10 minute read
THE TO-DO LIST
BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE, GLEN HOOKS, OMAYA JONES AND LINDSEY MILLAR
BUFFALO RIVER PARK RX WEEKEND
SATURDAY 10/8-SUNDAY 10/9. BUFFALO NATIONAL RIVER, VARIOUS CAMPGROUNDS. FREE.
Discuss myths, mysteries and misconceptions about the full moon with Buffalo National River park rangers at the Tyler Bend Pavilion; do yoga in the park with instructors stationed at Steel Creek and Buffalo Point campgrounds; and spend the weekend sightseeing while you complete the parkwide photo geocaching scavenger hunt. Who says the Buffalo River season ends when the water levels at Ponca get low? Follow Buffalo National River on social media and Buffalo National River Partners at bnrpartners.org for details to come. SS
AARON GATES/NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
THROUGH SATURDAY 10/22. BOSWELLMOUROT FINE ART, 5815 KAVANAUGH BLVD.
It might seem counterintuitive that a painter’s depictions of Virginia Woolf and Walt Whitman and Gabriel García Márquez could be a self-portraiture, but for Egypt (Craighead County) native Ray Allen Parker, the works in “Lit” are just that. Called a “visual autobiography” by Parker, who studied American and English literature at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the exhibition at Boswell-Mourot features 15 uniformly sized 48-by36-inch portraits of writers who shaped his thinking, all rendered in only one or two colors, often chosen to correspond to the author’s most notable work. SS
SPEAKEASY PR
MELVINS
WEDNESDAY 10/19. REV ROOM. 8 P.M. $25.
King Buzzo and drummer Dale Crover make up a decades-long through line in the seminal punk/sludge metal band the Melvins, and they’re headed to Rev Room to blast the same brand of havoc they’ve been blasting together since 1984, somehow managing along the way to influence every heavy band you know without succumbing to the trappings of above-ground fame. If the Melvins are a household name in your house, you’re in a good house. Come for “Mister Dog Is Totally Right,” thrash around to the e.e. cummings-esque lyrics to “Honey Bucket” and stay for the Redd Kross and Flipper covers they’ve been dosing their setlists with these days. We Are the Asteroid opens the show. SS
FOUL PLAY CABARET: WITCHES OF OUACHITA MOUNTAINS
SATURDAY 10/29. CENTRAL THEATRE, 1008 CENTRAL AVE., HOT SPRINGS. 8 P.M. $5-$35; $250 VIP COUCH.
If you think burlesque is just a thinly veiled excuse to see some particularly mentionable unmentionables with a veneer of moral impunity … OK, it actually is that. Nevertheless, may I introduce you to Foul Play Cabaret? The group of performers — Jezebelle Jax, Rosa Lee Bloom, Ruby Lead, Violet D’Vine and Doris Night — makes the striptease look like moving art, with extravagantly crafted costumes, whipsmart humor, a sex-positive ethos and relentless dedication to the night’s theme, whatever it may be. (Witchcraft, in this case.) And they’re ever clever at delivering the element of surprise: In one of the last shows of any kind I saw before the pandemic lockdown, a member of the troupe did a clever, artful tease in full tuxedo drag to the tune of a moody Smiths song (“This Charming Man,” was it?) and managed to remain entirely clothed for the duration, reaching into their blouse at the last second and letting go a mischievous cackle as they pulled out a hearty middle finger and bounced offstage. The audience went wild! And, because Arkansas has more good burlesque than we deserve, Foul Play is joined by host pepper Darling, Fifi Deluxx of Memphis and by Maxie Fauna, maker of meticulously engineered stagewear and radiant founder of the state’s foremost BIPOC burlesque troupe, Arkansas Shake Shakers. Costumes are encouraged for attendees. Get tickets at Eventbrite. SS
LAUREN WILCOX PUCHOWSKI
‘HOW DID THE FEELING FEEL TO YOU’: LIZ SANDERS AND LAUREN WILCOX PUCHOWSKI
FRIDAY 10/14. HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM. 5 P.M. FREE.
Here’s a Second Friday Art night opening not to miss: Hot Springs native Liz Sanders is a brilliant documentary photographer whose work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Nation and the Oxford American. Sanders’ work often explores the intersection between tradition and modernity and how that affects individuals and communities. Several years back, she put together a deeply personal and moving series about her late father’s final days living with dementia. Lauren Wilcox Puchowski is a creative polymath. A poet, a former editor at the Oxford American and Heifer International’s World Ark and occasional contributor of writing and art to the Arkansas Times, she’s also the inventor of the boomloom, an ingenious handheld mini loom that’s easy enough for kids to use. She’ll exhibit her playful and modern enamel-on-copper sculptures of the detritus in her Jersey City neighborhood or oddball scenes that catch her eye. Meanwhile, Stone’s Throw Brewing will have a variety of ciders on offer. LM
JUST VISION
HOT SPRINGS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
FRIDAY 10/7-SATURDAY 10/15. ARLINGTON RESORT HOTEL & SPA. $150-$400.
As ever, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival is a week-plus of films you’ll think about for years, plus parties you hopefully won’t regret the next morning. Highlights of 2022 include Mark Fletcher’s (“My Octopus Teacher”) undersea conservation tale, “Patrick and the Whale”; Kathlyn Horan’s “The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile”; Shaunak Sen’s awardwinning tale of a bird hospital in polluted New Delhi, “All That Breathes”; Violet Columbus and Ben Klein’s portrait of Tiananmen Square massacre documentarian Christine Choy, “The Exiles”; and loads more, much of it with connections to the American South. We’ll admit some partiality to the screening of Julia Bacha’s “Boycott,” featuring Arkansas Times publisher Alan Leveritt alongside Bahia Amawi in Texas and Mik Jordahl in Arizona, championing free speech in the battle over state government mandates against political boycotts of Israel. Visit hsdff2022.eventive.org/films to see the full lineup with details about each film. SS
KING BISCUIT BLUES FESTIVAL
WEDNESDAY 10/5-SATURDAY 10/8. DOWNTOWN HELENA-WEST HELENA. $45$100.
Blues is a tradition that thrives on live performance and the camaraderie that accompanies it, and while local cornerstones like Ben Brenner, Charlotte Taylor and Deb Finney have kept the flame burning in Central Arkansas, the post-pandemic resurgence of King Biscuit is paramount. This year, count on sets from Mavis Staples, Devon Allman, Zora Young, Rodney Block, Bobby Rush, Paul Thorn, the G-HOPE Gospel Choir and an ensemble of musicians paying homage to Arkansas’s own Michael Burks with a memorial jam. See the full lineup at kingbiscuitfestival.com. Better yet, grab a ticket on the Arkansas Times Blues Bus and catch roundtrip transportation to the Saturday festivities complete with lunch, on-the-bus adult beverages and on-the-bus entertainment from Jason Lee Hale. Get your spot at centralarkansastickets.com. SS
EVERYBODY BIKES
SUNDAY 10/2. RECYCLE BIKES FOR KIDS, 717 E. 10TH ST., NORTH LITTLE ROCK. 4 P.M.-7 P.M. FREE.
Bike races, lawn games, food and music celebrate the efforts of Recycle Bikes for Kids, a program that collects bikes through individual donations, community bike drives and scrapyard donations and re-distributes the repaired bikes to kids who need them, often through partnerships with organizations like Our House, Habitat For Humanity and Arkansas CASA. Come party in the name of community bike riding, or check out the volunteer programs and get involved. SS
ARKANSAS TIMES FILM SERIES: ‘RAW’
TUESDAY 10/18. RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA. 7 P.M. $5.99.
A car is driving down a two-lane highway. On one side of the road is a row of trees planted in a parallel line. On the other there isn’t much, maybe a ditch and some shrubs. Suddenly a body falls onto the road, seemingly out of nowhere, causing the car to swerve and slam into a tree. We hear the horn of the car, a constant assault on our ears. Soon, the body gets up, walks to the car, and then we cut to black. That’s the opening to Julia Ducournau’s 2016 debut feature, “Raw.” Firmly in the genre of body horror (where Ducournau feels comfortable), the movie is ultimately about two sisters and their ability to treat each other humanely in the worst of circumstances. It’s the latest film in the post-pandemic revival of the Arkansas Times Film Series, curated by Film Quote Films. Mark your calendars for the final screening of the year on Tuesday, Dec. 20, when we’ll show Nagisa Oshima’s “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.” OJ
ADA LIMÓN
LUCAS MARQUARDT
THURSDAY 10/6. HENDRIX COLLEGE, STAPLES AUDITORIUM. 7:30 P.M. FREE; NO RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.
Ada Limón, who can make you feel within the first two lines of a verse that she’s somehow privy to your Google search history and has perhaps made similar private inquiries in the wee hours, was named as the nation’s 24th poet laureate in July. Her sixth book, “The Hurting Kind,” came out this year and, like its predecessors, lends itself to being spoken aloud in exactly this type of in-person gathering. Witness the barbed-wire edges of an old friendship laid bare in “Mastering,” for example, which she read for The New York Times in May. Limón is a former theater major and host of the podcast “The Slowdown,” after all, so plucking her words off the page and depositing them into the microphone is a bit of a specialty. A book signing follows the reading, and WordsWorth Books will sell select titles of Limón’s work at the event. Limón’s staff requests that all audience members wear masks. SS
HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR
SATURDAY 10/22-SUNDAY 10/23. ROBINSON CENTER. 7:30 P.M. SAT.; 3 P.M. SUN. $16-$72.
All those classic spooky films in the canon wouldn’t be squat without their orchestral scores, and this program from the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra features themes from “Jaws,” “Beetlejuice,” the Harry Potter series, “SpiderMan” and “Game of Thrones,” as well as Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” Saint-Saens’ “Danse Macabre” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Theatrical direction comes from Katie Campbell, who directs the children’s theater at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, and the stage will be graced with guests from Little Rock Parkview High School Theater and Dance programs, Arkansas Circus Arts, Ballet Arkansas, Fancyful Parties and ASO’s own Spooky Singers ensemble. Patrons are invited to come in costume, and a costume parade will be conducted on stage immediately following intermission. Get tickets at arkansassymphony.org. SS
CENTRAL ARKANSAS PRIDE FEST AND PARADE
SATURDAY 10/15. ARGENTA ARTS DISTRICT, NORTH LITTLE ROCK. FREE; DONATIONS ACCEPTED.
Pride is back, and if there were any doubt about the need for the celebration to honor its origins as a revolutionary uprising, consider that it was only weeks ago that the Arkansas Travelers were somehow OK with hosting our Pride chapter’s Out Days at the ballpark but balked at having a drag queen throw the first pitch. In the throes of a national culture war whose flames are stoked by our Republican gubernatorial nominee (see the cover story in this issue), even throwing a street festival with entertainment, food, vendors, community groups and a kids zone can be an act of empowerment and resistance. This year features headliner Robin S. (Remember “Show Me Love”?), and the parade begins at noon at the intersection of Broadway and Broadway in North Little Rock; registration for parade participants is open until Oct. 8. Follow Central Arkansas Pride on social media and at arpride.org for details about this year’s parade and celebration to come. SS
SUNDAY 10/30. TRINITY EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL. 7 P.M. $15.
Improvised church organ against F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film “Nosferatu” in an 1884 Gothic revival cathedral? Yes, please. Organist David Enlow plays the pipe organ accompaniment for the 100th birthday celebration of the Bram Stoker horror classic. Look, after the last couple years, this is the kind of Halloween programming we deserve. Get tickets at Eventbrite. SS
