Author Archives: Scott

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About Scott

A cultural thinker with a life long interest in the arts and humanities: theatre, music, architecture, photography, history, urban planning, etc.

QQA Annual Meeting and Awards

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QQA logo 2 colorThe Quapaw Quarter Association will hold its annual meeting tonight and present the Greater Little Rock Preservation Awards.

At 5pm, a reception will begin with the program starting at 5:30pm.  The program will take place at The Joint in the Argenta district.

The featured speaker will be Kim Trent of Knox Heritage in Knoxville TN.  She brings a diverse background to her current role, including experience in journalism, community organizing, community development banking, public relations and non-profit management. She has worked in preservation professionally and as a community volunteer and advocate at the local, state and national level for more than 16 years and is a proponent of preservation-based community and economic development.

Following the annual meeting, which is open to the public, there will be a members only reception at 7pm.  Memberships to the Quapaw Quarter Association will be available for purchase.

Rhea Roberts is the executive director of the Quapaw Quarter Association.

The Quapaw Quarter Association’s mission is to promote the preservation of Little Rock’s architectural heritage through advocacy, marketing and education. The QQA promotes the preservation and enhancement of the historic buildings and neighborhoods of Little Rock.  It is a Local Partner of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

 

Escape Velocity Launch Party

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cover

Tonight at 6pm at the Darragh Center of the Central Arkansas Library, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies will host a launch party for the new book: Escape Velocity.  Edited by Jay Jennings, this collects the works of Charles Portis and represents his first new release in more than 20 years.  The book is published by Butler Center Books.
The evening will include remarks by Jennings, readings by Graham Gordy and music by Mandy McBride.  Last week, another launch event was held in New York City.

The book-which collects Portis’s nonfiction and short stories, as well as a memoir and a play-spans his half-century-long writing career, covering his early journalism from the 1950s when he worked for several newspapers up to more recent magazine stories published in the Atlantic and the Oxford American.

Escape Velocity brings together almost everything Portis has written outside his novels, both never-before-published work and hard-to-find stories that fans have known about for years and that new readers will delight in discovering.

Besides True Grit, Portis is the author of four other novels-Norwood, The Dog of the South, Masters of Atlantis, and Gringos. All of his novels are available from Overlook Press.

About the editor
Jay Jennings, a journalist and humorist, lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. A former reporter for Sports Illustrated and frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, Jennings is the author of Carry the Rock: Race, Football, and the Soul of an American City (Rodale Press, 2010), a book that focuses on the 2007 football season at Little Rock’s famed Central High School-a half-century after the tumultuous 1957 desegregation of the school.

Claude Bolling’s Suite for Violin and Jazz Piano Trio at The Afterthought

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Tonight, October 8th, 2012 there will be a special one-time performance of Claude Bolling’s Suite for Violin and Jazz Piano Trio at The Afterthought, the jazz club on Kavanaugh Blvd. in the Hillcrest section of Little Rock.

With music starting at 8pm, saxophonist Brandon Dorris will perform a trio set with bassist Joe Vick and drummer Brian Brown. The Bolling,which is about an hour of music, will feature violinist Geoffrey Robson,pianist Louis Menendez, bassist Joe Vick, and drummer Brian Brown.

The evening will conclude with more music from Brandon Dorris and the trio.

Sophisticated jazz piano stylings blend seamlessly with lyrical and virtuosic violin playing in the music of Claude Bolling. $5 cover only.

Geoffrey Robson, violinist, is the Associate Conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and violinist in Trio Arkansas with pianist Louis Menendez. Louis Menendez, of Hot Springs, AR, is a fine concert pianist, opera coach, and conductor, and is a faculty member at
Ouachita Baptist University. Joe Vick is a member of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and a Little Rock jazz mainstay. He also teaches music at College Station Elementary and Fuller Middle School in Little Rock.

Brian Brown, also a local jazz mainstay, has performed on just about every stage in town, and appears four nights a week at the Capital Hotel with the Ted Ludwig Jazz Trio. Brandon Dorris is one of the more versatile musicians in town. Recent appearances include the Hot Springs Jazz Festival, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Arkansas Repertory Theater, and Dugan’s Pub.

Sculpture Vulture: Jane DeDecker’s “Daphne”

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The annual Sculpture at the River Market Show and Sale takes place this month (October 19-21). In recognition of this, the October Sculpture Vulture will focus on more of the pieces in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden which were acquired from previous shows.

Today’s feature is Jane DeDecker’s Daphne which was installed in 2011.  Cast in bronze, it depicts a headless torso with arms upstretched.  At the terminus of the arms are tree branches.

Jane DeDecker has been making a major contribution to the world sculpture scene since 1986. Creating over 250 limited edition, original sculptures, 60 of those being life-size and four one of a kind monuments, with 50 sold out editions. She has been published in magazines reaching global circulations, from Art and Antiques to European Home and Gardens. She has been sought out for her artistic integrity by organizations ranging from the National Parks Service to the President of the United States.

ASO This Weekend: Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to The Beatles

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The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra presents the first concert of the ACXIOM Pops Live! Series – Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to The Beatles – on October 6 at 8 p.m. and October 7 at 3 p.m. at the Robinson Center Music Hall, conducted by Geoffrey Robson, ASO Associate Conductor. This concert is sponsored in part by Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Hear The Beatles live in concert with YOUR Arkansas Symphony Orchestra! These four musicians look and sound just like the real thing. Hear Eleanor Rigby with a live string section; experience the peace anthem All You Need is Love full of brass fanfare; and enjoy the upbeat and optimistic tune Here Comes the Sun. From early Beatles music through the solo years, this concert is the best of The Beatles as you’ve never heard them.

All kids through 12th grade can attend the Sunday matinee performances for free (with purchase of an adult ticket) using the Entergy Kids Ticket – available for download at http://www.ArkansasSymphony.org. Adult single tickets range from $18-$58 and can be purchased online at http://www.ArkansasSymphony.org or over the phone at (501) 666-1761. Student and military tickets are $10.

Featuring

Program:
Beatles Medley Overture arrangement by Martin Herman

Classical Mystery Tour will perform selections from the following:
A Day In the Life
All You Need Is Love
Beatles Medley Overture
Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Come Together
Eleanor Rigby
Golden Slumbers
Got To Get You Into My Life
Here Comes the Sun
I Am the Walrus
I Saw Her Standing There
I Want to Hold Your Hand
Imagine
Live and Let Die
The Long and Winding Road
Ob-la-di, ob-la-da
Penny Lane
Sgt. Pepper /Little Help From My Friends
Strawberry Fields Forever
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Yellow Submarine
Yesterday

All songs written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, or George Harrison.

Celebrate Bakari’s Birthday on Saturday at LR Zoo

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On Saturday, October 6, at 10am, the Little Rock Zoo will celebrate the birthday of Bakari the lion.

What do you give a Lion who turns six?  Well, he likes cat nip, cat nip spray, heavy duty toys (www.wildlifetoybox.com), 10″ ferret ball with 6 holes (www.boomerball.com), miscellaneous spices and perfumes and BEEF ROAST!

The party will take place at the Big Cat display at the Zoo.  Following the party, Zoo staff will present a program on lions.

Visitors to the Zoo will also have a time to see the newest exhibits including the cheetahs and penguins.

Final weekend of MADELINE AND THE GYPSIES

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The Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre kicks off its 33rd season with Madeline and the Gypsies.  This is the final weekend for the show with performances Friday at 7, Saturday at 3 and Sunday at 2.

Gretchen Bush leads the cast in the title role.  Diondre Wright plays Pepito and Jillian Flood plays Miss Clavel.   Others in the cast include Jimi Brewi, Abby Bannerman, Annie Forunte, Claire Havens, Kyndall Jackson, Margaret Lowry, Emily Pyron, Jenna Sims, Phoebe Tillemans, Sophie Wacaster, Maddie Woziwodzki, Jenny Zhang, Anna Newman, Melissa Griffith, Cassandra Nary, Jeremy Matthey, Kaiya Griffith, Alta Griffith, Karlie Barnett, Rachael Caffey, Timothy Espejo, Garrett Flood, Anna Grace Estes and Mark Hansen.

The play is based on Ludwig Bemelmans’ tales of Madeline and her friend Pepito.  It was adapted by Barry Kornhauser and features a musical score by Michael Koerner.  John Isner is the director, while the production is designed by Miranda Young.  Erin Larkin is the costume designer and Penelope Poppers designed the lighting. Bradley Anderson is the Artistic Director of the Childrens Theatre, and Todd Herman is the Executive Director of the Arkansas Arts Center.