Arkansas Times

FIRE IT UP

Our annual guide to summer.

PAGE 14

NEWS + POLITICS + ENTERTAINMENT / MAY 2, 2012 / ARKTIMES.COM

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VOLUME 38, NUMBER 35 ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, 200 Heritage Center West, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72203, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, AR, 72203. 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.

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MAY 2, 2012

3

COMMENT

Interfering with education I am certain you have heard from many teachers in the Pulaski County Special School District who are upset about the organized efforts to destroy both PACT and PASS, our school district’s labor unions, and the negotiated contracts that protect workers’ rights here. I am upset about these things, too, of course, but I am writing about a different problem.

I am also angry at the three people — Dr. Jerry Guess, Dr. Tom Kimbrell, and our “Democratic” governor, Mike Beebe — who are turning the PCSSD upside-down for an even more important reason. My students need to concentrate to learn chemistry and physical science. These are not easy subjects, and, in the current environment, the focus needed to learn anything at all is incredibly difficult for teen-agers to maintain.

Can you imagine what this must be like for, say, first graders, worried about their teacher? I cannot, I admit, and I am glad I do not have to face the questions, and the worries, of small, frightened children. However, I have friends in nearby schools who are working in exactly this situation, right now.

My students have asked me, perhaps 80 times, in class, if we’re going on strike. I have been asked even more often if I am being fired. This does not happen because I bring up the issue, for I do my best to avoid discussing this labor/management conflict with my students. I even have a written message to them, on my board, which simply says that they can get information about what’s going on from newspapers, TV news, or the Internet, but not from me, because I’m there to teach them science.

Some of my students will face college chemistry next year. I want them to be as well-prepared as possible. I don’t want anyone interfering with my classroom instructional time.

These three men are interfering with the education of my students, in my classroom, and in every classroom in the PCSSD. Our students didn’t do anything to deserve having the end of their school year turned into this horrible mess.

Why are my students being mistreated in this way?

Robert Austin High School teacher in the PCSSD Little Rock

encounter with the municipal police: If an officer knocks on your door and asks you to step outside, don’t! If you do, you may be walking into a trap. Once outside, the cop may look for an excuse to throw you down and handcuff you rather than engage you in conversation.

Instead of complying with the officer’s request to step outside, you should politely decline and invite the officer in, where different rules will apply.

A man’s home is his castle. Or at least it should be.

Bill Shepherd Little Rock

4

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

From a post on the Arkansas Blog on Sen. Joyce Elliott’s resignation as executive director of the Promise Neighborhood after the Democrat-Gazette called into question her employment, citing a state law that prohibits the hiring of legislators by state agencies.

Joyce Elliott is one of the most decent humans I have ever met She clearly dropped the ball on the $340 in taxes she owed. Wow, what an awful person she is. I am super proud

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Central arkansas Water partnered with the University of arkansas research and extension Service to assist consumers with tips to save money by reducing outdoor water consumption through the Sprinkler Smart Program. households in Pulaski County can learn how to adjust their sprinkler system properly, the best times and how much to water, and what type of landscaping is best for your yard.

To learn more about the Sprinkler Smart Program, visit carkw.com or contact your county extension agent, Mark Brown at 501.340.6650 or mbrown@uaex.edu.

Lesson from Thompson arrest If nothing else, residents of Little Rock should have learned at least one lesson from Dr. Joe Thompson’s recent

From The Web

carkw.com

of the Democrat-Gazette thinking that warrants a full-blown investigation on the front page of the statewide paper.

And speaking of absurd, how ’bout this statute? Any strict application means an elected official who takes a new job as a public school teacher, professor at a state college, state park ranger, football coach, forestry service, game warden, state trooper, or another employee for a “state agency” would be in violation of the law.

As far as the Promise Neighborhood issue is concerned, Joyce is the only person who handled herself with class.

UALR dropped the ball in not doing the proper homework from the beginning.

And no I don’t mean homework in that Joyce should not have been hired.

Joyce was and still is clearly the best person to head up the organization.

Please name another person in the history of this state who has represented underprivileged neighborhoods in Little Rock and has 30 years of experience teaching and 10 years on the Education committees in the House and Senate.

The freaking joke is that UALR did not set up a 501c3. Or do any due diligence after deciding to hire her. The school knew she was a state senator.

Think it could, maybe, I don’t know, talk to a lawyer?

But the real story is that whatever the hell Walter Hussman wants, he gets. No one involved — not the Central Arkansas Library System, not UALR, not our fearless City officials — thought to actually turn to a lawyer or at any point stand up and ask whether this law is applicable to this partnership.

Nor did anyone stand up and say publicly, “Wait, a second. The worst case scenario here is that a statute that the Democrat-Gazette dug up is being woefully misapplied to an organization that in no way, shape, form, intent or function resembles a state agency.”

Not to mention, this federal grant and program partnership had the potential to be one of the true game changers for the city of Little Rock and the state. We were incredibly lucky to win it in the first place and we should all do everything we cannot to jeopardize it by killing it in its infancy But, of course, not one person had the courage to do anything like that.

Why would you let what is best for the state or our kids or education dictate your actions?

Hattie Caraway

Submit letters to the Editor, Arkansas Times, P.O. Box 34010, Little Rock, AR 72203. We also accept letters via e-mail.

The address is arktimes@arktimes.com.

Please include name and hometown.

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MAY 2, 2012

5

EDITORIAL

EYE ON ARKANSAS

We endorse

6

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

Y

es, it appears that state SEN. JOYCE ELLIOTT has missed some tax payments, a serious offense for a lawmaker, and yes, she erred in accepting an $80,000 job on the public payroll that should never have been offered to a member of the legislature, a job she has now relinquished. And yes, if this were someone else, we might be more disapproving.

But it is not someone else, it is the esteemed Joyce Elliott seeking another term in the Senate, and now running in a district that has been redrawn so that she has lost some of her strongest supporters.

Arkansas still needs Joyce Elliott in the legislature.

First in the House and now in the Senate, she’s been a brave and enlightened advocate of good causes, in education, public health, equality of rights and just about every other area, including fair taxes.

Her opponent in the Democratic primary in District 31 is Rep. Fred Allen, a pleasant sort with a better voting record than some. But that’s not what’s drawing big contributions to Allen from people who don’t live in his district, or even his city. Some of these contributors want to change the education system, to encourage private schools over public, sectarian over non-sectarian. (Elliott, a former teacher, is a champion of the public schools that most Arkansas young people attend.) It’s disturbing also that Allen’s campaign treasurer is a member of a secretive, business-dominated new agency, the Little Rock Technology Park Authority, which will be spending millions of dollars in ways that are now unclear. Allen himself has confessed to a longing for “tort reform,” which would benefit corporate malefactors, and gravely injure the low- and middle-income residents of Allen’s district, diluting their right to sue for wrongs done them. Supporting tort reform is worse than anything Elliott has been caught in.

Ever since a native New Yorker was elected president of the student body at the University of Arkansas in the late ’90s, people have been saying that WARWICK SABIN will go far in politics.

This year, he’s taking the first off-campus steps on what may be a long and rising political road, as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for state representative in House District 33. Sabin came to Arkansas after meeting President Bill Clinton at the White House while Sabin was a New York delegate to Boys Nation. Thirty years earlier, Bill Clinton had been an Arkansas delegate to Boys Nation and met President John F. Kennedy.

Now the publisher of the Oxford American magazine, Sabin has been an aide to a congressman, an administrator at a state university, and even a staff member of the Arkansas Times. Bright, honest, popular and progressive, he’s a perfect fit for District 33, able to argue liberal positions without offending conservative colleagues.

Sabin’s opponent, Mark Robertson, is not an unattractive candidate himself, a landscape architect and planner who seems committed to environmental and conservation initiatives and sustainable practices. Against a different opponent, we might endorse him.

RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS ALWAYS GET ME DOWN: Greg Deckelman of Occupy Little Rock receives a ticket Monday from an officer for obstructing traffic, which Deckelman described as stepping off a crowded sidewalk into the street. The Occupy Little Rock group was marching to protest the city’s move to evict the group from their camp at Fourth and Ferry Streets.

Broken ‘Promise’

A

lmost eight months ago, a group of public and private agencies announced a joint venture to lift the fortunes of children and families in inner city Little Rock.

With TV cameras rolling, Sen. Joyce Elliott of Little Rock was introduced as the leader of the Central Arkansas Promise Neighborhood. Modeled on the famous Harlem Children’s Zone, its aim is to coordinate health, education and other services in a comprehensive way from birth to jobs.

Partners: UALR, the city of Little Rock, UAMS, Children’s Hospital, the Little Rock Preparatory Academy charter school, the Central Arkansas Library System, the Little Rock School District, New Futures for Youth.

Churches, including Second Presbyterian, and private foundations have promised money and volunteers. The consortium won a highly sought federal planning grant.

But last week came a complication. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Elliott’s hiring might run afoul of state law because UALR was her paying agent. A state law prohibits hiring of a state legislator by a state agency, if Promise Neighborhood be such.

That law was passed in 1999 after a powerful legislator, Ed Thicksten, got hired by a state agency he created and funded while he was a state legislator, and after another sitting legislator laid groundwork to lobby for a state university. It wasn’t about a legislator — qualified as teacher, neighbor and organizer — working for a consortium including agencies legally able to pay her.

One fix was for the city of Little Rock to issue paychecks. But the city got cold feet. City officials insist influential businessman Dickson Flake had nothing to do with it. Flake is campaign treasurer for state Rep. Fred Allen, who is running against Elliott. Flake is powerful in the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. It receives $200,000 in city tax money each year. It ran — but didn’t disclose expenditures in — the campaign to pass a huge city sales tax. That sales tax gave $22 million to the Little Rock Technol-

ogy Park Authority, created by a law written by the chamber, whose members include a statutory seat for the chamber and Flake himself. Elliott recently advocated fiercely before the MAX board for neighbors who fear BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com their land will be taken. She also has said she’ll push in the next legislature for more financial disclosure by Authority board members and neighborhood protections.

The Democrat-Gazette’s reporting has been a welcome tool for the newspaper’s editorial page, where Elliott was already a public enemy for standing up to the charter school lobby that publisher Walter Hussman supports. Billionaire money, from charter school advocates Jim Walton and Jackson T. Stephens Jr., help power Fred Allen’s campaign, along with other corporate dough.

Monday, Elliott made the only realistic decision.

She resigned her job with Promise Neighborhood.

She hopes re-election will restore a measure of her good name and also remove controversy from a worthy project.

The tragedy is not her loss of income. The tragedy is that time is now short for application for grants to put the project in motion. I’m told the loss of Elliott also may cost the program some of its promised private support. The entire program is at risk.

If politics set these events in motion — and Elliott believes they did — the community and children at Bale, Franklin and Stephens elementary schools, Forest Heights Middle School, Hall High and Little Rock Preparatory Academy will pay the heaviest price.

Yes, the law is the law (though it’s more ambiguous than it might seem.) But it was the law nearly eight months ago, too. Too bad it was not invoked then by those speaking so knowingly today, rather than — coincidentally — scant days before an election.

OPINION

Getting Borked

by Romney

I

f you are a woman, worker, consumer, conservationist, minority or just an ordinary Arkansan, here is an ominous development: Mitt Romney says that if he is elected president he will bend an ear to Robert Bork.

In his prime Bork worried even conservatives. You may remember the explanation of the Republican senator from Virginia, John Warner, when he voted against Bork’s confirmation as a Supreme Court justice in 1987: “I cannot find in him the record of compassion, of sensitivity and understanding of the pleas of the people to enable him to sit on the highest court of the land.”

Six Republicans broke with their president and voted against Bork, whose rejection, 58-42, was the largest in history. His record of legal opinions, articles and speeches had spilled out and it was not heartening to many people: The Constitution’s equal protection clause was not meant for women.

The Constitution gives Americans no right to privacy from the government. States should be given ERNEST back the right to DUMAS impose literacy tests and poll taxes, the devices we used in Dixie to keep blacks from voting. The First Amendment protects only political speech; the government should be able to restrict any other kind.

But Bork’s view that the Constitution is for the privileged was not his most worrisome notion. Rather, it was that what was important about a case was not the law but the identity of the parties.

Bork established that legal doctrine on Saturday night, Oct. 20, 1973, when President Nixon ordered his attorney general, Eliot Richardson, to fire Archibald Cox, the Watergate independent counsel who was trying to

Paul Ryan’s scheme

T

o understand the secret of current Republican matinee idol Rep. Paul Ryan’s success, it’s necessary to grasp three essential elements of his popularity: First, he’s a handsome, telegenic fellow very good at faking sincerity. Maybe the best since disgraced Democrat John Edwards. If he weren’t a Catholic, Ryan would have made a brilliant televangelist.

As an Irish-American funeral director, he’d have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Second, Ryan knew the exact moment to reposition himself to take advantage of the GOP’s hysterical freakout over U.S. budget deficits. See, as recently as January 19, 2009, George W. Bush was still president, the projected FY2009 deficit was a record $1.3 trillion, but relatively few Republicans had anything to say about it.

And certainly not Rep. Ryan, who’d championed every one of the Bush administration’s budget-busting innovations, from the ill-advised tax cuts to the deficitfinanced 2003 Medicare prescriptiondrug benefits.

Indeed, contrary to his image as a sobersided deficit hawk, Jonathan Chait points out in an acerbic New York magazine profile, “Ryan was a staunch ally in Bush’s profligacy, dissenting only to urge Bush to jack up the deficit even more.” Specifically, Ryan urged even greater tax cuts for millionaires; in 2005, he proposed creating

privatized Social Security accounts with an estimated $2 trillion in borrowed money for Wall Street to play GENE with.

LYONS On Jan. 21, 2009, however, a Democratic president took over. Hence budget deficits instantaneously became a mortal threat to the nation, and the Very Handsome Congressman transformed himself into “a figure of cinematic rectitude ... America’s neighborhood accountant, a man devoted to the task of restoring our fiscal health.”

Third, and perhaps most important, the budgetary manifesto Ryan calls “The Path to Prosperity,” exists in the realm of pure theory, if not downright fantasy. It’s yet another exercise in GOP magical thinking, filled with preposterous assumptions and arithmetical sleight-of-hand. The numbers don’t need to add up, because everybody but the most gullible voters knows it will never be enacted. Republican congressmen voting for the fool thing did so in the certain knowledge that it was going nowhere in the Senate and would be vetoed by President Obama if it did.

Insofar as the scheme aims at anything other than advancing Ryan’s career, for once in his life Newt Gingrich got some-

obtain the secret White House tapes on Watergate. Richardson resigned and so did William Ruckelshaus, the next in command, when Nixon told him to fire Cox. But the third in line, Solicitor General Robert Bork, elevated late in the night to attorney general, instantly obliged and fired Cox, establishing that we were, indeed, a nation not of laws but of men.

Bork is not on the court, but his school of thought has won the day.

No matter how arcane the issue, in Bork’s country there are people who just ought to win because of who they are and what they stand for, and the law is secondary. Women are not in that group.

Neither are workers. Democrats? Not. Arkansans who’ve been around for a while will remember Bork’s opinion in the Grand Gulf nuclear power case that started in 1979. In that eight-year court case, Arkansas fought President Reagan’s regulators and the federal courts over the state’s biggest utility’s arrangement to make people here pay for 36 percent of the cost of nuclear power plants that would serve only Louisiana and Mississippi. It has since cost Arkansans, who could ill afford it, more than $4.5 billion.

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upheld the scheme, which required Arkansas to bear the costs in perpetuity. But Judge Bork dissented in part. Arkansas homeowners and businesses, he said, should pay not 36 percent but nearly all the costs. Had he prevailed, Arkansas’s subsidy to its neighbors would have been closer to $10 billion. He dreamed up a cockamamie formula that would shift the costs to Arkansas.

Who knows what he had against Arkansas? Given Bork’s disposition, the speculation at the time may have been right. Arkansas was the least Republican of the Southern states. Its two senators were Democrats (both voted against his Supreme Court nomination that year).

Its governor, Bill Clinton, had taken a law class from him at Yale and was mildly critical of his nomination. Mississippi and Louisiana and its congressional delegation were on the right side — Bork’s side — on all of that.

But here’s an encouraging thought.

Though Romney said he wished that Bork had been on the Supreme Court and making the laws right the last 25 years, he’s too old to take any more vengeance on Arkansas. Isn’t he?

thing right when he called it “right-wing social engineering.” In essence, it would amount to a massive wealth transfer from the poorest to the wealthiest Americans.

Basically, Ryan proposes to reduce the income tax code to two rates, topping out at 25 percent, but keeping total government revenues constant by eliminating unspecified “loopholes.”

News flash: There are only two “loopholes” in the tax code big enough to bring in substantial revenue. If you do your own income taxes, you know what they are: the homeowners’ mortgage interest deduction, and the employer-sponsored health insurance deduction. Eliminating both would indeed bring in billions; it would also cost the average reader of this column thousands. That’s both why they’re unspecified, and why they’re never going to happen.

Meanwhile, taxes on capital gains, dividends and interest would vanish.

It’s the same with spending cuts. Ryan promises massive savings in government spending he also refuses to specify. So that whenever President Obama or anybody else talks about the concrete results of eliminating funding for, say, Pell grants to needy college students, Ryan can soulfully (and semi-truthfully) complain that those particular cuts aren’t in his budget.

It’s kind of a carnival shell game. Now you see it, now you don’t.

The centerpiece of Ryan’s plan, however, is his vow to balance the budget by converting Medicare into a capped-rate

voucher plan enabling old timers to buy private health insurance—sort of like Obamacare with no mandates apart from bankruptcy or death. So in the real world grandma either gets squeezed into penury by spiraling health insurance premiums or Congress continually raises the spending caps. Greater insecurity, no savings.

Near term, Chait explains that while holding military spending steady, “Ryan would achieve his … deficit reduction by focusing overwhelmingly on programs targeted to the poor (which account for about a fifth of the federal budget, but absorb 62 percent of Ryan’s cuts over the next decade). The budget repeals Obamacare, thereby uninsuring some 30 million Americans about to become insured.

It would then take insurance away from another 14 to 27 million people, by cutting Medicaid and children’s health-insurance funding.”

All of which is why the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has written an open letter to Congress protesting that “a just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons.” Shortly before the former altar boy made an appearance at Georgetown University, the bishops added that “the House-passed budget resolution fails to meet these moral criteria.”

Ryan responded by calling for a “thoughtful dialogue.” He’s ever so thoughtful, The Very Handsome Congressman. www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

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MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Childs and Wright, together again

F

inally, some peace and quiet.

After a solid month of Weekly World News-quality fodder from Hog sporting circles, the past few days were practically sleepy. Arkansas’s baseball team, swooning in the middle of its conference slate as it often does, managed to take two of three games at highly rated Florida to nudge back over .500 in SEC play. I could go into why I think the Hogs’ hitting coach, Todd Butler, is consistently pardoned year after year for overseeing an underperforming lineup, but hey, let’s not sully the vibe.

Arguably the better news is that during a normally staid day of the NFL draft, Saturday saw receivers Jarius Wright and Greg Childs both go in the fourth round to the Minnesota Vikings. Selfishly, and in full disclosure, I loved this because I happen to be a mostly lifelong fan of that franchise. The more compelling aspect of the story, clearly, is that Wright and Childs continue to be joined at the hip: they grew up together and starred at Warren High School, arrived on the U of A campus at the same time in 2008 to be integral parts of a new brand of offense and now head to the professional ranks together.

Minnesota is an ideal destination for Wright and Childs due to a paucity of receiving depth, and because Adrian Peterson’s presence in the backfield commands so much attention from opposing defenses. Christian Ponder looks the part at quarterback, but he spent much of his rookie campaign dancing around behind a makeshift line and having few viable options in the passing game. The Warren duo cures the latter ill in a rather substantial way: Wright’s downfield speed and experience working as a slot receiver make him a perfect complement to Percy Harvin, and Childs’ height and muscle give him the ability to separate from defensive backs in the open field and elevate in the red zone.

We’ve seen those attributes for four seasons, of course. Wright’s 13-catch, 281yard day against Texas A&M was one of college football’s best individual performances of the entire 2011 season; he willed the Hogs back from the dead with countless grabs over the middle, stretched the field for a long opening score, runblocked on the perimeter like few “small” receivers can, and pounced on a fumble in the end zone to give the Hogs a critical touchdown in a furious second half rally.

Some of Childs’ best moments came, oddly enough, in Razorback defeats.

His dash to the end zone to complete

a 75-yard scoring play in the fourth quarter of a controversial loss at top-ranked Florida was an exemBEAU plary demonstraWILCOX tion of his ability to shake defenders and reach for extra yardage at the end of a reception. As a freshman, Childs came up with a remarkable long touchdown reception late against Ole Miss, reaching up for a 22-yard score that put the Hogs within striking distance in the waning moments. His performance at Auburn in 2010 was a personal highlight reel: nine catches on a variety of routes, 164 yards, two touchdowns and a twopoint conversion reception.

What set both Wright and Childs apart was a competitive spirit that, frankly, seems lacking in other receivers.

Wright nearly stumbled on a post pattern in 2010 against Mississippi State, but he recovered his footing and outraced the entire Bulldog secondary on the way to an 89-yard touchdown that ended up being the longest play of his exceptional career. Childs tore his patella tendon against Vanderbilt weeks before that, doing something he regularly did: twisting and contorting his 6-3 frame to gain whatever precious yardage he could.

Both bounced back from dropped passes here and there by making crucial plays.

Wright returned from an early injury in 2011 to subject his body to enormous punishment against Alabama; Childs was clearly not at full speed for much of his senior season but had several key catches against Auburn, LSU and Kansas State.

Having those tawdry and surreal clouds hanging over the program of late only reaffirms that the story of Wright and Childs is something we all should embrace for the long term. Here are two young men whose lifelong bond on the football field will continue, for the time being, and whose productivity and progress bookended the Bobby Petrino era nicely. We may lament the senseless way that the head coach short-circuited his own career here, but through these two players, we nonetheless have an ongoing and engaging example of why “Bobby Petrino: 2008-2012” should not be etched on a headstone but rather proudly on the pages of the school’s record books. Two kids from Warren, Arkansas, were able to craft their own legacies even if their leader couldn’t sustain his own.

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9

W O RDS

To of and of not

Join Us for a Day-Long

Living History Program The Pea Ridge Campaign: Spring & Summer 1862 Saturday, May 5, 2012, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Admission is Free. and see the new exhibit “Battle Colors of Arkansas”

Do you know someone who is:

The Old State House Museum is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

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10

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

No rental or utility assistance

Our agents in the field have been doing grand work. Victory over Bad English seems assured.

Steve Barger of Conway reviewed a letter from University of Arkansas trustee Sam Hilburn to UA President Donald R. Bobbitt. Hilburn, a North Little Rock lawyer, objected to the hiring of John L. Smith as the new gridiron czar at Fayetteville. Hilburn wrote: “John Smith was a total failure as a special teams coach. If he were that good, Coach Petrino would not of let him go.”

Barger’s assessment: “Using ‘of’ as a phonetic approximation of the contracted ‘have’ (e.g., would’ve) reflects such poor understanding of language that I have come to expect it only from the text messages of modern teenagers. (In my day, teenagers’ language skills were beaten on the forge of sentence diagrams and only slipped from perfection with atrophy once we left the correcting influence of high school English classes.) This instance is actually worse because it’s not even the contraction ending that has been replaced, the ‘not’ having obviated that usage. It’s terribly demoralizing to see such an error in a trustee; on the board of an institution of higher learning, to boot!”

Gene Pfeifer of Little Rock infiltrated

the communications network of Southwest Airlines to make a bust. He writes: “I was making a resDOUG ervation and got SMITH dougsmith@arktimes.com pretty far down in the process and came across this: ‘How can we get a hold of you?’ At least they didn’t spell it ‘holt’ as it is usually pronounced.”

George Gatliff went the last mile, exposing rot in the pages of the Arkansas Times itself. George may be a little too diligent. Anyway, he writes: “In the ‘Comment’ section of the April 18 Arkansas Times, Turrialbaguy wrote ‘He [Mayor Casey Laman] gave his heart, mind, body and sole to NLR.’ Did he mean that the Mayor gave the reporter the boot?” (Turrialbaguy had identified himself as a former reporter who’d covered North Little Rock and Laman.)

Error on the throe: “Indeed, this was the meaning of the word ‘miserables’ — the riffraff and rabble, the superfluous and scum, all thrown up by a society in the throws of rapid industrialization and financial speculation.”

WEEK THAT WAS

It was a good week for…

DR. JOHNNY MOORE. The Old Washington native and Philander Smith College graduate was named as president of Philander. Moore is currently executive vice president of student affairs at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas. He succeeds Dr. Walter Kimbrough, who’s moving to lead Dillard University in New Orleans.

TIMOTHY HOWARD. The Arkansas Supreme Court has ordered a further hearing on the DNA claim of Howard, a Death Row inmate, that state suppression of critical problems with DNA evidence prejudiced his trial. Howard was convicted in Little River County in 1998 of the slayings of Brian and Shannon Day and sentenced to die.

JOE FRANCIS. The smut king behind “Girls Gone Wild” got plenty of publicity out of a report he put out saying he’d bought an internship with Sen. Mark Pryor off an online auction site. Los Angeles financier Chad Brownstein, who has contributed to Pryor campaigns, eventually owned up to the intern fund-raising idea. He said he didn’t clear it with Pryor first and always assumed it would be subject to clearance on the winner.

It was a bad week for…

THE ARKANSAS LOTTERY. State Rep. John Walker of Little Rock, who is also a lawyer, filed a lawsuit in Pulaski Circuit Court alleging that tampering with lottery scratch-off tickets created a situation in which an unknown number of gamblers could have been sold $20 scratch-off tickets without a chance of winning. The suit alleges that Arkansas Lottery Commission officials were informed of the tampering scheme, but tried to hush the plaintiff up by giving him some lottery merchandise and even free lottery tickets.

SEN. JOYCE ELLIOTT. The Little Rock legislator resigned her $80,000 job as executive director of a public-private consortium hoping to build a Harlem Children’s Zone-type cradle-to-job program for inner city Little Rock known as Central Little Rock Promise Neighborhood. Elliott — and, unfortunately, the program itself — has been beset by questions raised about her hiring for the job with UALR, a state agency, as a paying agent. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette first reported that a 1999 state law prohibits the hiring of legislators by state agencies and universities are included in that definition. An alternate plan to have the city of Little Rock pay Elliott was withdrawn, apparently because of the city’s reluctance to become enmeshed in the controversy.

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

The look THE OBSERVER, AS YOU MAY REMEMBER, teaches a few classes

out at The College, and by the time the school bell rang last week for our Intro to Creative Writing course, Yours Truly was sick. Junior had brought the bug home from school, sniffled twice, and then he was over it. Dear Ol’ Dad, meanwhile, soon felt as if he’d fallen off the Empire State Building into a vat of lukewarm Vaseline.

We’d been fighting it for several days, drinking orange juice and enough water to float a Navy destroyer, but by 6 p.m. that night, the crud had settled into our chest and sinuses and left us looking and sounding like what the kids might call hammered dookie.

The semester is drawing down to finals time, though, so we dutifully trudged to class, determined to get at least one of the stories up for discussion off the docket that night before adjourning.

One story down and the voice starting to go, we threw in the towel just after 7:15, the students happy to have an early night off and kindly wishing The Professor a get well soon before disappearing into the dark. Taking up our man-purse and Thermos, we headed out the door toward the parking lot.

A student — not from our class, just a student — was standing outside the building with his backpack over his shoulder. As The Observer shambled past, dreaming of NyQuil and a chilly pillow, he looked us up and down, smiled, and said: “You just have the look of a professor.�

Yikes. Thanks, we guess.

THE OBSERVER TURNED OUT

to watch them march on Monday: Occupy Little Rock — though we suppose the group of 18 souls carrying sodden cardboard signs that soggy afternoon was less an occupation force and more of a patrol.

We’ve never tended to be a joiner, but there’s just something about brave and earnest folks — even folks we don’t agree with, because (believe it

or not) we quietly cheered the spirit, if not the message, of the Tea Partiers, too — taking to the streets and raising their voices that always puts a lump in the throat of Yours Truly. It’s probably because we are, at heart, a patriot.

The word, we must admit, tends to stick in the throat these days, after a decade or two of being used as both crutch and club by a certain brand of political demagogue. Though those who consider the word “liberal� foul language are sure to scoff at this, The Observer, like his dear old Dad before him, loves this country to the core of our being. We’d gladly skulk through sewers with a knife clenched in our teeth to defend it from enemies foreign and domestic, if it ever came to that. Let’s all hope it never does.

The Occupiers were marching on Monday from 4th and Ferry Street, where they’ve been camped, to City Hall, to protest a move to evict them from the city-owned lot. The Observer was there when they marched to the Capitol several hundred strong last October, signs aloft and flags billowing. A stirring sight, to be sure.

Robert Nunn is somebody we’ve seen around the OLR protests from the beginning. He’s a tall, good-looking guy, and has emerged as one of the clear leaders of the group, even though they espouse a leaderless philosophy. On Monday, standing on a sidewalk while fellow protestor Greg Deckleman received a ticket from a Little Rock Police officer for stepping into River Market Avenue during their march, Nunn said that even if the protestors are evicted from 4th and Ferry, the Occupy movement will endure as long as people stay involved. “The camp has become a training ground for people to learn how to become activists,� Nunn said. “I’d like to think that people who weren’t active and participating in democracy before have become more active. That’s what I’d really like to see: more people going to Quorum Court meetings. More people going to City Council meetings.�

That’s the kind of occupation we could really get behind.

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MAY 2, 2012

11

Arkansas Reporter

THE

IN S IDE R

The Retire Pryor PAC has filed its first report with the Federal Election Commission.

Little Rock businessman Carlton Saffa, a Republican with a yen for inside politics who’s fronted the effort so far, is listed as the major financial supporter, accounting for about $7,000 of the slightly more than $10,000 raised. Keith Emis, a Republican political consultant from Little Rock, put in $3,000. The money has been spent on ads in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Times. There were five other small contributions.

To date, the PAC has focused on aiming innuendo at business dealings of Pryor’s in-laws. It has reaped far more than $10,000 in free national media about its effort, all of which naturally repeated the anti-Pryor theme. That may be all there is to it. That may not.

Time will tell, along with future financial reporting.

BRIAN CHILSON

Anti-Pryor PAC files

Osborne auction set

PANHANDLER’S NEMESIS: One of them struck back.

Notices of public auction signs have been erected on homes along Cantrell Road that were part of the family holdings of the late medical researcher Jennings Osborne, a flamboyant philanthropist who died last BREEZY OSBORNE July. He left tangled financial affairs, as evidenced by his sale of a stable of collector vehicles and a recent foreclosure suit filed on the three homes by Metropolitan National Bank, as well as a suit over money owed on a private jet and other properties.

The auctions will begin June 5.

“It pains me that my childhood home — what is like Arkansas’ Graceland — will not be a part of my physical life anymore,” Osborne’s daughter Breezy OsborneWingfield wrote on Facebook.

“The past two years I have had numerous closet sales … Purging every ounce of materialism I ever had was more simple than I had ever imagined. I even held two sales while Dad was in the hospital ... Needless to say, me doing all of that partly meant the world to Dad, but also crushed him. He is a provider. Providers should never have to take help from the people

Anti-begging boxes used little

CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 12

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Not much raised to feed the hungry.

BY DOUG SMITH

M

ost people scarcely notice the orange boxes scattered around the downtown area that say “Don’t give in to panhandlers.

Give here.” But somebody noticed the one outside the River Market, and took exception.

“I am truly homeless and this box doesn’t help me at all,” the person wrote on the box. He or she marked through the “Don’t give in to panhandlers” and wrote “don’t” above the “give here” message. The revised version likely will be as little noted as the original.

The boxes are a co-operative venture of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, a business-supported nonprofit group, and the city of Little Rock.

They’re intended to reduce panhandling. Money collected in the boxes is distributed by the Partnership to various groups that feed the hungry. People who feel guilty about not giving money

to those apparently in need can ease the pain a bit by putting money in the boxes.

That’s the idea, anyway.

The boxes went up in 2009. There are now 25 of them. They haven’t been highly patronized. Sharon Priest, executive director of the Downtown Partner-

People who feel guilty about not giving money to those apparently in need can ease the pain a bit by putting money in the boxes. ship, said the one and only dispersal of funds was made in 2010. The charities Friendly Chapel, Our House, River City Ministry, the Salvation Army, and Union Rescue Mission/Dorcas House received $600 each. There is now $459 in the fund, Priest said, and the future of the

boxes is unclear. The Partnership plans to discuss the matter with city officials.

Panhandling downtown “sort of comes and goes in waves,” Priest said.

“Sometimes there’s a whole lot, then it dies down. I don’t know why, but it does.” Some people are offended by the beggars; some, especially women, feel threatened. Some ignore the panhandlers as thoroughly as they ignore the orange boxes.

“Most people don’t know what the boxes are there for,” Priest said. The Partnership had a little money for promotion when the first boxes went up in 2009, but not since, she said. “Do we spend some of the money we collect to promote the program, or do we give it all to the agencies? We’ve always chosen not to spend the money on promotion.”

As to whether the boxes have reduced the amount of panhandling, nobody can say. William Tollett, executive director of the Union Rescue Mission, said he knew of similar programs in other cities, but hadn’t researched the effectiveness of any of them. He agrees that panhandling should be discouraged. When making public appearances, he hands out cards saying what to do and what not to do for the homeless.

Giving them money is a definite “not.”

Most won’t use it to buy a healthy meal, he said.

Robert Johnston, volunteer coordinator for Feed the Hungry, a charitable group that provides free breakfast five days a week, doesn’t give money to panhandlers either.

“I carry food in my car,” he said.

“Vienna sausages are the best. If I’m approached near my car, I give them food. If we’re near a place that sells food, a grocery store or a McDonald’s, I may buy them something.” Or he may tell them about the various free-food places around town, like the Stewpot, a soup kitchen at First Presbyterian Church.

“About half the people who approach you are indeed hungry,” Johnston said.

“The rest want money for alcohol, or cigarettes, or, very rarely, drugs.” Sometimes, he just says “No, thank you.”

“I’ve never felt threatened by panhandlers,” Johnson said, “but then I’m six-four and 250. A small woman might feel different.”

(Johnston is a former football player at Rice University, as well as a former state legislator and former chairman of the state Public Service Commission.)

LISTEN UP

THE

BIG PICTURE

HERITAGE IN DANGER

On Tuesday, the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas announced its 2012 list of Arkansas’s Most Endangered Places. “The 2012 list highlights distinctive historic places throughout Arkansas that represent important aspects of Arkansas’s history and heritage.

In each instance these places are integral to the communities where are they located, yet they are in immediate danger of disappearing from the landscape,” said Vanessa McKuin, executive director of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas, in a release.

For more on the list, visit preservearkansas.org.

White County Courthouse Searcy (1871) Decades of cashstrapped budgets and deferred maintenance have put dozens of Arkansas’s historic county courthouses, like the White County Courthouse, at risk.

Bigelow Rosenwald School Toad Suck, Perry County (1826) One of the few remaining schools in Arkansas built with funds from a foundation created

by Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears Roebuck and Co., to support the education of black youth.

Medical Arts Building Hot Springs, Garland County (1929) A former medical office building that was the tallest building in Arkansas until 1960. Because of code requirements, all floors but the first have been vacant since around 1986.

Tune in to the Times’ “Week In Review” podcast each Friday.

Available on iTunes & arktimes.com

INSIDER, CONT. they enjoy supporting (according to providers). Every chance he got he tried to pay me back ... Can I tell you how long how I would have to live on this earth to be able to repay my parents for what they’ve done for me? There is no way they are paying me back. Hell no. As I say to Mom, we are in this together. Blood, sweat, tears ... more and more tears. That is why I have chosen to be open about this situation.”

Monte Ne & Oklahoma Row Hotel Near Monte Ne, Benton County (Begun around 1900) Much of the resort community, created by eccentric politician and entrepreneur William “Coin” Harvey, was flooded by the creation of Beaver Lake in the 1960s. But the three-story tower of what was once the Oklahoma Row Hotel, once thought to be the largest log hotel in the world, remains standing.

Coker Hotel Warren, Bradley County (1914) A former hotel that the Warren Chamber of Commerce sees as a central piece in the revitalization of downtown Warren.

Holloway House (Pioneer House/ Hiwasse Hotel) Hiwasse, Benton County (Late 1800s) A former house and boarding room built by A.J. Nichols, postmaster of Hiwasse.

New Hope School Wynne vicinity, Cross County (1903) One of the few remaining two-room schools in Eastern Arkansas. The Cross County Historical Society’s Restoration Committee hopes to convert it into a welcome center, museum and gift shop.

Palace Theater Benton, Saline County (Around 1920) Interior damage from a leaking roof has caused the City of Benton to consider demolishing this former movie theater, playhouse and public library.

Holman School Stuttgart, Arkansas County (1924) Another former school built with funds from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, used as a community education and health center since the late 1990s.

V.C. Kays House Jonesboro, Craighead County (1936) Built by the first president of Arkansas State University, the English Tudor house was scheduled to be razed to make way for new sorority houses. But after public outcry, the university said it would allow supporters one year to raise money to preserve the home.

Mobile website updated The Arkansas Times recently updated our mobile website.

The new site, optimized for easy browsing on any phone that allows for web use, can be accessed by searching for arktimes.com (and selecting the mobile version of the site) or via m.arktimes.com.

Among the features: quick access to film times, our calendar of events and our voluminous dining list. The mobile site allows for searching by proximity in the latter two sections. The Arkansas Blog, our food and culture blogs and the complete contents of the latest issue are also available. Mobile commenting has been newly enabled.

On an iPhone, users can click the “bookmark” button to add an Arkansas Times icon to their home screen. (Works for Droid users as well.) Users who’d previously followed these steps with the Times previous web-optimized mobile site, may need to follow them again. Some users have experienced problems with their bookmarks. Problems? Write lindseymillar@arktimes.com.

CORRECTION In the Arkansas Reporter on the Arkansas Chuggabugs Mongol Rally team (“To adventure!” April 18), we incorrectly identified team member Chase Green, listing him as Chase Cooper. www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

13

BRIAN CHILSON

SUMMER FUN 2012

PAST AND PRESENT: Martha James, with new and old PK grills.

Built for the long smoke PK GRILLS CARRIES ON A LR SUMMERTIME TRADITION.

BY DAVID KOON

L

et’s hear it for the permanent things, or at least those things designed before anybody came up with the hateful idea of “planned obsolescence.” Zippo lighter? Great-Grandpa could carry one through The War, pass it on to his kid, who could pass it on to his kid, who could still be lighting stuff on fire with it in 2012. Case Knife? As long as you wipe the apple juice off the blade, run it over a whetstone every once in awhile and don’t misplace it, it’ll be with you to the Gates of Hades and back.

14

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

There’s a product like that here in Little Rock, and it’s plugged directly into the heart of summer: the Portable Kitchen grill. If this sounds like an advertisement, it kinda is, though not of the paid variety. Call it more the barbaric yawp of an outdoor grilling aficionado who has had the bottom rust out of more cheapo charcoal grills that I’d care to remember.

Portable Kitchen grills have a long history, with most of it woven through Little Rock.

The Portable Kitchen grill was first dreamed up in Texas in 1952 by an

inventor named Milton Meigs. With a domed cooking chamber made from thick, rustproof cast aluminum, a removable top, clever cast-in vents and a hinged cooking surface that allows the grill to be used as either a charcoal grill or a smoker, Meigs’ brainchild was soon a minor hit, selling several thousand examples.

After manufacturing grills in Tyler, Texas, all through the 1950s, the company was sold to Little Rock businessman Lewis Hamlin in 1960, with Hamlin moving operations to an old streetcar barn at 1000 North

St. near downtown. Hamlin eventually got a contract to provide Portable Kitchen grills to U.S. military post exchanges. In addition to sales in the United States, Hamlin shipped over 22,000 grills — each with the PK logo and “Little Rock, Arkansas” cast into the top — to military PXs all over the world, including around 9,000 grills shipped to Southeast Asia, where they fed soldiers at operating bases during the Vietnam War. As troops who bought the grills on base mustered out of the service, PK grills were scattered to backyards all over America.

BRIAN CHILSON

SUMMER FUN 2012

SMOKER: Paul James, at the PK warehouse.

smoke brisket and pork butt on the grill. A stampedsteel grill, James said, just doesn’t work as well.

“It’s going to absorb rather than reflect heat,” he said.

“When you wrap up something in the oven to cook it, what do you wrap it in? Alu-

Other models of the PK Grill came and went — including a more rectangular example and a round “duchess” model — but in 1972, two years after a fire that gutted Hamlin’s operation in Little Rock, Hamlin stopped manufacturing Portable Kitchen grills. The company was later sold, and the last original Portable Kitchen grill was manufactured in the mid-1970s.

That might have been all she wrote, but sometimes a good idea gets a second chance. Enter Little Rock attorney Paul James and his sister Martha James. Back when he was a young man fresh out of law school, Paul

James had a lawyer friend named H.W. “Sonny” Dillahunty — then the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, who would later become a Pulaski County Chancery judge — who owned an old, treasured Portable Kitchen grill.

“I was a single guy, and I’d go to his house after work and he’d cook,” James recalled. “I found one at a garage sale, and I bought it.” (James still has Dillahunty’s old grill in the corner of his warehouse, by the way: Army green, ugly as sin, and sooted with more than a few good smokes.)

Dillahunty taught James how to

minum foil.”

James was so impressed by how well the Portable Kitchen grill worked that when he came into the means to do it, he decided to revive the brand.

After buying the “Portable Kitchen” name from Char-Broil and researching the by-then-expired patent on the original design, he collected up as many of the old castings as he could find, contracted with an engineer (who happened to have worked on some of the original Portable Kitchen models) and had molds made. Soon after, his sister Martha signed on to run the business, and they began manufacturing new PK grills from all Americanmade parts in 1998.

“The castings are made in Gerard, Kan.,” Martha said. “The cart is made in Missouri. The grids and grates are made in Chicago.” The stamped aluminum tray is made by the original supplier in Jacksonville. The parts are all finished, assembled and boxed in warehouse space just across the street from Heifer Project International headquarters in East Little Rock.

They sell about 1,500 a year, mostly through amazon.com, their website at www.pkgrills.com, and specialty hardware stores like Kraftco and Fuller & Sons.

While the $279 retail price might sound expensive for a grill with a 301-square-inch cooking surface, you get what you pay for — an old saw that’s proven by the daily round of calls PK gets seeking parts for old grills, some of them dating all the way back to the 1950s. Martha James said that since the day they opened for business, their phone has rung off the hook with calls from people seeking parts to revive their father or grandfather’s Portable Kitchen grill. Before the rise of the Internet, she said, many of the callers found them because of the “Little Rock” cast into the lid.

“A woman called the other day and said, ‘I got mine in 1967.’ You just don’t think that it’s going to last, that people are going to have them that long. But people call who’ve had them 40 or 50 years. They’re always like: ‘You’re never going to believe this!’ ” Today, Martha James said PK’s business is split about evenly between orders for new grills and parts — carts, cooking and charcoal grates, and covers, all of which can be ordered from the company website.

Paul James said the next step for the modern incarnation of PK Grills is a plan to put a larger size grill into production, with around 420 square inches of cooking area. They hope to have it in the works by the end of this year. Like the classic Portable Kitchen grill they currently make, it will be based on an old Portable Kitchen design. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

15

SUMMER FUN 2012

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16

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

THE VIEW FROM ABOVE: The Lodge at Mount Magazine and the bluff line beneath.

The heights of summer LIVING HIGH AT ARKANSAS’S LOFTIEST POINT.

BY DAVID KOON

W

e didn’t get out of Little Rock until quitting time, so we didn’t reach Havana, the little town that sits below the towering bulk of Mount Magazine, until dark. We’d booked our room at The Lodge at Mount Magazine with fingers crossed for good weather a week before, but the day of our road trip dawned dark and gloomy, a storm pushing in from Oklahoma. Headed out of Havana on Hwy. 309, we ran smack into a cloudbank that had roosted on the peak of the mountain. For what felt like the next

thousand miles — until the lights of the lodge rose up out of the pale nothing like a lantern-bedecked ship — we crawled steadily upwards through purgatory at 10 miles an hour, only the hood of the car plus three feet visible through fog thick as a cotton ball, my wife and I trusting the robot voice from the cellphone navigation when it told us to turn because we literally couldn’t see the left edge of the road.

I’m sharing all this because it’s too hair-raising of a memory not to share, but you shouldn’t worry too much about

a repeat of our experience if you’re headed to the park. Folks at the lodge, once we got there, told us the dense fog wasn’t a common occurrence. That said, do yourself a favor by driving up in daylight. We learned on our way back down the mountain the next day that the vistas on the way up are more than worth it.

Once we arrived, we soon realized that any amount of fogbound peril was worth it to get there. One of the jewels of the Arkansas State Parks system, the 60-room Lodge at Mount Magazine

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sits smack in the middle of the 2,230acre Mount Magazine State Park, which includes — along with rare birds and butterflies, rock climbing, 14 miles of hiking trails, two mountain biking trails, a hang-glider takeoff ramp and a horseback riding trail — the highest point in the state of Arkansas: a spot within easy hiking distance of the lodge that rises to 2,753 feet above sea level.

The first lodge on Mt. Magazine was completed in 1940, but it was nothing like the showplace that crowns the mountain these days. Opened in 2006 and designed by the same architect who dreamed up Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, the $33 million dollar Lodge at Mount Magazine is an extravaganza of exposed stone and timber framing, appointed with rustic wood furnishings and huge windows, with views of the valley floor far below and picturesque Blue Mountain Lake in the distance.

The centerpiece of the main lobby is a monumental stone fireplace surrounded by comfortable chairs. Other perks of the three-story main lodge include a 1,325-square-foot indoor swimming pool and hot tub on the ground floor, surrounded by glass so swimmers can take in more of those soaring views.

There’s also the glassed-in, cathedralceilinged Skycrest Restaurant, which features a daily breakfast buffet, a full menu at lunch and dinner prepared by a resident chef, and a private club permit from the Alcohol Beverage Control Board so diners can have a beer or glass of wine with their meal.

As an added summertime bonus, Park Superintendent Becky Bariola said that thanks to the altitude, the top of Mount Magazine stays quite a bit cooler than the surrounding countryside. “Up here on the mountain at any given time we can be anywhere from seven to 12 degrees cooler,” Bariola said. “In the summer, it’s a little bit better. We’ve got all the shade trees, and a bit of a breeze usually blows, so it makes it a little more comfortable.” Bariola said there is plentiful wildlife on the mountain, including a population of black bears, which aren’t dangerous as long as you leave them alone. “It’s rare for a visitor to actually see one,” Bariola said, “but it’s a real treat when they do.

We have a park interpreter on site that actually monitors the bear movement for us. Almost every year, he finds a den, and he’ll set up a telescope across from the den, so people can come and bear watch when they first come out of the dens in the spring.” That kind of unique experience makes the park popular with day trippers. Bariola said

the park logged just over 276,000 visitors in the last year.

Befitting a high-end retreat, the lodge rooms that hikers and wildlife watchers can retire to after a day of clean living on the mountain are comfortably appointed and spacious. The main lodge is constructed so all the rooms have a view of the valley below.

Forty-three of the rooms feature balconies, and 17 have in-room spa tubs. For those seeking the ultimate experience, there are four corner suites, each with two balconies, a spa tub, separate bedroom/living area and a fireplace. All rooms feature wireless Internet. The lodge has special reduced rates in the bleak midwinter (December through February) but expect to pay premium prices the rest of the year: from $117 a night for a standard room with no balcony, all the way up to $217 a night for one of the two-balcony corner suites.

Pets are not allowed in the lodge.

Those who prefer a more secluded setting — or those coming with a group — can choose from one of Mount Magazine State Park’s 13 cabins, which sit on the cliffs at the south edge of the mountaintop. Sizes range from 850-squarefoot one-bedroom units, all the way up to 1,669-square foot, three-bedroom cabins. Prices for cabins on the weekends range from $275 per night for the one-bedroom to $455 per night for the three-bedroom/three bath model that can sleep six. Only one of the park’s cabins — the one-bedroom cabin No. 4 — allows pets, but all feature more amazing views, full kitchens, wood burning fireplaces, a hot tub, and porches just made for sitting a spell. Those who want to rough it can pitch their tent at the Cameron Bluff Campground, which features a bathhouse and electric hookups.

A scenic 2-hour-and-20-minute drive up Hwy. 10 from Little Rock, Mount Magazine State Park makes for a great summertime day trip, even if you don’t want to indulge yourself by getting a cabin or the room at the lodge. Whatever you do, be sure to stop by the gift shop at the lodge or the nearby visitor’s center at some point during your stay to snag a hang-me-up-and-save-me. If you’re the outdoorsy sort, it’s definitely a trip you’ll want to remember.

Mount Magazine State Park is 106 miles from Little Rock, off Hwy. 309 just north of Waveland. For more information, or to book a cabin, campsite or a room at the Lodge at Mount Magazine, visit their website at www.mountmagazinestatepark.com, or phone 479-963-8502.

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May 3, 2012 • 5:30 to 8 p.m.

600 Main Street • Argenta Arts District

Join us for an elegant evening of sampling more than 140 wines, delicious hors d’oeuvres by Reno’s Argenta Café and the jazz stylings of Rodney Block & The Real Music Lovers.

Tickets: $50 per person available online at http://celebratethegrape2012.eventbrite.com Limited seating

Sponsored by

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MAY 2, 2012

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These venues will be open late.

There’s plenty of parking and a free Trolley to each of the locations.

Don’t miss it – lots of fun! free PArKING at 3rD & CUMBerlAND free STreeT PArKING All oVer DoWNToWN AND BeHIND THe rIVer MArKeT (Paid parking available for modest fee.)

may 11

The 2nd Friday Of Each month, 5-8 pm Featured Artists:

Main Vendor Hall

Janet Copeland natHaniel dailey Boulevard area

tiM JaCoB

Exhibit now open

www.rivermarket.info

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“Third Eye Not Blind”

by Catherine Rodgers

Featured artiSt’S exhibit:

Gypsy Bistro

200 S. rIVer MArKeT AVe, STE. 150 • 501.375.3500 DIZZySGyPSyBISTro.NeT

cOmE ridE ThE FrEE TrOllEy! ARKANSAS TIMES

♦ Fine Art ♦ Cocktails & Wine ♦ Hor d’oeuvres Pyramid Place 2nd & Center St (501) 801-0211

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Gallery 221 & art StudioS 221

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18

The Old State House Museum is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

“IntuItIon, LIes and Fortune teLLers”

Gourmet.

Your• Way. All Day. 300 Third Tower 501-375-3333 coppergrillandgrocery.com

Featured Artist W. MiChael Spain

300 River Market Ave. Ste. 1 501.246.4876 • www.zinlr.com

SUMMER FUN 2012

may 11 • ThE 2nd Friday OF Each mOnTh, 5-8 pm

r Book Signing with Jane F. Hankins, author

of Madge’s Mobile Home Park

r Opening reception for Creating the Elements of

Discovery: Tim Imhauser, Jason Powers & Emily Wood

Jane F. Hankins

200 E. 3rd St. 501-324-9351 A museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage HistoricArkansas.org

Featuring works of art from ArtGroup Maumelle.

521 President Clinton Ave. River Market District (501) 975-9800

Stop in and visit with us!

Wine & Hors d’oeuvres Will Be Served

1419 Main St • Little Rock (Next to Blvd Bread Co.) www.AshleyAnnsEvents.com

Next to Normal will be on The Rep’s MainStage, tickets available. The Rep will host a rotating art exhibit during the run of Next to Normal. Exhibit is free and open to the public M-T 9-5, W-Saturday 9 a.m. –til curtain, Sunday 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

601 Main Street

Featuring FunCtional pottery 1423 Main Street 501.374.1111

Check us out on Facebook!

BRIAN CHILSON

r Live music and refreshments

FLOAT AWAY: With beer and ice cream.

Best of both worlds?

LOOK UPON THE PBR FLOAT AND QUIVER, YE MORTALS.

BY ROBERT BELL AND DAVID KOON

W

e ran across the intriguing idea of the beer float online a few months back and just knew it was something we had to try come the summer. After all, almost everybody but the lactose-intolerant likes ice cream. Almost everybody but the teetotaler likes beer. Why not put them together? (The ice cream and the beer, not the teetotalers and the lactose-intolerant. That could spell disaster.)

While a beer float is something you can easily whip up at home — a few scoops of quality vanilla, doused in your brew of choice — we decided to sniff around locally and see if there was one to be had in a commercial setting. Luckily, the Vatican City of Beers that is the Flying Saucer in the River Market happens to have a beer float on its standing menu for around $4. While it’s generally made with a chocolate stout, the bar is happy to make that puppy with any brew on the menu as long as you’re willing to pay for the suds. Given that, we waved off the fancy stuff and went decidedly trailer-trash style, ordering a Pabst Blue Ribbon Float.

The PBR float offered an interesting pair of contradictory flavors — one predictable, the other unexpected. The vanilla ice cream was, of course, sweet.

But the surprising part was the foam that formed, presumably as the cheap brew was poured atop the ice cream.

It was thin stuff — no mistaking it for some luxuriously dense haute cuisine concoction a la El Bulli’s foamed beet-

root or mushrooms (yes, of course the Arkansas Times has reviewed El Bulli).

But it maintained its form on the spoon just long enough to savor, and collapsed in the mouth like a bad souffle.

The flavor was surprisingly — but not unpleasantly — bitter. It was reminiscent of some of the medicinal liqueurs, such as Becherovka, favored in certain central European nations.

As for the rest of the beverage, well, it tasted like vanilla ice cream melting in a glass of cheap beer, which is to say awesome (provided you enjoy vanilla ice cream and cheap beer). The mix of sugar rush and booze buzz creates a feeling of effervescence and momentum, a saccharine sensation, which, like the aforementioned foam, is sure to soon collapse and evaporate.

So, in short, not bad, but not a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s either. That said, we’re sold on the concept, which has awakened our mad scientist hearts.

A trip to the make-your-own-six-pack aisle at Kroger (stouts! lagers! ales!) and the ice cream case (vanilla! chocolate! butter pecan!) is clearly in order, and sounds like a fun way to kill some summer Saturday night with a few foodventurous peeps. Let’s face it: even if you’re experimentin’ turns out horrible, how bad can a concoction made of beer and ice cream really be?

If you come up with a beer float winner, send us a recipe and a picture at arktimes@arktimes.com, and we’ll feature you on our food blog, Eat Arkansas. www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

19

ZORAN ORLIC

SUMMER FUN 2012

ROGER THAT: Americana rockers Wilco play the Arkansas Music Pavilion on May 10.

Sights and sounds of summer WILCO, RIVERFEST, FILM FEST EASE IN THE SEASON.

BY ROBERT BELL

S

ummer approaches, and with it, another season of great music to satisfy pretty much any tastes. You’ve got your mainstream pop and country, your critical darling indie acts, your rockabilly legends, your classic rock superstars, your post-grunge giants, your blues festivals, your folkies, your heavies and just about everything in between.

The season gets rolling when veteran rock act Wilco comes to Fayetteville’s Arkansas Music Pavilion on May 10 with the excellent Philadelphia band Purling Hiss, 6 p.m., $44.

On May 11, Little Rock label Thick 20

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Syrup hosts an anniversary show doubleheader at White Water Tavern, kicking off with The See, The Bloodless Cooties, The Alpha Ray and Michael Inscoe. Over at DickeyStephens Park, the 15th Annual Food & Foam Fest Beer Festival promises a variety of food, a silent auction, live entertainment and, of course, suds by the bucketful, 6 p.m., $40.

On May 12, you can catch the second night of Thick Syrup goodness going down at White Water Tavern, with Browningham, Androids of ExLovers, Ezra Lbs. and Inscoe, 9 p.m.

All you old-school rock ’n’ roll heads

won’t want to skip the 2nd Annual Arkansas Delta Rockabilly Festival, boasting sets from Ace Cannon, Stan Perkins & D.J. Fontana, Charlie Rich Jr., Sun Records icons Sonny Burgess & The Legendary Pacers, Texas giants Asleep at the Wheel, The Kentucky Headhunters and more, Downtown Helena, 11 a.m., $20.

Chris Knight brings some country-flavored heartland rock to Revolution for an 18-and-older show, 9 p.m. $12-$15.

Over at Riverfest Amphitheatre, contemporary country troubadour Dierks Bentley performs, with openers Eli Young Band and The Cadillac Black,

7:30 p.m., $22-$40.

On May 13, Deitrick Haddon continues the Praize Sundays series at Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheater, 6 p.m., $30-$65.

The Portland, Ore.-based psychpop outfit Morning Teleportation is on tour with electro-tinged Philly weirdoes Nico’s Gun. The bands stop off at Stickyz for an all-ages show May 15, 8:30 p.m., $8-$10.

Mark your calendars for May 18, because it’s gonna be another magical evening to remember followed by a hung-over morning to survive after Glossary, Austin Lucas and Lee

SUMMER FUN 2012

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

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Bains III & The Glory Fires play White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. Over at Juanita’s, Oklahoma’s Hinder brings the modern radio rock, with colleagues in Trapt and The Dreaming, 9 p.m., $25-$30.

Here’s one that’s a bit of a headscratcher, but nonetheless is sure to be entertaining. You might remember Jesco White, a.k.a. The Dancing Outlaw, from the documentaries that have been produced about this West Virginia madman. White comes to George’s in Fayetteville May 18, 9 p.m., $18, and he stops at Revolution May 19, 9 p.m., $15-$17. It’s time once again for the Lucero Family Picnic, featuring the Memphis bar-rock veterans, along with country royalty Shooter Jennings, Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires and more at Riverside Park in Batesville.

On May 20, rotund standup comic Gabriel Iglesias brings his fluffy self to Robinson Center Music Hall, 7 p.m., $48 (he’ll be at the Walton Arts Center the next day, 7 p.m., $42). Also May 20 is Books in Bloom at the Crescent Hotel and Spa in Eureka Springs, featuring authors Crescent Dragonwagon, Kevin Brockmeier and more than a dozen others. It’s from noon to 5 p.m. and it’s free.

Here’s one the metal fiends won’t wanna miss: on May 23 the New Orleans supergroup Down — featuring members of Corrosion of Conformity, Pantera, Crowbar and Eyehategod — comes to Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $25.

Also that night, San Francisco garage rock wunderkind Ty Segall makes a welcome return to White Water Tavern, with the warped psych-pop outfit White Fence, 9 p.m., $10.

Riverfest kicks off May 25, with headliners Gov’t Mule, Staind, Neon Trees, Boyz II Men and Sleeper Agent and keeps rolling May 26 with Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mute Math, Chevelle and Third Eye Blind.

Down in Hot Springs, you can catch The Charlie Daniels Band at Timberwood Amphitheater, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65.

On May 27, Riverfest wraps up with hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg, Eagle and classic rock hero Joe Walsh and country stars Little Big Town.

The Little Rock Film Festival gets rolling May 29, with dozens of film screenings as well as panel discussions, parties and more red meat for film nerds. Venues include Argenta Community Theater, the

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SUMMER FUN 2012

COUNTRY AND COLD CANS: That’s what’s in store on Dierks Bentley’s 2012 tour, which stops at Riverfest Amphitheatre on May 12.

THA DOGGFATHER RETURNS: Snoop Dogg headlines the last night of this year’s Riverfest on May 27.

Clinton School of Public Service and others, but the bulk of the screenings will be at Riverdale 10 Cinema. The festival concludes June 3.

You can get your blues fix up in the hills and hollers of Carroll County May 31 at the Eureka Springs Blues Weekend, featuring Ruthie Foster, Tommy Castro, Kenny Neal, The Cate Brothers, Michael Burks and many more, through June 3, at The Auditorium, The Basin Park Hotel and other venues, $15-$75.

Meanwhile, up on Mulberry Mountain outside of Ozark, The Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival gets rolling. Headliners at the four-day outdoor festival include The Avett Brothers, Primus, Pretty Lights and many more, through June 3, $99-$179.

The Hot Springs Weekend Songwriters Festival is a sure bet for all the singer/songwriter fans. It’s June 1-2 and features Keith Sykes, John Prine, Richard Leigh, Jed Zimmerman, Larry Joe Taylor and Roger Cook, Arlington Hotel, 8 p.m., $60.

On June 2, country superstar and certified Louisiana gentleman Trace Adkins comes to Timberwood Amphitheater, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65.

Hot Springs Music Festival XVII kicks off June 3, with more than 200 performers from around the world gathering for 20 concerts and hundreds of open rehearsals at venues all over Hot Springs. The festival runs through June 13.

On June 8, Jimbo Mathus & The Tri-State Coalition bring “Catfish Music for the Masses” back to White Water Tavern, 10 p.m., $10.

Everyone’s favorite narcissistic loudmouthed gun fetishist Ted Nugent comes to Arkansas Music Pavilion, June 10, 7:30 p.m., $17-$77.

Florida-based Contemporary Christian Music giants Tenth Avenue North

play Timberwood Amphitheater, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65.

On June 16, pop songstress Colbie Caillat plays Timberwood Amphitheater, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65. For something completely different that day, check out Little Rock metal giants Rwake and Pallbearer at an 18-and-older show, Revolution, 9 p.m. Caillat plays the Arkansas Music Pavilion in Fayettville on June 17, with Gavin DeGraw and Andy Grammer, 7:30 p.m., $22$77. At the same venue on June 19, you can catch modern rockers Daughtry, 7:30 p.m., $27-$102.

Hinder returns to Arkansas June 23 for a show at Timberwood Amphitheater, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65. On June 27, Little Rock gets a visit from the masters of power-poppy alt-rock Nada Surf, Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $16.

Arkansas’s American Idol Kris Allen comes to Timberwood Amphitheater June 30, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65.

The wait is almost over for all you New Edition fans. The band brings its 30th anniversary tour to Verizon Arena, with opening act After 7, July 1, $48-$68.

“Redneck Woman” Gretchen Wilson comes to Timberwood Amphitheater July 7, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65. The funk-metal groove-meisters in Clutch bring their crunchy sounds to George’s Majestic Lounge, July 11, 8 p.m.

Contemporary Christian rockers Switchfoot rock the throngs at Timberwood Amphitheater, July 14, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65.

Singer/songwriter Cory Branan returns to White Water Tavern July 19 with soulful songstress Audra Mae, 10 p.m.

It’s gonna be a five-man electroacoustical jam on July 21 when rock vets Tesla come to Timberwood, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65. One week later, on July 28, post-grunge giants Creed will take

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SUMMER FUN 2012

FUZZY FEELINGS: San Francisco garage rocker Ty Segall comes back to White Water Tavern on May 23.

to Timberood’s stage, 7:30 p.m., $30$65. On Aug. 4, rising country star and Dallas County native Justin Moore plays Timberwood, 7:30 p.m., $30-$65.

Get ready for some droning, hazy psychedelic rock with Austin’s The Black Angels who play an 18-andolder show with openers Night Beats, Aug. 11, Stickyz 9 p.m., $12-$15.

On Aug. 14, Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson comes to town with The Chris Robinson Brotherhood.

They’ll play an 18-and-older show at Revolution, 9 p.m., $17-$20. Japanese

pop-punk superstars Shonen Knife play an 18-and-older show at Stickyz on Aug. 18, 9 p.m., $10-$12.

Up on The Hill, The Fayetteville Roots Festival returns Aug. 23-26, boasting a formidable lineup, with headliners John Prine, David Grisman Folk Jazz Trio, Darrell Scott, Pokey LaFarge and many more at venues around central Fayetteville, including the Walton Arts Center, $49-$249. Most of the passes include meals prepared by local restaurants, including The Greenhouse Grille.

COMEDY THEATRE

AZIZ ANSARI • STEVEN WRIGHT • MARC MARON • BRIAN POSEHN• REGGIE WATTS WORLD CHAMPION JUDAH FRIEDLANDER • RHYS DARBY • COLIN HAY GARFUNKLE & OATS• AMY SCHUMER • PETE HOLMES • RORY SCOVEL MIKE O'CONNELL • ALI WONG • KYLE KINANE Lineup Subject to change

CROWE FRONTMAN: The Chris Robinson Brotherhood plays Revolution on Aug. 14. www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

23

BRIAN CHILSON

SUMMER FUN 2012

NO BLOOD ON THE ICE: The men’s league at the Skatium keeps anger in check.

So nice on the ice WATCHING OR PLAYING, HOCKEY IS COOL.

BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

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MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

I

f it weren’t for the invention of ice, summer in Arkansas would be intolerable. No iced tea at lunch.

Nothing on the rocks to endure a hot night. No cold beer in the chest.

Unthinkable.

Unlike iced tea, however, ice hockey is a cultural anomaly; ice skates do not hang from pegs in every garage as they do up north. But Yankees can eat barbecue and we can ice skate, at the Arkansas Skatium. Or if we don’t ice skate (and few among the natives do) we can leave the sizzling sidewalks of summer (perhaps you remember the afternoon of Aug. 3, 2011, when it was 114 degrees?) and sit in a 50-to-55-degree ice rink and watch the brave on blades. “Harry Potter” book fans who long for real Quidditch — the game played in the air on brooms — should check out ice hockey.

The guys in the men’s league that plays

RINK RUNNERS: Bellamy and David manage the hockey teams at Skatium.

on Thursday nights — the A players — fly on the ice, deftly and dizzyingly moving hockey’s version of the golden snitch toward the goal. When players go in they fly over the wall of the dugout (or whatever a dugout is called in hockeyese) instead of skating out to the ice.

It is something to behold, and there’s no gore either, thanks to the rink’s rule that there’s no checking allowed on open ice.

R.J. David, 24, rink rat (he’s worked at the Skatium since he was 13) and “hockey chief” for the Skatium’s leagues, had 57 adult players in the 10-week

league season that just ended. Some of the skaters grew up in Arkansas — there was a home-grown young doctor zipping around with the men’s league last Wednesday night — and some are Arkansas drop-ins, here because of the Little Rock Air Force Base or private business. Some played for the RiverBlades, Little Rock’s minor league hockey team in the late 1990s and early ’00s that improbably had competition from another hockey team, the Glacier Cats. One plays for the Arkansas Razorbacks hockey team, and his 14-yearold brother is on the team too; they are the sons of the rink owner, Jay Gaddy.

There are kids leagues, organized by the Arkansas Hockey Association; a beginner’s developmental league (the “Rusty Blades”), and what David calls A, B and C players, with A the top and C players that haven’t played in a while and want to get back into it. Women play with the men, though not as many as Simone Bellamy, who is the “commissioner” of the beginner adult leagues, a youth coach and on the youth association board, would like. She learned to skate and play hockey 10 years ago after watching the RiverBlades and started coaching kids at the request of the rink owner (“I told him he was on some serious crack,” she said. All she had to do, he replied, was just “stand up.”). She became certified later and is now one of five or six women hockey players who play regularly at the Skatium (she’s a goalie).

The Skatium’s ice rink is closed during the day until summer; a week-long kids’ hockey camp will be offered in July. Young hockey players do skills and drills over the summer and resume play in winter; find out more about the youth leagues at www.usahockey.com/arkansas_ice_hock52. Adult games are played Sunday through Thursday nights; Sunday practice games are $10, free the first time to beginners.

The Skatium’s exterior appearance (at 1311 S. Bowman Road) is a little depressing, with dirt and cigarette butts under the concrete seating supports, but those of us who grew up skating at Troy’s Roller Rink on Asher will forgive that. The interior makes up for it, with its hot chocolate, cold temperature and friendly atmosphere. “Whatever does happen on the ice stays on the ice,” David said, and the players usually have a beer together after the game. For more information on the Skatium’s hockey leagues (or roller rink or figure skating classes) go to arkansasskatium.com or call 227-4333.

it’s that time of year again!

SUMMER FUN 2012

come experience the hookside corner beer garden at dickey-stephens park!

travs take on the tulsa drillers thursday 5/3 & friday 5/4 7:10PM FOR TICKETS CALL

BRIAN CHILSON

501-664-1555 www.travs.com

EASY LIVIN’: Laurnie Campbell makes a mulberry sundae at Loblolly’s soda fountain.

Cold nostalgia FROM LE POPS AND LOBLOLLY CREAMERY.

BY CHEREE FRANCO

I

t’s a bit like the grade school song: first comes love, then comes marriage. First comes May, eventually comes August. Soon temperatures will soar, humidity will settle and life will go on (albeit under an invisible wet wool blanket). Meanwhile, Little Rock will look to two new treat shops to keep itself literally and metaphorically cool.

For downtown workers, shoppers and tourists, the River Market’s Le Pops

offers fruity respite-on-a-stick, as well as a homage to the “grown-up” popsicle phenomena that has swept urban centers for two summers running. (Le Pops visionary Laurie Harrison, a mom and Little Rock school district reading specialist, had her fateful first encounter with gourmet popsicles on a family vacation near Destin in 2010.)

Le Pops opened in February, but it’ll

PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO A NEW DOG PARK PROJECT, ‘UNLEASHED.’

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26 www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

25

ArkansasFlyer

SUMMER FUN 2012

Host Amy Garland with The Salty Dogs, Velvet Kente, the Invisible Radio Theater Admission $20 ($25 at the door) Includes barbecue, beer and iced tea Reservations at kuar.org

Arkansas Flyer is presented by KUAR FM 89 and made

possible in part by a grant from the Department of Arkansas Heritage, funded by the 1/8 cent conservation tax, Amendment 75.

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MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

Music, humor, culture and barbecue 6 p.m. May 4 at Wildwood Park

TAKING IT BACK: In the early 20th century, this building housed C.H. Dawson Drug Store and Soda Fountain.

shine in July. With quirky flavor combos (candied bacon, mango chili, peach ginger, blackberry lavender and pb&j, to name a few), Le Pops is right in step with national tastes. Food trends follow, roughly, three- to five-year cycles that reflect social conditions and current notions of nutrition. During icky economies, people become more community oriented and place higher premiums on whimsy and nostalgia. But this is also the information era, and everyone fancies themselves subtly sophisticated. So today’s consumers want kiddie-classics with exotic twists — a champagne cupcake, jalapeno infused chocolate, herbs and veggies pounded, distilled and cajoled into frozen treats.

It’s about the human condition, really — a desire for novelty, couched in the familiar and safe.

The ingredients at Loblolly Creamery: two twenty-something collegeeducated ice-cream lovers, a threegallon churning machine named Bert and a modern take on an old-fashioned soda shop. Loblolly produces smallbatch artisanal ice-cream — the likes of which may, according to analysts, finally dethrone cupcakes as the sweet treat of the minute.

Sally Mengel made ice cream at Muriel and Sebastian’s in Atlanta before moving to Little Rock in 2009.

Arkansas native Rachel Boswell is a self-taught vegan and gluten-free chef who once worked at Rosalia’s Family Bakery. In November the two founded Loblolly, named for Arkansas’s state pine and inspired by “nature and the seasons,” according to Mengel. Loblolly makes roughly 40 gallons of ice cream a week. Since early April, some of those gallons have been scooped into dishes,

sundaes, shakes, malts and homemade gluten-free waffle cones, to be consumed at a salvaged antique bar-front in the sunny entryway of the Green Corner Store at Main and 15th Streets.

“From 1908 till 1967, this building was a drugstore with a soda fountain,” Mengel said. “Part of this is about taking the building back to its roots and help making the store a neighborhood hangout.”

Like Le Pops, Loblolly uses highquality local ingredients to concoct startling blends that juxtapose sweet against savory, salty against tart. Some of the flavors are vegan with coconut or almond milk bases, while some spike the standards (chocolate and vanilla) with taste-bud shockers such as red wine or cayenne pepper. Focaccia, which lists rosemary and olive oil as ingredients, is among the more interesting offerings. Loblolly even makes its own sprinkles — “Pipe sugar, let it dry and chop it up,” Mengel said.

No matter how whimsical we become, traditional ingredients seem to spell “dessert” most often, to more people. Both Le Pops and Loblolly name Salted Caramel as their most popular flavor. And both represent a natural selection of frozen summery treats, gleaming from the best and the brightest of previous decades. They’re like the frozen yogurt craze of the ’80s but less corporate and more environmentally sound, and like the powerpunching smoothies of the ’90s, only with natural super-ingredients instead of unpronounceable chalky add-ins.

Summer 2012 belongs to personable, nuanced treats, the better to handle our yearnings toward good citizenship and our anxiety-induced Peter Pan syndrome, of course.

Arts Entertainment AND

A ‘NORMAL’ FAMILY: Kristin Parker, Jonathan Rayson, Deb Lyons and Will Holly star in The Rep’s production of “Next to Normal,” which runs May 4-27.

DERO SANFORD

A musical rollercoaster Wrenching ‘Next to Normal’ mines mental illness. BY BERNARD REED

I

magine being bipolar: Who would you be if you were afflicted by unpredictable derangements of mood, unstable highs and lows? We’ve come a long way since the slightest sign of disorder had you locked and lobotomized in a sanitarium, but mental illness, embellished with stereotypes and mediated by dimly understood chemical activity in the brain, remains problematic. The cold, hard facts of science can be discomforting and hard to understand.

That’s why we often turn to art and theater: to illuminate them. Such is the goal of the musical drama — rock opera, if you will — “Next to Normal,” which debuted on Broadway in 2009 and opens at The Arkansas Repertory Theatre on May 4. It is about a woman named Diana Goodman who seeks various treatments for her bipolar disorder, and the travails of her family as she pulls them along for the ride.

It’s a bit tougher to chew on than most musical theater, to be sure. Nevertheless, the show won three Tony Awards and took the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama (the latest musical to do so since “Rent”). With music by Tom Kitt and lyrics by Brian Yorkey, it has been acclaimed for its poignant dramatization of mental illness, despite being a member of the generally upbeat genre of musical theater.

Diana (Deb Lyons) is an ordinary suburban wife and mother, with the exception of her deteriorating mood disorder. Troubled by visions of a son who died in infancy 28

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

and now appears to her in teen-age form (Will Holly), she struggles to remain close to her faithful husband, Dan (Jonathan Rayson). Meanwhile, her daughter, Natalie (Kristen Parker), is ostracized by her mother’s condition and seeks refuge at school, where she is romanced by her classmate Henry (Mo Brady).

“These are very contemporary characters,” Brady said, “and the show is a very contemporary emotional experience. They’re drinking lattes and talking on their iPhones.” Contemporary — like its audience — but only next to normal. As her condition worsens, Diana evolves from pills to electroshock therapy and longs for the days when mood stabilizers did not tamper with the natural melancholy and happiness of being alive. With humor peeking through here and there, it isn’t a total downer, but audiences should prepare themselves to see all of the anguish of the Goodman family wrung out before them.

It is no small feat for any of the actors, whose roles somewhat echo Diana’s ups and downs. Even rehearsal can be wrenching. “It’s exhausting,” Brady said. “But it’s such a well-written piece that once you figure out the rollercoaster of the show, you’re on it and you can’t jump off.

It really gives us the opportunity to get our hands dirty.”

For this reason, a role in “Next to Normal” is highly sought-after by actors. When Nicole Capri, who is directing The Rep’s production, posted the auditions nationally, she had more than 100 submissions in only a few hours,

and she spent a week sifting through every resume.

“I’m so lucky to have the cast members that I do,” Capri said. “When we auditioned for Diana’s part — the role of a lifetime for women in their 40s and 50s — there were actresses who could sing the role, but I didn’t see in them the mental toughness or emotional tenacity. There is definitely a unique layer of exhaustion attached to the part.” Lyons, Capri assures, is the cream of the crop, as are the others in The Rep’s production.

Thinking beyond the stage, Capri and The Rep hope that “Next to Normal” opens up a dialogue concerning mental illness. The production is sponsored in part by the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute, members of which were consulted during one rehearsal. The audience, too, will have a chance to give questions to psychiatrists after the show on May 15, which is MainStage Sponsor Night.

“I was curious what medical professionals would think of the play,” Capri said, “and they were as fascinated with it as I am. They read it and listened to the soundtrack, and didn’t say, ‘Oh, we don’t do it that way.’ They are very excited about using this in our community as a teaching tool and allowing a dialogue in families that see the show.”

“Next to Normal” runs May 4-27. The Wolfe Street Foundation’s preview night is 7 p.m. May 1 and Pay What You Can night is 7 p.m. May 2. Advance tickets can be purchased at The Rep’s box office at 501-378-0405 or at www.therep.org.

Live Music

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

A&E NEWS LONG-RUNNING FAYETTEVILLE DEATH METAL HEROES VORE recently an-

nounced they’d signed a deal with the German label AFM Records, which is also home to acts such as Gwar, Danzig, Tankard, Ross the Boss, Ministry, Fear Factory and many more.

Vore’s latest, the crushing “Gravehammer,” will be re-released on CD and vinyl.

This couldn’t have happened to a nicer group of dudes, and it’s good evidence that years of hard work pay off.

So with an overseas record deal, might there be any European tours in the offing?

“We’re hoping that that will be a result of all this,” said Vore bassist Jeremy Partin.

“The record company said they’re not in the touring business, but they can put us in touch with the right people.”

Partin said the record label told Vore that their style of death metal is popular on the continent, particularly in Germany.

An added bonus? “They agreed to pay us in wienerschnitzel,” Partin joked.

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THE FILM PROGRAM AT UCA IN CONWAY has been churning out starry-eyed

young filmmakers for a while, and now UALR is pumping up the film options for its students, with a new cinema-centric degree emphasis offered through the School of Mass Communication.

Courses available will include screenwriting, movie-making techniques, documentary production, and non-linear video editing, all applicable toward a degree in Mass Communication with an accent on motion pictures. UALR’s Mass Comm already has a film minor. For more information about the movie making option, contact Mark Giese at 569-3250 or visit ualr.edu/masscomm.

MAN, WHAT TYPE OF WORLD ARE WE LIVING IN when a handsome young

singer can’t pack up his guit-box and head to the beach to lay a couple-three heartfelt pop tunes on a small crowd of admirers without the cops showing up and dumping all over the good vibes? It would seem that it’s the type of world we are all currently living in, even those of us who are Kris Allen, Arkansas’s American Idol.

You see, Kris had the notion to head down to the pier in Santa Monica recently to perform for free, because that’s how he does things because he’s a good dude like that.

Right in the middle of a song, some beach cop showed up and stopped him and told him he had to have a permit. And then Kris, being a dude of exceedingly even temperament and good nature, tried to shake this cop’s hand as a gesture of good will. And then the cop said, “I’m not shaking your hand. I don’t shake hands with anybody” like he’s just so tough and uncompromising in his role as a tough, uncompromising peacekeeper that he can’t even touch the hand of some ragamuffin pier urchin.

This is another one for the “No good deed goes unpunished” file.

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29

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY ROBERT BELL

WEDNESDAY 5/2

AWOLNATION

8 p.m. Revolution. $17.

GOING AWOL: Awolnation — the solo project of former Under the Influence of Giants member Aaron Bruno — plays Revolution Wednesday night.

Like so many other contemporary acts, Awolnation reminds me of MGMT’s first album, “Oracular Spectacular.” Shorthand: it’s agitated white-boy robo-funk. That’s not a dis on any of these bands necessarily; it’s just that that I think “Oracular” had a really far-reaching influence.

Awolnation is the solo project of Aaron Bruno, formerly of the postgrunge act Hometown Hero and the lite-funk pop quartet Under the Influence of Giants. Bruno put out his first EP as Awolnation in 2010 and got a big hit right out of the gate with “Sail,” a pulsing, minimal synth R&B jam about having ADD and stuff. On first listen, it doesn’t even seem like that much of a song. There are only like 50 different words and maybe 12 different sounds used in the whole 4 minutes and 19 seconds and the chorus is just him yelling “Saaail!

Saaail!” over and over. But the more times you hear it, the better it gets and before you know it, you’re listening to it on repeat and going like, “Yeah man, I get it now, ‘Saaail! Saaail!’ ” Macy Gray covered it recently, so there’s a serious endorsement. That tune was wisely included on the first Awolnation long-player, “Megalithic Symphony,” which came out last year. Of the other tracks, “Soul Wars” and “Burn it Down” stand out. They sound like somebody playing that ultra-rare Little Richard/ Kraftwerk jam session bootleg LP on 78 rpm, all pumping along and Bruno’s wailing like “whooo!” He goes in for legit soulful sounds as well, such as on “All I Need.” His career so far seems to be mirroring the “studly rock band hunk rides electro all the way to the bigtime” path blazed recently by Sonny Moore, a.k.a. Skrillex. So will Bruno be the next Skrillex? Maybe. But he’s gonna have to get a way goofier haircut and put more drops in his songs.

FRIDAY 5/4

ARKANSAS FLYER

6 p.m. Wildwood Park. $20-$25.

What better way to kick off Arkansas Heritage Month than this right here, KUAR-FM’s sixth annual Arkansas Flyer variety show? Little Rock singer/songwriter Amy Garland hosts the show, which boasts The Salty Dogs as its house band. Surely you know The Salty Dogs. The band is easily The Natural State’s finest rockin’ classic country revivalists and they’ve gigged on a regular basis over the last

few years, including a recurring spot on Starving Artist’s “Tales from the South” readings. The featured band at this year’s Flyer is Velvet Kente.

Surely you know Velvet Kente.

The group won the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase back in aughtnine with stirring performances and intense singing from frontman Joshua.

There’ll also be the old-timey radio comedy of Invisible Radio Theater as well as a barbecue dinner and drinks, which are free with a ticket.

COUNTRY TUNESMITH: Jamey Johnson headlines Saturday night’s festivities at Toad Suck Daze in downtown Conway.

FRIDAY 5/4

TOAD SUCK DAZE

FRIDAY 5/4

NERVOUS CURTAINS, NEW FUMES

8 p.m. Maxine’s. $5.

Bummed-out vibes are the dominant mode on “Fake Infinity,” the latest album from Dallas postpunkers Nervous Curtains. It’s a piano and drums affair, swathed in buzzing washes of synthesizer that are by turns icy, dissonant, gloomy, foreboding, ominous. Listening to the album feels just a bit like sitting on the 30

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

5 p.m. Simon Park. Free.

floor of a bombed out apartment at 3 a.m., staring at a mute, flickering TV set while across the hall a party full of Xanax zombies rumbles numbly toward the oblivion of dawn. Or something like that. As described on the group’s bandcamp page, “This is certainly no beach party.” New Fumes, also of Dallas, is a one-man psychedelic pop outfit, most recently in town opening for The Polyphonic Spree and also featured on The Flaming Lips latest album, “Heady Fwends.”

I’d always thought the name Toad Suck Daze was a nod to good ol’ Bufo alvarius, a.k.a., the Colorado River toad, whose psychedelic venom has inspired story and song. But not so, according to The Encyclopedia of Arkansas. The name actually refers to a spot on the Arkansas River called Toad Suck, which got its name because the boatmen who operated the ferry “frequented a tavern there, and it was said that they would suck on the bottle until they swelled up like toads.” And besides, that type

of amphibian doesn’t even live around these parts. Anyways, Toad Suck Daze is a free music and arts festival that’s packed to the gills with all manner of fun and games, such as Stuck on a Truck, an endurance test in which the person who manages to keep one hand on a Ford F150 the longest will win that Ford F150. There’ll be music, as well, with headliners such as ’90s R&B superstars En Vogue on Friday, Drake White, Randy Houser and country tunesmith Jamey Johnson on Saturday and Jonny Diaz and Todd Agnew on Sunday.

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 5/3

FRIDAY 5/4

‘A … MY NAME IS ALICE’

7:30 p.m. The Weekend Theater. $12-$16.

“A … My Name is Alice” is a musical revue that originally opened in 1983.

Conceived by Joan Micklin Silver and Julianne Boyd with tunes written by several other people, the play is made up of several self-contained scenes that all have to do with relationships between women of various ages and backgrounds. Some of the topics

explored include lifelong friendships, sibling rivalries and an exchange between a 50-something widow and a teen-ager. Most of the scenes are songs, but the show is interspersed with a few monologues and a series of poems as well. Several of the songs, including the title tune, as well as “Trash,” “For Women Only Poems” and “Welcome to Kindergarten, Mrs. Johnson” were written by Marta Kauffman and David Crane, the co-creators of the smash TV

series “Friends.” “These cast members are incredibly unique, wildly talented, and each has a different level of life experience that they bring to the stage,” Director Duane Jackson said in a statement about the show. “Rehearsal conversations are a hoot, as you can imagine, with me being the only male involved in the show. There is a lot of laughter and love with this cast. And I have learned so much more about life from these ladies.”

In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is mostly a regional celebration, big in the state of Puebla, and not so much elsewhere.

In the States, the holiday has become a celebration of Mexican culture and, along with St. Patrick’s Day, one of our boozier holidays. But of course, there’s much more to it than Modelo and margaritas. And you can experience it at this Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, sponsored

by LULAC Little Rock (Times sister publication El Latino is also a sponsor).

There will be Mexican music, dancing, food trucks and festivities, including performances from Chicos Style, Banda F5, Mariachi America and the Folkloric Ballet Reflejos de Mexico. Children get in free, and a portion of the proceeds will go toward the Patricia Guardado UALR Scholarship.

St. Louis singer/songwriter Beth Bombara brings some folky, country-flavored tunes to White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $5. Poison frontman and “Rock of Love with Bret Michaels” focal point Bret Michaels performs at Neumeier’s Rib Room in Fort Smith, 8 p.m., $43. Here’s one the young’uns will surely love: Disney on Ice: “Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey” is at Verizon Arena through May 6, $13-$46.

Juanita’s hosts an evening of postgrunge hard rock, with Cavo and Janus, 9 p.m., $12. The Arkansas Travelers take on the Tulsa Drillers, 7:10 p.m., $6-$12 (they face off Friday at the same time).

FRIDAY 5/4

SUNDAY 5/6

It’s going to be an interesting night to be at the Public Theatre, which has a production of “Moonlight and Magnolias,” 7:30 p.m., $12$14. Don’t ask us what it is, but there’s a heartwarming surprise in store. The play runs through May 13. Deep South rapper Bubba Sparxxx plays Downtown Music Hall, with J-Bo Cracker Swagger, Yard Call, Scotty Steez, Dees and J.U.G., 7 p.m., $20 adv., $30 door.

The Peabody Hotel’s summertime Exhale at RiverTop series kicks off with South Beach’s DJ Doc Roc, 9 p.m., $8. Catch a bit of Africa in the Ozarks, with Kouakou Yao and his Afrique Aya Dance Company at The Auditorium in Eureka Springs, 7 p.m. (also Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m.)

DAVID AND TAMELA MANN

SATURDAY 5/5

SATURDAY 5/5

CINCO DE MAYO FIESTA

Noon. Clear Channel Metroplex. $10.

Despite what that Corona-soaked dude told you last year at that Cinco de Mayo patio rager, May 5 is not Mexican Independence Day. That’d be Sept. 16.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates El Dia de la Batalla de Pueblo, a date in 1862 when Mexican forces at Puebla defeated an army of French occupiers.

6 p.m. Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheatre. $30-$65.

You probably know David and Tamela Mann from their roles as Mr. Brown and Cora Simmons on “Meet the Browns,” Tyler Perry’s play, film and subsequent TV series. The entertainment power couple comes from Fort Worth, Texas, where they got their start performing in various gospel groups, including Kirk Franklin & The Family. Both were featured in Perry’s play “I Can Do Bad All by Myself” (not to be confused with the film of the same title), which introduced the world to Mabel “Madea” Simmons, the antagonistic, gun-wielding grand doyenne of the Perry empire. Tamela’s 2009 album “The Master Plan” was a hit, topping the gospel charts and eventually being re-released in a deluxe edition paired with David’s album “Mr. Brown’s Good Ol’ Time Church.” The Manns are kicking off this season’s Praize Sundays series, which continues May 13 with Deitrick Haddon and May 20 with Le’Andria Johnson.

The Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra’s Spring Concert is at Pulaski Academy Performing Arts Center, 7 p.m., $10 adults, free for children grades K-12. For some ragin’ Southern rock, check out Death on Two Wheels, playing with Little Rock guitar bruisers The See, Maxine’s, 8 p.m., $5.

Denton’s Trotline has a Cinco de Mayo party featuring the piano pounding Memphis madman Jason D. Williams, 9 p.m. You’ll have to stay up late to see Amasa Hines at Midtown, but rest assured it’ll be worth it, 12:30 a.m., $5.

SUNDAY 5/6

MEET THE MANNS: David and Tamela Mann — the gospel singers and actors from many Tyler Perry productions — kick off Praize Sundays at Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheater.

Up against the wall, redneck mothers, because legendary Texas singer/songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard comes to Revolution with sultry Memphis songstress Grace Askew, 8 p.m., $12 adv., $15 d.o.s.

It’s time once again for the Jewish Food Festival, with plenty of lox, corned beef, falafel and rugelach, but also music, activities for kids and more. It starts with a breakfast at 8:30 a.m., and the festival is from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., River Market Pavilion, free admission. www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

31

AFTER DARK McClung (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road.

501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Michael Straughan with G & Me. Thirst n’ Howl, 8 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

Port Arthur Band. Parrot Beach Cafe, 9 p.m.

9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 5 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Thomas East. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, through May 5, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Tragikly White. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, 10 p.m., $5. 215 N. Shackleford. 501-2247665. www.westendsmokehouse.net.

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2

MUSIC

Acoustic Open Mic. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com.

“After 7.” Includes open mic performances, live band, drink specials and more. Porter’s Jazz Cafe, 7 p.m. 315 Main St. 501-324-1900. www. portersjazzcafe.com.

Alternative Wednesdays. Features alternative bands from Central Arkansas and the surrounding areas. Mediums Art Lounge, 6:30 p.m., $5.

521 Center St. 501-374-4495.

Awolnation. All-ages show. Revolution, 8 p.m., $15 adv., $17 d.o.s. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

Bolly Open Mic Hype Night with Osyrus Bolly and DJ Messiah. All American Wings, 9 p.m.

215 W. Capitol Ave. 501-376-4000. allamericanwings.com.

Brugh Foster. Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-3755351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Chris Henry. The Tavern Sports Grill, 7 p.m., free.

17815 Chenal Parkway. 501-830-2100. www. thetavernsportsgrill.com.

Gil Franklin & Friends. Holiday Inn, North Little Rock, first Tuesday, Wednesday of every month.

120 W. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Grim Muzik presents Way Back Wednesdays.

Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8:30 p.m. 314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub.com.

Karaoke at Khalil’s. Khalil’s Pub, 7 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com.

Karaoke. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

Karaoke with Big John Miller. Denton’s Trotline, 8 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-3151717.

Ricky David Tripp. Ferneau, 5:30 p.m. 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-603-9208. www.ferneaurestaurant.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 5 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Thomas East. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

The Toadies. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $18. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Tristen, Amanda Avery. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., free.

700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub. com.

Wizard Boots, Half Past Nine. Downtown Music Hall, 8:30 p.m., $5. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownmusichall.com.

COMEDY

Christine Stedman, Ben Moore. The Loony Bin, 8 p.m.; May 4, 10:30 p.m.; May 5, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road.

501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Art in Motion: An Evening of Inspirational Dance. Students from UALR’s Department of

32

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

COMEDY ITALIAN GOTHIC: Milan’s Lacuna Coil brings goth-tinged heavy rock with soaring female vocals to Juanita’s on Friday $15 adv., $18 d.o.s. Although one might be tempted to compare the band to Evanescence, many online commentators have advised that the two bands sound nothing alike, even though they kind of do.

Theatre Arts and Dance will present short studies based on works in the current exhibition “Building the Collection: Art Acquired in the 1990s.” Arkansas Arts Center, 6:30 p.m., free.

501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

EVENTS

Disney on Ice: “Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey.” Verizon Arena, 7 p.m.; May 3, 7 p.m.; May 4, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.; May 5, 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m.; May 6, 2 p.m., $13-$46. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

Making Nutritious Delicious: Pasta. Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, 10 a.m., $35. 1 Rockefeller Drive, Morrilton. 727-5435. www.uawri.org.

FILM

“The Weight of a Nation.” Debut screening of the new HBO series, “The Weight of the Nation,” about the obesity epidemic in America, with a panel discussion to follow.

Clinton Presidential Center, 5:30 p.m., free.

1200 President Clinton Ave. 370-8000. www. clintonpresidentialcenter.org.

LECTURES

Bless the Mic: Tavis Smiley. Philander Smith College, 7 p.m., free. 900 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive.

SPORTS

Arkansas Travelers vs. Tulsa Drillers. DickeyStephens Park, 11 a.m.; May 3, 7:10 p.m.; May 4, 7:10 p.m., $6-$12. 400 W. Broadway St., NLR. 501-664-1555. www.travs.com.

THURSDAY, MAY 3

MUSIC

Almost Infamous. The Tavern Sports Grill, 7 p.m., free. 17815 Chenal Parkway. 501-830-2100. www. thetavernsportsgrill.com.

Beth Bombara. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $5. 2500 W. 7th. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Bret Michaels. Neumeier’s Rib Room. 817 Garrison Ave., Fort Smith. 479-494-7427.

Cavo, Janus. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $12. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.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.

Jonathan Karrant Jazz Band. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-6631196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

Karaoke. Zack’s Place, 8 p.m. 1400 S. University Ave. 501-664-6444. www.zacks-place.com.

Mayday By Midnight (headliner), Shannon

Christine Stedman, Ben Moore. The Loony Bin, through May 4, 8 p.m.; May 4, 10:30 p.m.; May 5, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

Cinco De Mayo Fiesta for a Cause. Benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Central Arkansas includes music, dancing, food, silent and live auctions and entertainment from Breaking Eden. Back Achers Ranch, 6 p.m., $45. 3799 Shock Loop, Conway. 501-472-8352. www.bigbrothersbigsistersnca.org.

Disney on Ice: “Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey.” Verizon Arena, May 3, 7 p.m.; May 4, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.; May 5, 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m.; May 6, 2 p.m., $13-$46. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

“Get Psyched for PCA.” Second annual fundraiser for Professional Counseling Associates, with heavy hors d’oeuvres and beverages. Professional Counseling Associates Administration Building, 6 p.m., $75. 3601 Richards Road, NLR. 501-221-1843.

Hillcrest Shop & Sip. Shops and restaurants offer discounts, later hours, and live music.

Hillcrest, first Thursday of every month, 5-10 p.m. P.O.Box 251522. 501-666-3600. www.hillcrestmerchants.com.

Spring Livestock Sale. Arkansas State Fairgrounds, May 3, 12 p.m.; May 4, 9 a.m.; May 5, 6:30 a.m. 2600 Howard St. 501-372-8341 ext. 8206. www.arkansasstatefair.com.

LECTURES

Zia Eftekhar. The CEO of Philips Professional Luminaries North America presents “LED Lighting Illuminated.” Clinton School of Public Service, 12 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5239. www.clintonschool.uasys. edu.

SPORTS

Arkansas Travelers vs. Tulsa Drillers. DickeyStephens Park, May 3, 7:10 p.m.; May 4, 7:10 p.m., $6-$12. 400 W. Broadway St., NLR. 501664-1555. www.travs.com.

BENEFITS

Central Arkansas Go Red For Women’s “Girls Night” Purse-onality Auction. Women’s heart health awareness event offers a large variety of designer purses and bags for sale. Pavilion in the Park, 5:30 p.m., $25. 8201 Cantrell Road.

501-375-9148.

FRIDAY, MAY 4

MUSIC

The 1 Oz. Jig. Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5.

1316 Main St. 501-372-9990. midtownar.com.

Arkansas Flyer. Featuring Amy Garland, The Salty Dogs, Velvet Kente, a skit comedy show and barbecue dinner. Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts, 6 p.m., $20-$25. 20919 Denny Road.

Big Stack. Fox And Hound, 10 p.m., $5. 2800 Lakewood Village, NLR. 501-753-8300. www. foxandhound.com/locations/north-little-rock. aspx.

Bluesboy Jag and His Cigar Box Guitars.

Dogtown Coffee and Cookery, 6 p.m., free.

6725 John F. Kennedy Blvd., NLR. 501-833-3850. www.facebook.com/pages/Dogtown-Coffeeand-Cookery/221280641229600.

Bubba Sparxxx, J-Bo Cracker Swagger, Yard Call, Scotty Steez, Dees, J.U.G.. Downtown Music Hall, 7 p.m., $20 adv., $30 door. 211 W. Capitol. 501-376-1819. downtownmusichall. com.

Cashout. Revolution, 10 p.m., $15-$35. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

D-Mite and Tho-d Studios Showcase.

Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8:30 p.m. 314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub.com.

Dave Matthews tribute band. 18-and-older show. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $10. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyfingerz.com.

Dillan Cate. Flying Saucer, 9 p.m., $3. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-8032. www. beerknurd.com/stores/littlerock.

DJ Silky Slim. Top 40 and dance music. Sway, 9 p.m., $5. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582.

Ed Bowman & The Rock City Ramblers (headliner), Tonya Leeks (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

Exhale at RiverTop. The Peabody Little Rock, through July 6: 9 p.m., $8. 3 Statehouse Plaza.

501-906-4000. www.peabodylittlerock.com.

“The Flow Fridays.” Twelve Modern Lounge, 8 p.m. 1900 W. Third St. “From Italy to Argenta.” Concert from The IBLA Grand Prize winners. Call to reserve tickets. Argenta Community Theater, 6 p.m., free.

405 Main St., NLR. 501-353-1443. argentacommunitytheater.org.

Hardy Winburn. Dugan’s Pub, 8:30 p.m. 403 E. 3rd St. 501-244-0542. www.duganspublr.com.

The Intruders on the Patio. The Tavern Sports Grill, 8:30 p.m., free. 17815 Chenal Parkway.

501-830-2100. www.thetavernsportsgrill.com.

Jason Greenlaw and The Groove. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, 10 p.m., $5. 215 N. Shackleford. 501-224-7665. www.westendsmokehouse.net.

Lacuna Coil. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $15 adv., $18 d.o.s.

614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www. juanitas.com.

Mr. Lucky. Shooter’s Sports Bar & Grill, 9:30 p.m., $5. 9500 I-30. 501-565-4003. www.shoot-

COMEDY

Christine Stedman, Ben Moore. The Loony Bin, through May 4, 8 p.m.; May 4, 10:30 p.m.; May 5, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Africa in the Ozarks. Featuring Kouakou Yao and his Afrique Aya Dance Company. The Auditorium, May 4, 7 p.m.; May 5, 2 and 7 p.m.; May 6, 12:30 p.m. 36 Main St., Eureka Springs. afriqueaya.org.

EVENTS

Disney on Ice: “Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey.” Verizon Arena, May 4, 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.; May 5, 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m.; May 6, 2 p.m., $13-$46. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

Food Truck Fridays. Includes three food trucks on the corner of Main Street and Capitol Avenue. Main Street, Little Rock, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Main St. 501-375-0121.

FuRR Spring Yard Sale. Bring items to donate for the sale on May 3. Cedar and Kavanaugh, May 4-5, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Kavanaugh Blvd. 501661-0956.

LGBTQ/SGL Youth and Young Adult Group.

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. 800 Scott St., 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St. Spring Livestock Sale. Arkansas State Fairgrounds, May 4, 9 a.m.; May 5, 6:30 a.m.

2600 Howard St. 501-372-8341 ext. 8206. www. arkansasstatefair.com.

FILM

Hope for Humanity Film Festival. University of Arkansas Community College at Hope, May 4, 6 p.m.; May 5, 10 a.m., free. 2500 S. Main St., Hope. 870-777-4455.

SPORTS

Arkansas Travelers vs. Tulsa Drillers. DickeyStephens Park, 7:10 p.m., $6-$12. 400 W.

Trim: 2.125x5.875 Bleed: None

Broadway St., NLR. 501-664-1555. www.travs. com.

MacArthur Park 5K. Fundraisier for a new dog park project on the southeast end of MacArthur Park. Includes free pizza and beer to registered racers, as well as live music from Falcon Scott.

MacArthur Park, 7 p.m., $5-$10. 503 East Ninth Street. www.macarthurpark5k.org.

Closing Date: 4.18.12 QC: SM

Michael Pollan. The author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food” will discuss his work. Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $25-$75. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479443-5600.

erslittlerock.com.

Nervous Curtains, New Fumes. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., $5. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

Official Toadsuck Daze after party. Featuring Don’t Stop Please and Mayday by Midnight.

The Ford Theater, 8:30 p.m. 1020 Front St., Conway. 501-358-1755. thefordtheater.com.

Taylor Made. Denton’s Trotline, 9 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-315-1717.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www. capitalhotel.com/CBG. Thomas East. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, through May 5, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Toad Suck Daze. Featuring Dueling Pianos, SubUrban Legends, Kristen Nicole and En Vogue. Simon Park, 5 p.m., free. Front and Main, Conway.

Whale Fire, Collin Vs. Adam, Ginsu Wives.

White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m. 2500 W. 7th.

501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

William Staggers. The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $7. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www. afterthoughtbar.com.

SATURDAY, MAY 5

MUSIC

Amasa Hines. Midtown Billiards, 12:30 a.m., $5.

1316 Main St. 501-372-9990. midtownar.com.

Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra Spring Concert. Pulaski Academy Performing Arts Center, 7 p.m., $10 adults, free for children grades K-12. 12701 Hinson Road.

Chris Henry. Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Cinco de Mayo party with Jason D. Williams.

Denton’s Trotline, 9 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-315-1717.

Cinco de Mayo with Barrett Baber. The Tavern Sports Grill, 8 p.m., free. 17815 Chenal Parkway.

501-830-2100. www.thetavernsportsgrill.com.

Death on Two Wheels, The See. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., $5. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

Joe Pitts Band. The Drop Zone, 7:30 p.m., $8 adv., $10 d.o.s. 221 Oak St., Leslie.

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. 6929 JFK Blvd., NLR. 501-835-7876.

“KISS Saturdays” with DJs Deja Blu, Greyhound and Silky Slim. Sway, 10 p.m.

412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582.

The Mighty Groove Kings. Shooter’s Sports Bar & Grill, 9:30 p.m., $5. 9500 I-30. 501-565-4003. www.shooterslittlerock.com.

Mike & The Moonpies. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m. 2500 W. 7th. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Music in the Garden: Joshua. Includes educational events about gardening, activities for kids, food from local restaurants and more.

Dunbar Community Garden, 3 p.m., $3-$5.

1800 S. Chester.

A Night with Northrock MC de Mayo.

Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 9 p.m. 314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub.com.

Official Toadsuck Daze after party. Featuring Aces Wild and ZZ Top tribute band Velcro Fly. The Ford Theater, 8:30 p.m., $15. 1020 Front St., Conway. 501-358-1755. thefordtheater.com.

The Prairie Grove Band. The Frontporch Stage, 7 p.m., free. 400 Dozier Hollow Road, Mount Ida. 870-867-2761. www.frontporchstage.org.

Rock Theory. Flying DD, 9 p.m., $5. 4601 S. University. 501-773-9990. flyingdd.com.

Rodney Block & The Real Music Lovers. The Afterthought, 9 p.m., $10. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

Saturday night at Discovery. Featuring DJs, dancers and more. Discovery Nightclub, 9 p.m., $10. 1021 Jessie Road. 501-664-4784. www. latenightdisco.com.

Shannon Boshears. Dugan’s Pub, 8:30 p.m. 403 E. 3rd St. 501-244-0542. www.duganspublr.com.

Shannon McClung. Flying Saucer, 9 p.m., $3.

323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-8032. www. beerknurd.com/stores/littlerock.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

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BOOKS

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MAY 2, 2012

33

AFTER DARK, CONT. Songwriters Showcase. Parrot Beach Cafe, 2-7 p.m., free. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-374-7474. www.capitalhotel.com/CBG. Thomas East. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Toad Suck Daze. Featuring Cobb Brothers, Luke Williams, Gwendolyn Kay, Ryan Couron, Indian Rodeo, Drake White, Randy Houser and Jamey Johnson. Simon Park, 11 a.m., free. Front and Main, Conway.

Tragikly White. 18-and-older show. Revolution, 9:30 p.m. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-8230090. revroom.com.

White Chocolate. West End Smokehouse and Tavern, 10 a.m., $5. 215 N. Shackleford. 501-2247665. www.westendsmokehouse.net.

COMEDY

Christine Stedman, Ben Moore. The Loony Bin, 7, 9 and 11 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Africa in the Ozarks. Featuring Kouakou Yao and his Afrique Aya Dance Company. The Auditorium, May 5, 2 and 7 p.m.; May 6, 12:30 p.m. 36 Main St., Eureka Springs. afriqueaya.org.

EVENTS

Antioch Baptist Rummage Sale. No early birds, cash only. Antioch Baptist Church, 7 a.m. p.m.

5300 Stagecoach Road. 501-455-2041. antiochmbc.org.

Argenta Farmers Market. Argenta, 7 a.m.-12 p.m. Main Street, NLR. Cinco de Mayo Cruise. 21-and-older cruise featuring dance music. Arkansas Queen, 10 p.m., $25. 100 Riverfront Park Drive, NLR. 501372-5777. www.arkansasqueen.com.

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta. Clear Channel Metroplex, 12 p.m., $10. 10800 Col. Glenn Road. 501-2175113. www.clearchannelmetroplex.com.

Disney on Ice: “Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey.” Verizon Arena, May 5, 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m.; May 6, 2 p.m., $13-$46. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

Falun Gong meditation. Allsopp Park, 9 a.m., free. Cantrell & Cedar Hill Roads.

FuRR Spring Yard Sale. Bring items to donate

for the sale on May 3. Cedar and Kavanaugh, 7 a.m. p.m. Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-661-0956.

Hillcrest Farmers Market. Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, 7 a.m.-12 p.m. 2200 Kavanaugh Blvd.

Little Rock Farmers’ Market. River Market Pavilions, through Oct. 27: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-375-2552. rivermarket.info.

Maumelle Lions Club Fish Fry. All proceeds benefit Arkansas School for the Blind. Lake Willastein Park, 4 p.m. Lake Willastein Dr., Maumelle.

Spring Livestock Sale. Arkansas State Fairgrounds, 6:30 a.m. 2600 Howard St. 501372-8341 ext. 8206. www.arkansasstatefair.com.

Ray Wylie Hubbard, Grace Askew Duo. 18-andolder show. Revolution, 8 p.m., $12 adv., $15 d.o.s. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

Sunday Jazz Brunch with Ted Ludwig and Joe Cripps. Vieux Carre, 11 a.m. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.vieuxcarrecafe.com.

Toad Suck Daze. Judah Chorale, Belair, Jonny Diaz and Todd Agnew. Simon Park, 12 p.m., free. Front and Main, Conway.

FILM

EVENTS

Hope for Humanity Film Festival. University of Arkansas Community College at Hope, 10 a.m., free. 2500 S. Main St., Hope. 870-777-4455.

DANCE

Africa in the Ozarks. Featuring Kouakou Yao and his Afrique Aya Dance Company. The Auditorium, 12:30 p.m. 36 Main St., Eureka Springs. afriqueaya.org.

J. Anne Cauthron. The author will sign copies of her book, “The Bottom Line: How to Be an Effective Multi-Unit Manager.” Hastings, 4 p.m.

915 W. Main St,, Jacksonville. 501-982-3027.

2012 Jewish Food Festival. River Market Pavilions, 8:30 a.m. p.m., free. 400 President Clinton Ave. 375-2552. www.jewisharkansas.org.

Bernice Garden Farmers’ Market. The Bernice Garden, through Oct. 14: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. 1401 S. Main St. 501-617-2511. www.thebernicegarden.org.

Disney on Ice: “Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey.” Verizon Arena, 2 p.m., $13-$46. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001. verizonarena.com.

Dollar Day. First 1,000 visitors only pay $1.

Museum of Discovery, 1 p.m. 500 Clinton Ave. 396-7050, 1-800-880-6475. www.amod.org.

The Kurvy Experience Runway Showcase.

Includes on-site vendors and trunk sale after the show. Part of Little Rock Full Figure Fashion Week. Arkansas Arts Center, 6 p.m., $15-$25.

501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

SUNDAY, MAY 6

SPORTS

SPORTS

Fight for Air Climb. Competitive stair climb of Little Rock’s tallest building to raise money for the American Lung Association. Metropolitan Tower, 8 a.m. 452 W Capitol Ave. Mayweather v. Cotto. Fox And Hound, 8 p.m., $15. 2800 Lakewood Village, NLR. 501-753-8300. www.foxandhound.com/locations/north-littlerock.aspx.

BOOKS

MUSIC

David and Tamela Mann. Magic Springs’ Timberwood Amphitheater, 6 p.m., $30-$65.

1701 E. Grand Ave., Hot Springs.

Irish Traditional Music Session. Hibernia Irish Tavern, first and third Sunday of every month, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N Rodney Parham Road. 501246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.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 ‎.

Tour de Toad. Benefit ride for literacy with 33and 46-mile routes. Conway High School West Campus, 8 a.m., $35. 2300 Prince St., Conway.

501-329-7323. www.active.com.

MONDAY, MAY 7

MUSIC

Karaoke. Thirst n’ Howl, 8:30 p.m. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

RAIN: A Tribute to The Beatles. Walton Arts Center, 7 p.m., $38-$54. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600.

Reggae Nites. Featuring DJ Hy-C playing roots, reggae and dancehall. Pleazures Martini and

Grill Lounge, 6 p.m., $7-$10. 1318 Main St. 501-376-7777. www.facebook.com/pleazures. bargrill.

Richie Johnson. Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-3755351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Touch, Grateful Dead Tribute. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8 p.m., $5. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyfingerz.com.

UALR Guitar Ensemble. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

LECTURES

Jamie Merisotis. The president and CEO of Lumina Foundation presents “Increasing College Attainment: It’s Everyone’s Business.”

Clinton School of Public Service, 12 p.m., free.

1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5239. www. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

SPORTS

St. Vincent Tour dePaul Golf Tournament.

Chenal Country Club, 1:30 p.m., $375 per golfer, $1,500 per team. 10 Chenal Club Blvd. 501821-4141.

TUESDAY, MAY 8

MUSIC

Brian Martin. Maxine’s, 8 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. maxinespub.com.

Five Finger Death Punch, Trivium. Arkansas Music Pavilion, 6 p.m., $32. 2536 N. McConnell Ave., Fayetteville. www.arkansasmusicpavilion.com.

Galle. Fox And Hound, 10 p.m., $5. 2800 Lakewood Village, NLR. 501-753-8300. www. foxandhound.com/locations/north-little-rock. aspx.

Jeff Long. 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 Night. Cornerstone Pub & Grill, 8 p.m.

314 Main St., NLR. 501-374-1782. cstonepub. com.

Karaoke Tuesday. Prost, 8 p.m., free. 120 Ottenheimer. 501-244-9550.

Karaoke with Big John Miller. Denton’s Trotline, 8 p.m. 2150 Congo Road, Benton. 501-3151717.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 36

Sunday, May 6, 2012 10am-4pm Jewish Breakfast at 8:30am

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River Market Pavilion Downtown Little Rock SCAN THIS CODE

WITH YOUR SMART PHONE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL. To scan this code, you will need a QR Code Reader. Go to www.i-nigma.mobi and choose your phone. Follow the instructions for downloading the Free QR Code Reader.

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MEDIA

Democrat-Gazette’s Smith calls it quits

BY MAX BRANTLEY AND LINDSEY MILLAR

DIXIE KNIGHT

A

rkansas Democrat-Gazette Executive Editor Griffin Smith stepped down from his position suddenly and mysteriously on Monday.

Smith, 70, led the paper since June 23, 1992. He framed the move as a resignation, rather than a retirement, telling the Democrat-Gazette’s Gavin Lesnick that he didn’t want to “cut [himself ] out of the job market.”

“The famous J.P. Morgan said every man has two reasons for what he does: the real one and the one that sounds good,” he told Lesnick. “My real reason is the one that sounds good: It’s simply time to go.”

When Smith announced his decision to the newsroom, his wife, Libby, the paper’s travel editor, was in the dark along with everyone else.

“She’s learning about this for the first time right now,” according to the Democrat-Gazette account. “I love you dearly and I hope you’re looking forward to becoming the chief bread winner in the Smith family. Life is full of surprises.”

Smith did not return a call from the Times before our deadline. To the best of our memory, he hasn’t returned one of our calls since the early ’90s.

Managing Editor David Bailey, who Smith hired in 1993, will lead the paper. Publisher Walter Hussman said no replacement would be hired for the immediate future. This follows the pattern of the Hussman-owned Chatta-

SMITH: At his hiring announcement in 1992.

nooga paper, where a departing executive editor wasn’t replaced and the managing editor assumed newsroom leadership.

Bailey, who had advance word of the change (and who also didn’t tell his wife, but she was out of town), told the Arkansas Times he wasn’t currently contemplating any changes at the paper, but also “wouldn’t rule anything out.”

Smith was travel editor of the Arkansas Democrat from 1987 until he was elevated to executive editor. His CV also includes co-founding Texas Monthly, where he also worked as a senior editor, and writing for National Geographic and Saturday Review. When he took the executive editor position in 1992, Smith told the Times he had “no desire to be in the limelight.” For the two decades

he held the job, he stayed true to that desire, rarely, if ever, writing a column or speaking in public on behalf of the paper.

His critics, the Times perhaps chief among them, knew him mostly through his stylistic quirks. We’ve written often about Smith’s efforts to reshape history pertaining to the Little Rock school crisis to put Orval Faubus in a more favorable light (his father, Griffin Smith Sr., an attorney and later an Arkansas Supreme Court justice, represented parties trying to prevent and delay integration).

Among other favorites: Smith’s insistence that seatbelt use not be mentioned in reports on fatal auto accidents and a prohibition of use of the word “spokeswomen.”

Asked if he would review those sorts of style considerations, Bailey said such matters were low priority at the moment.

“This has been an unusually successful paper because of the way it does things,” he said. “I’d have to consider anything very carefully before I changed them.”

He said he was excited about the newspaper’s prospects, even more so in recent weeks with reporting and investigating successes by the staff.

On Monday, Hussman announced plans to end mandatory furloughs for the newsroom staff, which amounted to a 5 percent reduction in pay. The furloughs have been in effect since March 2009.

Bailey said the end of the one-daya-month furlough had been under discussion for some time and was met with warm applause from the staff. “I think things are looking up,” he said.

Newspapers forever! Celebrate their persistence with your favorite Griffin Smith story and any other tips with lindseymillar@arktimes.com.

2012 J.N. Heiskell Distinguished Lecture featuring

Race and Ethnicity in Arkansas: Perspectives on the African American and Latina/o Experience Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12, 2012 Central Arkansas Library Darragh Center Little Rock This conference is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact the UALR Department of History at 501.569.3235.

Friday, May 11, 2012 6:30 p.m.

Main Library’s Darragh Center 100 Rock Street, Little Rock This event is free and open to the public.

RSVP to Lee Ann at 918-3029 or lblackwell@cals.org

www.cals.org www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

35

BOOK NOTES

Pollan to WAC, Harris to Blytheville Plus, Douglas Blackmon and Books in Bloom in Eureka Springs.

BY ROBERT BELL

P

art of the kickoff for the Walton Arts Center’s Artosphere festival includes a chat at 7:30 p.m. May 3 with Michael Pollan, author of the bestselling real-food manifestos “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” “In Defense of Food” and “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.” Pollan will discuss his work with Kyle Kellams, of Fayetteville NPR affiliate KUAF’s Ozarks at Large. Afterward, there will be a Q&A and a book signing in the lobby. Tickets range from $25-$75 and can be purchased at www.waltonartscenter.org.

CHARLAINE HARRIS, author of the best-

selling Sookie Stackhouse series, will be in Blytheville May 8 to meet fans and sign copies of “Deadlocked,” the latest in the series, which was the basis for the HBO program “True Blood.” Harris will speak at The Ritz Civic Center at 7 p.m., and then she’ll be at That Bookstore in Blytheville to sign books. In related news, there’s another TV show in the works for Harris. The SyFy Channel will turn her Harper Connelly Mysteries fantasy series into a show called “Grave Sight.”

ON MAY 11, HENDRIX COLLEGE alum

and Pulitzer Prize winner Douglas Blackmon will give a talk at the Main Library’s Darragh Center as part of the J.N. Heiskell Distinguished Lecture series. Blackmon’s book, “Slavery by Another Name” shines light on an often overlooked period after the Emancipation Proclamation, when African Americans were essentially reenslaved through arbitrary arrests and enormous “fines,” for which they were forced to labor in mines, quarries, fields and plantations.

Signed Copies Deadlocked

by Charlaine Harris Shipping May 9

Theodore Boone: The Accused

by John Grisham Shipping May 15

That Bookstore In Blytheville 1-800-844-8306 • fax 870-763-1125 tbib@tbib.com • www.tbib.com We welcome orders by phone, fax or e-mail.

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MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Books calendar

MAY 2 Tavis Smiley (“Fail Up,” “Never Mind Success – Go for Greatness”) Philander Smith College, 7 p.m.

3 Michael Pollan (“The Omnivore’s Dilemma”) Walton Arts Center, 7:30 p.m., $25-$75.

5 J. Anne Cauthron (“The Bottom Line: How to Be an Effective Multi-Unit Manager”) HJ, 4 p.m.

8 Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse series) TBIB, 7 p.m.

8 Imran Ahmad (“The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy meets the West”) CS, noon.

10 John Corey Whaley (“Where Things Come Back”) TBIB, 3:30 p.m.

12 Amber McRee Turner (“Sway”) TBIB, 11 a.m.

17 Jane Hankins (“Madge’s Mobile Home Park”) WW, 5 p.m.

20 Books in Bloom (Crescent Dragonwagon, Kevin Brockmeier and more) Crescent Hotel and Spa, noon.

Area bookstores, libraries and venues: CS: Clinton School of Public Service, Sturgis Hall, 1200 President Clinton Ave., 683-5200.

FCL: Faulkner County Library, 1900 Tyler St., Conway, 501-327-7482.

HC: Hastings of Conway, 1360 Old Morrilton Hwy., Conway, 501-329-1108.

HJ: Hastings of Jacksonville, 915 W. Main St., Jacksonville, 982-3027.

LL: Laman Library, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock, 501-758-1720.

ML: Main Library, 100 Rock St., 918-3000.

PABCF: Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing, 1001 Wright Ave., Little Rock Suite C, 372-5824.

TBIB: That Bookstore in Blytheville, 316 W. Main St., Blytheville, 870-763-3333.

WW: WordsWorth Books & Co., 5920 R St., 663-9198.

IN EUREKA SPRINGS, you can check out Books in Bloom Literary Festival on May 20. The free program features presentations, readings and signings from about 20 authors, including Crescent Dragonwagon, Phillip Margolin, C.J. Box, Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Ernest Dumas, Tim Ernst, Kristin Kauffman, Kevin Brockmeier and many others, Crescent Hotel and Spa, noon-5 p.m.

THE TOAD SUCK REVIEW, the annual

literary journal published by UCA’s Department of Writing in the College of Fine Arts and Communication, recently was named one of the 10 best literary magazines launched in 2011 by Library Journal. That publication noted that the TSR “publishes a mix of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, translations, and reviews, and it leans toward the experimental without veering into excessively weird ... [and is] unique enough to distinguish itself from the crowd of literary journals while still being accessible.”

AFTER DARK, CONT. Lucious Spiller Band. Copeland’s, 6-9 p.m. 2602 S. Shackleford Road. 501-312-1616. www.copelandsofneworleans.com.

Mayday By Midnight. Cajun’s Wharf, 5 and 9 p.m., $5 after 8:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road.

501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Ricky David Tripp. Ferneau, 5:30 p.m. 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-603-9208. www.ferneaurestaurant.com.

Runaway Planet. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m.

2500 W. 7th. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton. The Afterthought, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbar.com.

DANCE

“Latin Night.” Revolution, 7 p.m., $5 regular, $7 under 21. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-8230090. www.revroom.com.

EVENTS

Family Night’s Nightly Shivers. Kid-oriented event about nocturnal animals. Laman Library, 6:45 p.m., free. 2801 Orange St., NLR. 501-7581720. www.lamanlibrary.org.

Goodwill Industries career fair. Clear Channel Metroplex, 9 a.m. p.m. 10800 Col. Glenn Road.

501-217-5113. www.clearchannelmetroplex. com.

Little Rock Farmers’ Market. River Market Pavilions, through Oct. 27: 7 a.m.-3 p.m. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-375-2552. rivermarket.info.

Tales from the South. Authors tell true stories; schedule available on website. Dinner served 5-6:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. Call for reservations.

Starving Artist Cafe, 5 p.m. 411 N. Main St., NLR. 501-372-7976. www.starvingartistcafe.net.

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

Wiggle Worms: “Shadow Pictures.” Weekly program designed specifically for pre-K children. Museum of Discovery, 10 a.m., $10, free for members. 500 Clinton Ave. 396-7050, 1-800880-6475. www.amod.org.

FILM

“The Adventures of Robin Hood” (1938).

Market Street Cinema, 7 p.m., $5. 1521 Merrill Drive. 501-312-8900. www.marketstreetcinema.net.

POETRY

Poetry at the Public. Competition open to ages 13-21. The Public Theatre, 6:30 p.m., free.

616 Center St. 501-374-7529. www.thepublictheatre.com.

Rock the Stage: Young Artists Project.

Competition open to ages 13-21. Open mic is open to everyone. The Public Theatre, 7 p.m., $5. 616 Center St. 501-681-8210. www. thepublictheatre.com.

BOOKS

Charlaine Harris. Author of the bestselling Sookie Stackhouse series will sign copies of her books. That Bookstore in Blytheville. 316 W. Main St. Imran Ahmad. The author of “The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy meets the West” will discuss his memoir. Clinton School of Public Service, 12 p.m., free. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5239. www.clintonschool.uasys.edu.

THIS WEEK IN THEATER

Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre Summer Theatre Academy auditions. Open to actors ages 10-18. The academy will be held June 18–July 27. Tuition is $750 for six-week academy and $450 for three-week workshop.

Arkansas Arts Center, Sat., May 5, 5 p.m. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre: “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. Arkansas Arts Center, through May 13: Fri., 7 p.m.; Sat., 3 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m., $11-$14. 501 E. 9th St. 501372-4000. www.arkarts.com.

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s Groundlings Company auditions. For ages 10-18, summer Shakespeare intensive from June 11-24.

Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts, Wed., May 2, 4-7 p.m. 20919 Denny Road.

“Arsenic and Old Lace.” The Maumelle Players present this classic macabre comedy by Joseph Kesselring. Shepherd of Peace Lutheran Church, May 4-5, 7 p.m.; Sun., May 6, 2 p.m.; May 11-12, 7 p.m.; Sun., May 13, 2 p.m., $10-$12.

449 Millwood Circle, Maumelle. 501-352-4239. www.maumelleplayers.org.

“The Fall of the House.” TheatreSquared Artistic Director Robert Ford’s mystery. Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, through May 6: Thu.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 2 p.m.; Sun., 2 and 7 p.m., $10-$20. 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville.

479-443-5600. theatre2.org.

“The Fantasticks.” This play, billed as “The World’s Longest Running Musical,” includes such tunes as “Try to Remember and “Soon It’s Gonna Rain.” Royal Theatre, through May 5, 7 p.m.; Sun., May 6, 2 p.m., $5-$12. 111 S. Market St., Benton. 501-315-5483.

“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

The C.S. Lewis classic about four siblings who travel to the mythical land of Narnia. Arkansas Arts Center, through May 13: first Saturday of every month, 3 p.m.; Fri., 7 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m., 501-372-4000. 501 E. 9th St. 501-372-4000. www. arkarts.com.

“Moonlight and Magnolias.” The screenplay for famed producer David O. Selznick’s latest film, “Gone with the Wind,” isn’t working, so he pulls in writer Ben Hecht and director Victor Fleming for a five-day rewrite marathon. This production includes the use of peanuts onstage during the performance. The Public Theatre, through May 5, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., May 6, 2 p.m.; through May 12, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., May 13, 2 p.m., $12-$14.

616 Center St. 501-410-2283. www.ctlr-act.org.

“Murder at the Howard Johnson’s.” Starring director Glen Gilbert in a comedic tale of a love triangle gone wrong. Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, through May 20: Tue.-Sat., 6 p.m.; Wed., 11 a.m.; Sun., 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., $15-$33. 6323 Col. Glenn Road. 501-562-3131. murrysdinnerplayhouse.com.

“A ... My Name is Alice.” A musical comedy that focuses on the relationships between several groups of women over the course of their lifetimes. The Weekend Theater, through May 20: Fri.-Sun., 7:30 p.m., $12-$16. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. www.weekendtheater.org.

“Next to Normal.” The Tony- and Pulitzer Prizewinning musical set to a contemporary rock score concerns a dysfunctional family trying to take care of themselves and each other.

Arkansas Repertory Theatre, through May 27: Wed., Thu., 7 p.m.; Fri., Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 and 7 p.m. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www. therep.org.

GALLERIES, MUSEUMS

NEW EXHIBITIONS, EVENTS

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: 21st annual “Mid-Southern Watercolor Open Membership Exhibit,” opens with reception 2-4 p.m. May 6, continues through June 23. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 224-1335.

L&L BECK GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Backyard Birds,” paintings by Louis Beck.

10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 660-4006.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

May is Arkansans at Work Month

The Central Arkansas Library System will celebrate with activities and events at each branch.

For a complete list of system activities, visit www.cals.org.

Main Library Arkansans at Work and Back to Work Tuesday, May 22, 6:30 p.m.

Learn about the many career resources your library has to offer.

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies Self-Guided Tour; Month-long View the collection of image panels depicting life in Arkansas throughout the years.

Fletcher Library Resume Writing Workshop Saturday, May 19, 4:30 p.m.

Learn the do’s and don’ts of making a good first impression on paper.

Maumelle Library Driver Safety Program Saturday, May 12; noon Driver safety for teens and parents.

McMath Library Resume Power Tips Wednesday, May 30, 4:00 p.m.

Make your resume stand out.

River Market Books & Gifts Arkansas Reading Room Month-long A new section features Arkansasrelated books.

Milam Library Perry County Businesses Tuesday, May 8, 7:00 p.m.

Tim Nutt will discuss the business history of the county.

Dee Brown Library Arkansans at Work Photo Contest Tuesday, May 1 - Friday, May 18 Share your photos with others.

Nixon Library Jacksonville Photo Display Month-long Old and new photos of the town.

Rooker Library Worst/Best Job Ever Month-long Tell us your work horror stories and/ or happy employment stories.

Sanders Library Arkansans at Work Trivia Sheet Month-long Show off your state knowledge.

Terry Library Heifer International: Around the World and in the Community Saturday, May 19, 10:30 a.m Learn about this organization.

Thompson Library Tales from the South Thursday, May 10, 7:00 p.m.

Local writers read their works.

Williams Library Spring Craft Show Saturday, May 19, 3:00 p.m.

Crafters will show off their work.

ITY

COMMUN R U O T SUPPOR

EAT L. LOCA

The Perfect Gift for Father’s Day (Not another tie.)

This year, honor your father or another man who is important in your life, and see his name in Arkansas Business. It really is The Perfect Gift.

When you make a contribution of $50 or more to Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Pulaski County, your name and your honoree’s name will appear in the June 11th edition of Arkansas Business.

“When you bring single parents out of poverty, they bring their children with them.” www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

37

MOVIE LISTINGS

MAY 4-5

‘MARLEY’: This documentary about the reggae icon Bob Marley has gotten mostly sterling reviews, hailed for its comprehensive scope and amazing archival footage. From director Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”).

Market Street Cinema times at or after 9 p.m. are for Friday and Saturday only. Rave showtimes are valid for Friday only. Breckenridge, Chenal, Lakewood 8 and Riverdale showings were not available as of press deadline. Find up-to-date listings at arktimes.com.

NEW MOVIES Avengers (PG-13) – Based on the Marvel Comics superhero series. Rave: 10:45 a.m., 12:30, 2:00, 4:00, 5:30, 7:15, 8:45, 10:30, midnight (2D), 9:45 a.m., 10:15 a.m., 11:30 a.m., noon, 1:00, 3:00, 3:30, 4:30, 5:00, 6:15, 6:45, 7:45, 8:15, 9:30, 10:00, 11:00, 11:30 (3D).

Blue Like Jazz (PG-13) – A small-town boy from the Bible Belt gets an education in the liberal environs of Reed College. Market Street: 1:45, 4:15, 6:45, 9:15.

Damsels in Distress (PG-13) – Indie quirk-fest about three college girls who seek to improve those around them. Market Street: 2:00, 4:00, 7:15, 9:00 Marley (PG-13) – The definitive documentary about reggae legend Bob Marley, from director Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”).

Market Street: 1:30, 4:15, 7:00, 9:35.

RETURNING THIS WEEK 21 Jump Street (R) – Buddy cop comedy starring Jonah Hill and former male stripper Channing Tatum. Rave: 8:00, 10:55.

Act of Valor (R) – This action thriller stars reallife U.S. Navy SEALs. Movies 10: noon, 2:30, 5:05, 7:20, 9:35.

Boy (NR) – A young Maori boy in New Zealand is reunited with his long-lost father. Market Street: 4:25, 9:00.

The Cabin in the Woods (R) – Bad things happen to attractive young people when they go to a cabin in the woods, from producer Joss Whedon. Rave: 11:20 a.m., 2:10, 4:50, 10:45, midnight.

Chimpanzee (G) – Beautifully shot documentary footage of majestic primates, but it’s narrated by Tim Allen. Rave: 9:55 a.m., 12:15, 3:20, 6:40, 8:55.

Chronicle (PG-13) – A trio of teen-agers gain

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MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

mysterious superpowers from a meteorite, but will they use their newfound abilities wisely?

Movies 10: 12:15, 5:20, 9:45.

Contraband (R) – Marky Mark has to return to his life of drug-running to save his boneheaded brother-in-law from gangsters. Movies 10: 2:45, 7:25.

The Deep Blue Sea (R) – Rachel Weisz is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage who finds passion with another man. Market Street: 2:15, 6:45.

The Five Year Engagement (R) – Jason Segel and Emily Blunt are a couple fumbling toward matrimony in this Apatovian rom-com. Rave: 10:10 a.m., 1:10, 4:10, 7:10, 10:10.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (PG-13) – Starring Nicolas Cage in a reprisal of his role as Marvel’s Ghost Rider. Also starring Idris “Stringer Bell” Elba. Movies 10: 12:10, 2:25, 4:45, 7:10, 9:30.

The Hunger Games (PG-13) – Teen-lit version of “The Running Man,” starring Jennifer Lawrence. Rave: 10:00 a.m., 1:20, 4:35, 7:55, 11:35.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (PG) – When you were watching “Land of the Lost,” did you find yourself wishing they’d cast The Rock instead of Will Farrell? Well, here you go.

Movies 10: 12:35, 2:55, 5:15, 7:35, 10:05.

The Lorax (PG) – A 3D CGI adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ classic tale. Movies 10: 1:35, 3:45, 5:55, 8:05, 10:15 (2D), 12:30, 2:40, 4:50, 7:00, 9:25 (3D).

The Lucky One (PG-13) – Zac Efron as an Iraq war vet who becomes infatuated with a stranger.

Rave: 10:25 a.m., 1:25, 4:25, 7:25, 10:25.

Pirates! Band of Misfits (PG) – Hugh Grant’s voice stars as an animated pirate captain, also starring Brendan Gleeson as “The Pirate with Gout.” Rave: 11:00 A.M., 4:20, 9:25 (2D), 1:45, 7:00 (3D).

Raven (R) – “John Cusack is … Sherlock Poe.” Rave: 11:10 A.M., 2:10, 5:10, 8:10, 11:10.

Safe (R) – Another 90 minutes or so of Jason Stratham kicking ass and stuff. Something about a safe in this one? Yeah, that sounds right. Rave: 10:40 a.m., 1:40, 4:40, 7:40, 10:40.

Safe House (R) – A.k.a., “Doesn’t Denzel Washington Make a Scary Bad Guy?” Movies 10: 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 9:50.

Think Like a Man (PG-13) – Based on Steve Harvey’s best-selling book. Rave: 9:50 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 12:40, 2:15, 3:35, 5:15, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, 9:45, 11:45.

A Thousand Words (PG-13) – Eddie Murphy becomes magically connected to a tree that loses one leaf for every word he says, and they’ll both die if all the leaves fall off, so he has to not talk. Movies 10: 12:25, 2:50, 5:05, 7:20, 9:35.

The Three Stooges (PG) – Yup, starring three guys you’ve never heard of. Rave: 11:50 a.m., 2:35, 5:05.

Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds (PG-13) – Worlds collide for a successful businessman, who meets a down-on-her-luck single mom who cleans the office building where he works. Movies 10: 12:05, 2:35, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10.

The Vow (PG-13) – Something sad and beautiful and sadly beautiful happens to the sad, beautiful Rachel McAdams and the former male stripper Channing Tatum. Movies 10: 12:20, 3:00, 5:25, 7:50, 10:20.

W.E. (R) – A film by Madonna about a royal scandal. Market Street: 2:00, 4:20, 7:00, 9:15.

Wrath of the Titans (PG-13) – A.k.a., “Is this a movie or a really long ad for a video game?”

Starring Liam Neeson as Zeus, because duh.

Rave: 11:20 p.m.

Chenal 9 IMAX Theatre: 17825 Chenal Parkway, 821-2616, www.dtmovies.com.

Cinemark Movies 10: 4188 E. McCain Blvd., 945-7400, www.cinemark.com.

Cinematown Riverdale 10: Riverdale Shopping Center, 296-9955, www.riverdale10.com.

Lakewood 8: 2939 Lakewood Village Drive, 7585354, www.fandango.com.

Market Street Cinema: 1521 Merrill Drive, 312-8900, www.marketstreetcinema.net.

Rave Colonel Glenn 18: 18 Colonel Glenn Plaza, 687-0499, www.ravemotionpictures.com.

Regal Breckenridge Village 12: 1-430 and Rodney Parham, 224-0990, www.fandango.com.

MOVIE REVIEW

‘PIRATES!’: Hugh Grant provides the voice of Pirate Captain.

Ahoy!

‘Pirates!’ is delightful camp.

BY SAM EIFLING

T

he continual cultural fascination with pirates, be they of the Caribbean or otherwise, has led us to this: a pirate property in which the pirates don’t even have names. Indeed, it’s even named, cavalierly, “The Pirates!”

The novelist Gideon Defoe writes these books — the fifth is due out this summer — though not much of them when he does, stopping well shy of 200 pages and giving his characters handles such as Pirate Captain and the Pirate with a Scarf and the Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens. He seems to be testing a theory that people these days will buy anything featuring the word “pirate.”

An unsuspecting public has fallen into his trap, doubly so now that the first two books in the series have been mined for “The Pirates! Band of Misfits,” an animated movie just out. The one wrinkle: Aardman Animations has done such a fine job, the movie is destined to succeed as much on its own merits as for its commercial-friendly subjects.

The Aardman brand will tempt fans on name alone; its 20-year record has been less lucrative but nearly as charming as Pixar’s. In “Pirates!” it orchestrates an uptempo 3-D version of the stop-motion animation that the English studio made famous with its “Wallace & Gromit” features and shorts that helped earn director Nick Park four Oscars.

Alas, Park is absent from “Pirates!” and so is his light touch around characters and gadgetry. Still, directors Peter Lord (an Aardman co-founder and a longtime “Wallace & Gromit” producer) and Jeff Newitt achieve a high degree of panache and polish, blending the traditional models with glossy digital animation (particularly in realistic seascapes). The visuals are so myriad and minute you’ll have to buy the DVD to explore them all. The

jokes are more layered than baklava and twice as nutty. There’s a lot of love and attention on-screen, without the fun having been stomped out of it, as with so many films aimed at kids.

The year is 1837, and a crew of particularly un-fearsome pirates, led by Pirate Captain, dawdles its days away, content mostly to enjoy singing and eating ham on the high seas. Pirate Captain (voiced

by Hugh Grant) possesses a luxuriant beard and an uncommonly rotund parrot named Polly, but with more ego than actual pirate qualifications, he steers to Blood Island to nominate himself for a Pirate of the Year award, which he has lost for 20 years straight. (Hard-swaggering waterfront pirate establishments noticed on Blood Island: The Barnacle’s Face, Napoleon Blownapart, etc.) Once there, he realizes the competition is stiffer than he’d hoped. Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek voice pirates with far more pirate cred (more booty, larger bounties on their heads, bloodier bloodthirst) than Pirate Captain, whose best asset is his outlandishly lavish beard.

So Pirate Captain and his ragtag crew sail in search of piratical fortune and board the ship of a young Charles Darwin (David Tennant) who takes a shine to a certain member of Pirate Captain’s entourage. Both see fame and fortune ahead, but it’ll take them across the path of the pirate-hating Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton). She and Darwin are rendered here in a fashion so counterfactual that it borders on blasphemy. Hilarious, hilarious blasphemy.

A history lesson it ain’t. But there won’t be a better, more beloved popcorn movie for kids all summer, and come Halloween we’ll see trick-or-treaters decked out as the Pirate with Gout or the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate. A tip: Serve ham.

ROCK CANDY TO-DO LIST

WEEKEND PLANS EVERY WEDNESDAY IN YOUR INBOX. MADE EASY

H HA AL LF FO OF F FA FA R RK KA AN NS SA AS S .. C CO OM M

TURN YOUR $12.50 INTO $25, THEN TREAT THE FAMILY TO

SALUT ITALIAN BISTRO

LAST TIME YOU PAID THIS MUCH.

THIS TIME YOU’LL PAY HALF THAT.

C CO OU UR RT TE ES SY Y O OF F

YOUR MONEY CAN GO TWICE AS FAR HERE, TOO! RESTAURANTS

Lulav Far East Asian Cuisine Dugan's Pub NYPD Pizza Delicatessen Lilly's Dim Sum, Then Sum Zin Urban Wine & Beer Bar Bleu Monkey Grill Hunka Pie 3 Flamingos

ENTERTAINMENT Willow Springs Splash Zone Rock Town Distillery

SERVICES

Argenta Market Cantrell Gallery Crowne Plaza Hotel Little Rock

RETAIL

Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing

HEALTH & BEAUTY Island Tan Indulgences By Body Bronze Bella Bronze

www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

39

“

AFTER DARK, CONT.

THIS IS A FILM TO BE

TAKEN SERIOUSLY.

MARKET STREET CINEMA, 1521 Merrill Drive: “The Veterans Art Gallery,” art created in the VA Medical Center Health Care for Homeless Veterans and portraits of vets, through June 1. 1:30-10 p.m. daily. 257-4392.

OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham: “Battle Colors of Arkansas,” 18 civil war flags, opens with reception 7-8:30 p.m. May 4; day-long living history program on the Pea Ridge Campaign, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. May 5; “Things You Need to Hear: Memories of Growing up in Arkansas from 1890 to 1980,” oral histories about community, family, work, school and leisure. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9685.

THEA FOUNDATION, 401 Main St., NLR: “Metal Art,” work by Carolyn Hendrix and Amanda Wyman, through May 4, “North Little Rock High School Art Show and Sale,” opens with reception 5:30-7:30 p.m.

May 7, show through May 11. 379-9512.

It simply looks spectacular, vibrant and captivating, exhaustive without being exhausting, an eye-opening and all-encompassing portrait.”

– David Malitz, WASHINGTON POST

“

AN ASTOUNDING FILM.” – Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE NOW ON 2CD & 3LP

BENTONVILLE C RY S TA L B R I D G E S M U S E U M O F AMERICAN ART, 600 Museum Way: “The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision,” 45 paintings from the New-York Historical Society, May 5-Sept.

3, American masterworks spanning four centuries. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu., Sat.Sun.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed.-Fri. Tickets free but timed; reserve at 479-418-5700.

A FILM BY KEVIN MACDONALD

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT

STARTS FRIDAY, MAY 4 LITTLE ROCK Market Street Cinema (501) 312-8900

BOBMARLEYMOVIE.COM MAGPICTURES.COM

ARKANSAS TIMES WED: 5/02 1/8 PG. (2.125”) X 5.8125” ALL.MAR.0503.ATEMAIL

AM

4 COLOR

¡Cinco de Mayo Specials Thru May 14!

Featuring Authentic Mexican Cuisine, Great Margaritas, and Super Deals on Mexican Beer Don’t Miss Out! Monday through Saturday 11:00-2:30 5:30-Close #ANTRELL 2OAD s ,ITTLE 2OCK 0AVILION IN THE 0ARK s 40

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

EUREKA SPRINGS ARTIFACTS FOLK AND FINE ART GALLERY, 37 Spring St.: Third annual “Eureka Springs Invitational Art Show,” through May; musicians Craig Hirsch and Lorna Trigg at Meet the Artist event 4-6 p.m. May 5, painter Lisa Bauer 6-9 p.m. May 5. 479-363-6660.

ARTS AND CRAFTS MARKET ON MAIN, 296 n. Main St., every Sat.-Sun. through May. 479-244-5146.

BASIN PARK: “Electric Vision: Creative Energy Project,” 20 images made from light, through May. CASA COLINA, 173 S. Main St.: Work by David Rush, 5-7 p.m. May 7. 479-363-6226.

DEVITO’S RESTAURANT, 5 Center St.: Photographs by Melanie Myhre, reception 5-7 p.m. May 3. 479-253-6807.

DOWNTOWN EUREKA: “ARTrageous Parade,” 2-3 p.m. May 5.

ESSA, 15751 Hwy. 62 W.: Class with metal sculptor Wayne Summerhill, May 7-11.

479-253-5384, essa-art.org.

EUREKA THYME, 19 Spring St.: Pet portraits by Betty Johnson, 6-9 p.m. May 5.

479-353-9600.

G R A N D TAV E R N E R E S TA U R A N T / GRAND CENTRAL HOTEL, 37 N. Main St.: Calligraphic works by Charles Pearce, reception 6-8 p.m. May 5, show through May. 479-253-6756.

IRIS AT THE BASIN, 8 Spring St.: 10th annual student art exhibit, “Art in Support of Clean Water,” work by area high school students, through May. 479-253-9494.

OUT ON MAIN GALLERY, 1 Basin Spring Ave.: Work by sibling artists Hank Barnes and Helen Thomas, 5-9 p.m. May 5. 479253-8449.

STUDIO 62, Hwy. 62 W.: 7th annual “Art as Prayer,” art as a vehicle to spirituality, through May. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily except Wednesday. 479-363-9209.

TURPENTINE CREEK WILDLIFE REFUGE, 239 Turpentine Creek Lane: “Art with the Animals,” artists invited to create portraits of the animals for sale to benefit the refuge, through May 8. 479-253-5841.

FAYETTEVILLE WALTON ARTS CENTER, 495 W. Dickson St.: “Structuring Nature,” Artosphere kickoff exhibit of work by Orit Hofshi, Andrew Moore, Serena Perrone, Ben Peterson and Randall Exon, opens with reception 5-7 p.m. May 3. 479-443-5600.

FORREST CITY EAST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE, 1700 Newcastle Road: “Small Works on Paper 2012,” traveling exhibit of juried show, May 2-30. 870-633-4480.

HOT SPRINGS Galleries will be open until 9 p.m. Friday, May 4, for the monthly Gallery Walk.

ALISON PARSONS GALLERY, 802 Central Ave.: Paintings by Alison Parsons. 501-6253001.

AMERICAN ART GALLERY, 724 Central Ave.: Paintings by Jimmy Leach, through May. 501-624-055.

ARTCHURCH STUDIO, 301 Whittington: Artwork by studio and new artists, performance by Miss Andrea’s Dancers, 5-9 p.m.

May 4. 655-0836.

BLUE MOON, 718 Central Ave.: Celebrates 15th year in business with 15 percent discounts on all work throughout the month of May and exhibit of work by Suzi Dennis, H. James Hoff, Steve Lawnick, David Rackley, Jeanne Teague and Bart Soutendijk. 501318-2787.

FINE ARTS CENTER, 626 Central Ave.: “Floral and Fauna Art Exhibition,” May 4-28. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 501-624-0489.

GALLERY CENTRAL, 800 Central Ave.: Marian Kline, equine-themed paintings.

501-318-4278.

JUSTUS FINE ART, 827 Central A: New paintings by Dolores Justus and Vivian NoeGriffith, fiber art by Jennifer Libby Fay. 501321-2335.

TAYLOR’S CONTEMPORANEA, 204 Exchange St.: Still lifes by Daniel Mark Cassity. 501-624-0516.

SPRINGDALE ARTS CENTER OF THE OZARKS, 214 S. Main St.: Mixed media and painting by Jennifer Libby Fay, Michael Zoller, May 2-June 1, reception 6-8 p.m. May 3. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 479-7515441.

VAN BUREN CENTER FOR ART AND EDUCATION, 104 N. 13th St.: “Relative Connections,” abstract paintings by Karen Hutcheson, sculpture and drawings by Robyn Hutcheson Horn and oils by their mother, Dede Hutcheson.

Reception 1-4 p.m. May 6. 479-474-7767.

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Registration for the 4th annual “Plein Aire on the White River,” set for May 4 and 5 during the Cotter Trout Festival, has begun.

Adults and high school students may register; awards will be given to winners. Entry is $45; paintings must be started and completed outdoors the event and within 30 miles of the Cotter Spring House. For more information write the White River Artists at P.O. Box 369, Cotter 72626 or e-mail whiteriverartists@gmail.com.

More gallery and museum listings at www. arktimes.com.

Dining

Information in our restaurant capsules

reflects the opinions of the newspaper staff and its reviewers. The newspaper accepts no advertising or other considerations in

exchange for reviews, which are conducted anonymously. We invite the opinions of

readers who think we are in error.

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

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

BRIAN CHILSON

WHAT’S COOKIN’

NO SKIMPING: The large sandwich plate at Three Sam’s lives up to its name.

Mabelvale’s finest Three Sam’s dishes up huge plates of excellent ’cue.

M

ost folks from Little Rock probably don’t think much about Mabelvale. And when they do, they likely lump it in with Baseline Road and the less-than-savory elements that characterize public perceptions of the southwest part of the city.

But what’s now just a neighborhood once was its own railroad town, and though Mabelvale long ago was incorporated into Little Rock, it still has its own post office, ZIP code, history and sense of my-town pride.

Walk into Three Sam’s BBQ Joint, hard by the railroad tracks where Mann Road meets Mabelvale Main Street, and you’ll get a sense of that history. The Mabelvale High School Class of 1954 peers down on the restaurant’s largest table. There are pictures of a nearby farm that accompanying text says is now in its seventh generation of family ownership.

Also on the wall is a picture of the 1920 version of the Mabelvale United Methodist Church, the more recent rendition of which still sits across the street. And who collected these and the many other pieces the restaurant displays to document Mabelvale’s history? They’re family keepsakes, reported one of the two ubiquitous, young, camo-wearing waiters.

Three Sam’s is a family-owned restaurant just marking its 10th year in business, and yes there are three people named Sam involved, two males and a female. This is a working-class restaurant; it’s closed Saturdays and Sundays, doesn’t offer breakfast, and the closest thing you can get to dinner is a late afternoon/early evening meal on Thursday and Friday, when the doors close at 6:30 p.m.

Three Sam’s is usually packed at lunch — and with good reason. Most things are

Three Sam’s BBQ Joint 10508 Mann Road Mabelvale 501-407-0345

QUICK BITE This family-owned barbecue spot by the tracks in “downtown Mabelvale” packs ’em in at lunch with huge portions of well-smoked barbecue, 7-ounce hand-patted burgers and a wide array of homemade desserts.

HOURS 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday.

OTHER INFORMATION No alcohol; CC accepted.

homemade, every thing is served in huge quantities, the barbecue is well smoked, the sauce is that perfect mix of sweet and tangy, the burgers are hand-patted, the chili dog is renowned, the onion rings are a delectable mix of crunchy and greasy, and the homemade desserts are well worth saving room for (most of the time).

Barbecue pork and beef sandwiches come small ($5) and large ($6). Proof that all things are relative? The small sandwich is huge. We are diehard pork fans, and this chopped pork is high-quality; we love the sauce, but next time we’ll get it on the side because it overwhelmed the meat. But the beef brisket sandwich is the star — overthe-top good; think smoky, tender, lean pot roast, the best we’ve had in town. These are definitely eat-with-a-fork sammies.

Add two sides to any of the sandwiches for an additional $2.50, and know they’re strong too — made-from-scratch baked beans (a hint sweet with shards of pulled pork), coleslaw (creamy and also a hint

sweet) and potato salad (skins-on red potato wedges, creamy with mayonnaise with a good kick from herbs we couldn’t conclusively identify).

The subhead under the barbecue platters says “you had better be hungry!!!!!!” but we’d change that to “you had better go ahead and get a to-go box!!!!!!” The Little Sam’s Favorite ($10.50) includes a regular barbecue sandwich (choice of pork or beef), two meaty, very smoky, almostfall-off-the-bones ribs dosed nicely with that fabulous sauce, two sides AND a big pile of crispy French fries. There are other mixtures of meats and sides in various combinations. If you want ribs straight up, get a half rack for $10 or a full for $20.

Our burger aficionado friend proclaimed the seven-ounce cheeseburger ($5 with chips) “much better than average,” lamenting only that the hand-formed patty could use more salt, pepper or other spice.

But as he worked through it, he reneged a bit on the minor complaint. Another friend swears the chili dog ($5.75 or $6.75 with onion, cheese and peppers added to the chili and slaw) is the best in town. We sampled the huge bowl of chili ($6) and found the finely ground beef blend a bit bland — though the cheddar and onions helped it out. We think it would be better as a dog topper than straight up.

Then there are the desserts, which friends had warned us not to miss. The peanut butter ice box pie ($3.50) was jawdroppingly good — a massive slab of richbut-light peanut butter cream filling on a moist graham cracker crust topped with whipped cream, salted peanut halves and pieces of mini Reese’s Cups. The lemon ice box pie, on the other hand, was rock-solid frozen and a bit too tart. The strawberry ice box was perfect in consistency and taste, including fresh berries garnishing it.

Though we almost never repeat items on a second trip, we had to revisit the peanut butter pie. And this time it was rocksolid frozen — delaying our enjoyment until we could get it home and let it thaw.

We asked our camo-clad buddy about this phenomenon and he said it just depends how long the pies have been out of the freezer, which is a function of how busy they are and how quickly they go through them. We’re not pie preparers or storers, but a solution needs to be found.

Still, time-released dessert wonderfulness or on-the-spot snarfage —Three Sam’s is worth a visit for many culinary and blast-from-Mabelvale’s-past reasons.

4SQUARE, the vegetarian deli and gift

shop in the Arkansas Studies Institute, has opened the Garden Square Cafe in the River Market across the street. Like 4Square, the cafe will sell veggie wraps, sandwiches, salads, smoothies and desserts, but unlike 4Square the cafe will have a breakfast menu as well. The lunch menu will be slightly different from the 4Square menu. Garden Square Cafe will also stock bottled drinks, cigarettes and some health and beauty items.

Rashmi Jain, owner of 4Square and Garden Square, said she opened the second cafe because the River Market draws a different crowd.

THOSE WHO JONES FOR BREAKFAST, take note: Breakfast and brunch

spot Early Bird is now open at the corner of University and Kavanaugh from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Chef Carson Runnells, who has done pastries for “every high-end place in Arkansas at one point,” and who worked for several years as a chef in San Francisco, said that the menu at Early Bird will emphasize “Southern cuisine for the cultured palate,” which he described as the kind of food grandma would make if she got on a “green kick.”

The Early Bird menu will grow to include several kinds of gourmet pancakes (including sweet potato and carrot pancakes), blue cheese and cheddar cheese grits, pickled eggs, flax seed and jalapeno cornbread, house-made turkey breakfast sausage, “Not Mama’s” black beans and rice made with Guinness stout, squash casserole with apples and zucchini and a number of gluten-free and vegetarian offerings (including a vegetarian gravy) — all made in-house, even the buttermilk.

The Early Bird will sell Blue Bird gravy by the jar, biscuits by the dozen and cornbread by the round. The restaurant will have a full patio and a drive-through for food to go.

Runnells said he’s trying to put an emphasis on service and a friendly environment. “We’re really trying to keep it neighborhood friendly, very child friendly, a very clean environment,” Runnells said. “There’s no smoking anywhere. I don’t even let people smoke out front.” He said he’ll decide later on whether they want to try a dinner menu and longer hours. Early Bird’s phone number is 227-7222.

DINING CAPSULES

AMERICAN

ADAMS CATFISH CATERING Catering company with carry-out restaurant in Little Rock and carry-out trailers in Russellville and Perryville. 215 N. Cross St. All CC. $-$$. 501-374-4265. LD Tue.-Sat. CONTINUED ON PAGE 42 www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

41

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. ALLEY OOPS The restaurant at Creekwood Plaza 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. ATHLETIC CLUB 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 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. $$. 501-716-2700. BL Wed.-Sun. BIG WHISKEY’S AMERICAN BAR AND GRILL A modern grill pub in the River Market with all the bells and whistles. Plus, the usual burgers, steaks, soups and salads. 225 E. Markham. Full bar, All CC. $$. 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, and a changing daily casserole. 301 N. Shackleford Road, Suite E1. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-224-9500. L Mon.-Fri. BUFFALO GRILL A great crispy-off-the-griddle cheeseburger and hand-cut fries star at this family-friendly stop. 1611 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar, CC. $$. 501-296-9535. LD daily.

400 N. Bowman Road. Full bar, Beer, All CC. $$. 501-224-0012. LD daily.

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 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. $$-$$$. 501-6635937. LD Mon.-Sat. 1901 Club Manor Drive.

Maumelle. Full bar, All CC. 501-851-6200. LD daily, BR Sun. CORNERSTONE PUB & GRILL A sandwich, pizza and beer joint in the heart of North Little Rock’s Argenta district. 314 Main St. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-374-1782. LD Mon.-Sat. DAVE AND RAY’S DOWNTOWN DINER Breakfast buffet daily featuring biscuits and gravy, home fries, sausage and made-toorder omelets. Lunch buffet with four choices of meats and eight veggies. 824 W. Capitol Ave. No alcohol. $. 501-372-8816. BL Mon.-Fri. DAVID’S BUTCHER BOY BURGERS Serious hamburgers, steak salads, homemade custard.

101 S. Bowman Road.

DOGTOWN COFFEE AND COOKERY Up-todate sandwich, salad and fancy coffee kind of place, well worth a visit. 6725 John F. Kennedy Blvd. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-8333850. BL Mon.-Sun., BLD Fri.-Sat.,.

E’S BISTRO Try the heaping grilled salmon BLT on a buttery croissant. 3812 JFK Boulevard.

NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-771-6900.

GREEN CUISINE Daily specials and a small, solid menu of vegetarian fare. 985 West Sixth St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. Serving.

HILLCREST ARITSAN MEATS A fancy charcuterie and butcher shop with excellent daily soup and sandwich specials. Limited seating is available. 2807 Kavanaugh Blvd. No alcohol, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-671-6328. L Mon.-Sat. KITCHEN EXPRESS Delicious “meat and three� restaurant offering big servings of homemade soul food. 4600 Asher Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-3500. BLD Mon.-Sat., LD Sun. LYNN’S CHICAGO FOODS Outpost for

42

MAY 2, 2012

ARKANSAS TIMES

Chicago specialties like Vienna hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches. 6501 Geyer Springs.

No alcohol, All CC. $. 501-568-2646. LD Mon.-Sat. MADDIE’S If you like your catfish breaded Cajun-style, your grits rich with garlic and cream and your oysters fried up in perfect puffs, this Cajun eatery is the place for you.

1615 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-660-4040. LD Tue.-Sat. PHIL’S HAM AND TURKEY PLACE Fine hams, turkeys and other specialty meats served whole, by the pound or in sandwich form.

11121 N. Rodney Parham Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-225-2136. LD Mon.-Fri. L Sat. RESTAURANT 1620 Steaks, chops, a broad choice of fresh seafood and meal-sized salads are just a few of the choices on a broad menu.

1620 Market St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-221-1620. L Mon.-Fri., D Mon.-Sat., BR Sun. SAY MCINTOSH RESTAURANT Big plates of soul food, plus burgers, barbecue and his famous sweet potato pie. 2801 W. 7th Street.

No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-664-6656. LD Mon.-Sat. L Sun.

SIMPLY NAJIYYAH’S FISHBOAT AND MORE Good catfish and corn fritters. 2900 S. University Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-562-3474. Serving:.

SLICK’S SANDWICH SHOP & DELI Meatand-two plate lunches in state office building.

101 E. Capitol Ave. 501-375-3420. L 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 Perhaps the largest, juiciest, most flavorful burger in town. Grilled turkey and hot cheese on sourdough gets praise, too.

Now with lunch specials. 414 Louisiana St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-9316. L Mon.-Fri. STARVING ARTIST CAFE All kinds of crepes, served as entrees or as dessert. The Black Forest ham sandwich is a perennial favorite with the lunch crowd. Dinner menu changes daily, good wine list. 411 N. Main St. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-372-7976. L Tue.-Sat., D Tue., Fri.-Sat. THE TAVERN SPORTS GRILL Burgers, barbecue and more. 17815 Chenal Parkway.

live music!

thursday, may 3 fire & brimstone 6-9pm SALSA DANCING EVERY FRIDAY 9:30-CLOSE • $5 COVER cinco de mayo block fiesta saturday from 2PM • fiesta specials!

MON-SUN 11AM-CLOSE WEEKEND BRUNCH 11AM-3PM HAPPY HOUR 4PM-6PM

501.663.9956

5805 kavanaugh browningsmexicangrill.com

30TH ANNIVERSARY 1982-2012

LITTLE ROCK’S MOST AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT 1619 REBSAMEN RD. s THEFADEDROSE COM

Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-830-2100. LD daily.

UNIVERSITY MARKET @ 4CORNERS A food truck court where local vendors park daily.

Check facebook.com/4cornersmarket to see what carts are scheduled to be parked. 6221 Colonel Glenn Road. CC. $-$$. 501-515-1661.

LD daily. 6221 Colonel Glenn Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-413-3672. LD. 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 Tue.-Sat.

ASIAN

CHI’S DIMSUM & BISTRO A huge menu spans the Chinese provinces and offers a few twists on the usual local offerings, plus there’s authentic Hong Kong dim sum available. 6 Shackleford Drive. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-221-7737.

LD daily. 17200 Chenal Parkway. No alcohol, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-821-8000.

FAR EAST ASIAN CUISINE Old favorites such as orange beef or chicken and Hunan green beans are still prepared with care. 11600 Pleasant Ridge Drive. Full bar, All CC. $$.

501-219-9399. LD daily.

FU LIN Quality in the made-to-order entrees is high, as is the quantity. 200 N. Bowman Road.

Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-225-8989. LD daily.

HUNAN BALCONY The owner of New Fun Ree has combined forces with the Dragon China folks to create a formidable offering with buffet or menu items. 418 W. 7th. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-8889. LD. IGIBON JAPANESE FOOD HOUSE It’s a complex place, where the food is almost always good and the ambiance and service never fail to please. 11121 N. Rodney Parham Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-217-8888.

LD Mon.-Sat. KOBE JAPANESE STEAKHOUSE & SUSHI Though answering the need for more hibachis in Little Rock, Kobe stands taller in its sushi offerings than at the grill. 11401 Financial Centre Parkway. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-225-5999. L Mon.-Sat. D daily.

VAN LANG CUISINE Terrific Vietnamese cuisine, particularly the way the pork dishes and the assortment of rolls are presented. 3600 S. University Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-570-7700. LD daily.

BARBECUE

CAPITOL SMOKEHOUSE AND GRILL Beef, pork and chicken, all smoked to melting tenderness and doused with a choice of sauces. The crusty but tender backribs star. Side dishes are top quality. A plate lunch special is now available. 915 W. Capitol Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-372-4227. BL Mon.-Fri. CROSS EYED PIG BBQ COMPANY Traditional barbecue favorites smoked well such as pork ribs, beef brisket and smoked chicken. Miss Mary’s famous potato salad is full of bacon and other goodness. Smoked items such as ham and turkeys available seasonally. 1701 Rebsamen Park Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$.

501-265-0000. L Mon.-Sat., D Tue.-Fri. 1701 Rebsamen Park Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$.

501-227-7427. LD daily.

FATBOY’S KILLER BAR-B-Q This Landmark neighborhood strip center restaurant in the far southern reaches of Pulaski County features tender ribs and pork by a contest pitmaster.

Skip the regular sauce and risk the hot variety, it’s far better. 14611 Arch Street. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-888-4998. LD Mon.-Fri. HB’S BAR B.Q. Great slabs of meat with fiery barbecue sauce, but ribs are served on Tuesday only. Other days, try the tasty pork sandwich on an onion roll. 6010 Lancaster. No alcohol, No

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. CC. $-$$. 501-565-1930. L Mon.-Fri. MICK’S BBQ, CATFISH AND GRILL Good burgers, picnic-worth deviled eggs and heaping barbecue sandwiches topped with sweet sauce. 3609 MacArthur Dr. NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-791-2773. LD Mon.-Sun. SIMS BAR-B-QUE Great spare ribs, sandwiches, beef, half and whole chicken and an addictive vinegar-mustard-brown sugar sauce unique for this part of the country. 2415 Broadway. Beer, CC. $-$$. 501-372-6868.

LD Mon.-Sat. 1307 John Barrow Road. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-224-2057.

LD Mon.-Sat. 7601 Geyer Springs Road. Beer, All CC. $$. 501-562-8844.

LD Mon.-Sat.

EUROPEAN / ETHNIC

KHALIL’S PUB Widely varied menu with European, Mexican and American influences. Go for the Bierocks, rolls filled with onions and beef. 110 S. Shackleford Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-0224. LD daily. BR Sun. THE PANTRY The menu stays relatively true to the owner’s Czechoslovakian roots, but there’s plenty of choices to suit all tastes. There’s also a nice happy-hour vibe. 11401 Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-353-1875. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. STAR OF INDIA The best Indian restaurant in the region, with a unique buffet at lunch and some fabulous dishes at night. 301 N. Shackleford.

Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-227-9900. LD daily.

TASTE OF ASIA Delicious Indian food in a pleasant atmosphere. Perhaps the best samosas in town. Buffet at lunch. 2629 Lakewood Village Dr. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-812-4665. LD daily.

TAZIKI’S Gyros, grilled meats and veggies, hummus and pimento cheese.

8200 Cantrell Rd. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-227-8291. LD daily 12800 Chenal Parkway. Beer, Wine, All CC. 501-225-1829. LD daily.

ITALIAN

DAMGOODE PIES A somewhat different Italian/pizza place, largely because of a spicy garlic white sauce that’s offered as an alternative to the traditional red sauce. Good bread, too. 2701 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-664-2239. LD daily. 6706 Cantrell Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-664-2239. LD daily. 10720 Rodney Parham Road. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-664-2239. LD daily. 37 East Center St. Fayetteville. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 479-444-7437. LD daily.

GUSANO’S They make the tomatoey Chicago-style deep-dish pizza the way it’s done in the Windy City. It takes a little longer to come out of the oven, but it’s worth the wait. 313 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-374-1441. LD daily. 2915 Dave Ward Drive. Conway. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-329-1100. LD daily.

NYPD PIZZA Plenty of tasty choices in the obvious New York policelike setting, but it’s fun. Only the pizza is cheesy. Cheap slice specials at lunch. 6015 Chenonceau Boulevard, Suite 1. Beer, Wine, All CC. $-$$.

501-868-3911. LD daily.

PALIO’S Not quite artisan-grade, but far better than the monster chains and at a similar price point. With an appealingly thin, crunchy crust. 3 Rahling Circle. Beer, Wine, All CC. $$. 501-821-0055. LD daily.

VESUVIO Arguably Little Rock’s best Italian restaurant is in one of the most unlikely places — tucked inside the Best Western Governor’s Inn within a nondescript section of west Little Rock. 1501 Merrill Drive. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-225-0500. D daily.

VILLA ITALIAN RESTAURANT Hearty, inexpensive, classic southern Italian dishes. 12111 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-2192244. LD Mon.-Sat.

CROSSWORD EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ Across

35 Garden decoration 37 Woman’s journalism?

43 NutraSweet rival 44 “___ Hall” 45 Spiral shape 48 Branches of study 51 “Is there something more?”

52 Lob’s path 53 Woman’s package?

56 You’re being attacked while under it 58 “Vive ___!”

59 Man’s plank?

63 Magazine revenue source 66 Sea lettuce, e.g.

67 Something many a celebrity carries in public 68 Towering

1 Barbers’ aids 6 Like some batters

10 Hurry it up

14 Available for mugs

15 Added, in commercialese 16 Pizarro foe 17 Flirty one

18 Man’s labor?

20 Christina of “Sleepy Hollow” 22 Barbecue grill brand

23 Woman’s flippant remark?

28 Wrangler rival 29 “___ Miss Brooks”

30 Golden, in México

31 Not stay rigid 32 Sweet-talk

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE B R I S K E T S

L A M A N C H A

U N P R I C E D

D E N I R O

A I R A C E S

R E S P E C T

R T S C H O A I R N E C K O P Q U E N A E S C E T H G O P H E O T R A T O R E N D

T V S E T A N N O Y S

C H A I N O F F O O L S

D O E S S O

T E R R E

F R A I R A O R M A L A B S

H E L O A R O N D O V A S E R S Y O U B O L S O U L A W N G L N K L I S A T B U R T A E L B I D E Y N A M I F T E

T E N A N T O N E S I D E D

69 Pay attention to 70 Skirmish 71 Utah’s ___ Canyon Down 1 Foldout bed 2 Telephone key with no letters 3 Highest peak in Turk.

4 Nuts-and-bolts 5 Tiny bit 6 Splitsville resident?

7 Bygone muscle car 8 [Damn, this is frustrating!]

9 Talk and talk 10 In great supply 11 Powerless 12 Lint catcher 13 Enmity 19 Have 21 Fish salted for bacalao 23 Andean stimulant 24 River to the Rhine 25 Iditarod transport 26 River near the Leaning Tower 27 Sound from a pound 31 Conk 33 Cambodian money 34 1974 John Wayne film 36 Advanced deg. for musicians 38 Bash on a beach 39 Make 40 Right away

1

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6

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18 20

23

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9

27

35 38

46

39

40

56

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65

44

47

48

52

42

36

43 45

41

28 31

34

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13

22 26

30 33

12

16

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11

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24

29

10

49

53

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51 54

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63 68

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Puzzle by Joe DiPietro

41 One of the Flying Wallendas 42 Actress Lamarr 45 The Clash’s “Rock the ___” 46 American Leaguer since 1954 47 When mastodons became extinct

57 Sheepskin 49 Like some amusement park holder passes 60 Dolt 50 “Told ya!”

61 Warm lining

53 Crash site?

62 Laundry day brand

54 Floss brand 55 Big name in travel guides

64 And the like: Abbr.

65 Look over

For answers, call 1-900-285-5656, $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5554.

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THIS MODERN WORLD

LATINO

CASA MANANA Great guacamole and garlic beans, superlative chips and salsa (red and green) and a broad selection of fresh seafood. 6820 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-280-9888. BLD daily 18321 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-868-8822. BLD daily 400 President Clinton Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. L Mon.-Sat. CASA MEXICANA Familiar Tex-Mex style items all shine, in ample portions, and the steak-centered dishes are uniformly excellent. 6929 JFK Blvd. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-835-7876. LD daily.

EL PORTON (LR) Good Mex for the price and a wide-ranging menu of dinner plates, some tasty cheese dip, and great service as well. 12111 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-223-8588. LD daily. 5201 Warden Road. NLR. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-753-4630. LD daily. 5507 Ranch Drive.

Full bar, All CC. $$. LD daily.

LA HACIENDA Creative, fresh-tasting entrees and traditional favorites, all painstakingly prepared in a festive atmosphere. Great taco salad, nachos, and maybe the best fajitas around. 3024 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-661-0600. LD daily. 200 Highway 65 N. Conway. All CC. $$. 501-327-6077. LD daily.

LAS DELICIAS Levy-area mercado with a taqueria and a handful of booths in the back of the store. 3401 Pike Ave. NLR. Beer, All CC. $. 501-812-4876.

MERCADO SAN JOSE From the outside, it appears to just be another Mexican grocery store. Inside, you’ll find one of Little Rock’s best Mexican bakeries and a restaurant in back serving tortas and tacos for lunch. 7411 Geyer Springs Road. Beer, CC. $. 501-565-4246. BLD daily.

www.arktimes.com

MAY 2, 2012

43

MAY 2, 2012

It is easy being green

BY CHEREE FRANCO & DARIELLE D’MELLO PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHEREE FRANCO, DARIELLE D’MELLO & BRIAN CHILSON

W

hearsay

e (Darielle and Cheree, the hip, socially-conscious ladies of the Times) didn’t want to miss out on any eco-friendly happenings around town this Earth Day. So we started early, fortified

by Guillermo’s breakfast blend and a winning sweet-and-savory combo of Pao de Queijo (yucca cheese balls), macarons and vegan cupcakes from Rosalia’s Family Bakery. Then we hit the garage sale circuit with gardening on our minds. We picked up a couple of secondhand pots and one delightfully rusty green wheelbarrow (can you beat $7?) which, by days end, was happily parked in Darielle’s front yard, spilling out rich black compost ($15 a truckload from the Little Rock dump) and sunny-faced petunias.

We also did quick run-bys of our favorite thrift stores. We love Compassion Center (3618 W. Roosevelt Rd.) for its great prices on secondhand furniture, and its snazzy shoes and dresses. Darielle picked up an adorable pie-safe (and received change on her $20), which she plans to transform into a turquoise cabinet for her new home office. Cheree made away with the most darling pair of navy oxfords (ever!) and a cheerful vintage pillowcase, which has a promising future with her upcoming throw-pillows project (total cost $2.50). We entered Wolf Street on a mission. Darielle wanted a large frame that she could turn into a message board, with a little help from that oh-so-nifty phenomena known as chalkboard paint. We found the

➥ Looking for divine inspiration for your wardrobe? Newly opened DESIGN INSPIRATIONS might just have what you need, with jewelry, women’s fashion and accessories from brands such as BigBuddha, Waxing Poetic, Archipelago, Tokyo Milk, Frances Hess Designs and more. You can also shop home décor and gift items when the store holds its official grand opening on Thursday, May 3 from 3-9 p.m.

Just look for the black-and-zebra stripe awning at 300 River Market Ave., Suite 104. ➥ In other big news for fashionistas: Last week E.LEIGH’S opened in Hillcrest with a blowout bash. The boutique at 3001 Kavanaugh Blvd. has already earned a legion of stylish fans, thanks to its focus on trendy apparel and accessories that fit a modest budget—according to the store, 80% of the merch ranges between an affordable $35-$55. And during this Thursday’s Shop N’ Sip event, save up to 50% off at a special sidewalk sale. ➥ Fashion-conscious fellas have a new spot to shop, too. BAUMANS FINE 44

MAY 2, 2012

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO ARKANSAS TIMES

perfect specimen — lime green, distressedchic, genuine wood. With all that shopping, we really worked up an appetite, so the next stop was Dizzy’s Gypsy Bisto. At Dizzy’s, the first 50 tables were given baby pecan trees, in honor of you know, Mother Earth. We wanted to keep things green, so we went with the spinach and parmesan pesto soup and the potato rosemary bread, spread with, of course, more pesto. And since we were feeling pretty great about our thrifty purchases, we splurged on fancy dessert drinks. (Surely you’ve tried the Dizzy’s Key Lime martini. Surely you’ve tried it, ahem, twice.)

Thus rejuvenated, we made our way to Hillcrest for the Etsy Little Rock Festival.

We found pretty people singing pretty songs, and crafty people with tempting goodies… among our favorites, Spark Modern’s gorgeous pillows, Perrodin Supply Co.’s stacking triangles and Dimestore Diamond’s insect themed jewelry, constructed from vintage materials. We capped off the day with a visit to Holcott’s Garden Center, a magical nook that becomes perfectly otherworldly at twilight. It’s a brilliant space, tucked away at the bottom of a hill, full of bright colors, sweet smells and glittery late-afternoon rays. And, bonus, we snagged some cacti, strawberries and chocolate mint. Then we hurried home, to plant our pecan trees and bid Earth Day a fond farewell, over healthy, frosty tumblers of beet lemonade, garnished with fresh chocolate mint.

MEN’S CLOTHING, located in the Capital Hotel, recently installed a Brooks Brothers “store-in-store.” Dapper gents who love the brand’s collared shirts and more can pick up shirts, ties, slacks and other signature products Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ➥ Feel confident in peep-toed shoes after a pedicure from BEYOND NAILS & SPA. The mani-pedi joint has been celebrating their grand opening by offering $10 off any service through May 10. Even better than the discount is their awesome rep—we hear they give the best pedicures! ➥ CANTRELL GALLERY gets a splash of watercolor on Sunday, May 6 as it celebrates the opening of the 21st Annual Mid-Southern Watercolorists Open. Art lovers can mingle with many of the featured artists who plan to attend, while scoping out the versatile subjects and styles of the watercolor medium. The exhibit will remain on view through June 23.

BY KATHERINE WYRICK PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

MoM Loves Box TurTLe

and 2 Angels Jewelry

Let the heeling begin Simba, shop dog of Shie Ji Acupuncture Clinic

F

or over 30 years, Dr. Lei, D.O.M., a fifth generation acupuncturist and herbologist, has treated tens of thousands of patients. It’s only in the past four, however, that she has shared her practice with Simba, her eightpound Shih Tzu/Maltese mix. The clinic’s environment is designed to induce calm, and Simba’s presence goes a long way to doing just that. “He helps clients relax,” says Dr. Lei. “Some even ask for him. He will circle them and escort them into the room.” She adds that he can also sense the approach of certain patients and bark to announce their arrival before they even walk in the door. “He’s very smart... . And he understands Chinese,” says Lei. When we first meet Simba, he

offers up a deflated goose toy—and his belly for scratching. He also produces a small, damp squeaky pig from the corner, in case that might be of interest. In addition to playing with toys, Simba enjoys accompanying Lei’s son on piano. “He’s a showoff,” she laughs. “He sings like an opera singer. Every time we have a party, we have a show.” She plays a video on her cell phone of her son and Simba performing together, and though a bit grainy, it’s clear they’re having a grand time. (He favors classical music.)

But don’t let his small size and sweet disposition fool you—Simba can also be fierce when called upon.

“He’s very calm but also very alert,” says Lei. She relates the time when a burglar tried to break into her home

but was scared off by Simba’s aggressive barking (much like his ancestors guarding ancient temples long ago).

Lei admits that he’s only courageous up to a point, however, and literally screamed during a recent encounter with a larger dog. Still, he’s a diminutive hero in her eyes—and an ideal office mate.

Mix & Match Charms For Mother’s Day!

2616 Kavanaugh 661-1167 M-F 10-6, SAT 10-5, SUN 1-5

Simba’s Top 5 Greeting patients His goose toy

Singing along with piano Classical music

Friend Suzanne Woody (local massage therapist) Shie Ji Acupuncture Clinic 2723 Foxcroft Rd, Suite 103 (501) 312-9888 littlerockacupuncture.com

Unleash the hounds

M

acArthur Park has gone to the dogs, with the fifth annual MacArthur Park 5K’s proceeds profiting the pooches.

The race, which began in 2008 to raise money for the park’s master plan, is eyeing a goal of $15,000 this year. The funds will be matched by the City of Little Rock, and the total should cover the costs to design and construct a public dog park at the southeast end of MacArthur Park.

The city’s oldest park will be the

site of the 5K, which begins at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 4 at 9th and Commerce Streets. Before the run, attendees can enjoy live music from Falcon Scott at 6:15 p.m. Then runners and walkers will hoof it through historic Downtown Little Rock before returning to the finish line at MacArthur Park for free beer and pizza. Supporters who don’t participate in the race can purchase wristbands for refreshments for $10, and $5 for children under 13. For more information and to register, visit macarthurpark5k.org.

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MAY 2, 2012

45

Our sharp left turn

A

troll who haunts the Arkansas Times blog alleged in a recent post that “The Times has taken a sharp turn left since Lindsey Millar took over as editor.”

Horse hockey. Actually when Lindsey Millar was sentenced to the Times editorship nearly a year ago it wouldn’t have been possible for him to bring any pointof-view order or discipline to this stable of cornbread Jeremiahs even if he’d been of a mind to try. We were already about as far left as we could get, by Arkansas standards, which hold that you’re “way out in left field” whenever you’re in fair territory anywhere on the port side of the right-field foul line.

Here at the Arkansas Times we don’t have mandatory talking points (or much of mandatory anything else) as they do in the Republican Party and on Fox News, but if somehow, inconceivably, new-Editor Lindsey did indeed issue turn-left marching orders to our ongoing AT Chinese fire drill, he forgot to send the memo to ol’ moi.

Or decided there was no point, far gone as I obviously was into the leftist fog.

When I was just starting out, I took Horace Greeley’s advice to “Go Left, young man,” and I’ve never since really come back in from the left wastes. Farther out than the anarchists and nihilists, I’m as pink as John Boehner is orange. That’s no

brag, just fact, and I think the record will bear me out.

To wit, I’ve always hid behind the First AmendBOB ment and tried to LANCASTER debilitate the Second, hoping to screw deer hunters out of their blunderbi and teeny-weenied faux packers like Huckabee out of their compensatory lapel bulges that pretend they’re concealing nines. I’ve hunkered under the wall of separation, wanting to see it made ever higher and stronger, until unbreachable by the thumper horde.

I’ve favored socialized medicine, nationalizing the oil companies, forced fluoridation, abortion on demand, death panels, union solidarity, affirmative action, billionaires paying higher tax rates than their secretaries, and the government telling you and me both what type of lightbulbs we can buy, and how many watts. Also, mixing in Sharia law a few statutes at a time. Cutting the 10 Commandments back to four. And reparations for anyone making a legitimate claim.

I’ve hugged more trees than Tarzan.

I’ve loved me some food stamps, especially using them to buy giant T-bone steaks, Old Milwaukee forties, cigarettes, and lottery tickets. Saul Alinsky has been

one of my heroes almost as long as Noam Chomsky has. I.F. Stone still is, nemmind the KGB pocket wads. I believe with Huey in everybody using the same dipper. I wore earth shoes as long as they were on the market. I’ve tried out for a speaking part on the apology tour. I took the rebuttal side on exceptionalism. I would’ve burned my draft card if I’d ever got one, and my bra if I’d ever had one.

Some of these were positions taken when drunk, or febrile, or joshing, or possessed, or in ridicule of fashionable extremism or imbecility. Some meant only to hooraw the other side for eternally being such a bunch of insufferable a-holes. But there you are. It’s no matter why, the record doesn’t lie and you have to man up. You can’t blame demons, intoxicants, distractions, or the hortative efforts of an editor new to this kidney of asylum-wardening.

All this Red lore passed down to me through the genome of a long line of surrender monkeys. In grade school in rural Grant County there wasn’t a one of my classmates that I didn’t call “comrade.” Comrade Lane beat my ass on the schoolbus one time. Comrade Smith told me the first dirty joke I ever heard, and Comrade Waddell explained to me what the dirty part meant. To distaff Comrade Gwin I would take an adolescent shine that wouldn’t diminish over long decades.

I remember telling a couple of my whoopee-driver uncles, “Sawmillers of

Grant County unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains.” They didn’t know I was quoting Karl Marx, and I didn’t know it either, and none of us could possibly have cared less. One of them said in reply, “What about my come-along? Would I lose that too?”

We always had a May Day parade, with a Workers’ Paradise float. No less festive for being imaginary. Another fellow-traveler alarm-tripper the iconic triptych over the mantle — pictures of George Washington, Jesus, and Stalin. Stalin’s with the cutline quotation, “You can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.”

Evil, absolutely, but who in that place and time knew what the hell an omelette was?

An irreverent thought about Stalin was how gross it must have been for his flunkies for the next two or three hours after somebody with that humongous a mustache blew his nose. Knowing he’d have you shot if you noticed or tittered or retched. I imagine the picture of him on our mantle was torn out of a magazine by my Aunt Odie or Miss Lola Rogers, probably thinking it was a picture of Clark Gable. I don’t think it was up there long. George was a coloring book escapee, and Tim Tebow’s Lord and Savior a jigsaw puzzle, lovingly pieced together, varnished, and framed.

I can’t blame any of it on the usualsuspect leftist, atheist, pinhead college professors because I wasn’t in college long enough for them to turn my head.

ARKANSAS TIMES CLASSIFIEDS HUGE ESTATE SALE STARTING

FRIDAY , MAY 4TH & SATURDAY, MAY 5TH AND EVERY FIRST FRIDAY & SATURDAY OF EACH MONTH THEREAFTER UNTIL ALL IS SOLD! 9 AM - 5 PM DIRECTIONS: LEAVING LITTLE ROCK GO TO 1-30 E TOWARD NORTH LITTLE ROCK; SLIGHT RIGHT TOWARD US167; MERGE ONTO I-40 E; SLIGHT LEFT ONTO US-67 N;GO PAST BALD KNOB, BEFORE NEWPORT; TAKE EXIT 80 (WALDENBURG); TURN RIGHT HWY 14 E, GO THROUGH AMAGON; 4 MILES TO JACKSON COUNTY LINE #15, POINTSETT COUNTY LINE ROAD; TURN RIGHT ON GRAVEL ROAD, GO 2 MILES, GO JUST PAST THE WATER TOWER AND THE SALE IS ON THE LEFT.

HOARDERS & COLLECTORS DREAM! - ANTIQUE TOOLS OF ALL KINDS - OLD MEDICINE BOTTLES & JARS - MOTHER OF PEARL BUTTONS - OLD MARBLES, SOME BENTLEY - STANLESS STEEL/ALUMINUM & CORNING WARE - ALL KINDS OF COOKWARE - CRYSTAL AND CHINA - LOTS OF WOOD CARVED ITEMS - BEAR TRAP - OLD PARTS & WHEELS FOR CHILDRENS TRACTORS, TRICYCLES, & WAGONS - LOTS OF DIFFERENT ANTIQUE CAST IRONS - COKE, DR. PEPPER AND PEPS ANTIQUES CRATES - BRASS TEMPLATES THAT YOU CAN PRINT ON CRATES FOR ALL COKE PRODUCTS, AND SOME PEPSI & DR. PEPPER PRODUCTS

WATCH FOR SIGNS!

CONCESSION STAND ON SITE!

Employment Responsible individual needed for general custodial work. Various shifts part time.

Contact 800-321-4773. sR. Regional diR., Asia/S. Pacific Prog.Little Rock, AR Req. Master’s degree/equiv. in Sustainable Development, Agriculture, Sociology or related field & 10 yrs exp in supervisory capacity; in sustainable livelihoods framework; in strategic planning at various institutional levels; & working in assigned region, living in assigned region, & managing HR w/in assigned region’s cultural & social context. Req. 3 yrs exp in developing decentralized systems through regionalization.

Exp may be gained concurrently. Travel up to 40%/yr Asia/S. Pacific. Resumes to: Heifer International: mailto:Jobs@heifer.org. Heifer International is an EOE/AA eXpeRienCe neCessaRY! Call our live operators now! 1-800-405- 7619 EXT 2450

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THERE WILL BE A PREVIEWING OF ITEMS ON THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2012 FROM 1PM - 4M

Analyze, dsgn, review, test & implmt s/ ware utilizing JAVA, J2ee, SQl, Pl/SQl, Uml, Design Patterns, Glassfish, RAD, Oracle, Shell Scripting, Solaris, AIX, AJAX, WebSphere Application Server, Weblogic Server, eclipse, Struts, Spring, eJB3, JQuery, JSP, & JStl. Reqs mS Comp Sci, engg or rel w/2 yrs exp.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL: 512-771-9939 OR 228-596-8877

mail resumes to tejas technologies Inc., 124 W. Capitol, Ste 878, little Rock, AR 72201

ARKANSAS TIMES 46 MAY 46 2, 2012 MAY 2, 2012 ARKANSAS TIMES

Field WoRkeRs 5 temporary positions; approx 9 months; Duties: to operate farm equipment; planting of sugarcane by hand, farm, field and shed sanitation duties; operation and performing minor repairs and maintenance of farm vehicles and equipment. Able to work in hot, humid weather, bending or stooping to reach ground level crops and able to stand on feet for long periods of time. Once hired, workers may be required to take a random drug test at no cost to the worker. Testing positive or failure to comply may result in immediate termination. $9.30 per hour; Job to begin on 7/1/12 through 4/1/13.

3 months experience required in job offered. All work tools provided. Housing and transportation provided to workers who can not reasonably return to their permanent residence at the end of the work day; subsistence expenses to worksite will be provided by employer upon completion of 50% of work contract or earlier if appropriate; _ guaranteed of contract. Employment offered

by Wilson Terry Farms located in Franklin, LA. Qualified applicants may call employer for interview at 337-923- 4823 or call their nearest SWA office at 501-682- 7719 using job #415547.

Responsible individual needed for general custodial work. Various shifts part time.

Contact 800-321-4773.

Printing Business

is looking for a Professional, self- motivated, responsible person.

Must have graphic design or production management experience. spanish Language Proficiency is a plus. inquire at 501-570- 0333 or email resume and sample work to Miguel@imprentaprinting.net

Business Opportunities be saFe, PROTECT yOuRSELF! DOnT gET ARRESTED FOR PREOTECTIng yOuRSELF! FOR A COMPLETE LInE OF nOn-LETHAL SELF PROTECTIOn DEVICES VISIT WWW.AMERICAnDEFEnDE- R.ORg. PROTECT yOuRSELF! CasH FoR CaRs: Any Car/- Truck. Running or not!

Top Dollar Paid. We Come To you! Call For Instant Offer: 1-888-420-3808 www.cash4car.com

Find Us On Facebook www.facebook.com/arkansastimes

Maintenance person

needed for an apartment complex. some make ready experience a plus. apply in person at 2000 reservoir road or apply online at www.warrenproperties.com Warren properties inc., is an equal employment opportunity provider

Now hiriNg

groundskeeper for a 223 unit apartment complex. Please apply in person at the warren house 2000 reservoir rd, Little rock or on our website http:// www.warrenproperties.com we are an Equal opportunity Employer

          

We drive you AND your car home!

We drive you AND your car home!

Beecause you (and your car) have places to be in the morning.

Beecause this is a good neighborhood to drink in but a bad one to park in.

FLIPSIDE It’s happening right now on Arkansas Blog

501-765-LRDD(5733)

501-765-LRDD(5733)

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We drive you AND your car home!

www.arktimes.com

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MOVING TO MAC

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cindy@movingtomac.com • 501-681-5855

Yeah, we’re a little different.

We drive you AND your car home!

✁

tHE UniQUE nEiGHBorHooDs of cEntrAl ArkAnsAs

Full of interesting voices and colorful portraits of 17 Little Rock and North Little Rock neighborhoods, this book gives an intimate, block-by-block, native’s view of the place more than 250,000 Arkansans call home. Created from interviews with residents and largely written by writers who actually live in the neighborhoods they’re writing about, the book features over 90 full color photos by Little Rock photographer Brian Chilson.

Send _____ book(s) of The Unique Neighborhoods of Central Arkansas @ $19.95 Send _____ book(s) of A History Of Arkansas @ $10.95 Send _____ book(s) of Almanac Of Arkansas History @ $18.95 Shipping and handling $3 per book

✁

Name _________________________________________________

✁

Books from tHE ArkAnsAs timEs Also AvAilABlE:

A History of ArkAnsAs A compilation of stories published in the Arkansas Times during our first twenty years.

Each story examines a fragment of Arkansas’s unique history – giving a fresh insight into what makes us Arkansans. Well written and illustrated.

This book will entertain and enlighten time and time again.

AlmAnAc of ArkAnsAs History This unique book offers an offbeat view of the Natural State’s history that you haven’t seen before – with hundreds of colorful characters, pretty places, and distinctive novelties unique to Arkansas. Be informed, be entertained, amaze your friends with your new store of knowledge about the 25th state — the Land of Opportunity.

Payment: check or credit card Order by Mail: arkansas times Books, P.o. Box 34010, LittLe rock, ar 72203 Phone: 501-375-2985 Fax: 501-375-3623 Email: anitra@arktimes.com

✁

501-765-LRDD(5733)

CALL NIDIA TO FIND OUT HOW! 375-2985

Beecause getting home with your own vehicle shouldn’t be your big accomplishment for the weekend.

Address _______________________________________________ City, State, Zip ___________________________________________ Phone ________________________________________________ Visa, MC, AMEX, Disc # ________________________ Exp. Date _______ www.arktimes.com MAY 2, 2012 47

Month-Long Events • The 3rd Annual Eureka Springs Invitational Art Show • A Taste Of Art: A Visual Feast • Free Concerts In The Park • Bank On Art • Eureka Springs Art Wall • Eureka Springs School Of The Arts Spring Workshops • Keels creek winery Art Of Winemaking Workshops

May 3 & 4 • Africa In The Ozarks

May 5 • • • •

ARTRageous Parade Africa In The Ozarks Downtown Gallery Stroll Artifacts Artist Demonstration

• Eureka Thyme Meet The Artist • Out On Main Meet The Artist • The Jewel Box Artist Reception

May 4 - 6 • Ozark Chorale Concert • War Eagle Mill Craft Show • Art With The Animals

May 11 - 12 • Student Band Fest • Eureka Springs Downtown Art Fair • Karen Gros Culinary Classes

May 12 • • • • • •

Wilson & Wilson Open House Enthios-Cosmic Roots Downtown Gallery Stroll Artifacts Artist Demonstration Eureka Thyme Meet The Artist Out On Main Artist Reception

May 13 • John Two-Hawks • Mother's Day Concert • Mother's Day Variety Show At Sacred Earth Southwind Stage

• Artist reception • 7th Annual Garden Tour

May 20 • 7th Annual Books In Bloom • Young Artist's Music Recital

May 17

May 26

• Writers Colony PoetLuck

• • • • •

May 18 • 22nd Annual White Street Studio Walk

May 19 • • • • • • •

Art Attack Eureka Springs Art Wall Downtown Gallery Stroll Artifacts Artist Demonstrations Eureka Thyme Meet The Artist Out On Main Artist Reception Finding nature Artworks In The landscape

Rhythm House Downtown Gallery Stroll Artifacts Artist Demonstrations Eureka Thyme Meet The Artist Out On Main Artist Reception

May 29 - June 10 • AvantGarde In The Ozarks Enthios Art Venue

May 31 - June 3 • Eureka Springs Blues Weekend

Music all over town!