hot dashboard, leaving a mere shell of a human being. Eat less chocolate. Accept the fact that I probably won’t be able to stick to that one for long, or the thing about arguing on the Internet. Drink more wine. Drink less whiskey, or at least better whiskey. Expensive booze might encourage me to drink it slower. Probably not. Read better books, and more of them, because a book can

take a person anywhere and it doubles as a signal for conversation seekers that you don’t want to be bothered. Be less bothered. Seek conversation. Don’t be afraid to say to any conversationalist, “That’s the most damn fool thing I ever heard!” before striding briskly away if I feel it in my heart. Stop saying “Really?” so much when people are talking to me, as that might make them think I’m not paying attention, and that might hurt their feelings. Stop worrying so much about other peoples’ feelings. Wait. Scratch that last. Buy a kilt, maybe. OK: Try on a kilt, in a room with many mirrors so I can see what my butt looks like while wearing it. Don’t buy a pair of bagpipes, though, because I’m pretty sure that’s grounds for divorce. Stop believing in ancient astronauts, the Loch Ness Monster and the Chicago Cubs. Stop watching History Channel, because I’m pretty sure seeing all those idiots trying to lure in a ’Squatch with jelly beans and potted meat is dissolving my brain. Stop stealing the covers. When building rafters for a house, build them on top of one another, or else you’re going to have a hell of a mess when they don’t match. Measure twice, and cut once. Watch my fingers around the table saw, because better and more cautious men than I will never play piano again. Fish more. Catch and release. Buy a flyrod. Find the time to stand in a creek in North Arkansas at least once this year, flyrod in hand, hearing my dad’s voice in my head, him saying: “See? You just rooooolllll the line out there.” Catch a trout. Clean a trout. Eat a trout with butter and lemongrass. Laugh more. Smile more. Go out with friends more. Get more friends. Floss. Watch one foreign movie every week. Always tell the truth, unless the question is: “What do you think about this dress?” Kiss her more. Learn to dance. Learn how to say, “Where’s the bathroom” in 10 languages. Travel, even if it’s just a day trip. Turn off the phone. Lose the map. Understand that the clock is always ticking, that the rod of life is always falling, that the line is always rolling out and out in the sun. Remember that someday the delicate fly at the end of the line must float down, to find the dappled water.

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Arkansas Reporter

THE

IN S IDE R

Incoming Gov. Asa Hutchinson has tapped Dr. Greg Bledsoe, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Marshall Medical School South in Alabama and son of Sen. Cecile Bledsoe (R-Rogers), to succeed Dr. Joe Thompson as the state’s surgeon general. Bledsoe will return to his alma mater as an associate professor in the department of emergency medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Bledsoe has past experience dealing with the Arkansas legislature. He was unsuccessful, but it was a valiant cause. In 2003, he supported his mother’s legislation (Sen. Bledsoe was then a representative) to reinstate the law requiring helmets for motorcycle riders. It had been repealed in 1997 and replaced with a law requiring helmets for those under 21. The 2003 bill was killed in committee, despite testimony about research at UAMS that showed, after repeal of the law, an increase in nonhelmeted motorcycle crash admissions, head injury severity, ICU length of stay and financial loss at UAMS. Bledsoe later wrote a scholarly paper on the subject. On Twitter, Bledsoe confirmed to Times senior editor Max Brantley that he is “still very much in the favor of motorcycle helmet laws.” No word yet where Bledsoe will fall in encouraging Hutchinson — or discouraging Hutchinson — from backing continuation of the private option version of Medicaid expansion. He’d be a rare med school faculty member who opposed increased funding for Medicaid, given university reliance on government insurance programs. But his mother was a stalwart Obamacare opponent and participated in successful campaigns by a number of Republican legislative candidates who ran against Democratic supporters of the health insurance program. One of the new governor’s kinfolk, Sen. Jim Hendren (R-Gravette), remarked on Twitter recently that there might be a third way forward on Medicaid. This is likely a reference to piling a number of red-meat-conservative add-ons to the existing program. If they are too punitive, however, they could jeopardize indispensable Democratic support and also risk disapproval from the Obama administration. Hutchinson’s day of reckoning on

BRIAN CHILSON

New surgeon general favors motorcycle helmet laws

ELECTIONEERING: Paul Spencer of Regnat Populus says the electoral process is corrupted by unlimited spending.

The next frontier in ethics Regnat Populus wants to close an egregious loophole in campaign finance law. BY BENJAMIN HARDY

ast spring, A rka nsas T V viewers were presented with a 30-second spot imparting some surprising information about Arkansas Supreme Court candidate Tim Cullen: According to the ad, he believes “child pornography is a victimless crime.” The attack ad was condemned as misleading by FactCheck.org, several Arkansas lawyer groups and conservative and liberals alike for grossly distorting a statement Cullen made in a years-old brief while working on an appellate case involving a sex offender. It also may have been decisive in the election:

Cullen lost to his opponent, Robin Wynne, 48 percent to 52 percent. Yet Wynne claimed to know nothing about the group that actually bought the commercial, a 501(c) (4) organization based in Virginia called the Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA). It’s not clear where the LEAA gets its funds. As a nonprofit, it’s not required to disclose its donors, nor why it chose to get involved in an Arkansas judicial race, although the group has a record of interjecting itself into small races with outsized inf luence. The spot cost the LEAA over $300,000, while

Cullen and Wynne only spent about $43,000 between them. And yet, according to current state law, the LEAA attack was not a political ad at all. “Call Tim Cullen. Tell him to stop claiming these are victimless crimes. Predators belong behind bars,” a voice intones at the end of the LEAA spot. What’s missing from that exhortation is an explicit instruction to vote for or against either Cullen or Wynn. Under existing Arkansas statute, a commercial that doesn’t “expressly advocate” for a candidate (that is, use specific words such as “support” or “vote against”) isn’t regulated by the state. The LEAA ad was treated no differently from a public service announcement against littering or drunk driving. No reporting, no disclosure, no public record at all. The same goes for dozens of other TV ads and untold volumes of direct mail, web-based advertisement and other shady political smears in 2014. Regnat Populus, a local grassroots good-government organization, wants to change that. The group is CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

THE

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LISTEN UP

The Inquizator: Brad Cushman

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

Brad Cushman has been gallery director and curator at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock since 2000. He is also a studio artist and a previous Grand Award winner in the Arkansas Arts Center’s “Delta Exhibition.” He holds a master’s degree in fine art from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit, and taught art for 12 years at Oklahoma State University before coming to Arkansas. He is the creator of the “Picture This” segments on KUAR-FM, 89.1, in which he shares his considerable knowledge of art and art history, and is the host of UALR TV’s “Inside Art” programs on exhibitions in the university gallery. He curated the Arkansas Arts Center’s exhibition “Face to Face: Artists’ Self-Portraits from the Collection of Jackye and Curtis Finch, Sr.”

INSIDER, CONT. the private option fast approaches, particularly if he wants another $100 million in income tax cuts on top of the $109 million already set to take effect in 2015.

You do the “Picture This” segments on KUAR, and they are quite good. Do you have a favorite? Do you ever get feedback? The segments on artcars. I had an artcar, a 1976 Delta 88 — it was transformed into The Big Peanutmobile with a mosaic of actual shell peanuts. After a few years of squirrels feeding on the car and weather rot, it was turned into The Tie Rod; then a rainbow of 1,600 men’s neckties adorned the car. I do get feedback. People I know tell me they hear me on the radio, and people I don’t know will recognize my voice and say “What is your name?” “Are you on the radio?” I’m happy people are listening.

Is painting dead? Only if you are a bad painter. Why do you have that big Daumier print as your Facebook timeline photo? After the last election, Daumier’s lithograph “The Legislative Belly” seem to speak for itself. Who is your favorite Arkansas artist? Who is your favorite artist, period? I can’t pick just one in either category. Today my Arkansas picks are Kathy

BOBBY WILLIAMS CUSHMAN

If you were doing a “Picture This” on your own work, what would you say? UFO tattoos, professional wrestling, drag queens and 1970s televisions shows have inspired my work. My challenge to create artwork that negotiates the ambiguous spaces between popular culture, kitsch and fine art keeps me in the studio. My paintings on canvas begin with an acrylic under-painting. With a series of oil glazes, I enrich the imagery. I was probably a burlesque dancer, vaudeville performer or sideshow barker in one or more of my previous lives, but today I am just having fun making uncomfortable art in uncomfortable shoes. If you hear anxious laughter in the gallery, then hopefully (good or bad) I have hit a nerve.

On the men who hate Hillary

BRAD CUSHMAN: The face behind “Picture This.” Strause, Gary Cawood, Delita Martin, Thom Hall, David Scott Smith, David Clemons, Kensuke Yamada; tomorrow, others would make the list. Favorite, period: Andy Goldsworthy, Philip Guston and Hugo Crosthwaite. If you could put on any exhibition you wanted at UALR, what would it be? There are a number of artists out there making unusual kinetic sculpture — think about Jonathan Schipper’s “Slow

Room” in “State of the Art” [at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art]. I would like to bring that to UALR. I also have daydreams about citywide installations in empty buildings or artists doing elaborate projections off of the various bridges in town onto the Arkansas River (i.e. Jenny Holzer or Ann Hamilton). What is your least favorite art, and if it is your least favorite, is it still art? CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

Talking Points Memo recently excerpted Laura Kipnis’ “MEN: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation,” published late last year by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt. A flavor from the beginning: “Here’s what happened the last time Hillary Clinton ran for president: she drove men wild. Well, certain men. Especially certain men on the right. You could recognize them by the flecks of foam in the corners of their mouths when the subject of her candidacy arose. And they’re already girding themselves for the next time around, because there’s something about Hillary that just gets them all worked up. “But what exactly? Despise her they do, yet they’re also strangely drawn to her, in some inexplicably intimate way. She occupies their attention. They spend a lot of time thinking about her — enumerating her character flaws, dissecting her motives, analyzing her physical shortcomings with a penetrating, clinical eye: those thick ankles and dumpy hips, the ever-changing hairdos. You’d think they were talking about their first wives. There’s the same over-invested quality, an edge of spite, some ancient wound not yet repaired. And how they love conjecturing upon her sexuality! Or lack of, heh heh. Is she frigid, is she gay? Heh heh. Yes, they have many theories about her, complete with detailed forensic analyses of her marriage, probably more detailed than their thoughts about their own. “My point is that you can tell a lot about a man by what he thinks about Hillary, maybe even everything. She’s not just another presidential candidate, she’s a sophisticated diagnostic instrument for calibrating male anxiety, which is running high. Understandably, given that the whole male-female, whoruns-the-world question is pretty much up for grabs.” There’s some funny stuff as Kipnis analyzes the work of some of Clinton’s critics, particularly Emmett Tyrell Jr. Kipnis boils down the crowd she’s talking about: “... guys with a lot of psychological baggage, emotional intensity, and messy inner lives.” www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

The cemetery angel In the darkest hour of the AIDS epidemic, Ruth Coker Burks cared for hundreds of people whose families had abandoned them. Courage, love and the 30-year secret of one little graveyard in Hot Springs. BY DAVID KOON

t’s hard to convince people these days that one lonely person can budge the vast stone wheel of apathy. The truth, though, is the same as it ever was: One pair of willing hands might inspire thousands or millions to push. That’s the way the world is changed: hand by hand. One person who found the courage to push the wheel is Ruth Coker Burks. Now a grandmother living a quiet life in Rogers, in the mid-1980s Burks took it as a calling to care for people with AIDS at the dawn of the epidemic, when survival from diagnosis and death was sometimes measured in weeks. For about a decade, between 1984 and the mid-1990s and before better HIV drugs and more enlightened medical care for AIDS patients effectively rendered her obsolete, Burks cared for hundreds of dying people, many of them gay men who had been abandoned by their families. She had no medical training, but she took them to their appointments, picked up their medications, helped them fill out forms for assistance, and talked them through their despair. Sometimes she paid for their cremations. She buried over three dozen of them with her own two hands, after their families refused to claim their bodies. For many of those people, she is now the only person who knows the location of their graves. So much of the history of AIDS in America died with the people who lived it. What is left has often been shoved into the cabinet of Times Best Forgotten. Here, though, is a story from those days. It’s a story about what courage can do.

BRIAN CHILSON

THE RED DOOR

It started in 1984, in a hospital hallway. Burks, 55, was 25 and a young mother when she was went to University Hospital in Little Rock to help care for

a friend who had cancer. Her friend eventually went through five surgeries, Burks said, so she spent a lot of time that year parked in hospitals. That’s where she was the day she noticed the door, one with “a big, red bag” over it. It was a patient’s room. “I would watch the nurses draw straws to see who would go in and check on him. It’d be: ‘Best two out of three,’ and then they’d say, ‘Can we draw again?’ ” She knew what it probably was, even though it was early enough in the epidemic for the disease to be called GRID — gay-related immune deficiency — instead of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). She had a gay cousin in Hawaii and had asked him about the stories of a gay plague after seeing a report on the news. He’d told her, “That’s just the leather guys in San Francisco. It’s not us. Don’t worry.” Still, in her concern for him, she’d read everything she could find about the disease over the previous months, hoping he was right. Whether because of curiosity or — as she believes today — some higher power moving her, Burks eventually disregarded the warnings on the red door and snuck into the room. In the bed was a skeletal young man, wasted to less than 100 pounds. He told her he wanted to see his mother before he died. “I walked out and [the nurses] said, ‘You didn’t go in that room, did you?’ ” Burks recalled. “I said, ‘Well, yeah. He wants his mother.’ They laughed. They said, ‘Honey, his mother’s not coming. He’s been here six weeks. Nobody’s coming. Nobody’s been here, and nobody’s coming.’ ” Unwilling to take no for an answer, Burks wrangled a number for the young man’s mother out of one of the nurses, then called. She was only able to speak for a moment before the woman on the CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

RESTING PLACE: In Files Cemetery. www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

BRIAN CHILSON

that was because of religious conviction or fear of the virus, Burks still doesn’t know. Burks hung up the phone, trying to decide what she should tell the dying man. “I didn’t know what to tell him other than, ‘Your mom’s not coming. She won’t even answer the phone,’ ” she said. There was nothing to tell him but the truth. “I went back in his room,” she said, “and when I walked in, he said, ‘Oh, momma. I knew you’d come,’ and then he lifted his hand. And what was I going to do? What was I going to do? So I took his hand. I said, ‘I’m here, honey. I’m here.’ ” Burks said it was probably the first time he’d been touched by a person not wearing two pairs of gloves since he arrived at the hospital. She pulled a chair to his bedside, and talked to him, and held his hand. She bathed his face with a cloth, and told him she was there. “I stayed with him for 13 hours while he took his last breath on earth,” she said. She hasn’t talked much about that day until recently. People always ask her why she wasn’t afraid. “I have no idea,” she said. “The thought of being afraid never occurred to me until after I was already deep into the AIDS crisis. I just asked God, ‘If this is what you want me to do, just please don’t let me or my daughter get it.’ And He didn’t.”

BURKS: Holding a photo of Billy.

line hung up on her. “I called her back,” Burks said. “I said, ‘If you hang up on me again, I will put your son’s obituary in your hometown newspaper and I will list his cause of death.’ Then I had her attention.” Her son was a sinner, the woman told Burks. She didn’t know what was wrong with him and didn’t care. She wouldn’t come, as he was already dead to her as far as she was concerned. She said she wouldn’t even claim his body when he died. It was a hymn Burks would hear again and again over the next decade: sure judgment and yawning hellfire, abandonment on a platter of scripture. Burks estimates she worked with more than a thousand people dying of AIDS over the course of the years. Of those, she said, only a handful of families didn’t turn their backs on their loved ones. Whether 16

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

‘SOMEDAY, ALL OF THIS IS GOING TO BE YOURS’

Ruth Coker Burks’ family came to Garland County in 1826. She was born in Hot Springs, and was a childhood friend of Bill Clinton’s. While Clinton was in the White House, she said, they wrote back and forth, with Burks filling him in on all the hometown gossip from time to time. Since at least the late 1880s, Burks’ kin have been buried in Files Cemetery, a half-acre of red dirt on top of a hill above Central Avenue in Hot Springs. Drivers using Files Road as a cut-through to avoid the traffic on Central zip past the graveyard without even seeing it. If you stand in the right spot among the old, mossy tombstones in the winter, you can see a sliver of Lake Hamilton, glimmering like a cut sapphire through a gap in the trees. When Burks was a girl, she said, her mother got in a final, epic row with Burks’ uncle. To make sure he and his branch of the family tree would never lie in the same dirt as the rest of them, Burks said, her mother quietly bought every available grave space in the cemetery:

262 plots. They visited the cemetery most Sundays after church when she was young, Burks said, and her mother would often sarcastically remark on her holdings, looking out over the cemetery and telling her daughter: “Someday, all of this is going to be yours.” “I always wondered what I was going to do with a cemetery,” she said. “Who knew there’d come a time when people didn't want to bury their children?” Files Cemetery is where Burks buried the ashes of the man she’d seen die, after a second call to his mother confirmed she wanted nothing to do with him, even in death. “No one wanted him,” she said, “and I told him in those long 13 hours that I would take him to my beautiful little cemetery, where my daddy and grandparents were buried, and they would watch out over him.” Burks had to contract with a funeral home in Pine Bluff for the cremation. It was the closest funeral home she could find that would even touch the body. She said she paid for the cremation out of her savings. The ashes were returned to her in a cardboard box. She went to a friend at Dryden Pottery in Hot Springs, who gave her a chipped cookie jar for an urn. Then she went to Files Cemetery and used a pair of posthole diggers to excavate a hole in the middle of her father's grave. “I knew that Daddy would love that about me,” she said, “and I knew that I would be able to find him if I ever needed to find him.” She put the urn in the hole and covered it over. She prayed over the grave, and it was done. Over the next few years, as she became one of the go-to people in the state when it came to caring for those dying with AIDS, Burks would bury over 40 people in chipped cookie jars in Files Cemetery. Most of them were gay men whose families would not even claim their ashes. “My daughter would go with me,” Burks said. “She had a little spade, and I had posthole diggers. I’d dig the hole, and she would help me. I’d bury them and we’d have a do-it-yourself funeral. I couldn’t get a priest or a preacher. No one would even say anything over their graves.” She believes the number was 43, but she isn’t sure. Somewhere in her attic, in a box, among the dozens of yellowed day planners she calls her Books of the Dead, filled with the appointments, setbacks and medications of people 30 years gone, there is a list of names. Burks said she always made a last effort to reach out to families before she put the urns in the ground. “I tried every

ELEPHANT

After she cared for the dying man at University Hospital, people started calling, asking for her help. “They just started coming,” she said. “Word got out that there was this kind of wacko woman in Hot Springs who wasn’t afraid. They would tell them, ‘Just go to her. Don’t come to me. Here’s the name and number. Go.’... I was their hospice. Their gay friends were their hospice. Their companions were their hospice.” Before long, she was getting referrals from rural hospitals all over the state. Financing her work through donations and sometimes her own pocket, she’d take patients to their appointments, help them get assistance when they could no longer work, help them get their medicines, and try to cheer them up when the depression was dark as a pit. She said many pharmacies wouldn’t handle prescriptions for AIDS drugs like AZT, and there was fear among even those who would. Somewhere, she said, she has a large coffee can full of 30 yearold pens. Once pharmacy clerks learned she was working with AIDS patients, she said, many of them would insist she keep the pen after signing a check. “They didn’t want it in their building,” she said. “They would come out with a can of Lysol and spray me out the door.” She’d soon stockpiled what she called an “underground pharmacy” in her house. “I didn’t have any narcotics, but I had AZT, I had antibiotics,” she said. “People would die and leave me all of their medicines. I kept it because somebody else might not have any.” Burks said the financial help they gave patients — from burial expenses to medications to rent for those unable to work — couldn’t have happened without the support of the gay clubs around the state, particularly Little Rock’s Discovery. “They would twirl up a drag show on Saturday night and here’d come the money,” she said. “That’s how we’d buy medicine, that’s how we’d pay rent. If it

hadn’t been for the drag queens, I don’t know what we would have done.” Norman Jones is the owner of Discovery. Opened in 1979, the club once served a primarily gay clientele, though now the crowd is often mixed. He’s old enough to remember the fear of the early days of the epidemic. In 1988, Jones helped found the charity group Helping People with AIDS, with which Burks worked. The group is still around, helping those with the disease. “She worked with us for several years there,” Jones said. “She went out and did home visits, and she’d work determining who would qualify for the money.” Jones said that as AIDS moved into Arkansas, he and the club’s employees decided to do something to help. “The impersonators and the bartenders that worked at the club and I decided that we’d start doing once-a-year benefits to start a fund called Helping People with AIDS,” he said. “We started raising money every year and we still do so today, over 25 years later.” Jones said the money generated by the fund, as well as a percentage of the club’s sales, have helped the AIDS Foundation and other groups assisting those with the disease. After AIDS came to Arkansas, Jones said, he started to see the changes almost immediately. Even a rumor that someone had HIV could make their friends shun them. “We had so many people who were affected by it when it first hit that it was like, wham!” he said. “It was like you were being thrown up against a brick wall. Everyone said, ‘Don’t touch them. Don’t talk to them.’ ” Even something as slight as losing a few pounds was enough to make people afraid to associate with a person, Jones said. The fear was rampant. “It made everyone feel aware that something was happening out there,” he said. “We didn’t know what was happening, but there was a fear of it.” Burks’ stories from that time border on nightmarish, with her watching one person after another waste away before her eyes. She would sometimes go to three funerals a day in the early years, including the funerals of many people she’d befriended while fighting the disease. Many of her memories seem to have blurred together into a kind of terrible shade. Others are told with perfect, minute clarity. There was the man whose family insisted he be baptized in a creek in October, three days before he died, to wash away the sin of being gay; whose mother pressed a spoonful of oatmeal to his lips pleading, “Roger, eat. Please eat, Roger. Please, please, please” until

Burks gently took the spoon and bowl from her; who died at 6-foot-6 and 75 pounds; whose aunts came to his parents’ house after the funeral in plastic suits and yellow gloves to double-bag his clothes and scrub everything, even the ceiling fan, with bleach. She recalled the odd sensation of sitting with dying people while they filled out their own death certificate, because Burks knew she wouldn’t be able to call on their families for the required information. “We’d sit and fill it out together,” she said. “Can you imagine filling out your death certificate before you die? But I didn’t have that information. I wouldn’t have their mother’s maiden name or this, that or the other. So I’d get a pizza and we’d have pizza and fill out the death certificate.” She remembered the Little Rock man CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

BRIAN CHILSON

time,” she said. “They hung up on me. They cussed me out. They prayed like I was a demon on the phone and they had to get me off — prayed while they were on the phone. Just crazy. Just ridiculous.” She learned to say the funerals herself, after being rebuffed by preachers and priests too many times. Even so, she said she never doubted what she was doing. “It never made me question my faith at all,” she said. “I knew that what I was doing was right, and I knew that I was doing what God asked me. It wasn’t a voice from the sky. I knew deep in my soul.”

RED: Burks holding Billy's dress.

www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

who “had so much fluid on his lungs that he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t talk, and he would gag when he was trying to talk. His mother, we had called and called and called. ... He wanted to talk to his mother and wanted me to try again. I got the answering machine, and I just handed the phone to him. He cried and gagged. It was excruciating listening to him ask his mother if she’d come to the hospital. She never came. The day before the funeral, she called and asked if she could come to the funeral. He’s buried in [Files] cemetery.” She recalled the mother who called Burks up and demanded to know how much longer it would be before her son died. “ ‘I just want to know, when is he going to die?’ ” Burks recalled the woman asking. “‘We have to get on with our lives, and he’s holding up our lives. We can’t go on with our lives until he dies. He’s ruined our lives, and we don’t want people up here to know [he has AIDS], so how long do you think he’s going to stay here?’ Like it was a punishment to her.” Billy, however, is the one who hit her hardest, and the one she remembers most clearly of all. He was one of the youngest she ever cared for, a female impersonator in his early 20s. He was beautiful, she

said, perfect and fine-boned. She still has one of Billy’s dresses in her closet up in Rogers: a tiny, flame-red designer number, intricate as an orchid. It was Billy’s mother, she said, who called up to ask how much longer it would be before they could get on with their lives. As Billy’s health declined, Burks accompanied him to the mall in Little Rock to quit his job at a store there. Afterward, she said, he wept, Burks holding the frail young man as shoppers streamed around them. “He broke down just sobbing in the middle of the mall,” she said. “I just stood there and held him until he quit sobbing. People were looking and pointing and all that, but I couldn’t care less.” Once, a few weeks before Billy died — he weighed only 55 pounds, the lightest she ever saw, light as a feather, so light that she was able to lift his body from the bed with just her forearms — Burks had taken Billy to an appointment in Little Rock. Afterward, they were driving around aimlessly, trying to get his spirits up. She often felt like crying in those days, she said, but she couldn’t let herself. She had to be strong for them. “He was so depressed. It was horrible,” she said. “We were driving by the zoo,

and somebody was riding an elephant. He goes: ‘You know, I’ve never ridden an elephant.’ I said: ‘Well, we’ll fix that.’ ” And she turned the car around. Somewhere, in the boxes that hold all her terrible memories, there’s a picture of the two of them up on the back of the elephant, Ruth Coker Burks in her heels and dress, Billy with a rare smile.

TWO OR MORE

When it was too much, she said, she’d go fishing. And it wasn’t all terrible. While Burks got to see the worst of people, she said, she was also privileged to see people at their best, caring for their partners and friends with selflessness, dignity and grace. She said that’s why she’s been so happy to see gay marriage legalized all over the country. “I watched these men take care of their companions, and watch them die,” she said. “I’ve seen them go in and hold them up in the shower. They would hold them while I washed them. They would carry them back to the bed. We would dry them off and put lotion on them. They did that until the very end, knowing that they were going to be that person before long. Now, you tell me that’s not love and devotion? I don’t know a lot of straight

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BACK TO GOD

Ruth Coker Burks had a stroke five years ago, early enough in her life that she can’t help but believe that the stress of the bad old days had something to do with it. After the stroke, she had to relearn everything: to talk, to feed herself, to read and write. It’s probably a miracle she’s not buried in Files Cemetery herself. After better drugs, education, understanding and treatment made

SCRAPBOOK: Burks with mementos of her work.

her work obsolete, she moved to Florida for several years, where she worked as a funeral director and a fishing guide. When Bill Clinton was elected president, she served as a White House consultant on AIDS education. A few years ago, she moved to Rogers to be closer to her grandchildren. In 2013, she went to bat for three foster children who were removed from the elementary school at nearby Pea Ridge after administrators heard that one of them might be HIV positive. Burks said she couldn’t believe she was still dealing with the same, kneejerk fears in the 21st century. The work she and others did in the 1980s and 1990s has mostly been forgotten, partly because so many of those she knew back then have died. She’s not the only one who did that work, but she’s one of the few who survived. And so she has become the keeper of memory. She was surprised in recent months when a producer with the oral history project StoryCorps reached out to her, asking her to tell her story on tape. Part of that interview was eventually broadcast on National Public Radio. She talked to the BBC this week, and other requests for interviews keep coming. She honestly seems a little shocked that anyone cares after all these years. She talks of those days like an old soldier, tears only touching her eyes when she speaks of Billy, or her father’s grave, or how she sometimes wonders if her choice to help AIDS patients as a young woman, and the ostracism that brought,

BRIAN CHILSON

people that would do that.” Sometimes, she would listen to the confessions of the dying. “Whatever they wanted to tell their God, I would help them tell their God,” she said. “I figured, if the religious people weren’t going to do it, someone has to. If God wanted me to do this, then surely I can say: Yes, you’re going to heaven. ... The Bible says that if you’re two or more, and you ask God for forgiveness, He will forgive you. There were two of us, so that was the best I could do.” In all the years she worked with AIDS patients, she said, she never wore gloves unless the patients had broken skin. It was touching them, she believes, that kept those she cared for alive longer than others. By the 1990s, experts in the field were beginning to take note. “My [HIV] patients lived two years longer than the national average,” Burks said. “They would send people from all over the world to the National Institutes of Health, they would send them to the CDC, and they would send them to me. They sent them to me so they could see what I was doing that helped them live. I think it was because I loved them. They were like my children, even though I was burying people my age.” Burks helped care for Raymond Harwood, a Hot Springs resident who died in 1994 at age 42. His father, Jim Harwood, said Burks met Raymond through an outreach program sponsored by the local Catholic Church. Jim recalled Burks as a very caring person. “She was absolutely sweet,” Harwood said. “One of the kindest, sweetest people I’ve ever known.” God, Harwood said, has a hand in everything, so He had a hand in bringing Burks into their lives. Harwood said he was surprised to hear from Burks that some parents abandoned their children when they were diagnosed with AIDS. “I wasn’t brought up that way,” Harwood said. “Are you going to desert your son? I don’t care what he did. He could have gone out and murdered people. He’s still your son. You may not like what he does, but you love him.”

may have kept her from being everything she could have been. Still, she clearly sees those years as the time when she had a mission, maybe even one ordained by a higher power. Too, she said, she loved and believes she was loved by the people whose lives she touched — every one. Even as they were dying, they showed her what bravery is, and brought joy into her life. “They were good days,” she said, “because I was blessed with handing these people back to God.” She hasn’t been back to Files Cemetery since her stroke. While she made sure it was kept up back when she lived in Hot Springs, it appeared to have been let go a bit when the reporter visited in late December, some of the tombstones pushed over and broken, the snag of a dead oak left to rot among the graves. Even without knowing the story of the place, it might have been downright spooky if not for the constant stream of traffic cruising by at 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. Before she’s gone, she said, she’d like to see a memorial erected in the cemetery. Something to tell people the story. A plaque. A stone. A listing of the names of the unremembered dead that lie there. “Someday,” she said, “I’d love to get a monument that says: This is what happened. In 1984, it started. They just kept coming and coming. And they knew they would be remembered, loved and taken care of, and that someone would say a kind word over them when they died.” www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

Arts Entertainment AND

Six Poems by Miller Williams The revered Arkansas poet died Jan. 1.

he year is off to a rough start with the news that Miller Williams, renowned poet and former Arkansas Times contributing writer, died New Year’s Day in a Fayetteville hospital. He was 84 and had been struggling with Alzheimer’s for several years. Born in Hoxie, Williams studied at Hendrix College and later earned a master’s degree in zoology at the University of Arkansas, teaching at various small colleges for a number of years until he joined the UA English department in 1970. He went on to co-found the University of Arkansas Press, which he directed for two decades, and remained a professor emeritus until his death. Miller was the father of musician Lucinda Williams, and famously read his poem “Of History and Hope” at Bill Clinton’s second inauguration. In addition to his own poetry, he published translations of prominent poets like Pablo Neruda and Nicanor Parra. For our 40th anniversary issue in September, Arts and Entertainment Editor Will Stephenson reached out to Williams to see if he remembered anything about his association with the Times. He wrote back to say that by then, unfortunately, he didn’t. “At 84, I probably don’t have a lot of this frustration ahead of me, but there’s plenty now,” he said. As a tribute this week, we’re reprinting six poems Williams originally published in the Times in the 1970s:

SPEEDING PAST THE I-40 EXIT TO BASCUM HE BEGINS TO THINK ABOUT TACKETT’S STATION AND WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND PEGGY HOOPER Where the Woodrow Wilson School was once squat blocks of pastel siding slap back at the sun. Why should it be there? Who was Woodrow Wilson?

WILLIAMS

We had a Dodge. When we hit a chicken we had chicken. 20

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

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

A&E NEWS Milton Tackett fixed tires and sold the rubbers you had to have in your wallet like a badge You’re under arrest. Take off all your clothes. Milton gave a package of rubbers free for any pair of panties. When you told him her name and he believed you you got a dozen. No sir I said I guess not. Well he said if I said pussy I could have one anyway A woman off the Titanic talked Sunday night. She said that all she heard them play was a waltz. I bought a Nash for 97 dollars. Sunday afternoons cotton rows running up to the road flicked by like spokes. The cropdusting plane put down its pattern back and forth across the field like a shuttle. I was drunk on speed and metaphor. The world was a weaving machine. But on the other hand said Alexander the Great bringing down the sword on the Gordian knot fuck fate Didn’t you used to live here? Don’t do that you’re going to tear something Look if I take off my clothes will it make you happy

Jesus Christ I said What happened. I could hear someone across the room mixing a drink in the dark.

FOR A FRIEND WHO COMES TO MIND AT THREE IN THE MORNING This place where love began is diminished as much as Bill Sloane was a man. Well, as you would have said, It’s finished as such. Meaning Hell, I’m dead. We talked and drank one night a while till dawn; you told Jim Beam and me There’ll come a time you might happen together, you two, when I’ll be gone. Toast him that used to be. So. Now you are. So now we do.

FOOTNOTE ON THE INVENTION OF SMALL PLEASURES Young Adam surely must being newly from dust the only human life and with no word for wife have been somewhat perplexed to find himself so sexed.

THE JESUS WOMAN STANDING AT MY DOOR

I’m sorry. What did you say?

came with a bible in the middle of what I do How are things in Porlock I asked her No she said I’m from Joplin Missouri

Nothing. Never mind.

EVERYTHING IS FINE HERE HOW ARE YOU

THE FRIEND I hadn’t seen him in twelve years. He could put his hands between the wall and a light and make a rollercoaster a kidney machine a split T running a double reverse. I heard he was in town so of course I invited him. I took down a picture to have a blank space on the wall. Everyone gathered in a semicircle. I turned off all the lights except one lamp. Go ahead I said. He made a dog. Then he made a rabbit. It only had one ear. The elephant didn’t have a trunk and looked like a cow.

She blinks above her sunglasses at the man putting the letters up on the movie marquee. Along the wire he slides an S, an N. His sleeves are cut away. The marguerita she presses against her mouth. She feels her mouth suck in against the salt. She watches the man test his way descending the step ladder and jerk it spraddled across the sidewalk. The sound has her in front of a shingled house, her mother pushing the screen door open, calling always. She watches him climb the ladder again. If she passes that way and speaks to him he will go off and leave her in a grove of oaks, the twisted bra knotted about her wrists, the panties stuffed in her mouth, the eyes her own eyes paying no attention.

THE ARKANSAS TIMES FILM SERIES at the Ron Robinson Theater continues this month with a screening of “Chinatown” at 7 p.m. Jan. 15. The quintessential L.A. noir and the best role of Jack Nicholson’s career, the movie was named the greatest film of all time in a 2010 critics poll by The Guardian. Roger Ebert called it a “tour de force” and “not only a great entertainment, but something more, something I would have thought almost impossible.” An atmospheric, totally engrossing mystery involving water and sexual dysfunction, this is a rare opportunity to see the classic on the big screen. ACTRESS GEENA DAVIS HAS announced that she’s launching a new film festival to be held in Bentonville called the Bentonville Film Festival and sponsored by her own organization, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, as well as corporate partners Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, AMC Theaters and ARC Entertainment. The festival, set to be held May 5-9, will begin accepting submissions on Jan. 15 and will focus on films that prominently feature women and minorities in cast and crew. According to Variety, the festival will be unique for being “the only film competition in the world to offer guaranteed theatrical, TV, digital and retail home entertainment distribution for its winners.” Davis also clarified that they’ll be looking for films with high commercial potential. The festival’s advisory board will include “Angela Bassett, Bruce Dern, Samuel L. Jackson, Randy Jackson, Eva Longoria, Julianne Moore, Paula Patton, Natalie Portman, Nina Tassler and Shailene Woodley.” THE NEW, ARKANSAS-SET REALITY TV series “Wrestling With Death” is slated to premiere Tuesday night on WGN America. The show, brought to us by the same production team, Leftfield Pictures, which was behind the absurd, now-classic “Clash of the Ozarks,” will focus on the Latham family of Osceola, who are described by WGN as “morticians by day who run the Wilson Funeral Home and professional wrestlers by night who run the Mid-Southern Championship Wrestling League.” LATER THIS MONTH: BIG PIPH AND Tomorrow Maybe perform at South on Main, Ginsu Wives perform at Vino’s and Shoog Radio presents Tyrannosaurus Chicken and Bombay Harambee at White Water, all on Saturday, Jan. 17; comedian Todd Barry performs Tuesday, Jan. 20, at Juanita’s; KABF hosts a Tom Petty tribute on Saturday, Jan. 24; the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase semifinals kick off on Thursday, Jan. 29, at Stickyz, and Charleston band Shovels and Rope plays on Friday, Jan. 30 at Revolution. www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY LINDSEY MILLAR, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK AND WILL STEPHENSON

RADIO ON: Ex Hex is at Stickyz 8:30 p.m. Thursday, $10. Mary Timony (center) leads the trio with bassist Betsy Wright and drummer Laura Harris.

THURSDAY 1/8

EX HEX

8:30 p.m. Stickyz. $10.

Mary Timony, formerly of Wild Flag and Helium, has been making records since the early ’90s, often as a solo artist known for catchy and odd, lo-fi fan-

tasy-themed indie rock. Following the rebirth/rebranding strategy of bands like Mount Eerie and Magnolia Electric Company, Timony has now adopted the name of one of her solo albums, “Ex Hex,” and has pivoted, with help

FRIDAY 1/9 5-8 p.m. Galleries downtown. Free.

Art lovers can see four new exhibitions and revisit ongoing shows Friday in downtown Little Rock’s monthly gallery tromp/ trolley ride to participating galleries. Starting east and moving west: Arkansas Capital Corp. Group (200 River Market Ave., Suite 400) is showing paintings by Elizabeth Weber, Dan Thornhill and Ashley Saer; their exhibition is called “Life by Design.” The Cox Creative Center (120 River Market Ave.) is showing “One of Us,” drawings and paintings by a trio of young UALR grads: JANUARY 8, 2015

flies around D.C. zapping well-dressed shy people into leather jacket-wearing ’70s rockers, more or less mirroring Timony’s own transition. Their first record, “Rips,” was released by Merge in October. WS

FRIDAY 1/9

2nd FRIDAY ART NIGHT

from former members of The Childballads and The Aquarium, toward garage power-pop with guitar licks and an endearingly cocky, classic-rock radio posture. In the video for their single “Waterfall,” a vintage ’50s movie UFO

ARKANSAS TIMES

Justin Bryant, Lilia Hernandez and Logan Hunter. One of Arkansas’s finest artists, Robyn Horn, is showing paintings and sculpture in a show called “Reflection on Line and Mass” at the Butler Center Galleries (401 President Clinton Ave.). Singer-songwriter Kevin Kerby will perform at the Historic Arkansas Museum, where painter Rachel Trusty and the Arkansas Society of Printmakers have shows. A detour south to StudioMAIN (1423 Main St.) will take you to its “Designs of the Year” show of ASLA, SID and AIA award-winning designs. Catch the rubber-wheeled trolley between these venues and the Old State House Museum (see right). LNP

“END OF THE LINE”

5 p.m. Old State House Museum. Free.

“There is a moment when ‘End of the Line’ looks like a small miracle,” Janet Maslin began her review of the 1987 Arkansas-set film in the New York Times. “However, that moment is extremely brief, and it occurs during the film’s opening credits.” She goes on to complain that the movie is “hopelessly mired in local color and unimaginative good intentions,” which actually strikes me as an incredibly perceptive comment on certain historical trends in Arkansas cultural production, but also, ouch! And she wasn’t alone: The Washington Post called it a “two-hour guilt trip” and poor Roger Ebert was just confused,

though he did concede in his review that “it has such handsome trains in it.” Nevertheless, the film’s status in the Arkansas canon is beyond secure. That is because “End of the Line,” which was mostly filmed in Little Rock and is about railroad brakemen rebelling against their unseemly corporate overlords, stars not only Mary Steenburgen, but also Levon Helm, which is just unassailable from a “local color” perspective. Wilford Brimley is here, too, as are Holly Hunter and Kevin Bacon. It was directed by North Little Rock native Jay Russell, better known today for harmonious family epics like “My Dog Skip” and “The Water Horse.” Ben Fry of KUAR and UALR will introduce the screening. WS

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 1/8

FRIDAY 1/9-SUNDAY 1/11

MARVEL UNIVERSE LIVE! Verizon Arena. $21-$51.

Probably 95 percent of my conversations with my 4-year-old son are related to superheroes. We’re now well past questions such as whether Spiderman’s superhuman abilities include web shooting (they don’t, sort of nonsensically, but it’s kind of hard to explain to a 4-year-old that comics are created by people who sometimes make bad decisions) and on to the arcane: Who is Thor’s mother? Why is Ant Man at Vision and Scarlet Witch’s wedding? Why does the Hulk always wear the same pair of pants? I’m relatively new to parenting, but it seems like the best hope for maintaining a positive relationship with my kids is figuring out how to talk about the things they’re passionate about. In that spirit, I’m taking my son to this live action Marvel Comics extravaganza featuring Spiderman, the Avengers, a few of the X-Men (including Wolverine, natch) and a host of bad guys. Feld Entertainment, the folks behind Disney on Ice and Ringling Bros., produce. Judging by early reviews and video clips, if you’ve been to one of Feld’s other shows lately, you’ve got a good idea of what this will look like: explosions, flips, motorcycles, aerial derring-do, cheeseball dialogue. But that’s OK. This should serve as conversation fodder for us until at least summer. LM

TUESDAY 1/13 SPACE IS THE PLACE: The Velvet Kente Arkestra performs at The Ron Robinson Theater 7:30 p.m. Friday, $10.

‘THEN AND NOW: The Central High School Neighborhood’

6 p.m., Arkansas Arts Center Lecture Hall. Free.

FRIDAY 1/9

VELVET KENTE ARKESTRA 7:30 p.m. Ron Robinson Theater. $10.

Arkansas Sounds, the music festival turned concert series brought to us by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, has been adding a dose of theatrical ceremony and professionalism to the live music landscape here, taking advantage of the Ron Robinson Theater’s stellar production values for shows that allow beloved local acts to try for something more ambitious than usual — something worth sitting down for. Most recently, in November, there was Big Piph’s large-scale audiovisual spectacle. This Friday, there’s the Velvet Kente Arkestra. Frontman Joshua Asante has

appeared to focus much of his time on the re-energized Amasa Hines lately — as evidenced by the great and genuinely gripping New Year’s Eve set they played at South on Main — so the return of Velvet Kente, his other group, which won the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase in 2009 and which specializes in what J.T. Tarpley once described in these pages as “hyper-literate, genrestirring soulindiefunkrockfolk,” is intriguing and welcome. Asked what the Velvet Kente Arkestra was exactly, Asante said it was an expanded, eight-piece version of the band playing old and new songs, “with the hope that collectively it all sounds almost as fly as Saul Williams’ ‘1987.’ ” WS

Central High School and its neighborhood embody one of the most historically significant areas of Little Rock — even of the nation, thanks to Central’s place in the integration of America’s schools — yet threats to its properties that preserve the story of that history are constant. The Architecture and Design Network’s monthly series brings Rachel Silva, Kwendeche, Nancy Rousseau and Vanessa McKuin together to discuss “the most beautiful high school in America” and work being done to address threats to the historic fabric of the neighborhood by the Wright Avenue Neighborhood Association, the Capital Hill Neighborhood Association and the Central High Neighborhood Association. Silva is on staff at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program of the Department of Arkansas Heritage; architect Kwendeche has worked on such projects as the restoration of civil rights leader Daisy Bates’ home, Rousseau has been principal at Central since 2002 and McKuin is president of the Central High Neighborhood Association and director of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas. A reception at 5:30 p.m. precedes the discussion. LNP

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Quapaw Quartet plays a free concert at the Capital Hotel, 5:15 p.m. Riverdale 10 Cinema presents a screening of the documentary “Forks Over Knives,” 6:30 p.m., preceded by a reception. The Loony Bin hosts a Triple Comedy Feature, with three stand-ups performing at 7:30 p.m., $7 (also 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, $10). Tulsa singer-songwriter John Moreland is at White Water Tavern with Caleb Caudle and Aaron Lee Tasjan, 9 p.m., $10. Locals Listen Sister are at The Joint, 9:30 p.m., $5.

FRIDAY 1/9 Songwriter Chris DeClerk performs at Another Round Pub at 6 p.m. At The Joint, local comedy troupe The Main Thing performs (for the last weekend) their comedy “A Fertile Holiday” Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., $22. Kevin Kerby performs at Vino’s with The P-47’s and Woodson Lateral, 9 p.m. Locals Whale Fire play at White Water Tavern with Listen Sister and Fayetteville shoegaze band Dividend (fresh off the release of its excellent debut “Synaesthesia”), 9:30 p.m.

SATURDAY 1/10 The Witt Stephens Nature Center presents a program dedicated to the wood duck, Lil’ Wild Ones, at 2 p.m. Juanita’s hosts a Beer Pong Tournament at 4 p.m., $25. Little Rock country singer Matthew Huff is at Revolution with the Gable Bradley Band and Stuart Thomas, 8:30 p.m., $10. Mothwind is at Vino’s with Hell Camino and Terminus, 9 p.m., $5. Fayetteville indie rock group The Brothel Sprouts play at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 9 p.m., to celebrate the release of their EP “Good Enough.” Unseen Eye plays at Another Round Pub, 9 p.m. Elvis tribute band Big E and The Memphis Boys are at White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m.

SUNDAY 1/11 Drag the River, an alt-country band from Colorado, plays at White Water Tavern with Adam Faucett, 9 p.m.

MONDAY 1/12 Miami stoner metal group Torche plays at Stickyz with R.I.O.T.S., Ash of Cedars and Headcold, 8 p.m., $10.

TUESDAY 1/13 Dave Elswick’s Classic Movie series shows the 1963 epic “Cleopatra” at Riverdale 10 Cinema, 7 p.m., $5. Vino’s Brewpub Cinema presents a screening of the WWII-era weed thriller “Assassins of Youth” at 7:30 p.m., free. www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

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.

free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com. Velvet Kente Arkestra. Ron Robinson Theater, 7:30 p.m., $10. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www. cals.lib.ar.us/ron-robinson-theater.aspx. Whale Fire, Dividend, Listen Sister. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

THURSDAY, JAN. 8

COMEDY

MUSIC

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Quapaw Quartet. Capital Hotel, 5:15 p.m., free. 111 W. Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com. Ex Hex. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8:30 p.m., $8 adv., $10 day of. 107 Commerce St. 501372-7707. www.stickyz.com. “Inferno.” DJs play pop, electro, house and more, plus drink specials and $1 cover before 11 p.m. Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582. Irish Traditional Music Sessions. Dugan’s Pub, 7-9 p.m. 401 E. 3rd St. 501-244-0542. www. duganspublr.com. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. John Moreland, Caleb Caudle, Aaron Lee Tasjan. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $10. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Karaoke. Zack’s Place, 8 p.m., free. 1400 S. University Ave. 501-664-6444. Listen Sister. The Joint, 9:30 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.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. RockUsaurus. Senor Tequila, 7-9 p.m. 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-224-5505. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

Triple Comedy Feature. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m, $7. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

FILM

“Forks Over Knives.” Free screening preceded by a reception. Riverdale 10 Cinema, 6:30 p.m. 2600 Cantrell Road. 501-296-9955.

BOOKS

Jesse Lee Hatfield. Book signing and author talk. Faulkner County Library, 7 p.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org.

FRIDAY, JAN. 9

MUSIC

All In Fridays. Club Elevations. 7200 Colonel Glenn Road. 501-562-3317. Chris DeClerk. Another Round Pub, 6 p.m. 12111 West Markham. 501-313-2612. www.anotherroundpub.com. Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. Dance night, with DJs, drink specials and bar menu, until 2 a.m. 24

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

“A Fertile Holiday.” Original comedy performed by The Main Thing. The Joint, Jan. 9-10, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Triple Comedy Feature. The Loony Bin, through Jan. 10, 7:30 p.m.; through Jan. 10, 10 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

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. “Salsa Night.” Begins with a one-hour salsa lesson. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

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 244-9690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. LGBTQ/SGL Youth and Young Adult Group, 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St. Marvel Universe Live. Verizon Arena, 7 p.m. $21-$51. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

FILM

“End of the Line.” Second Friday Cinema Old State House Museum, 300 W. Markham. 5 p.m., free. 501-324-9685. www.oldstatehouse.com. TRUE WEST: Drag the River is at White Water Tavern with Adam Faucett 9 p.m. Sunday.

SATURDAY, JAN. 10

MUSIC

1620 Savoy, 10 p.m. 1620 Market St. 501-2211620. www.1620savoy.com. Kevin Kerby, The P-47s, Woodson Lateral. Vino’s, 9 p.m. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www. vinosbrewpub.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu.

Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Route 66. Agora Conference and Special Event Center, 6:30 p.m., $5. 705 E. Siebenmorgan, Conway. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m.,

Big E and The Memphis Boys. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. The Brothel Sprouts. Maxine’s, 9 p.m. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. www.maxinespub.com. Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. See Jan. 9. Karaoke at Khalil’s. Khalil’s Pub, 7 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com. Karaoke. Casa Mexicana, 7 p.m. 7111 JFK Blvd., NLR. 501-835-7876. Zack’s Place, 8 p.m., free. 1400 S. University Ave. 501-664-6444. Karaoke with Kevin & Cara. All ages, on the restaurant side. Revolution, 9 p.m.-12:45 a.m., free. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www.rumbarevolution.com/new. 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 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com. Matthew Huff, Gable Bradley Band, Stuart Thomas. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $10. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. www. rumbarevolution.com/new. Mothwind, Hell Camino, Terminus. Vino’s, 9 p.m., $5. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.

vinosbrewpub.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. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com. Unseen Eye. Another Round Pub, 9 p.m. 12111 West Markham. 501-313-2612. www.anotherroundpub.com.

COMEDY

“A Fertile Holiday.” Original comedy performed by The Main Thing. The Joint, 8 p.m., $22. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Triple Comedy Feature. The Loony Bin, 7:30 and 10 p.m., $10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Little Rock West Coast Dance Club. Dance lessons. Singles welcome. Ernie Biggs, 7 p.m., $2. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-247-5240. www. arstreetswing.com.

EVENTS

Beer Pong Tournament. Juanita’s, 4 p.m., $25. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www. juanitas.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. Historic Neighborhoods Tour. Bike tour of historic neighborhoods includes bike, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 9 a.m., $8-$28. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001. Lil’ Wild Ones. A presentation on wood ducks. The Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 2 p.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter. com. Marvel Universe Live. Verizon Arena, 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., $21-$51. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com. Pork & Bourbon Tour. Bike tour includes bicycle, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 11:30 a.m., $35-$45. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001.

SUNDAY, JAN. 11

MUSIC

Drag The River, Adam Faucett. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com. Karaoke. Shorty Small’s, 6-9 p.m. 1475 Hogan Lane, Conway. 501-764-0604. www.shortysmalls.com. Karaoke with DJ Sara. Hardrider Bar & Grill, 7 p.m., free. 6613 John Harden Drive, Cabot. 501-982-1939 ‎. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

EVENTS

Marvel Universe Live. Verizon Arena, 1 and 5 p.m., $21-$51. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501975-9001. verizonarena.com. Whitetail Headgear. A presentation about antlers. The Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 2 p.m. 602 President Clinton

Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

MONDAY, JAN. 12

MUSIC

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. 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. Torche, R.I.O.T.S., Ash of Cedars, Headcold. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $10. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www. stickyz.com.

CLASSES

Finding Family Facts. Rhonda Stewart’s genealogy research class for beginners. Arkansas Studies Institute, second Monday of every month, 3:30 p.m. 401 President Clinton Ave. 501-320-5700 ‎. www.butlercenter.org.

TUESDAY, JAN. 13

MUSIC

Brian and Nick. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com. Irish Traditional Music Sessions. Hibernia Irish Tavern, second and fourth Tuesday of every month, 7-9 p.m. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.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. Karaoke Tuesday. Prost, 8 p.m., free. 322 President Clinton Blvd. 501-244-9550. willydspianobar.com/prost-2. Karaoke Tuesdays. On the patio. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 7:30 p.m., free. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. 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.

All American Food & Great Place to Watch Your Favorite Event

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Vino’s Brewpub Cinema presents 8 Assassin Of Youth (1937) F R I D AY J A N U A RY 1 6

Arkansas Coalition For Peace & Justice and Arkansas Democracy Coalition present 8 Pay 2 Play/Democracy’s High Stakes

DANCE

“Latin Night.” Revolution, 7:30 p.m., $5 regular, $7 under 21. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501823-0090. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

Little Rock Green Drinks. Informal networking session for people who work in the environmental field. Ciao Baci, 5:30-7 p.m. 605 N.

www.vinosbrewpub.com www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

AFTER DARK, CONT. Beechwood St. 501-603-0238. www.greendrinks. org. New Belgium Beer Tasting. The Joint, 7 p.m., $10. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com. Trivia Bowl. Flying Saucer, 8:30 p.m. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-8032. www.beerknurd. com/stores/littlerock.

FILM

“Assassin of Youth.” Vino’s Brewpub Cinema. Vino’s. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com. “Cleopatra.” Classic movies hosted by Dave Elswick. Riverdale 10 Cinema, 7 p.m., $5. 2600 Cantrell Road. 501-296-9955.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 14

MUSIC

Acoustic Open Mic. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com. Karaoke at Khalil’s. Khalil’s Pub, 7 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com. Karaoke. MUSE Ultra Lounge, 8:30 p.m., free. 2611 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-6398. Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.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. Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com.

COMEDY

The Joint Venture. Improv comedy group. The Joint, 8 p.m., $7. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

DANCE

Little Rock Bop Club. Beginning dance lessons for ages 10 and older. Singles welcome. Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center, 7 p.m., $4 for members, $7 for guests. 12th and Cleveland streets. 501-350-4712. www. littlerockbopclub.

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.

NEW GALLERY EXHIBITS, EVENTS ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “THEN AND NOW: The Central High School Neighborhood,” panel discussion with Rachel Silva, Kwendeche, Nancy Rousseau and Vanessa McKuin, 6 p.m. Jan. 13, lecture hall, reception before at 5:30 p.m.; “William Beckman: Drawings 1967-2013,” through Feb. 1; “A Sense of Balance: The Sculpture of Stoney Lamar,” through Jan. 18, “Color, an Artist’s Tale: Paintings by Virmarie DePoyster,” through Feb. 15, Museum School Gallery. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000. ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORP. GROUP, 200 River Market Ave., Suite 400: “Life by Design,” 26

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

paintings by Elizabeth Weber, Dan Thornhill and Ashley Saer, opening reception 5-8 p.m. Jan. 9, 2nd Friday Art Night. 374-9247. BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Reflections on Line and Mass,” paintings and sculpture by Robyn Horn,” opening reception 5-8 p.m. Jan. 9, 2nd Friday Art Night, show through April 24; “Of the Soil: Photography by Geoff Winningham,” through Feb. 28; “Johnny Cash: Arkansas Icon,” photographs and recorded music, Underground Gallery, through Jan. 24; “Echoes of the Ancestors: Native American Objects from the University of Arkansas Museum,” Concordia Gallery, through March 15. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.Sat. 320-5790. CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “45th Birthday Party/Big Group Show,” opening night celebration 6-8 p.m. Jan. 9, show through February. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.Sat. 224-1335. COX CREATIVE CENTER, 120 River Market Ave.: “One of Us,” drawings and paintings by Justin Bryant, Lilia Hernandez and Logan Hunter, Jan. 9-30, reception 5-8 p.m. Jan. 9, 2nd Friday Art Night. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 918-3093. GALLERY 360, 900 S. Rodney Parham Road: “Icebox,” new work by Jordan Wolf, Brian Wolf, Ike Plumlee, Matthew Castellano, Nathan Fellhauer, Elgin Venable, Leeaux and Robot Blood, reception 7-10 p.m. Jan. 10, show through Feb. 7. 663-2222. HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM GALLERIES, 200 E. 3rd St.: “this is the garden; colors come and go,” paintings, sculpture and mixed media by Rachel Trusty, through Feb. 2; “Under Pressure: The Arkansas Society of Printmakers Exhibition,” through Feb. 4; “Capturing Early Arkansas in Depth: The Stereoview Collection of Allan Gates,” through April 5; “The Great Arkansas Quilt Show 3,” juried exhibit of contemporary quilts, through May 3; “Arkansas Made,” ongoing. Open 5-8 p.m. Jan. 9, 2nd Friday Art Night. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351. LAMAN LIBRARY, 2801 Orange St., NLR: 2015 “Small Works on Paper,” Arkansas Arts Council annual competitive show, Jan. 8-27. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 758-1720. N O RT H L I T T L E R O C K H I S T O RY COMMISSION, 506 Main St., NLR: “Fought in Earnest: Civil War Arkansas,” documents, maps, photographs, drawings, paintings and artifacts through Jan. 23. 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 371-0755. OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham: Movie “End of the Line,” with Kevin Bacon and Mary Steenburgen, screening 6 p.m. Jan. 9, 2nd Friday Art Night; “Different Strokes,” the history of bicycling and places cycling in Arkansas, featuring artifacts, historical pictures and video, through February 2016; “Lights! Camera! Arkansas!”, the state’s ties to Hollywood, including costumes, scripts, film footage, photographs and more, through March 1. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9685. ST. JAMES UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, 321 Pleasant Valley Drive: “People, Places and Things,” paintings by Emile, Jan. 10-March 10. 217-6700. STUDIOMAIN, 1423 Main St.: “Designs of the Year,” AIA, ASLA and ASID design awards, 5-8 p.m. Jan. 9, 2nd Friday Art Night. facebook. com/studio.main.ar.

MOVIE REVIEW

'INHERENT VICE': Benicio Del Toro and Joaquin Phoenix star.

Free your mind There’s a lot going on in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Inherent Vice.’ BY SAM EIFLING

f you didn’t know that Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest, “Inherent Vice,” was derived from the 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon, an author equally beloved and feared for the sprawl of his sagas, you could imagine its pitch meeting as Philip Marlowe meets the Big Lebowski, transported to early ’70s stoner Los Angeles. At its center, we have Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), a shaggy P.I. whose quality hours are spent wearing denim and getting baked on his nearbeach shack and whose nickname may derive from his maintaining a vague respectability by locating his actual office in a medical suite. Spiraling around Doc, in a series of personal crises interlocking with paid and obliged investigations, are crimes and intrigues that variously connect a real estate mogul, the mogul’s wife and lover (who is Doc’s ex), counterculture informants, Nazi bikers, prostitutes, skullconking LAPD officers, nose-picking feds, drug smugglers, financiers, runaways, loony dentists, sanitarium white coats and maybe a cult or two, kinda hard to say. Sausage-packed into 90 minutes, this could be a farcical nightmare; left to breathe over a full extra hour, though, Anderson’s adaptation can run as intricate, straight-faced L.A. noir. The humor — of which there is much — is allowed to arrive in its own time, often as unexpected punctuation to a scene, always as a pervasive weirdness. That ex of Doc’s, Shasta (Katherine Waterson), comes to explain she might be an accessory soon to the disappearance of her mogul boyfriend. Doc then takes a case from an ex-con (Michael Kenneth Williams, or Omar of “The Wire”) that points him toward the Aryan Brotherhood bodyguards of the same. Another case, proffered by the wife of a missing musician (Owen Wilson) points Doc deeper into some unseemly dealings. None of this is made easier with a gruff, self-described Renaissance cop nicknamed Bigfoot (a flat-topped Josh Brolin) alternately browbeating Doc and shaking him down for tips.

A novel of such ambitious interweaving gives the reader the option to return to a dense paragraph or a pivotal chapter. A film on first viewing will make no such concessions if your attention flags momentarily. For all the deftness of Anderson’s screenplay, the names will likely soup and the events will smudge sometime before Hour Three. It is that dense, in fact, without the sort of gentle trippy breathers that the Coen Brothers used to leaven “Lebowski.” This is the difference, perhaps, between a stoner comedy and a stoner drama. The latter is far less forgiving of impaired short-term memory. To that end, though, “Inherent Vice” can’t be reduced to its constituent cogs and springs. Jonny Greenwood’s dream-fog score, playing constantly, complements the atmosphere of the image quality, colorsaturated and pocked with blemishes evoking a Vietnam-era newsreel. Anderson here may have achieved a masterwork of plotting, but with a safety net. He has herded so many rabbits into the meadow that you can choose to chase as many or as few as you like. Eventually one or more are bound to bounce against your leg regardless, and amid the eddies of pleasant chaos, that may gratify as much as having actually caught the thing. How ultimately satisfying the escapade feels comes down in no small way to how we cotton to Doc. Phoenix has established himself as an actor who deals in no halfmeasures, consuming his roles and feeding himself to them in kind. We find him by turns in this epic weak and witty and determined and louche, tarred as a hippie, but afraid of nothing and low enough in profile to navigate almost anywhere. The Los Angeles that Pynchon and Anderson build for us is a deeply corrupt and yet curiously hopeful swamp. Doc embodies enough of the titular vice that we trust him when he shows glimmers of rectitude. He sees enough that we cannot begrudge him the occasional toke. Only a madman would head sober into such a sordid future.

THE NEXT FRONTIER IN ETHICS, CONT. trying to get an initiative on the 2016 ballot that would target commercials bought by outside groups that mention a candidate’s name for clear political ends yet don’t fall under the “express advocacy” umbrella. Such ads are often called “electioneering communications.” The proposal would require electioneering ad purchases of $2,000 or above to be disclosed to the state. “Arkansas has pretty much zero laws when it comes to electioneering,” said Paul Spencer, the chair of Regnat Populus and a teacher of history and government at Catholic High. As he sees it, an ad purchased by a group like LEAA on behalf of a candidate is the de facto equivalent of a contribution to that candidate. Requiring transparency for campaign contributions but not for electioneering is nonsensical, Spencer believes. “I don’t want my senators and representatives being bought,” he said, “but if somebody’s going to buy them, at least tell me who owns them. … We might as well have Martha Shoffner’s pie box if you’re going to have no disclosure laws.”

*** Political nonprofits like LEAA are entities created to influence elections, as are their close cousins, PACs and SuperPACs. Outside groups like these spend tremendous sums in congressional and presidential contests. In Arkansas’s 2014 race for U.S. Senate, the amount of cash expended by outside groups sympathetic to Tom Cotton exceeded $30 million, which is more than twice the amount that the Cotton campaign itself spent; outside groups favorable to Mark Pryor spent around $20 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. But at least at the federal level there are some reporting requirements. Federal electioneering ads must be reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) if they are broadcast in the weeks preceding an election. Campaign finance laws at the state level are a patchwork. However, as big money from outside groups begins to play a bigger role in state politics, state statutes are beginning to catch up. According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonprofit that monitors such laws, 31 states now require the disclosure of electioneering communications, up from 25 in 2013. There’s no clear red/

blue divide: The states with the greatest degree of transparency include Texas, California, Massachusetts, Kansas, Maryland and Utah. Spencer said that the issue is about good governance, not partisan gain. He’s heard calls for change from “people of knowledge on both left and right,” but rarely publicly. Most politicians are unwilling to speak out against a system they depend on for crucial dollars, Spencer said, no matter how much they dislike it. “They think it’s wrong, but they don’t have the political will to lose an election on principle … watching Sen. Pryor’s race, it became an issue only when he got behind in the polls. You never hear of a frontrunner saying, ‘Oh there’s too much money in politics.’ ” Getting the measure on the ballot before voters in 2016 will require at torney general approval, a nd outgoing AG Dustin McDaniel has already rejected the first draft of the proposal. This isn’t unusual; the AG’s office often rejects popular ballot initiatives multiple times, requesting that a mbig uous la nguage be improved and mistakes corrected. Among other things, McDaniel noted in his comments that Regnat Populus must clearly def ine “electioneering ” on t he ballot title, since “most people are unfamiliar with campaign-finance jargon.” Incoming Attorney General Leslie Rutledge herself faces questions about an ad aired on her behalf in the recent election. A complaint filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission by Little Rock attorney and blogger Matt Campbell alleges that Rutledge improperly coordinated with an outside group called the Republican Attorneys General Association, or RAGA, to produce the ad. (Rutledge herself appears onscreen.) Electioneering expenditures are unregulated by the state, but to qualify as electioneering they must be made independently of the candidate they’re aiding; if an outside group makes an ad in coordination with the candidate herself, it begins to look suspiciously like a direct in-kind campaign contribution. Resolution of that complaint is still pending. Spencer doesn’t believe that will be an obstacle in getting Rutledge to sign off on the proposal to tighten campaign finance law once the proper corrections are made to the

text. “I’m looking forward to working with the new AG, although politically I think she and I will differ on a lot of viewpoints,” he said, adding that he was confident Rutledge would work for the interests of the state. Even so, the road ahead is a long one. If the proposal is approved by the new AG, Regnat Populus must still gather the thousands of signatures necessary to get it on the ballot … and even then, if voters approve it in 2016, the proposal wouldn’t kick in until after the general election. Two years is a long time to wait for reform, especially when there’s a crucial presidential election in the meantime. An easier route would be for the legislature to simply take up the issue during the new legislative session, which begins Jan. 12. Spencer said he’s not particularly interested in trying to work with the legislature because of the “shenanigans with Issue 3,” the recently enacted ethics reform measure that prohibits legislators from accepting gifts from lobbyists (among other things). In 2013, Spencer worked with a bipartisan duo of legislators, Rep. Warwick Sabin (D-Little Rock) and Sen. Jon Woods (R-Springdale), to craft what eventually became Issue 3, which was approved by voters this November and went into effect immediately after Election Day. Since then, lobbyists have circumvented the spirit of the law by holding buffets and other free-forall feeding events for the legislature that can’t quite be construed as “gifts” but still provide ample

enjoyment for lawmakers. “I don’t feel betrayed by Warwick or Jon, but betrayed by the General Assembly,” Spencer said. “I’m really disgusted with the abuses … even after people of the state said, ‘We don’t like these kinds of things going on,’ they’re doing it anyway. So personally that left a pretty bad taste in my mouth.” He also acknowledges that disclosing electioneering communications is only one part of a larger struggle to reform campaign finance. The ballot measure Regnat Populus is now pushing also calls upon the Arkansas congressional delegation to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that reverses the 2010 Citizens United decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. In that ruling and other ancillary decisions, the court struck down elements of federal campaign finance law in the name of free speech, which has paved the way for much of the explosion in outside money in the past few years. The court’s decision won’t be easily changed, but Spencer said grassroots groups must fight with the long game in mind. “If the courts never reversed course we’d still have slavery. We wouldn’t have women voting,” he said. “We need to keep the issue in the public eye. I think that if you get enough of the people speaking out, and we get enough states willing to pass laws — at least to the point where it causes the [U.S.] Supreme Court to have to pause and look at this issue again — I don’t think you can go wrong with that.”

www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’ ARKANSAS FRESH BAKERY, THE wholesale bakery that supplies to nearly 40 restaurants in Central Arkansas, including Big Orange and Hillcrest Artisan Meats, has opened a cafe and retail outlet in Bryant. Arkansas Fresh Bakery Cafe is located at 304 N. Reynolds Road and is open from 6:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Owner Ashton Woodward said his full range of breads is available, as is his new line of artisan chocolates, Cocoa Rouge, along with fresh baked pastries and sandwiches. Jonathan Wilkins, formerly the cook at White Water Tavern, has been involved in creating the menu for the cafe. Despite Woodward’s popularity in Little Rock, he said he never thought of opening the cafe in the capital city. “Why would I want to compete with all these restaurants that I sell bread to? Little Rock is a little over-saturated. I’d rather be a big fish, so to speak, in Bryant.” CHECK OUT A SHORT DOCUMENTARY on Cocoa Rouge, the latest in our Eat Arkansas series of videos, at arktimes.com/cocoa. You can also find Cocoa Rouge at dozens of locations throughout the state, including Hillcrest Artisan Meats. THE NEW 34,000-SQUARE-FOOT West Little Rock Whole Foods will open on Feb. 18 at 8 a.m. at 501 Bowman Road, next to Best Buy. The Whole Foods store at 10700 Rodney Parham will close Feb. 16.

DINING CAPSULES

AMERICAN

1620 SAVOY Fine dining in a swank space, with a menu redone by the same owners of Cache downtown. The scallops are especially nice. 1620 Market St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-221-1620. D Mon.-Sat., BR Sun. ADAMS CATFISH & CATERING Catering company in Little Rock with carry-out trailers in Russellville and Perryville. 215 N. Cross St. All CC. $-$$. 501-336-4399. LD Tue.-Fri. AFTERTHOUGHT BISTRO AND BAR The restaurant side of the Afterthought Bar (also called the Afterthought Bistro and Bar) features crab cakes, tuna tacos, chicken tenders, fries, sandwiches, burgers and, as entrees, fish and grits, tuna, ribeye, chicken and dumplings, pasta and more. Live music in the adjoining bar, also private dining room. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. Full bar, All CC. 501-663-1196. ALL ABOARD RESTAURANT & GRILL Burgers, catfish, chicken tenders and such in this train28

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

Still on top Mt. Fuji remains Japanese go-to.

rom its opening in 1986 until the mid-1990s, the only place to get Japanese food in Little Rock was Mt. Fuji, and despite having no standard of comparison back then, we always enjoyed our meals at the Breckenridge Village restaurant. These days, there are any number of restaurants serving Japanese and Asian fusion cuisine around Central Arkansas, but despite the added competition, Mt. Fuji has remained one of our favorite restaurants. The reason? It’s just that good, for lunch or for dinner. When it comes to lunch, we have a tough time branching out from the chicken teriyaki bentou box ($7.50), one of the best deals in town. The miso soup and rice that come with the box are pretty standard, but the smoky, sweet teriyaki is top-notch. Fried rice lovers can upgrade their bentou box for just a dollar, but for our taste, the regular steamed rice is a perfect vehicle for soaking up all that delicious sauce. In the mood for fish? Go for the sashimi lunch ($12.95), a fresh assortment of tuna, salmon and snapper served with rice. Mt. Fuji makes fine sushi rolls, but it’s this dish, where the fish is at its most simple, that shows off the quality ingredients used by the sushi bar. With a suppertime visit, we tend to go for something a little more substantial, which means starting off with an order of gyoza ($5.50), which always arrives so hot that we end up burning our mouths out of impatience, and fried soft-shell crab ($9.50). The dumplings are nothing out of the ordinary, but they always hit the spot. The crab is a pleasant contrast of textures and flavors. Our beloved chicken teriyaki is available in a dinner portion for $14, but sometimes we come in with such an appetite that only shrimp tempura ($18) and an order of yakisoba ($8.50) will do. The shrimp are about as long as a man’s hand, sweet as sin, and coated in a light batter and fried to a crisp. The noodles are loaded with a choice of pork, chicken, seafood or vegetables; the noodle-tender pork marriage is our favorite.

BOX IT UP AT LUNCH: Bentou Box with Spicy Crab Roll and nigiri sushi from Mt. Fuji.

Mt. Fuji is a restaurant that manages to hit nearly all of our favorite tastes, whether steamed, fried or raw. The balance of sweet and savory flavors in its sauces makes for complex flavor profiles, while the tempura and sushi revel in their tasty simplicity. Despite being an ethnic restaurant, there is something on the Mt. Fuji menu for just about any eater, from pork cutlets to cold noodles. After nearly 20 years in the business, the restaurant shows no signs of resting on its laurels, easily competing with the host of upstarts that took away its niche status. The place is a Little Rock classic for a reason, and we foresee many more years of dining there, especially when it comes to that teriyaki.

Mt. Fuji Japanese Restaurant 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road (Breckenridge Village) 227-6498 QUICK BITE In addition to the restaurant, Mt. Fuji also offers a kombini — a Japanese-style convenience store that sells all kinds of Japanese ingredients, food, drinks, snacks and gift items. HOURS 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday. OTHER INFO Beer and wine. All major credit cards accepted.

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.

themed restaurant, where an elaborately engineered mini-locomotive delivers patrons’ meals. 6813 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. 501-975-7401. LD daily. ALLEY OOPS The restaurant at Creekwood Plaza (near the Kanis-Bowman intersection) is a neighborhood feedbag for major medical institutions with the likes of plate lunches, burgers and homemade desserts. Remarkable chess pie. 11900 Kanis Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-221-9400. LD Mon.-Sat. ASHER DAIRY BAR An old-line dairy bar that serves up made-to-order burgers, foot-long “Royal” hot dogs and old-fashioned shakes and malts. 7105 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, No CC, CC. $-$$. 501-562-1085. BLD Tue.-Sat. ATHLETIC CLUB SPORTS BAR & GRILL What could be mundane fare gets delightful twists and embellishments here. 11301 Financial Centre Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-312-9000. LD daily. B-SIDE The little breakfast place in the former party room of Lilly’s DimSum Then Some turns tradition on its ear, offering French toast wrapped in bacon on a stick, a must-have dish called “biscuit mountain” and beignets with lemon curd. 11121 Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-716-2700. B-BR Sat.-Sun. BAR LOUIE Mammoth portions of very decent bar/bistro fare with an amazingly varied menu that should satisfy every taste. Some excellent drink deals abound, too. 11525 Cantrell Road, Suite 924. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-228-0444. LD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. BIG WHISKEY’S AMERICAN BAR AND GRILL A modern grill pub in the River Market District with all the bells and whistles - 30 flat-screen TVs, whiskey on tap, plus boneless wings, burgers, steaks, soups and salads. 225 E Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-324-2449. LD daily. BOBBY’S COUNTRY COOKIN’ One of the better plate lunch spots in the area, with some of the best fried chicken and pot roast around, a changing daily casserole and wonderful homemade pies. 301 N. Shackleford Road, Suite E1. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-224-9500. L Mon.-Fri. BOGIE’S BAR AND GRILL The former Bennigan’s retains a similar theme: a menu filled with burgers, salads and giant desserts, plus a few steak, fish and chicken main courses. There are big-screen TVs for sports fans and lots to drink, more reason to return than the food. 120 W. Pershing Blvd. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-812-0019. BD daily. BOOKENDS CAFE A great spot to enjoy lunch with friends or a casual cup of coffee and a favorite book. Serving coffee and pastries early and sandwiches, soups and salads available after 11 a.m. Cox Creative Center. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501- 918-3091. BL Mon.-Sat. THE BOX Cheeseburgers and french fries are greasy and wonderful and not like their fastfood cousins. 1023 W. Seventh St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. 501-372-8735. L Mon.-Fri. BUFFALO GRILL A great crispy-off-the-griddle cheeseburger and hand-cut fries star at this family-friendly stop. 1611 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar, CC. $$. 501-296-9535. LD daily. CAFE 201 The hotel restaurant in the Crowne Plaza serves up a nice lunch buffet. 201 S.

BELLY UP

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

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

Shackleford Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-2233000. BLD Mon.-Fri., BD Sat., BR Sun. CATFISH CITY AND BBQ GRILL Basic fried fish and sides, including green tomato pickles, and now with tasty ribs and sandwiches in beef, pork and sausage. 1817 S. University Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-7224. LD Tue.-Sat. CHEERS IN THE HEIGHTS Good burgers and sandwiches, vegetarian offerings and salads at lunch, and fish specials and good steaks in the evening. 2010 N. Van Buren. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-5937. LD Mon.-Sat. 1901 Club Manor Drive. Maumelle. Full bar, All CC. 501-851-6200. LD daily, BR Sun. CHICKEN WANG & CAFE Regular, barbecue, spicy, lemon, garlic pepper, honey mustard and

Buffalo wings. Open late. 8320 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-562-1303. LD Mon.-Sat. COLD STONE CREAMERY This national chain takes a base flavor (everything from Sweet Cream to Chocolate Cake Batter) and adds your choice of ingredients or a combination of ingredients it calls a Creation. Cold Stone also serves up a variety of ice cream cakes and cupcakes. 12800 Chenal Parkway. No alcohol, All CC. $. 501-225-7000. LD daily. DAVE AND RAY’S DOWNTOWN DINER Breakfast buffet daily featuring biscuits and gravy, home fries, sausage and made-to-order omelets. Lunch buffet with four choices of meats and eight veggies. 824 W. Capitol Ave.

1.75L SPIRITS

Famous Grouse Scotch Reg $41.49................... Sale $34.99 Jack Daniel’s Black Label Tennessee Whiskey Reg $47.99................... Sale $42.99 Tito’s Hand-Made Vodka Reg $31.99 ...................Sale $28.99

JANUARY 7 - 13, 2015

Bombay Sapphire Gin Reg $47.99.................... Sale $37.99

BEER SPECIALS

WINE BUYS 750ML

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale 12pk Cans Reg $17.39 .................... Sale $15.99

Rob Murray’s Force of Nature Cabernet Sauvignon Reg $24.99.................... Sale $18.99

750ML CONNOISSEUR SELECTIONS

Summit Frost Line Rye 6pk Bottles Reg $8.99 ........................ Sale $7.99

Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve & Avant Chardonnay .................... Reg $16.39 Sale $12.99

Highland Park 12yo Single Malt Scotch Reg $54.99 .................. Sale $48.99

Boulevard Bully Porter 6pk Bottles Reg $8.29 ........................ Sale $7.29 Saddlebock Light of the Ozarks 22oz Bottle Reg $4.89 ........................ Sale $3.99

Block Nine Caiden’s Vineyard Pinot Noir Reg $15.99.................... Sale $12.99 Chateau Musar 2007 Red Reg $34.99 ................... Sale $27.99

Maker’s Mark Bourbon Reg $27.49 .................... Sale $23.99 1800 Silver & Reposado Tequila Reg $31.99 ................... Sale $25.99 Mount Gay Black Barrel Rum Reg $31.99 ................... Sale $26.99 *In Store Only • While Supplies Last.

WE WILL MATCH ANY LOCAL, ADVERTISED PRICE! BRING IN THE AD TO SAVE.

11200 W. Markham Street · 501-223-3120 · colonialwineshop.com · facebook.com/ColonialWines CEL E B R AT E R ES P O N S I B LY.

EVERYDAY SOMMELIER Special Selections at Special Pricing! PRISONER WINE COMPANY SALDO ZINFANDEL

Reg $46.99 - Special $35.99

“90 Points” – Robert Parker

“WOW, What a Zin.” – O’Looney

#theeverydaysommelier Your friendly neighborhood wine shop. Rahling Road @ Chenal Parkway 501.821.4669 • olooneys@aristotle.net • www.olooneys.com

No alcohol. $. 501-372-8816. BL Mon.-Fri. DAVID’S BURGERS Serious hamburgers, steak salads, homemade custard. 101 S. Bowman Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-227-8333. LD Mon.-Sat. 1100 Highway 65 N. Conway. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. (501) 327-3333 4000 McCain Blvd. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-353-0387. LD Mon.-Sat. E’S BISTRO Despite the name, think tearoom rather than bistro — there’s no wine, for one thing, and there is tea. But there’s nothing tearoomy about the portions here. Try the heaping grilled salmon BLT on a buttery croissant. 3812 JFK Boulevard. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-771-6900. L Tue.-Sat., D Thu.-Sat. FLIGHT DECK A not-your-typical daily lunch special highlights this spot, which also features inventive sandwiches, salads and a popular burger. Central Flying Service at Adams Field. Beer and wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-975-9315. BL Mon.-Sat. FORTY TWO Solid choice for weekday lunch, featuring entrees and sandwiches from around the world. 1200 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-537-0042. L Mon.-Sat. HILLCREST ARTISAN MEATS A fancy charcuterie and butcher shop with excellent daily soup and sandwich specials. Limited seating is available. 2807 Kavanaugh Blvd. Suite B. No alcohol, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-671-6328. L Mon.-Sat. JASON’S DELI A huge selection of sandwiches (wraps, subs, po’ boys and pitas), salads and spuds, as well as red beans and rice and chicken pot pie. Plus a large selection of heart healthy and light dishes. 301 N. Shackleford Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-954-8700. LD daily. JIMMY JOHN’S GOURMET SANDWICHES Illinois-based sandwich chain that doesn’t skimp on what’s between the buns. 4120 E. McCain Blvd. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-945-9500. LD daily. 700 South Broadway St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-1600. LD daily. KITCHEN EXPRESS Delicious “meat and three” restaurant offering big servings of homemade soul food. Maybe Little Rock’s best fried chicken. 4600 Asher Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-3500. BLD Mon.-Sat., LD Sun. LASSIS INN One of the state’s oldest restaurants still in the same location and one of the best for catfish and buffalo fish. 518 E 27th St. Beer and wine, All CC. $$. 501-372-8714. LD Tue.-Sat. LINDA’S CORNER Southern and soul food. 2601 Barber St. 501-372-1511. MADDIE’S PLACE Owner/chef Brian Deloney has built quite a thriving business with a pretty simple formula – making almost everything from scratch and matching hefty portions with reasonable prices in a fun, upbeat atmosphere. Maddie’s offers a stellar selection of draft beers and a larger, better wine list than you might expect. 1615 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-660-4040. LD Tue.-Sat. MARIE’S MILFORD TRACK II Healthy and tasty are the key words at this deli/grill, featuring hot entrees, soups, sandwiches, salads and killer desserts. 9813 W Markham St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. 501-225-4500. BL Mon.-Sat. MARKETPLACE GRILLE Big servings of steak, seafood, chicken, pasta, pizza and other rich comfort-style foods. 11600 Pleasant Ridge Road. CONTINUED ON PAGE 30 www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

➥ VESTA’S is starting the new year with a 50 percent off sale on all fall and winter clothing, including cashmere, leather, soft cotton and select denim items. Their winter hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. ➥ THE GOOD EARTH GARDEN CENTER’S classes have you covered when it comes to learning new gardening skills. The next class is Prune Like a Pro and is scheduled for 10-11 a.m. Feb. 7. Steve Weiman will be the instructor. There is no cost for this seminar, but space limitations make registration required; to register, call 501868-4666. ➥ B. BARNETT has 50 percent off all fall/winter clothing, shoes and accessories. ➥ Make plans to attend the 33rd annual ARKANSAS MARINE EXPO, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Jan. 23 and 24 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Jan. 25 at the Statehouse Convention Center downtown. The expo, billed as Arkansas’ premier boat show, will offer special low boat show pricing on hundreds of boats, including bass boats, ski boats, deck boats, duck boats, wake board boats, party barges, personal watercraft and more. The Marine Expo also gives attendees the opportunity to shop and compare dozens of dealers and hundreds of boats at one time, in one place. Admission is $5 for adults and children 12 and under get in free. ➥ Want a great gift for a mother-to-be? Then stop by DANDELION and pick up some Fecundi-Tea, a mixture that includes organic spearmint, organic lemon balm, organic nettle leaf, organic dandelion leaf, organic raspberry leaf, organic oatstraw, organic alfalfa, organic ginger, and organic lemon peel, perfect to calm and soothe a queasy stomach. ➥ GENERAL NUTRITION CENTER has opened a new location at The Promenade at Chenal shopping center. It is the first of four new tenants to open in the newly constructed Lot 7 building.

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES

for Medical Sciences got word last week that its reimbursements may be trimmed owing to the very high rate that its patients get infections and are readmitted. Like other hospitals, it must take steps to improve its care. The stories didn’t say but Obamacare dictates it. While doing some frivolous research the other day, I came across an editorial I wrote for the old Arkansas Gazette Sept. 29, 1991. President George H.W. Bush had campaigned for president in 1988 partly on the promise that he would do something to end the health care crisis by finding a way to insure many more Americans, stop the bankrupting binge of health spending

and improve medical outcomes. Ronald Reagan’s right-wing think tank, the Heritage Foundation, had come up with a plan for him. It was what would become, in 2010, Obamacare: a mandate that people buy private insurance in government-sponsored exchanges, with federal help to the extent they needed it, along with incentives to improve care and reform costs. The editorial encouraged the president to jump on it. He dithered until he got a fresh term, which Bill Clinton denied him. What I frankly doubted, though, was that those right-wingers who drew up his plan knew what they were talking about. It turns out they did.

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-221-3939. LD daily. MASON’S DELI AND GRILL Heaven for those who believe everything is better with sauerkraut on top. The Bavarian Reuben, a traditional Reuben made with Boar’s Head corned beef, spicy mustard, sauerkraut, Muenster cheese and marble rye, is among the best we’ve had in town. 400 Clinton Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-376-3354. LD Mon.-Sat. MIDTOWN BILLIARDS You’ll find perhaps the city’s finest burgers in this all-night dive. But be prepared to smell like stale cigarette smoke and grease once you’re finished. 1316 Main St. Full bar, CC. $-$$. 501-372-9990. D daily. MIMI’S CAFE Breakfast is our meal of choice here at this upscale West Coast chain. Portions are plenty to last you through the afternoon, especially if you get a muffin on the side. MiddleAmerica comfort-style entrees make up other meals, from pot roast to pasta dishes. 11725 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-2213883. BLD daily, BR Sun. MORNINGSIDE BAGELS Tasty New York-style boiled bagels, made daily. 10848 Maumelle Blvd. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-753-6960. BL daily. NEWK’S EXPRESS CAFE Gourmet sandwiches, salads and pizzas. 4317 Warden Road. NLR. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-753-8559. LD daily. ORANGE LEAF YOGURT Upscale self-serve national yogurt chain. 11525 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-227-4522. LD daily. RED MANGO National yogurt and smoothie chain whose appeal lies in adjectives like “allnatural,” “non-fat,” “gluten-free” and “probiotic.” 5621 Kavanaugh Blvd. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-2500. BLD daily. SADDLE CREEK WOODFIRED GRILL Upscale chain dining in Lakewood, with a menu full of appetizers, burgers, chicken, fish and other fare. It’s the smoke-kissed steaks, however, that make it a winner — even in Little Rock’s beef-heavy restaurant market. 2703 Lakewood Village. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-812-0883. SAM’S SOUTHERN EATERY Shreveport, La., chain features large menu of salads, shrimp, fried fish, po’boys, burgers, cheesesteak sandwiches and more. Also in Pine Bluff: 1704 E. Harding Ave., 879-774-1974. 6205 Baseline Road. 501-562-2255. SIMPLY NAJIYYAH’S FISHBOAT & MORE Good catfish and corn fritters. 1717 Wright Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-562-3474. BLD Mon.-Sat.

SLICK’S SANDWICH SHOP & DELI Meatand-two plate lunches in state office building. 101 E. Capitol Ave. No alcohol. 501-375-3420. BL Mon.-Fri. SPECTATORS GRILL AND PUB Burgers, soups, salads and other beer food, plus live music on weekends. 1012 W. 34th St. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-791-0990. LD Mon.-Sat. SPORTS PAGE One of the largest, juiciest, most flavorful burgers in town. Grilled turkey and hot cheese on sourdough gets praise, too. Don’t want a burger or sandwich? They have good daily lunch specials. 414 Louisiana St. Beer and wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-9316. L Mon.-Fri., D Fri. SUFFICIENT GROUNDS Great coffee, good bagels and pastries, and a limited lunch menu. 124 W. Capitol. No alcohol, CC. $. 501-372-1009. BL Mon.-Fri. 425 W. Capitol. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-4594. BL Mon.-Fri. SUGIE’S Catfish and all the trimmings. 4729 Baseline Road. No alcohol, All CC. $. 501-5700414. LD daily. T.G.I. FRIDAY’S This national chain was on the verge of stale before a redo not long ago, and the update has done wonders for the food as well as the surroundings. The lunch combos are a great deal, and the steaks aren’t bad. It’s designed for the whole family, and succeeds. Appetizers and desserts are always good. 2820 Lakewood Village Drive,. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-758-2277. LD daily. THE TAVERN SPORTS GRILL Burgers, barbecue and more. 17815 Chenal Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-830-2100. LD daily. TROPICAL SMOOTHIE CAFE Smoothies, sandwiches and salads in an art deco former YMCA. 524 Broadway. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 246-3145. BLD Mon.-Fri. (closes at 6 p.m.) 10221 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-2242233. BLD daily 12911 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-376-2233. BLD daily. TWIN PEAKS ‘Hearty man food,” such as “wellbuilt sandwiches” and plenty of cleavage on the side. 10 Shackleford Drive. Full bar. 501-224-1729. VICTORIAN GARDEN We’ve found the fare quite tasty and somewhat daring and different with its healthy, balanced entrees and crepes. 4801 North Hills Blvd. NLR. $-$$. 501-758-4299. L Mon.-Sat. WHITE WATER TAVERN Good locally sourced bar food. 2500 W. 7th St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-375-8400. D Tue., Thu., Fri., Sat.

THE BIG PICTURE, CONT.

DAVID BACON

hearsay

DUMAS, CONT.

CUSHMAN: Curated the "Face to Face" exhibit at the Arts Center, including this graphite and carved phonebook selfportrait by Alex Queral. I love sculpture and crafted objects, but when the words “public sculpture” go together, the results are often less than adequate art. If you could sit down with Alice Walton and talk to her about what you’d like to see in Crystal Bridges, or changes you’d make, how would that conversation go? I would encourage Alice Walton to consider self-taught/folk art and contemporary craft/ object makers for the CBMAA collection and exhibitions. If you could sit down with the administration at UALR, what changes would you advise to improve the university’s art education, if any? Institutions for higher education have curriculum structures in place that are necessary to complete degrees. There are models out there that are not driven by grades — Cranbrook Academy of Art and Penland School of Crafts are two examples. They offer learning experiences for artists and creative types that do not involve grades. I wish universities as a whole would allow creative (art, music, theater, writing) departments more flexibility regarding program structures. Who is the most fascinating person you know? What is it about him or her that fascinates you? For 25 years one of my dearest friends was the Oklahoma writer Billie Letts. She wrote “Where the Heart Is.” I met Billie first and with her friendship came her husband, Dennis Letts, an actor and educator with an amazing intellect. The whole family was/ is a unique creative force with musicians and writers. I continue to marvel at the writings of Tracy Letts — the author of “Killer Joe,” “Bug,” “Man from Nebraska,” and “August: Osage County.” How lucky I was that the Letts family adopted me as one of their own. What is your least intellectual pursuit? Watching mindless TV (think “Housewives”) or surfing the Internet with no direct purpose.

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UAMS HAS THE FOLLOWING OPENING:

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF FAMILY AND PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE

UAMS is seeking to fill one (1) position for Assistant Professor of Family and Preventative Medicine in the Little Rock, Arkansas metro area. Clinical and Teaching Position. Position includes teaching of residents and other medical students. Duties include, prescribing or administering treatment, therapy, medication, vaccinations and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease or injury. Monitor patients’ conditions and progress and reevaluate treatments as necessary. Coordinate work with nurses, social workers, rehabilitation therapists, pharmacists, psychologists, and other health care provides. Must have an MD, or foreign equivalent, Arkansas State Medical License, and must be board certified or board eligible in family medicine upon hire and if board eligible must complete board certification within one (1) year of hire. Send résumé to Jamie Rankins, jlrankins@uams.edu, 501-6866606, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Dept. of Family & Preventative Medicine, 4301 W. Markham, Slot 530, Little Rock, AR 72205. EOE.

UAMS is an inclusive Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer of individuals with disabilities and protected veterans and is committed to excellence.

Notice:

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DIG ITA L A DV E R TIS ING SA L ES M A N AGE R / D I GI TA L GU R U

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Arkansas Times is looking for a digital sales manager to oversee the day-to-day operations of all revenue-generating parts of our media group. Job duties include training, motivating and supervising salespeople; creating and overseeing the development of new sales products; overseeing our 5-year-old social media sales division, and providing strategic guidance for all things digital. Candidates should be fluent in analytics, social media and general web trends. Arkansas Times media includes our flagship, a 40-year-old weekly with one of the strongest web outputs in the alt-media community; El Latino, a Spanish-language weekly; Savvy, a moms-focused weekly; Arkansas Wild, a outdoors quarterly, and Food and Farm, a magazine published four times a year that matches farmers and producers with restaurants and consumers. Monetizing or growing revenue in display advertising, sponsored content/native ads, enewsletters, videos, digital subscriptions, podcasts, quizzes, surveys and archival content are among the specific areas on which the digital sales manager would focus.

ARKANSAS TIMES

Please email publisher Alan Leveritt at alan@arktimes.com and tell him about yourself.

www.arktimes.com

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES SOCIAL MEDIA

IS YOUR BUSINESS SOCIAL? S

ocial media is not as simple as setting up a Facebook page or starting a Twitter account. Running a successful social media campaign takes time, and lots of it. It takes a combination of marketing, communication and customer service skills. Chances are that your staff doesn’t have the time or the skills necessary to take full advantage of these powerful marketing tools that will help your business grow. That’s where we come in.

WE HELP YOU GET NOTICED ONLINE, FOR ALL THE RIGHT REASONS. WE OFFER A RANGE OF SERVICES INCLUDING:

Social media strategy Studio photo shoots Monthly analytics data Targeted advertising

CONTACT LAUREN BUCHER, SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR, AT 501.375.2985 EXT. 311 OR LAURENBUCHER@ARKTIMES.COM.

JANUARY 8, 2015

ARKANSAS TIMES