Tag Archives: Capital Hotel

11th EVER Historic Arkansas Museum Nog-Off tonight

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thnogoff_tstWhat began as a spirited and good-natured rivalry between the offspring of two longtime Little Rock families has given birth to one of the most anticipated holiday events of each year.

Get in the holiday spirit with Historic Arkansas Museum’s 11th Ever Nog-off, a culinary celebration of a favorite holiday drink and friendly competition for the best eggnog in town. Guests will also enjoy a new exhibit by Arkansas artist Ray Parker, holiday shopping in the Museum Store, roasted pecans in the Brownlee kitchen, caroling and storytelling around a fire pit on the museum’s historic grounds. Music will be provided by Heather Smith.

This year’s 11th Ever Nog-off will be judged by Capi Peck (Trio’s), Scott McGehee (Yellow Rocket Concepts) and Marcella Dalla Rosa who won the opportunity to judge this popular competition at Historic Arkansas Museum’s 20th Candlelight Gala

Noggers:
One Eleven at the Capital Hotel
Cache Restaurant
Loblolly Creamery
Bill Worthen
Stone’s Throw/Heritage Grille
John Selig and Leah Elenzweig
Rock City Eats featuring Chef Ken Dempsey and Greg Henderson

Each year, HAM announces a Nogger Emerita who has won this competition too many times!
This year’s Nogger Emerita is Bridget Fennell Farris! She has been a fierce Nog-off competitor with her famous “John Robert Jackson’s Egg-nog”

Ray Parker
Ray Parker is an oil painter from Fayetteville whose subject matter focuses on human portraiture in a style that is both naturalistic and expressive. Parker’s intimate portrayal of the human form intends “to address both the timeless and temporal character of life, I place my subjects in contexts that allow me to investigate their emotional and psychological nature …”

As part of Oxford American Jazz Series, Aaron Diehl headlines at South on Main tonight

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som diehlJazz returns to Main Street tonight at 8:00 PM!  The Oxford American magazine welcomes Aaron Diehl to Little Rock as the second show in its 2015 – 2016 Jazz Series!

Doors open at 6:00 PM, with dinner and drinks available for purchase at that time. This series is made possible by presenting sponsor, the UCA College of Fine Arts & Communication. Additional partners include The Summer Foundation, Arkansas Arts Council, Capital Hotel, Piano Kraft, Rosen Music Company, and FM-89.1 KUAR.

Tickets are $20 (General Admission), $30 (Reserved), and $32 (Premium Reserved).

In an era revolving around celebrity hype and mediocre entertainment, Columbus, Ohio native Aaron Diehl seeks to stand out as an artist in his generation that exemplifies excellence, sophistication, and a fluency in the American musical vernacular. The 2011 Cole Porter Fellow of the American Pianists Association, Diehl has been hailed by the New York Times as “a smart young pianist with a fastidious grasp of Jazz traditions.” He is committed to unearthing the treasures of a musical aesthetic through collaborative efforts with musicians across generations.

Born in 1985, Diehl grew up in a nurturing musical environment with his grandfather, Arthur Baskerville, who often played piano at local establishments in Columbus and sang in the church choir. Aaron began studying classically at age seven, and he discovered his passion for jazz music when attending the Interlochen Summer Camp. There he met piano prodigy Eldar Djangirov, who made a lasting impression on Diehl through his enthusiasm for Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum.

Diehl is the Artistic Director of the Catskill Jazz Factory, an organization dedicated to enhancing community development by means of America’s original art form.

Free ASO concert at Capital Hotel tonight with Quapaw Quartet

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ASO at CHMusicians from the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will be performing this evening in the lobby of the historic Capital Hotel. The music will start at 5:15 pm.

The concert will feature the Quapaw Quartet.  Members of the quartet will introduce the pieces to be performed: “A Little Night Music” featuring music from Mozart, Bernstein, and Debussy.

  • MOZART – Allegro from String Quartet K. 525
  • LLOYD WEBBER arr. Naughtin – The Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera
  • MOZART – Romanza from String Quartet K. 525
  • DEBUSSY – Clair de Lune
  • MOZART – Menuetto and Trio from String Quartet K. 525
  • BERNSTEIN – Tonight from West Side Story
  • MOZART – Rondo from String Quartet K. 525

The members of the Quapaw Quartet are: Meredith Maddox Hicks, violin; Eric Hayward, violin; Ryan Mooney, viola; Ethan Young, cello.

Unlike concerts in music halls, guests here are encouraged to bring drinks to their seats or to stand and move around while the musicians are playing.  It is a relaxed, informal atmosphere where the audience and musicians alike are able to interact with each other.

In 2011, the ASO started these free concerts in the lobby of the Capital Hotel.  The marble and tile of this historic lobby provide a wonderful acoustic backdrop for the musicians.

Anat Cohen kicks off Oxford American 2015-16 Jazz Series at South on Main tonight at 8

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oa jazz AnatTonight at 8pm, the Oxford American magazine welcomes Anat Cohen to the South on Main stage to kick off the OA Jazz Series!

Doors open at 6:00 PM, with dinner and drinks available for purchase at that time. This series is made possible by presenting sponsor, the UCA College of Fine Arts & Communication. Additional partners include The Summer Foundation, Arkansas Arts Council, Capital Hotel, Piano Kraft, Rosen Music Company, and FM-89.1 KUAR.

Tickets are $20 (General Admission), $30 (Reserved), and $32 (Premium Reserved). View the South on Main reserved seating map here. Please take a look at this very important ticketing and seating information before purchasing your tickets.

Clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds the world over with her expressive virtuosity and delightful stage presence. Anat was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and raised into a musical family. She began clarinet studies at age twelve and played jazz on clarinet for the first time in the Jaffa Conservatory’s Dixieland Band. At sixteen, she joined the school’s big band and learned to play the tenor saxophone; it was this same year that Anat entered the prestigious “Thelma Yellin” school, where she majored in jazz. After graduation, she discharged her mandatory Israeli military service duty from 1993-1995, playing tenor saxophone in the Israeli Air Force band.

The Jazz Journalists Association has voted Anat as “Clarinetist of the Year” eight years in a row, and she has topped both the Critics and Readers Polls in the clarinet category in DownBeat magazine every year since 2011. That’s not to mention years of being named “Rising Star” in the soprano and tenor saxophone categories in DownBeat, as well as for “Jazz Artist of the Year.” In 2009, ASCAP awarded Anat a Wall of Fame prize for composition and musicianship, among other honors.

In March 2015, Anzic Records releases Luminosa, her seventh album as a bandleader. Luminosa sees Anat play singing, dancing originals, interpret Brazilian classics by the likes of Milton Nascimento, and even re-imagine electronica as acoustica with an ingenious arrangement of a Flying Lotus tune. Luminosaencapsulates the description Jazz Police offered of Anat in full flight: “She becomes a singer, a poet, a mad scientist, laughing—musically—with the delight of reaching that new place, that new feeling, with each chorus.”

August 9 is National Book Lover’s Day

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bldAugust 9 is National Book Lover’s Day (or Book Lovers Day or Book Lovers’ Day — take your pick).

However you punctuate it, today is a day for those who love to read.  It is set aside to encourage you to kick back and relax with a great book. From shaded spots under arching trees to being tucked up warm in bed, there’s no better way to celebrate today than to while the hours away lost in a book.

A few years ago Huffington Post offered these suggestions as activities for this “holiday.” I’ve annotated them with thoughts of my own.

1) Visit your local library (bonus points if you hum “A Trip to the Library” or “Marian, Madame Librarian” when you do)

2) Reread an old favorite (CliffsNotes don’t count-except for Faulkner because Mala Rogers said it was okay.)

3) Drop some literary references (commiserate a sports loss with a “there is no joy in Mudville;” describe something tiny as Lilliputian; express frustration with “Fiddle dee dee”)

4) Get a new bookshelf (or build one.  or get a book about how to build one.)

5) Give the gift of reading (read to someone — just make sure it is age appropriate — the original Grimm Folk Tales are not intended for pre-school audiences)

6) Hit up a literary haunt (Jay Jennings can probably suggest several Arkansas locations, or you can go to the Capital Bar–many journalists have scribbled notes on napkins there which have made there ways into political books)

7) Host your own book club (or crash your neighbor’s)

8) Host a book lovers party (or tell people you went to one dressed as the Invisible Man–either Wells or Ellison version)

9) Contact your favorite living author (just make sure there isn’t a restraining order because you already have tried this.  repeatedly. at inappropriate locations and times)

10) Donate (it does seem a sin to throw away a book. so pass it on)

 

So visit the Central Arkansas Library System or WordsWorth Books.  Make a pilgrimage to Piggott to see where Hemingway wrote part of A Farewell to Arms (which my classmates and I dubbed A Farewell to Leg because of the line, “I put my hand on my knee, it wasn’t there.”).  Crack open that book at home.  Go down a rabbit hole in search of your Green Light, your Dulcinea, or your Holy Grail.

For younger audiences, chew on a board book, marvel at a pop-up book, experience a scratch ‘n’ sniff book.

Whatever you do today, don’t let it go by without touching a book!  (Episcopalians have it covered with the BCP.)

Stars & Stripes & Rock

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Today is Flag Day.  Here are a few of my favorite photos of the Stars and Stripes taken in Little Rock.

Flag outside of Tipton & Hurst main store in Heights

The red, white and blue stand out against the night sky and limestone of the Arkansas State Capitol.

The stars and stripes unfurled from the balcony of the Capital Hotel.

Flag Day 4

Legacy of LR architect Ed Cromwell to be discussed tonight

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CromwellTonight the Architecture and Design Network will host a panel discussion on the legacy of longtime Little Rock architect Ed Cromwell.
The panelists are:
  • Charles Penix, Chief Operating Officer, Cromwell Architects and Engineers
  • Bill Worthen, Director, Historic Arkansas Museum
  • Don Evans, architect and associate of the late Ed Cromwell

Chris East is the program’s moderator.  It will take place at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center, following a reception at 5:30pm.

After working at various jobs during the early years of the Depression, Ed Cromwell, who graduated from Princeton in 1931 with a degree in architecture, moved to Little Rock in 1935 to take a position with the  Resettlement Administration. After a year with the agency, he left to devote full time to the practice of architecture, a career which spanned forty-eight years, from 1936 to1984. Cromwell, who remained active in the community after his retirement, died in 2001, leaving a legacy that continues to impact people’s lives.

There would be no Maumelle if it hadn’t been for Cromwell’s vision of a planned community on the 5,000 acres of land owned by Jess P. Odum, an Arkansas businessman and insurance executive. The Capital Hotel might have been taken out by the wrecker’s ball if it hadn’t been for his determination to save the historic structure. An advocate for the city’s riverfront development, he understood its importance long before others did. He championed historic preservation and  chaired the commission of the Arkansas Territorial  Restoration (now the Historic Arkansas Museum). Cromwell Architects and Engineers, the firm he founded, has to its credit the design of many public buildings and facilities throughout the state and beyond.

The three panelists will explore Cromwell’s legacy as a creative architect, a visionary planner and a champion of  historic  preservation. Architecture and Design Network (ADN) lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information, contact ardenetwork@me.com.

ADN’s supporters include the Arkansas Arts Center, the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.