Monthly Archives: January 2019

Concert in support of ARKANSAS LIFE set for January 15 at 7pm at White Water

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Join musicians, artists, and friends of Arkansas Life magazine this Tuesday night in an effort to save this stellar publication! Great music courtesy of Joshua Asante, Phillip Huddleston, and Hot Springs’ own Ghost Bones will kick off at 7pm.

Your $10 donation at the door will go towards future subscriptions. Many fans greatly admire and appreciate the hard working and thoughtful folks who make this magazine so special. This is a chance for to come together to show them support!

Arkansas Life was founded in 2008 and is published 12 times yearly by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The increasing budgetary difficulties of print media have put the magazine under very serious threat of shutting down unless a significant amount of readers become paid subscribers by January 15th.

A $20 annual subscription can be purchased here: https://subscribe.wehco.com/adg/arklife/

Arkansas Life digs deep into The Natural State, unearthing surprising stories and exposing readers—both natives and novices alike—to new facets of a familiar place.

Set in Northwest Arkansas – third season of HBO’s TRUE DETECTIVE premieres tonight!

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HBO’s anthology series TRUE DETECTIVE is back. And the buzz is strong!  Partner detectives investigate a macabre crime involving two missing children in the heart of the Ozarks, Arkansas. The story spans three decades. It premieres tonight.

Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (who just picked up a Golden Globe last Sunday) will play detective Wayne Hays, a state police detective from Northwest Arkansas. Stephen Dorff is set to play Arkansas State Investigator Roland West. Carmen Ejogo will play school teacher Amelia Reardon, who is connected to two missing children.

Additional cast members include Josh Hopkins, who will play Jim Dobkins, a private attorney in Fayetteville involved in deposing state police detectives in an ongoing investigation. Scoot McNairy is Tom, a father who suffers a terrible loss which ties his fate to that of two state police detectives over ten years. Mamie Gummer stars as Lucy Purcell, a young mother of two at the center of a tragic crime. Jodi Balfour, Lonnie Chavis, Ray Fisher, Michael Greyeyes, Jon Tenney, Rhys Wakefield, Sarah Gadon, Emily Nelson, Brandon Flynn and Michael Graziadei also star.

Many Arkansas actors (including Corbin Pitts, Grace Pitts, and Jennifer Pierce Mathus) also appear throughout the series. But in the true nature of the project, don’t ask them too many questions if you know them.

Nic Pizzolatto has scripted eight episodes for Season 3, co-writing Episode 4 with David Milch. Little Rock’s Graham Gordy worked on episodes 5 through 8 as a writer and consulting producer. The new season will mark Pizzolatto’s directorial debut.

Little Rock Look Back: Pulaski Heights officially becomes part of Little Rock

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Ninth Ward

On January 13, 1916, the Little Rock City Council formally accepted Pulaski Heights into the City of Little Rock.

The Council had held a regular meeting on Monday, January 10, 1916, which was the same evening as the final meeting of the Pulaski Heights City Council.

Three days later, on Thursday, January 13, 1916, Mayor Charles Taylor again convened the Little Rock City Council to take the steps to officially annex Pulaski Heights into Little Rock.

By Ordinance 2259, the City’s boundaries were increased to include the land which had been Pulaski Heights.  Resolution 918 directed city staff to replat the land, which was necessary to bring the land in accordance with existing city plats and documents.

Resolution 919 set forth January 20 as a special election date to elect the two new members of the Little Rock City Council who would represent the new Ninth Ward of Little Rock.  Those who won would serve until April 1916.  The election would also serve as the primary for the April election.  Back then, winning the Democratic primary for a City race was tantamount to winning the race.  Since there were two seats being created, one would have a two year term, the other would be for only one year.  The candidate receiving the most votes on January 20 would, after April, take up the two year term and be able to run for re-election in April 1918. The candidate with the second highest total of votes would win the one-year term and be up for re-election in April 1917.  At the time, there were three publicly declared candidates for the two seats.  Another had been interested, but dropped out that morning.

Making Pulaski Heights the Ninth Ward was not the only focus of the City Council meeting.  An ordinance was also approved which allocated $438 for the purchase of beds, mattresses, chairs and other furniture for the City hospital.  (That is the equivalent of nearly $10,000 today.)  The Council then reimbursed a doctor the $438, which presumably had been spent on making the purchases.

Book Signing, Art Exhibit celebrating “Winston the Pony” book tonight at CALS Hillary Clinton Children’s Library

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Image result for winston the pony goes to a partyThe CALS Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library and Learning Center is hosting an exhibit opening and book signing this evening from 6:30pm to 8:00pm.

It features Nancy Pruitt and Morgan Herndon, Pruitt is the author of Winston the Pony Goes to a Party. Herndon illustrated the book.

As Pruitt writes, “Winston is a little rescue pony who came to live with us on a snowy January day. It did not take long for him to turn our farm upside down and find his way into our hearts. His big personality and barnyard antics have led to his first book, Winston the Pony Goes to a Party.”

Refreshments will be crafted by Leave It To Liz.

Block, Beer & Bourbon 2019 – supporting KUAR and KLRE

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Image may contain: textThe Friends of KLRE/KUAR are hosting Block, Beer & Bourbon, tonight (Saturday, January 12th), at the Albert Pike Masonic Center, 712 Scott Street in Little Rock.  The event starts at 7pm.

Guests will enjoy tastings of carefully selected beers and bourbons from O’Looney’s Wine and Liquor, cocktail buffet from the Pantry, and fabulous tunes from the Rodney Block Collective.

Tickets can be reserved here.  There is also a VIP ticket for exclusive tastes of rare bourbon and beer at the pre-party reception.

Little Rock Look Back: Basketball comes to Robinson Auditorium

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Coach Earl Quigley in the 1940s

While Joseph Taylor Robinson Memorial Auditorium is known today as a performance and meeting venue, in its early days it was also the home to sports. Seventy-eight years ago tonight the first basketball game was played at Robinson.

One of the first regular activities which took place in the lower level exhibition hall was a series of boxing and wrestling matches.  Building on the success of this, basketball came to the convention hall in January 1940.

A series of games featuring Little Rock High School and North Little Rock High School were announced by Tiger Coach Earl Quigley to take place from January 11 through February 16, the official opening day for the facility.

At that time, neither high school had a gymnasium; therefore both schools played their basketball games on their school auditorium stages with fans seated in the audience. The convention hall offered a regulation size floor (made of pecan block parquet) with seating for over 1,300 people along the sidelines and in the balcony.  The first men’s basketball game in Robinson Auditorium took place between the Little Rock High School Tigers and the North Little Rock High School Wildcats on January 11, 1940.

The Tigers lost the game before a crowd estimated to be 1,300.  Earlier in the evening there had been an exhibition between two women’s basketball teams.  The cost for admission to the games was 35 cents for the reserved seating and 25 cents for general admission.

2nd Friday Art Night – Old State House Museum

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Celebrate the New Year with a musical journey!

During 2nd Friday Art Night on January 11, the Bob Boyd Sounds will perform a mix of popular standards, swing, and popular jazz spanning several decades.

Stone’s Throw Brewing will serve Arkansas-made brews, including the award-winning Pre-Prohibition Porter.