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Stickyz Stage moves to the east side
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Little Rock Film Festival's downtown debut a success
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Arkansas Sports
Extras wanted for filming of Brandon Burlsworth movie at War Memorial Stadium
Here's an opportunity.
The War Memorial Stadium announced today that makers of the movie "Greater," about the forrmer Razorback lineman Brandon Burlsworth, are looking for 800 extras for filming of scenes of the movie June 3 at the stadium.
News release follows.
Human rights
Boy Scouts to allow openly gay scouts
The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday ended its longstanding policy of forbidding openly gay youths to participate in its activities, a step its chief executive called “compassionate, caring and kind.”
60 percent of 1,400 participating Scout leaders approved the change. It does not extend to scout leaders, which still amounts to a tacit statement of its own. For that matter, it doesn't allow gay adults at the outer edge of Scout membership. Would an Eagle Scout still participating at age 18 be forced to quit?
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force called the change a "monumental step forward," but added, “Boy Scouts' leadership should stop clinging to a policy of exclusion and scrap the ban, once and for all. It’s long past time for a fully inclusive Boy Scouts of America.”
There will be fallout — in the short run, I'd guess, more negative than the positives will come from removal of an official exclusionary policy.
Hard as this step has been to achieve, I admit some softening in my feelings on the issue. But until all are treated equally, there's work to be done. And to the extent the fallen Eagles might have helped encourage this vote, there's nothing to regret.
Riverfest Eve open line: Democrats rip Tim Griffin; Arkansas Tech joins no-gun list
The line is open. Final words:
* TIM 'TAR SANDS PIPELINE' GRIFFIN: It's no surprise that Republican Rep. Tiny Tim Griffin voted again last night to hurry up the Keystone XL pipeline, even if the president were to veto it. It's not surprising he also voted against Democratic efforts to close loopholes that allow some energy companies to avoid paying into a fund for cleanups. He hasn't been holding Exxon Mobil accountable for much up in Mayflower, either, Democrats say. Read their particulars on Griffin's oil-friendly record here. Democrats also are pounding Griffin and other Republicans for House approval of a student loan program revise that will be more costly to students than the Democratic alternative. President Obama has threatened to veto the Republican plan, which can't pass the Senate.
* AND SPEAKING OF TAR SANDS: Central Arkansas Water today distributed copies of a letter signed by various government leaders (including Tiny Tim, who probably had his fingers crossed when he signed it) setting what they believe are needed conditions before Exxon Mobil reopens the Pegasus pipeline. In the long run, the best course is moving the pipeline out of the Lake Maumelle watershed, the letter says. CAW also released a letter to federal regulators asking that reopening not be approved until various inspection, emergency planning and other measures are accomplished.
* ARKANSAS TECH RAISES TUITION; BANS GUNS: The Arkansas Tech University Board of Trustees joined UA and ASU today in unanimously opting out of the Republican legislation to allow faculty and staff to carry concealed weapons on its campuses in Russellville and Ozark. The Board also voted tuition increases, which on a semester-hour basis at the undergraduate level, will rise 6.4 percent. But a news release noted that total cost to Tech next year will still be lowest of the five institutions with more than 10,000 students in the state.
* 'WHAT EXACTLY ARE THEY TEACHING AT HARVARD LAW?': The bad reviews of Tom Cotton's North Korean-style proposal to punish people who happen to be related to evil-doers from Iran continue to roll in. Here, a Houston Chronicle writer asks the lead-in question and gets to the core of the answer:
Simultaneously frustrated, infuriated, and perplexed by the election and reelection to the presidency of someone they loathe and can’t imagine anyone else liking, demonstrably smart people like Cotton and fellow HLS alum Ted Cruz have rationalized that anything they say, no matter how cuckoo can be justified by the horror of having to live under the Obama Administration.
Rock Candy
Music / Coming soon
ZZ Top to Fayetteville
Get out your cheap sunglasses, 'cause "that little ol' band from Texas" is headed to Fayetteville's Arkansas Music Pavilion for an Oct. 4 concert. Tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. Thursday, May 30 and they're gonna run you $37-$102. Here's where to go to get 'em. Or you could call 479-443-5600.
The 'Top recently got the Rick Rubin treatment with last year's "La Futura," a gettin'-back-to-their-roots collection with real drums and a gritty, mean guitar tone.
After the jump, one of my favorite ZZ Top tunes, from 1973's "Tres Hombres." No, not "La Grange" (though that one is totally the jam).
What's going on
Friday: American Guild of Organists benefit recital, Wes Jeans at Denton's and more
If you're looking for something not quite so Riverest-y to do Friday night, The American Guild of Organists presents a recital to benefit the Pediatric Injury Prevention Program at Arkansas Children's Hospital, Christ Episcopal Church, 8 p.m., free, donations accepted.
Texas-based blues-blaster Wes Jeans brings the 12-bar tube-amp jams to Denton's Trotline, 9 p.m., $10.
The Sideshow Tragedy and Damn Arkansan offer an evening of Americana/roots rock at Maxine's, 8 p.m., $5 adv., $7 door.
Up in Fayetteville, A Concert for Campers has performances by John Henry & Friends, Brick Fields, Houston Hughes, Dividend and Joey Largent, with proceeds helping to send children to Camp Quest Oklahoma, Nightbird Books, 7 p.m., donations accepted.
If you want to keep the good times going after things wind down at Riverfest, check out Lawler and Ewell's 5th Annual Bday Bash with Raydar and Shaolin, Joe C, Noodles and JDawg, Revolution, 9 p.m., $5 adv., $10 day of.
The Center for Artistic Revolution's Rainbow Camp is a sure bet for LGBTQ and ally youth, Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center, Friday-Monday. More info here.
What's going on / Music
Friday To-Do: Mad Nomad
MAD NOMAD
9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern.
Mad Nomad is one of the newer entries on the Little Rock musicscape, having formed in September. But they're not exactly taking the leisurely route, having already finished up their first full-length, the nine-song "Black Out," available at this album-release show.
The group plays an amped-up sort of indie rock that's informed by the classics (Replacements, Built to Spill, Dinosaur Jr.) and unabashedly guitar-centric. They remind me a bit of the Springsteen-gone-punk sounds of Against Me! circa "New Wave." Most of the tunes are of the fist-pumping, triumphant sort, but they slow down the pace a bit on the Southern-rock-riffing "Me Tarzan, You Jane" and they break out the acoustic guitars on the wistful "When You Were Here."
The band includes Joe Holland, Jacob Mahan, Jesse Bell, Adam Hogg and Chris Honea. Hogg's piano playing adds some nice texture to the guitar squall. The album, good on its own merits for sure, is also a promising indicator of things to come. Good-time party-rockers Booyah! Dad and The Bootheel of Springfield, Mo., will open the show.
Event Calendar
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Re: The crash of Martha Shoffner
I don't see sadness either. Every day the Lord sends the criminal justice incarcerates a…
- on May 23, 2013
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Re: Riverfest Eve open line: Democrats rip Tim Griffin; Arkansas Tech joins no-gun list
I went all thru school with a skinny boy we nicknamed Goober who I think…
- on May 23, 2013
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Re: Late news: Arrest in Forrest Abrams slaying; sentencing in West Memphis vote buying
Home detention for the two Hallum absentee ballot scheme is outrageous, especially for Malone who…
- on May 23, 2013
Arkansas Reporter
Sister who opposed Faubus dies
Editorials
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Fox16 Local News and Weather
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Man Arrested for Allegedly Stealing Copper from New Homes in Lonoke County
May 23, 201332-year-old Nicholas Jackson faces Breaking or Entering, Theft of Property, Criminal Mischief, and Drug Possession Charges. fox16.com /more/ -
5-Year-Old Hospitalized after Being Shot by Sibling
May 23, 2013A 5-year-old is in the emergency room after being shot by his sister. fox16.com /more/
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