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.

Science After Dark: Beer

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Each month, the Museum of Discovery hosts “Science After Dark.” This monthly event is for the grown-ups. Why? Because, science is fun…at any age!

Science After Dark provides visitors the opportunity to have fun and learn about science in a unique setting. Museum educators pick a science-related topic and build an entertaining, interactive evening around it. You never know what will sprout, pop, fizzle, or glow.

Tonight from 6pm to 8pm at the Museum, the focus is on Beer.  The cost if $5 per person or free to Museum members.  (Just one of the many benefits of museum membership, even if you don’t have kids.)

 Come learn about the science of making beer. Why wait till Octoberfest? Here’s what’s in store for you:

 Beer and Pretzels

How is Beer Made?

What makes those designer beers taste the way they do?

Pub Quiz: All Things Beer

Culture of Beer: Social Science and History

Beer Chemistry: Homestyle 

Harry Belafonte and the Little Rock Nine

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For the past several years, the Civil Rights Film Festival has presented a film series in conjunction with the commemoration of the September 25, 1957, integration of Little Rock Central High School by the Little Rock Nine.  One of the highlights of this year’s festival will be an appearance by Tony Award winning actor and humanitarian Harry Belafonte tonight.

Though the event is sold out, it is an important event and deserves mention.

Those with tickets will be able to see a screening of Harry Belafonte’s documentary, Sing Your Song: The Music, Hope and Vision of a Man and an Era, guest remarks by Mr. Belafonte; and an awards ceremony to honor both the Little Rock Nine and Belafonte.

Mr. Belafonte was a trailblazer as a theatre and film actor and recording artist.  He broke the color barrier in almost everything he did.  He became the first African American male actor to win a Tony Award for his performance in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac.

Here is more about the movie, which is being presented in conjunction with the Little Rock Film Festival.

Sing Your Song (2011) (105 min). Directed by Susanne Rostock. An up close look at a great American, Harry Belafonte. A patriot to the last and a champion for worldwide human rights, Belafonte is one of the truly heroic cultural and political figures of the past 60 years. Told from Harry’s point of view, the film charts his life from a boy born in New York and raised in Jamaica, who returns to Harlem in his early teens where he discovers the American Negro Theater and the magic of performing. From there the film follows Belafonte’s rise from the jazz and folk clubs of Greenwich Village and Harlem to his emergence as a star. However, even as a superstar, the life of a black man in 1960s America was far from easy and Belafonte was confronted with the same Jim Crow laws and prejudices that every other black man, woman and child in America was facing.

Greil Marcus discusses The Doors Tuesday the 25th

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greil marcusAs part of Arkansas Sounds Music Festival, nationally-recognized music critic Greil Marcus will discuss his book, The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years, in the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) Darragh Center at the Main Library, 100 Rock Street, on Tuesday, September 25, at 6:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Arkansas Literary Festival and ProSmart Printing, the program is free and open to the public.

In a book mostly about listening to the music of The Doors, Marcus revisits a parade of great performances-L.A. Woman, Roadhouse Blues, Light My Fire, When the Music’s Over, End of the Night and more-and explores why and how The Doors have endured. The program will be presented in an interview format, with Tom Wood, local radio personality from TOM-FM, asking questions of Marcus. A book signing and reception will follow. Seating is open and reservations are requested, but not required, at lblackwell@cals.org or 918-3029.

Marcus is the co-editor of A New Literary History of America. His other books include Mystery Train, Lipstick Traces, and Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternatives. He has taught at Princeton University; University of California, Berkley; New York University; and the New School in New York. His column “Real Life Rock Top 10” appears regularly in The Believer.

Arkansas Sounds is hosted by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, a CALS department, and will be held September 28-29, 2012, in the Riverfest Amphitheatre and the River Market Pavilions. Admission is free. Focusing on Arkansas music and musicians both past and present, the Festival will also work to get musicians and songwriters involved in local schools, create songwriting workshops for kids and adults, and host related performances and events throughout the state. For more information, visit www.arkansassounds.org.

The Arkansas Literary Festival’s mission is to encourage the development of a more literate populace, and is the premier gathering of readers and writers in Arkansas. Visit www.ArkansasLiteraryFestival.org for information on the 2012 Festival.

For more information contact 918-3098.

Sculpture Vulture: LR Central High Statues

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Today the Sculpture Vulture focuses on the four statues which stand abreast above the entrance to Little Rock Central High School. They have watched over students and faculty for 85 years since the school’s opening in 1927.

They also witnessed the historic integration by the Little Rock Nine on September 25, 1957. The 55th anniversary of those events is being marked this week.

The statues represent Ambition, Personality, Opportunity and Preparation. At the 1927 dedication service Lillian McDermott, then the president of the School Board, claimed that the new school “would stand…for decades to come [as] a public school where Ambition is fired, where Personality is developed, where Opportunity is presented and where Preparation in the solution of life’s problems is begun.”

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Moon Fest

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Join us September 22 for Moon Fest!

Hosted by the Central Arkansas Astronimcal Society, UALR Physics and Astronomy Dept.,
Museum of Discovery, Central Arkansas Library System Main Branch and Arkansas Studies Institute.

Special guests include Mr. Steve Arnold of the Science Channel’s TV show “Meteorite Men”. He will be appearing at MOD between 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, he will also be joining us on the observing field that evening for telescope views of the Moon

Moon Fest Schedule of Events

9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Museum of Discovery) Construct a Lunar Base Activity for kids, Tinker Shop, Museum of Discovery

1:00 PM to 2:00 PM “Meteorite Man” Steve Arnold lecture in the Museum of Discovery Great Hall (Sponsored by the UALR Physics and Astronomy Department)

2:30 PM to 5:00 PM Meteorite Sales with Steve Arnold in the Museum of Discovery Great Hall

2:30 PM to 4:00 PM “For All Mankind” a documentary film of the Apollo Moon Missions at Arkansas Studies Institute Room 124

3:00 PM to 5:00 PM Making Moon Craters with Dr. Tony Hall at the CALS Main Library Branch Children’s Room

3:00 PM to 6:00 PM Walking the Solar System. Starts outside the front of the Museum of Discovery

7:00 PM to 10:30 PM Lunar Telescope Viewings with members of the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society and the UALR Physics and Astronomy Department.
Guest appearance by Mr. Steve Arnold
Parking will be available in the Clinton Library parking lot after 6 PM.

For more information call 537-3074.

Opera on the Rocks

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After some years without a professional opera presence in Little Rock, Opera in the Rock has been formed.  They host their first event tonight – “Opera on the Rocks.”

The event will feature an evening of food, drink, a silent auction, and a series of opera scenes, presented by some of the best local talents. The theme for this evening will focus on the many stages of love… even when love finds itself on the rocks…

The evening will begin at 6:30pm at Wildwood Park for the Arts.

The cast is Matt Newman, tenor; Ferris Allen, baritone; Stephanie Smittle, Arlene Biebesheimer, soprano; and Jennifer Boccarossa, soprano/mezzo-soprano.

Newman will sing “Una fortuna lagrima” from Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore; Boccarossa will sing the “Habanera” from Bizet’s Carmen; Allen and Biebesheimer will sing the “Papageno-Papagena” duet from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The program will also include the quartet from Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, and the chorus from Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land.

4th Annual Bernice Garden Sculpture Party and Fall Fest

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Come see the 2012 Sculptures unveiled at this great annual event !

See six new sculptures created by Arkansas artists and meet and talk to the artists about their work.

The chosen artists are: Mia Hall, Bryan Winfred Massey Sr., David O’Brien, Tod “Switch” Swiecichowski, Steph Shinabetzy and Jon M. Van Horn.

This event is free and will include delicious food from Boulevard Bread and The Root Café as well as music by “Rychy St. Vincent and The Package”

It’s a casual event where you can enjoy the cooler weather, chat with neighbors and enjoy great public art.