Monthly Archives: February 2019

Landscape Architecture Now! Case Studies in Mexico and Latin America is topic of lecture tonight

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Vistas Cerro Grande Linear Park in Chihuahua City: A Public Mile Designed with and for the Community. Photos by Delfoz.

Vistas Cerro Grande Linear Park in Chihuahua City: A Public Mile Designed with and for the Community. Photos by Delfoz.

Architecture and Design Network (ADN) continues its 2018/2019 June Freeman lecture series by diving into the discipline and profession of landscape architecture by analyzing a double context:  first, the larger context of the Latin American continent; and second, Mexico as a specific context.

The program will begin at 6:00pm tonight at the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception will precede it at 5:30pm.

Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin and Founder of Labor Studio, will present these findings in ADN’s second lecture of 2019 year, “Landscape Architecture Now!  Case Studies in Mexico and Latin America.”

The discipline and profession of Landscape Architecture is not the same in Latin America as in the United States. It should not be the same. A brief historic chronology will be traced to explain the different origins and meaning of public space in this continent while addressing the need to identify the unique national and regional differences, avoiding -often done- common generalizations. Recent project case studies will be synthesized to portray the current condition of the discipline in the Latin American context.

The contemporary condition of Public Space in Mexico will be explained as one of the unique conditions assembling the Latin American mosaic. The country has recently gone through dramatic changes in public life, society, culture, and politics. A set of case studies in Landscape Architecture and Public Space, where Montemayor has been involved in different capacities, will be employed to explain the challenges and opportunities for Landscape Architecture in Mexico.

The Mexican projects include applied academic studios trying to fill the void between the planning and the implementation of public infrastructure projects needing landscape architectural methods and matter. These will also include professional public space commissions based on community reconstruction, engagement, and participation. Both applied studios and professional projects operate in a third context, northern Mexico. This will lead to a final proposition reflecting on a potential future for the border region between the United States and Mexico, one where societies are reconciled with their common ground.

Gabriel Diaz Montemayor, ASLA, is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin. Through Spring 2019, he will hold the Garvan Chair and Visiting Professorship in Landscape Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

Montemayoris an architect educated at the School of the Desert:  The Superior Institute of Architecture and Design (ISAD) at Chihuahua, Mexico, from where he graduated in 1998. He holds an architect degree from the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Mexico, and received his Master of Landscape Architecture from Auburn University in 2007.  Montemayoris a founder of LABOR Studio, an architecture, urban design and landscape architecture practice based in Chihuahua, Mexico, since 2002. The studio has engaged in a variety of private and public commissions.

Architecture and Design Network lectures are free and open to the public. No reservations are required.  Supporters of ADN include the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the Central Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.

Intersection of Athletics and Higher Education is focus of Clinton School program tonight

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Image result for john wolohanThe Intersection of Athletics and Higher Education is the focus of a Clinton School program this evening.  It starts at 6pm at Sturgis Hall.

Attorney John Wolohan is a professor of Sports Law in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University.

Wolohan is one of the lead editors of the book “Law for Recreation and Sport Managers” by Cotten and Wolohan, as well as being the author of the “Sports Law Report” a monthly article that appears in Athletic Business. Wolohan has also published numerous articles and book chapters in the areas of athlete’s rights, intellectual property and antitrust issues in sport in such Journals as the Marquette Sports Law Journal, Seton Hall Journal of Sports Law, Villanova Sports & Entertainment Law Journal, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review, Educational Law Reporter, International Sports Law Journal, Journal of the Legal Aspects of Sport and the Journal of Sport Management.

In addition, Professor Wolohan has made numerous presentations in the area of sports law to such organizations as the American Bar Association, Asser Sports Law Institute, Athletic Business, Australian & New Zealand Sports Law Association, European Association for Sport Management, International Sports Lawyers Association, North American Society of Sport Management, Sport and Recreation Law Association, US Indoor Sports Association and the United States Sport Congress.

Professor Wolohan, who is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, received his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and his J.D. from Western New England University, School of Law.

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.

Rock the Oscars: Marvin Hamlisch

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Composer-conductor-arranger-pianist Marvin Hamlisch was a multi-hyphenate.  He also was an early EGOT winner (back when it was more difficult to accomplish this feat because there were fewer categories in all four awards).

Hamlisch visited Little Rock numerous times throughout his careers.  In 1996, he performed at Wildwood Park during the first season of the Lucy Lockett Cabe Festival Theatre.  He soloed with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in January 2000 performing many of his works for film and a few for stage.

In 2006, he returned to the ASO to perform with Robert Klein and Lucie Arnaz and the latter duo recreated their roles from the Hamlisch-Neil Simon-Carole Bayer Sager musical They’re Playing Our Song.  His final visit to Little Rock was in 2011. He was performing in Conway but shopped in Little Rock for clothes when his luggage stayed in Chicago.

Over his career, Hamlisch was nominated for twelve Oscars.  He won three at the 1974 ceremony. They were Best Song for “The Way We Were” from the film of the same name (shared with Alan and Marilyn Bergman), Best Score for The Way We Were and Best Adaptation Score for The Sting.  The latter heavily featured music by former Little Rock resident Scott Joplin.

Little Rock Look Back: Ben Piazza joins cast of WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? on Broadway

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On February 4, 1963, Little Rock native Ben Piazza joined the cast of the original Broadway production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? replacing George Grizzard.

Grizzard had left the show to play Hamlet during the Guthrie Theatre’s first season.  He had accepted that role prior to the Albee play opening on Broadway and becoming a runaway hit.

Piazza, a friend of Albee’s, had been involved in the play since its early days. At the play’s first read-through, he read the part of Nick (which he would play on Broadway) with Albee and producers Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder reading the other three parts.

Piazza stayed in the role of Nick for the rest of the run of the show until it closed on May 16, 1964. His fifteen months in the role is the longest that anyone has ever played a role in an Albee play on Broadway (or perhaps anywhere).

He joined original cast members Arthur Hill, Uta Hagen and Melinda Dillon (a native of Hope).  Dillon was the next to leave the cast and was followed by Rochelle Oliver in the role of Honey.  As Martha, Hagen was followed by Nancy Kelly, returned to the role, and then left it to star in the London production. Piazza would then play opposite future Little Rock resident (and Arkansas Rep performer) Mercedes McCambridge for the last five months of the run.

As George, Arthur Hill was succeeded by Shepperd Strudwick a month after Hagen left. He returned to the play when Hagen did and joined her in London.  Donald Davis, who had played George in the matinee cast, took over the part in the evenings for the last five months.

ELIJAH by Mendelssohn this evening at Trinity Cathedral

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Manuscript of Mendelssohn's Oratorio 'Elijah'.jpgThe Trinity Episcopal Cathedral choir presents excerpts from Mendelssohn’s ELIJAH today at 5pm.

Accompanied on the newly restored organ by New York City Organist Daniel Beckwith, the oratorio will be included in a service of Evensong. British bass Peter Hine will sing the title role. Victoria Mathis Harden, Music Director, will conduct. A gala reception will follow in Morrison Hall. A nursery will be available.

Premiering in 1846 at the Birmingham Festival, it depicts events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah.  This piece was composed in the spirit of Mendelssohn’s Baroque predecessors Bach and Handel, whose music he loved.

Rock the Oscars 2019: Richard Linklater

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Arkansas Cinema Society’s Jeff Nichols (left) with 5 time Oscar nominee Richard Linklater at ACS’s 2018 FILMLAND opening night. (Photo from ACS)

The 2018 Arkansas Cinema Society FILMLAND kicked off with a screening of Richard Linklater’s THE NEWTON BOYS. 

Linklater, a multiple Oscar nominee, founded the Austin Film Society, which was one of the models for the creation of the Arkansas Cinema Society.  Following the screening of his film, he engaged in a conversation with filmmaker Jeff Nichols, who is a founder of the ACS.

Linklater is mostly known for his realistic and natural humanist films which revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. Some notable films of his include the observational comedy film Slacker, the coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused,” the romantic drama film trilogy Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, & Before Midnight and the music-themed comedy School of Rock, as well as the rotoscope animated films Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly.

In 2002, he began filming “Boyhood,” a passion project which took over twelve years to complete. The film was released in 2014 to widespread critical acclaim. Linklater won the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, and BAFTAs for Best Director and Best Picture.

Linklater was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for 2004’s Before Sunset, 2013’s Before Midnight, and 2014’s Boyhood. He also picked up a Best Director and Best Picture nomination for the latter.

 

Super Bowl Sunday look at the Copper Bowl

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Today is Super Bowl Sunday, so it seems to be a good time to remember the five year series of football games in Little Rock known as the Copper Bowl.

A Little Rock police officer tackles a NLR player in one of the Copper Bowls.

A Little Rock police officer tackles a NLR player in one of the Copper Bowls.

From December 1959 through December 1963, the Little Rock Police Department played the North Little Rock Police Department in a series of football games.  The Copper Bowl games were fundraisers to help the LRPD provide food and presents for needy families during the Christmas season.

The agreement was that the teams would play for five years. The team with the most wins would permanently receive the Copper Bowl trophy.  The LRPD was outfitted with uniforms from Little Rock University and Louisiana State University (thanks to the efforts of Sgt. Harold Zook).  The games were played at Quigley Stadium.

Before the final game on December 1, 1963, the series was tied at 2-2.  The LRPD team won the game and permanently captured the trophy.  Over the five year period several thousand dollars were raised.