Early is the night

Cato, thanks for telling me about the additional lotto scholarships. Have been out of pocket and was unaware. I’m thrilled for your granddaughter and the 34,839 other Arkansas young people who’ve received this financial boost to help with college expenses. A better-educated people will make for a better state. Count the ways.

And now for a titillating “Woman Tells All” tale sent to me by a ladyfriend earlier today:
---------------------------
He grasped me firmly but gently just above my elbow and guided me into a room, his room. Then he quietly shut the door and we were alone. He approached me soundlessly, from behind, and spoke in a low, reassuring voice close to my ear. "Just relax," he said.

Without warning, he reached down and I felt his strong, calloused hands start at my ankles, gently probing, and moving upward along my calves slowly but steadily. My breath caught in my throat. I knew I should be afraid, but somehow I didn't care. His touch was so experienced, so sure.

When his hands moved up onto my thighs, I gave a slight shudder, and partly closed my eyes. My pulse was pounding. I felt his knowing fingers caress my abdomen, my ribcage. And then, as he cupped my firm, full breasts in his hands, I inhaled sharply. Probing, searching, knowing what he wanted, he brought his hands to my shoulders, slid them down my tingling spine and into my panties.

Although I knew nothing about this man, I felt oddly trusting and expectant. This is a man, I thought. A man used to taking charge. A man not used to taking “no” for an answer. A man who would tell me what he wanted. A man who would look into my soul and say ... "Okay, ma'am, all done."

My eyes snapped open and he was standing in front of me, smiling, holding out my purse. "You can board your flight now."

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Saturday night line

It's your time. An item of note:

* Rep. John Boozman joined many House Republicans in defeating a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate unanimously to recognize child marriage as a human rights violation, and develop comprehensive strategies to prevent such marriages around the world. As Blue Arkansas notes, this adds to Boozman's dim record on children's issues. Better child nutrition: Dr. No said no. A bill to prevent use of harmful restraints on school children: Dr. No said no. He truly may prove, as Blue Arkansas suggests, a Dickensian character before his day is done. Hurry that day. It will be a long six years of darkness.

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The night is young

The night is young

Posted by Max Brantley on Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 4:11 PM

But I need to get away early to get in good order to the special early showing of "True Grit" at Rave tonight. The line is open, but some final items:

* Speaking of Charles Portis, the Little Rock writer whose best-selling novel is the basis for the movie: His "Dog of the South" has been optioned for a movie. By Bill Hader and Greg Mottola.

* House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called a vote tomorrow on repeal of the law that discriminates against gay people in military service. Vic Snyder will be there one more time. I asked Reps. Mike Ross and Marion Berry if they intended to vote for or against discrimination. No response. Didn't waste the dime on Dr. No.

* A devoted reader asks: Why the heck did Yarnell's not make peppermint ice cream for the Christmas season this year? Ditto me on that.

* PS — Stay tuned. The Airport expense saga is not over. And I'm informed the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce has agreed to meet tomorrow with city officials on my Freedom of Information Act request to know why the names of Chamber employees paid by taxpayers and water customers are being kept secret. Why they can't just turn over the names, I don't know.

* PPS — Can somebody tell me what that series of booms around 6:20 or so signified? Artillery practice at Camp Robinson? Invasion? What?

Tags: Charles Portis, True Grit, Dog of the South, Greg Mottola, Bill Hader, Yarnell's peppermint ice cream, gays in the military

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The Friday night line

It's open. Final notes:

* Central Arkansas Water commissioners will interview five finalists next week to fill an open spot on the important utility commission — Charles T. "Charlie" Crow, George W. "Russ" Gray, Marie-Bernarde Miller, Anne Roberts, and Carolyn Shearman.

* Little Rock National Airport announced that American Airlines will resume flying full-sized planes (MD-80s seating 136 to 140) to Dallas in April. Details on jump.

LR NATIONAL AIRPORT RELEASE

Mainline air service will return to Little Rock National Airport. American Airlines has announced it will resume mainline service between LIT and DFW April 5.

"We are pleased to be able to add some mainline service back into Little Rock National Airport from our largest cornerstone hub in Dallas/Fort Worth, said Dale Morris, Managing Director - Government Affairs for American Eagle. "We hope our customers from Little Rock will be supportive of this new service."

Presently, LIT uses a mix of CRJs and Embraers which provide 10 flights and 465 daily seats. The new mainline service will boost capacity to 620 seats per day. Daily flights will decrease from 10 to six.

"We have been working with American Eagle to upgrade their service for over two years and we are happy that our efforts have come to fruition. This service enhancement is a win for all involved", said Ron Mathieu, Executive Director at Little Rock National Airport. "American Eagle has been a good partner to the airport and the community. We will continue to work with them to develop additional air service improvements."

Three flights a day will be handled using MD-80s. The schedule is as follows:

Little Rock

AA 1564 DFW 0955-1055 LIT MD80 Daily
AA 2048 DFW 1555-1700 LIT MD80 Daily
AA 1605 DFW 2100-2200 LIT MD80 Daily

AA 1654 LIT 0635-0750 DFW MD80 Daily (April 6, 2011)
AA 1565 LIT 1145-1300 DFW MD80 Daily
AA 2037 LIT 1750-1905 DFW MD80 Daily

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Good night ladies ...

Good night ladies ...

Posted by Max Brantley on Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 4:32 PM

... farewelll gentlemen.

But before I sign off:

* To dream or not to dream: A bill is in the works, a Dream Act, to emulate other states and allow college help, such as in-state tuition, to graduates of Arkansas high schools and long Arkansas residency who arrived in the country as children of illegal aliens. Do not be alarmed that this common-sense compassion will sweep the land. A pair of Republican legislators have introduced a Crush the Dream Act to make it illegal to provide in-state tuition to undocumented Arkansas high school graduates. It will effectively deny college education to thousands of deserving Arkansas residents — friends and neighbors — even as we provide in-state tuition rates to Texans and other border dwellers just because.

* Mark Friedman at Arkansas Business has the be-all, end-all story on negotiations to replenish the state's unemployment trust fund. Management held contributions down too long and now must pay more to set things right. Naturally, they want the unemployed to pay part of the freight by lower benefits. Naturally, labor is resisting. Do take the small business lobbyist's assertion about Arkansas being among the highest paid benefits with a dose of salt. Here's a fuller look at state comparative benefits.

Tags: Dream Act, unemployment compensation

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Last night: Vincent Gallo/RRIICCEE @ Juanita's

VINCENT GALLO/RRIICCEE
Nov. 5, Juanita’s

“Wait…what?!”

That was the general consensus when news of Vincent Gallo’s last-minute Little Rock gig spread through town, immediately followed by…

“That guy’s a dick!”

…or “creep” or “jerk,” “hack,” “weirdo.” “Sleaze,” probably. Surely no one said “a peculiar fellow.” “Dick” was the go-to direct object du jour.

“Yeah, so are we carpooling there or what?”

If people were dismayed by the notorious provocateur’s visit to town, it wasn’t enough to keep 80 or so curious locals away from his show at Juanita's. Gallo, the director/actor/model/musician is infamous for a laundry list of reasons including, but not at all limited to: a, (successfully?) “hexing” Roger Ebert with cancer, b, unchecked pretension; c….

Nevermind. Listen, he’s the “snakey-lookin’” guy that directed “Buffalo ’66,” now a ‘90s classic, and followed it up with “The Brown Bunny.” Yep, that’s the one with the 6-minute, XXX close-up of him getting blow-jayed by Chloe Sevigny. It made him a household name, not to mention solidified his place as one of the most intriguing, controversial filmmakers in the weird, dark history of indie film.

Off camera, he perfected his reputation as an erratic, unhinged egotist years before Joaquin Phoenix threw out his Schick. So did Friday night’s show—booked for Juanita’s hours beforehand—have a sense of “celebrity zoo” to it? Of course. Am I guilty of indulging in some stargazing? You bet.

To make affairs even stranger, we found out that the night was the kick-off show for a coast-to-coast tour with Gallo—and two musicians he had met just the day before—under the RRIICCEE banner. It's a name Gallo’s used for years, kicking out and bringing in an orchestra pit’s worth of collaborators along the way. This time around, he was joined on drums by Nico Turner of Los Angeles’ atmospheric femme duo VOICEsVOICEs and Woody Jackson, multi-instrumentalist and film composer.

The sound? Well, Gallo’s quick to remind people that RRIICCEE doesn't "jam." They "spontaneously compose pieces." (Whether it’s on purpose or not, he’s great at riding the line where pretension and satire blur, right?)

For the hour-long set, the three roamed around on a stage stacked with an array of gorgeous, pricey equipment: two drum sets, vintage synths, a stack of analog sequencers bursting with colored cables making even the least of gear fetishists a bit light-headed.

So, what did they build with them? The three or four meandering, minimalist pieces—all constructed on the spot, never to be repeated—toed the line between Mingus-inspired avant-gardism and syrupy trip-hop, all built upon four- or five-note bars and a liberal helping of loops. Of the 80 people who turned up, a scattered few phased out near—but not too near—the stage with the rest of the crowd either wide-eyed or nodding off at the tables.

The worst accusation I heard all night dismissed it as “pretentious, aimless shit,” a dart not unfamiliar to Gallo and also one I won’t throw. After all, with this show—like his movies—it’s no secret what was in store.

(As for me, I'm an unabashed fan of his movies and "When," his biggest album, has been a long-time favorite. Like everything else he does, I enjoyed the show, but almost feel as though I need to apologize for liking it—yep, like with everything else he does.)

Regardless, if the music wasn’t unexpected and the negative reactions weren't surprising, the biggest shocker of the night was that Vincent Gallo, Mr. Callous, Snide Art Star, was—wouldn’t ya know it—a pretty nice guy who was genuine, pleasant, eager to chat with anyone who so much as nodded a “hello” his way. In fact, the end of the night saw him tagging along with a dozen or so locals to close out the evening (and shut down the bar) at White Water Tavern.

Yep. Friday night was, just like his music and movies, reliably and totally surreal, not to mention a story we expect to go grow in local lore for years to come.

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A dark and stormy night

Here's some film of John Boozman's victory statement from Gerard Matthews.

I'd like to hang on for the bitter end, but I think I'll catch up in the morning.

Republicans seem headed to a gain of 60-plus seats in the U.S. House, but the Democrats will hold the Senate and perhaps win a couple of seats thought lost.

The big drama in Arkansas tonight will be, in addition to the 1st District congressional race, where Republican Rick Crawford has led comfortably so far, the lesser statewide offices, generally of little day-to-day consequence but sources of considerable patronage and plenty of political bragging rights. Races for lt. gov., secretary of state and land commissioner are close. Gov. Mike Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel willl continue in office and hold the controlling votes on redistricting decisions.

The Republicans will make big gains in both the state House and Senate, but it's too early to say with any certainty what the final outcome will be. I will say this: If Arkansas voters have really sent Loy Mauch to the legislature they are crazy as ****. The late Keith Crass seems likely to win the Hot Springs House race, which means a special election will be required to fill the seat.

You can check here for Pulaski County vote updates, generally unchanged since our first report.

Perhaps now the victorious Republicans will talk at last specifically about what spending they will cut. Continuation of Bush tax cuts will require a powerful lot of such cuts to balance the budget.

Stray note: Early returns show Iowa Supreme Court justices narrowly holding onto their seats in an effort to oust them for their ruling that made same-sex marriage legal in Iowa.

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It was a dark and stormy night

The line is open. Marble hail size here at the Hillcrest.

Tidbit: Old Little Rock City director Larry Lichty blogs regularly and had just happened to read his recent post register number 3, which makes it easier to give tax dollars to private companies so that they operate in Arkansas.Bonnes observations:

1) ... I have always been struck by the irony of how easily the companies are to accept such gifts, more commonly known as "incentives", by taxpayers, while that at the same time, the business world in General seems to denigrate always taxes of any kind.In addition, some of these provisions appear to be disproportionate to the size of the TargetObject example investment, it was recently announced that the city of Fort Smith prepares to pony up to 80 million in incentives, including obligations and improvements of the infrastructure to attract 100 wind turbine plant million. Gosh, what company likes to this same level of aid.

(2) And then there is the validity of the impact studies themselves made to justify these commitments, which we assume, based on realistic and justifiable data.Since there is virtually no public on these transactions, transparency even if public funds were used to finance, it is impossible to know.(The same argument was made to the contributions of the Government in the House of local trade...)

Amen YH ' I just learned last week that the city of Little Rock was dressed his $200,000 "contract" with the LR Chamber for economic development 'services'.C' is the socks on a cock - the old taxpayer subsidy to an organization is pressuring mightily against all sorts of things in the public.Mais interest is also dishonest document describes the House will comply to the extent possible with the Freedom of Information Act .Est - state that as "possible" based on my own tests, is not at all.

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Another Saturday night

Apart from the fact that it is also very hot for the end of October, the great victory of pigs is a great day. ("Doin Nuttine", explains the title D - G Twitter.) I'm on Houston. And puns Nutt. How about you?) Four-cheese pizza I in manufacturing is also suitable. Brian Chilson provides photos of mud today's race. The line is open.

Hey, how about weighing this:

The Republican candidate for Governor of Oklahoma is a woman, twice married, blended family of children.The Democratic candidate is a woman, not Republican mariée.Le says that her motherhood makes better qualifiée.Soins comment on the latest loonbag on the surface of the swamp enough is the policy of Oklahoma?

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