Eric E. Harrison
Stories by Eric E.
Bumpy’s is on path to bueno
posted: 05/24/2012 3:43 a.m. Comments 3
We really, really, really want to like Bumpy’s Tex Mex Grill & Cantina, newly established in what had held the west Little Rock branch of the Faded Rose on Bowman Road.
Eating up the check
posted: 05/22/2012 1:56 a.m. Comments 2
It has probably happened to you more than once: You examine your restaurant check and discover you’ve been charged for something you didn’t order.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Tryouts, poets, music camps
posted: 05/22/2012 1:44 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts this week: Hairspray auditions The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 S. Main St., Pine Bluff, will hold auditions at 6:30 p.m. May 29-30 for its production of the musical Hairspray (music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman, book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on the John Waters film).
Golf tournament tees up for 12th fundraising year
posted: 05/20/2012 4:42 a.m. Discuss
A dozen years ago, a group of guys got together to do something for a fraternity brother undergoing hard times.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: ‘Fluffy’ funny guy Iglesias set to jest at Walton center
posted: 05/20/2012 3:50 a.m. Discuss
Comedian Gabriel Iglesias, whose signature routine involves not being fat but “fluffy,” will headline a show at 7 p.m. Monday at Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 05/17/2012 3:10 a.m. Discuss
We’ve reported that Scott McGehee and John Beachboard have been working on Local Lime, a new taco/fresh margarita restaurant concept; at last report, they were looking for just the right location. Now they’ve found it: It’ll be a close neighbor of their other “citrus” restaurant, Big Orange, in the Promenade at Chenal, 17809 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock. McGehee says he’s hoping to be open by mid-September, and certainly no later than Oct. 1.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: UCA has a full season ahead
posted: 05/15/2012 2:13 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in arts and entertainment this week: UCA season Fashion expert Tim Gunn, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Capitol Steps will kick off the Distinguished Lecture, Night Out at Reynolds and Broadway series, respectively — all part of the University of Central Arkansas’ 2012-13 Public Appearances season.
MUSIC REVIEW: ‘Wicked Divas’ sing wonderfully for pops
posted: 05/13/2012 4:41 a.m. Discuss
Wicked alumnae Emily Rozek, who played Glinda in the Los Angeles production, and Eden Espinosa, who played Elphaba on Broadway and in the Los Angeles and San Francisco companies, joined the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor Geoffrey Robson for some “wicked” and wonderful singing Saturday night at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall.
The Rep,TheatreSquared present New Play Festival
posted: 05/13/2012 4:15 a.m. Discuss
For the second year, Fayetteville and Little Rock professional regional theater companies are partnering for the Arkansas New Play Festival, showcasing works-inprogress by up-and-coming playwrights, Thursday and Friday in Little Rock and Friday-May 20 in Fayetteville.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Claire Lynch Band presents Bluegrass Monday concert
posted: 05/13/2012 4:14 a.m. Discuss
The Claire Lynch Band — singer-songwriter Claire Lynch; Bryan McDowell, mandolin and fiddle; Matt Wingate, guitar and mandolin ; and Mark Schatz, bass — will perform for Jonesboro station KASU-FM, 91.9’s Bluegrass Monday concert, 7 p.m. Monday at the Collins Theatre, 120 W. Emerson St., Paragould.
MUSIC: ASO guests are 2 ‘Wicked Divas,’ in a good way
posted: 05/10/2012 3:51 a.m. Discuss
The two singers joining the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor Geoffrey Robson for a pair of “Wicked Divas” pops concerts this weekend at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall say they aren’t really divas.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 05/10/2012 3:47 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts this weekend: Artwork ‘discovered’ “Creating the Elements of Discovery: Tim Imhauser, Jason Powers and Emily Wood” opens Friday in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists at the Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third St., Little Rock.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 05/10/2012 3:44 a.m. Discuss
The coffee shop and bar portion of The Joint, 301 Main St., North Little Rock, is set to open at 7 a.m. Monday, with the first item on its entertainment calendar, which will mostly involve sketch and improvisational comedy Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and music on Thursday, for June 2, “our official grand opening,” says managing director Vicki Farrell.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Pine Bluff native McKissic plays Schumann for benefit
posted: 05/06/2012 3:32 a.m. Discuss
Pianist and Pine Bluff native James “Jimmy” McKissic will play an all-Schumann program for a benefit concert at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 Main St., Pine Bluff.
THEATER REVIEW: Rep’s Next to Normal is next to perfect
posted: 05/05/2012 3:04 a.m. Discuss
A musical about mental illness, that deals with grief, suicide, drug abuse, electroshock therapy and ethics in modern psychiatry?
Dona’s a replacement, not relative
posted: 05/03/2012 5:21 a.m. Discuss
It’s not fair, true, but it’s only natural to compare Dona’s Little Italy to the restaurant it replaced in the Colonnade Shopping Center on North Bowman Road.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 05/03/2012 5:17 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts this weekend : Small works on tour The Arkansas Arts Council’s touring “2012 Small Works on Paper” exhibition is on display through May 30 in the Fine Arts Center Gallery at East Arkansas Community College, 1700 Newcastle Road, Forrest City.
CHEAP EATS: Upscale yogurt shop has plethora of options
posted: 05/03/2012 5:15 a.m. Discuss
There’s a growing number — we won’t yet say glut — of self-serve frozen yogurt establishments cropping up across the landscape, a lot of them in more upscale fringe areas of Little Rock, North Little Rock and Maumelle. A few have already failed to survive.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 05/03/2012 5:15 a.m. Discuss
Donnie Ferneau is still in his kitchen and remains the executive chef, but the restaurant at 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, no longer bears his name. According to an advertising supplement in Sync, Ferneau is now Twenty One, a surprising move but one not entirely unexpected after Frank Fletcher and his wife, Judy, bought the restaurant in November.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Conway Men’s Chorus gets spring fever at UCA
posted: 05/01/2012 2:27 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts this week: Choral concert The Conway Men’s Chorus will give its spring concert at 7 p.m. today in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Dancers of Art in Motion to animate center’s exhibit
posted: 04/29/2012 4:08 a.m. Discuss
Students from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s theater arts and dance department will perform short choreographed studies based on works in the current Arkansas Arts Center exhibition “Building the Collection: Art Acquired in the 1990s” in Art in Motion: An Evening of Inspirational Dance, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Arts Center in MacArthur Park, 10th and Commerce streets, Little Rock. Admission is free.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/26/2012 3:42 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts: THEATER Park your Bard The Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre will stage its abridged, hour-long adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, combining his text with music, puppetry and physical comedy, for the River Market and Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau’s first “Shakespeare in the Park” at 2 p.m. Sunday in the River Market’s East Pavilion, behind Ottenheimer Market Hall, 400 President Clinton Ave.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 04/26/2012 3:36 a.m. Discuss
The Joint, 301 Main St., North Little Rock, next door to Cregeen’s Pub in the Argenta District, which had been scheduled to be open about now, now has a May 14 target opening date, says managing director Vicki Farrell. However, the website, thejointinlittlerock.com, is up and running. We’ll keep you posted.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: ASU has art, Butler has music
posted: 04/24/2012 1:56 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts this week: ASU artwork Works by seniors graduating this spring from Arkansas State University go on display Thursday-May 12 in the Bradbury Gallery in ASU’s Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro.
MUSIC REVIEW: LR chorus makes life a cabaret
posted: 04/23/2012 3:56 a.m. Discuss
The joint was jumpin’ Sunday afternoon at Little Rock’s Trinity United Methodist Church as the River City Men’s Chorus put on one of their highest-energy shows in their nine years of performing, The chorus and director David Glaze test-drove the “Life Is a Cabaret” program in a pair of dinner-theater performances Thursday and Friday at Pulaski Academy.
His ‘Q’ earns an A
posted: 04/22/2012 4:27 a.m. Discuss
At Jones’ Bar-B-Q Diner, you have two choices: with slaw or without.
And the other honorees are ...
posted: 04/22/2012 4:19 a.m. Discuss
The four other 2012 James Beard Foundation Awards America’s Classics honorees (descriptions come from the foundation’s March 13 announcement): The Fry Bread House, 4140 N. Seventh Ave., Phoenix. Owner: Cecelia Miller. (“No trip to Phoenix is complete without a visit to the Fry Bread House, a trim, paneled room on a modest, sun-baked residential street, founded in 1992.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: 4 Russians and prodigy, 10, to headline Eureka benefit
posted: 04/22/2012 4:13 a.m. Discuss
The St. Petersburg String Quartet — Alla Aranovskaya and Evgeny Zvonnikov, violins ; Boris Vayner, viola; and Leonid Shukayev, cello — and 10-year-old violinist-pianist prodigy Claire Luan Wells will headline a pair of benefits this weekend for a summer chamber music festival in Eureka Springs: “Classical Cuisine,” 5 p.m. Saturday in the Crystal Dining Room the Crescent Hotel, 75 Prospect Ave., Eureka Springs.
MUSIC REVIEW: Into the Woods sees forest for the trees
posted: 04/21/2012 2:41 a.m. Discuss
The Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical Into the Woods turns fairy tales on their heads by asking tough questions like, “Once you have everything you ever wished for, what will you do with it?” and “What happens after happily ever after?” And Friday night in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the UALR Opera Theater delivered just about everything you could wish for in a production.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/19/2012 4:18 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts this weekend: THEATER Chaperone drowses Ouachita Baptist University’s department of theater arts and division of music will collaborate on a staging of The Drowsy Chaperone (music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar), accompanied by an orchestra, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Jones Performing Arts Center at OBU in Arkadelphia.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 04/19/2012 4:17 a.m. Discuss
Bumpy’s Tex Mex Grill & Cantina, in what had been the former west Little Rock branch of The Faded Rose, in the Bowman Curve Shopping Center, 400 N. Bowman Road, Little Rock, has been going through a soft opening since April 2, says owner Wade Greenough, and will hold its grand opening today with an 11 a.m. ribbon-cutting. Greenough says the kitchen is using all-local produce and locally produced, nonfrozen meat and chicken. Hours are 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. The phone number is (501) 379-8327 ; the website, bumpysmexican.com.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Classics, history this week
posted: 04/17/2012 2:20 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts this week: Picking the classics Classical radio station KLRE-FM, 90.5, has named Regina Scruggs as program director, replacing the retired Wayne Angerame.
MUSIC REVIEW: Marimba concerto soloist, composer get just ‘deserts’
posted: 04/15/2012 3:41 a.m. Discuss
There was plenty of sea in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Masterworks season finale Saturday night at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall. But the desert at the center of the “Desert & Sea” program was the best part of the concert.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Poppins to visit Fayetteville; Oak Ridge Boys at UCA
posted: 04/15/2012 3:27 a.m. Discuss
The national touring company of Mary Poppins (music and lyrics by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, book by Julian Fellowes, additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe), with Little Rock native Case Dillard in the lead role of Bert, will be on stage at 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 and 7 p.m. April 22 at Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.
MUSIC: Marimba piece’s premiere is dry center of wet concert
posted: 04/12/2012 4:34 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and conductor Philip Mann will get wet, dry and wet again in a pair of concerts titled “Desert & Sea” Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall.
CHEAP EATS: Stickyz is still loud, crazy, has some tasty feed
posted: 04/12/2012 4:31 a.m. Discuss
You can’t get any more River Market than Stickyz Rock ’N’ Roll Chicken Shack unless you’re in the cater-cornered Ottenheimer Market Hall.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/12/2012 4:29 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts this weekend: Live at Laman Trumpeter Rodney Block and the Real Music Lovers — Oliver Thomas, bass; Sam Carroll, piano; and Michael Chandler, drums — will perform for the monthly “Live at Laman,” 7 p.m. today at the William F. Laman Public Library, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock. Admission is free. Call (501) 758-1720 or visit Laman-Library.org. Comic book art “Nate Powell: Cross Sections,” an exhibit of works by Arkansas-born comic book artist/illustrator Nate Powell, opens Friday at the Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third St., Little Rock, with a 5-8 p.m. reception during 2nd Friday Art Night.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 04/12/2012 4:26 a.m. Discuss
Nate Townsend of Grampa’s Catfish, whose parent firm, Grampa’s Restaurants LLC, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, says the move comes purely to protect the company’s real estate assets and won’t affect the operation of its flagship (and only current) location, 100 Shadow Oaks Drive (behind Fort Thompson Sporting Goods), Sherwood. Townsend cited the current travails of the American catfish industry as the primary reason — price of American catfish has soared from $30 a case to $90. (“We refuse to buy the Vietnamese product,” he says.) A franchise location in Hot Springs continues to operate under its own steam. Plans to replace the Otter Creek branch, which had lost its lease, are on hold for the time being.
‘Composer of the Year’ gig no head sweller for winner
posted: 04/08/2012 3:01 a.m. Discuss
Michael Torke doesn’t quite take being the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Composer of the Year entirely seriously.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: One-time prison librarian, memoirist talks at Hendrix
posted: 04/08/2012 2:53 a.m. Discuss
Avi Steinberg, author of the best-selling memoir Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, will deliver a lecture titled “Midrash and the Art of Writing” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Reves Recital Hall, Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Ave., Conway.
Arthur’s is a carnivore’s castle
posted: 04/05/2012 3:51 a.m. Discuss
Jerry Barakat has a more-than-30-year history of fine- and not-sofine dining hits and misses, rather more of the latter than the former even if you focus on the spaces he has occupied in the Village at Rahling Road, just off Chenal Parkway in the thick of the city’s westward sprawl.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
posted: 04/05/2012 3:43 a.m. Discuss
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts this weekend: Smiley at the mike Broadcaster, author, publisher and advocate Tavis Smiley will give a talk at 7 p.m. today in the M.L. Harris Auditorium, Philander Smith College, 900 Daisy Gatson Bates Drive, Little Rock, as part of the Arkansas Literary Festival and the college’s Bless the Mic series. Admission is free. Call (501) 370-5279 or (501) 918-3086 or e-mail skondo@philander. edu or sgele@cals.org. Trumpet recital Trumpeter Wiff Rudd will give a recital at 7:30 p.m. today in Riceland Hall, Arkansas State University’s Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 04/05/2012 3:40 a.m. Discuss
From our report in February, you might have thought that Oceans at Arthur’s, Jerry Barakat’s seafood sideline to Arthur’s Prime Steakhouse, in the Village at Rahling Road, just off Chenal Parkway, was by now well established, but it has taken Barakat a bit longer to get the place up and running. The new restaurant, which occupies what has been the Jerry B’s /Gaucho’s area of Barakat’s restaurant megaplex, has been in the process of remodeling. Barakat just installed the necessary equipment for the sushi bar (for which he has been hiring accomplished sushi chefs) last week.
Nonprofit helps those aging out of foster care
posted: 04/04/2012 3:04 a.m. Discuss
Every year, time runs out for 250 young Arkansans — figuratively, perhaps, not literally.
REVIEW: Cosby has crowd in hysterics
posted: 04/02/2012 4:20 a.m. Discuss
Bill Cosby no longer does stand-up comedy.
ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Find, dust off imagination, ‘Garage Sale Queen’ says
posted: 04/01/2012 3:36 a.m. Discuss
Mixed-media artist Kandy Jones, also known as “The Garage Sale Queen,” will give a presentation titled “Finding Your Creative Niche” at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Lecture Hall, Arkansas Arts Center in Mac-Arthur Park, 10th and Commerce streets, Little Rock.
MUSIC: String players to rock out
posted: 03/29/2012 3:07 a.m. Discuss
Mark Wood, a frequent visitor to central Arkansas as a member of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, is making his fifth trip to Little Rock to be an inspiration to young string players.
TRANSITIONS
posted: 03/29/2012 3:05 a.m. Discuss
Dona’s Little Italy was expected to open Wednesday (just after our press time) in the former Bruno’s Little Italy location, 315 N. Bowman Road, Little Rock. The menu features appetizers and salads ; traditional Italian veal, chicken, seafood and pasta dishes; and pizzas, calzones and strombolis. Hours are 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. The telephone number is (501) 225-6168.
COMEDY: Cosby vows April Fools’ Day show will be new
posted: 03/29/2012 3 a.m. Discuss
Bill Cosby — comedian, producer, author, actor — is pleased that his Little Rock gig this Sunday is a matinee.
