Tonight’s South on Main Sessions features Townsend.

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Sessions :: Townsend

Capitol View Studio presents June Sessions at South on Main beginning with a soulful performance from one of their recording artists, Townsend.
Show begins at 8 pm. Purchase advance tickets for $7 or pay $10 at the door. Tickets do not guarantee you a seat. To reserve a table, please call (501) 244-9660.
ABOUT TOWNSEND
Townsend has been in the music game for a long time now, however, ran across recent heartache and tragedy when her drummer and buddy passed. The artist took a break from the scene but soon woke up to realize words are healing, and she was ready to find her way back “home.” Pouring her heart and emotions on paper, Townsend got back in the studio, determined to serve her drummer well and complete the CD they always planned on making. Two years later, touching on heartache and renewal, the project has it all. The songs are unimaginably relatable and honest. Whether you like hard rock or some country-twang, there’s a song for you on “Show Me Home.”
ABOUT CAPITOL VIEW
Capitol View Studio LLC is located at 120 S. Cross in the West End of downtown Little Rock, AR and is a full production recording studio. Owner, Bryan Frazier, is a working visual artist with a background in art education and music production and is an award-winning singer/songwriter and video producer.
Engineer and producer, Mark Colbert, is the primary audio engineer for Capitol View Studio. Mark is an experienced producer, engineer and professional session drummer. Colbert has spent many years working in professional studios in Los Angeles and has performed and recorded with Grammy award-winning artists such as Kelly Clarkson and Alanis Morissette among many others.
CVS artists include: John Burnette, Townsend, Mark Currey, SUMOKEM, Jeff Matika, Dazz & Brie among many others. Capitol View Studio is one of central Arkansas’s fastest growing full production studios with Little Rock’s largest live room for recording that’s like no other.

On Anne Frank’s birthday – a look at the Anne Frank trees in Little Rock

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Ninety years ago today, on June 12, 1929, Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany.  Through her diary, she has inspired generations with her courage as her family was in hiding from the Nazis.  During the two years she and her family were in seclusion, she looked out and saw a white horse chestnut tree from her window.

In 2009, the Anne Frank Center USA announced an initiative to place saplings from the tree at various locations throughout the United States.  Little Rock became the only city to receive two saplings.  One to be placed at Central High School, the other to be placed at the Clinton Presidential Center.

The Clinton Foundation and the Sisterhood of Congregation B’nai Israel, in conjunction with the Anne Frank Center USA, joined together to create a powerful exhibit, The Anne Frank Tree, located on the grounds of the Clinton Presidential Park.  The permanent installation, which surrounds the Anne Frank Tree sapling, was dedicated on October 2, 2015.

Anne’s tree would outlive her by more than 50 years before being weakened by disease and succumbing to a windstorm in 2010. But today, thanks to dozens of saplings propagated in the months before its death, Anne’s tree lives on in cities and towns around the world.

The Anne Frank Tree installation at the Clinton Center consists of five framed, etched glass panels – arranged to evoke the feeling of being inside a room – surrounded by complementary natural landscaping. The two front panels feature quotes from Anne Frank and President Clinton. The three additional panels convey the complex history of human rights in Arkansas through descriptions of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis of 1957. These panels feature quotes from Chief Heckaton, hereditary chief of the Quapaw during Arkansas’s Indian Removal; George Takei, Japanese-American actor who was interned at the Rohwer Relocation Center in Desha County, Arkansas, in 1942; and Melba Pattillo Beals, of the Little Rock Nine.

In collaboration with the Clinton Foundation, Little Rock landscape architect Cinde Bauer and Ralph Appelbaum Associates, exhibit designer for both the Center and The National Holocaust Museum, assisted in the design of the exhibit. The installation has been made possible thanks to the support of the Ben J. Altheimer Charitable Foundation, TRG Foundation, and other generous partners.

Movies in the Park features HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 3 tonight!

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Summer nights are the perfect escape from the hot days, especially when the River Market’s outdoor film series returns to the First Security Amphitheater.

Movies in the Park continues its 15th season tonight with HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 3. 

Hiccup and Toothless face a new and dangerous foe that is capable of enslaving and controlling dragons. Things take an unexpected turn when a new breed of dragon appears and puts Toothless in a difficult situation.

Special Guests will be the Witt Stephens Jr Central AR Nature Center who will bring their modern dragons (lizard) for a show and tell before the movie!

Prior to the screening, from 6pm to 7:30pm (while supplies last), UA Little Rock Downtown is offering free popcorn inside their new facility. Come and grab your free Pop Pop Shoppe popcorn at UA Little Rock Downtown before Movies in the Park!

Families, picnics, and leashed pets are invited to the park to enjoy movies under the stars, but no glass containers. Don’t forget the bug spray! An adult must accompany all children under the age of 18 and an ID is required. Chaperoned youth, sports, church and other groups are welcome! The amphitheater will open an hour before film showings (approx. 7:30) and movies with begin at sundown each week (approx. 8:30).

For more information about Movies in the Park and to see which films will feature live performances or other activities before the showings, visit www.rivermarket.info or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lrrivermarket

50 Years ago – World Premiere of TRUE GRIT takes place in Little Rock at Cinema 150

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Glen Campbell speaks with Larry McAdams of KATV at the opening of TRUE GRIT.

On June 12, 1969, the world premiere of the film TRUE GRIT took place at the Cinema 150.

Actor/singer (and Arkansas native) Glen Campbell was in attendance at the event, but another Arkansan connected to the movie – author Charles Portis, did not attend.

Portis’ objection was that the film was being used as a fundraiser for the Democratic Party of Arkansas, and he was a supporter of Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, a Republican. Portis described himself as a Rockefeller Democrat.  The next night, in Hot Springs, Portis hosted what was billed as the “Author’s Premiere.”

While Portis may have been absent (and there is no way that GOP stalwart John Wayne would have considered coming to the premiere), the Cinema 150 was sold-out.  Press accounts noted that attendees ranged from Senator J. William Fulbright and Rep. Bill Alexander to former office holders Orval Faubus and Bruce Bennett (who presumably took a break that evening from trying to prove who was the more ardent segregationist).

Quite a few in attendance also had their eye on 1970’s Democratic primaries including Attorney General Joe Purcell and Secretary of State Kelly Bryant.  No mention was made in the media if Charleston, Arkansas, attorney Dale Bumpers was in attendance.

The film was cheered by those in attendance, although some did comment about the presence of snow-capped mountains in the film that was set in Arkansas and Oklahoma. But that was a minor quibble. (The film was shot in Colorado.)

Following the premiere, the party continued under a big circus tent, set up that evening in the parking lot of the shopping center at the southwest corner of Asher and University (now the home to Murry’s Dinner Playhouse).

The Pryor Center for Arkansas Studies has compiled a video clip from the opening.  It can be viewed here.

Anne Frank lecture this evening at Pulaski Tech

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In conjunction with the touring exhibitions, “Anne Frank: A Private Photo Album” and “Anne Frank: A History for Today,” UA-Pulaskii Tech invites the public to join them for a panel discussion in honor of what would have been Anne Frank’s 90th birthday, on June 12 at 6:00pm in The Center for Humanities and Arts Theater.

In partnership with the Jewish Federation of Arkansas and moderated by its Executive Director, Marianne Tettlebaum, panelists will include: Aniko Diamant, Holocaust Survivor, originally from Budapest, Hungary; Dr. Dorian Stuber, Isabelle Peregrin Odyssey Professor at Hendrix College; and Rabbi Yosef Kramer, Program Director, Lubavitch of Arkansas.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information contact Debra Wood at dwood@uaptc.edu or 501.812.2715

70 Years Ago Today – War Memorial Park dedicated by President Truman with foreign affairs address

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Though President Truman was in Little Rock for a military reunion, he did conduct some official business while here.  In his Presidential role, he spoke at the dedication of War Memorial Park on June 11, 1949.

(It is sometimes erroneously reported that he dedicated the stadium.  That took place in September 1948, at a Razorback game with former Razorback player and future Lt. Governor Maurice “Footsie” Britt delivering the keynote.)

President Truman’s address took place inside War Memorial Stadium at 2:30 p.m..   It was not a brief dedicatory speech, but instead was a lengthy treatise on foreign affairs.  The address was carried live on nationwide radio (though some radio networks opted to broadcast it later).  The text of his address can be found here.

The stadium was by no means full.  A major reason for that was that many thousand individuals had turned out to witness a parade downtown in which President Truman marched along side Governor Sid McMath.  The parade was in conjunction with the military reunion.  Given the June heat in Arkansas (in which parade spectators had been standing for several hours) and the difficulty of getting from the parade route to the stadium, most (if not all) parade spectators opted for skipping the presidential address.

Before the parade, President Truman (who was still riding high from his upset victory in the 1948 election) was asked by a local reporter if he would run in 1952. He refused to answer stating that the national media would think he had planted the question with a local member of the press.

Prior to the name War Memorial Park, the land had been known as Fair Park.  It was a former location of the State Fair.  In the 1930s, it had briefly been known as Overman Park in honor of then-Mayor R. E. Overman.  The City Council had named it for him as a tribute to his work on a variety of projects. When he displeased them, they reversed their decision and renamed it to Fair Park.

The CALS Ron Robinson Theater $2 Terror Tuesdays continue tonight with WHITE ZOMBIE

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Image of a film poster with a dark green background. Large eyes overlook two hands clasped together. The text at the top reads "With these zombie eyes, he rendered her powerless". In the middle is the title, White Zombie. Below is written "With these zombie hands he made her perform his every desire!".$2 Terror Tuesdays continue tonight (6/11) at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater with 1932’s WHITE ZOMBIE.

White Zombie is a 1932 American horror film independently produced by Edward Halperin and directed by Victor Halperin.

The screenplay by Garnett Weston, based on The Magic Island by William Seabrook, is about a young woman’s transformation into a zombie at the hands of an evil voodoo master.

The film stars Bela Lugosi as a zombie master, as well as Robert Frazer, Madge Bellamy, and John Harron.  It is considered the first feature-length zombie film.

The showing starts at 7pm.  Cost is $2.