Ebert does Oprah... and talks!

If you didn't read my earlier entry about Roger Ebert's struggle with severe health problems, let me again recommend the Esquire profile of the Pulitzer-winning movie critic. Ebert has had a series of surgeries that have left him without a lower jaw, and without the ability to eat, drink or speak. Until now.

The Esquire article talks about Ebert's effort to speak again using a computer voice fashioned from the hours of his voice recorded for movie commentaries. Now, Ebert is set to unveil the new voice this week on Oprah. The special edition of Oprah previewing the March 7th Academy Awards will air at 4:00 (actually about 3:57) this Tuesday afternoon on KATV 7.

Meanwhile, Ebert continues to review the movies... this weekend the prolific critic reviews five new releases, plus writes a new Great Movies essay on Pink Floyd's The Wall. If you love the movies, and literate, thoughtful discussion of them, bookmark this website and visit frequently.

Jim Keet says he's "in this to win"

2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Keet says he's no sacrificial lamb.

In this interview I did today with the Little Rock businessman and former state lawmaker, Keet notes that he flew a "Kamikaze mission" when he ran as the GOP nominee against Congressman Ray Thornton in 1990, and he doesn't plan to do so again. That despite the fact that the Democratic incumbent Mike Beebe has a current approval rating north of 80 percent and has several key Republican political operatives donating to his campaign.

Keet tells FM 89 News he'll announce full details of his plan in the next few weeks, but he's advocating a complete revision of the Arkansas tax code. He wants to "throw the tax code out" but Keet says he's NOT endorsing the flat tax idea. Instead, Keet wants to cut capital gains and income taxes to spur additional investment and the creation of new jobs in the state.

Keet says he called Governor Beebe, with whom he once served in the Arkansas Senate, and they've agreed to have a campaign based on a productive discussion of the issues.

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UPDATE: The Republican Party of Arkansas distributed this image by email tonight, identifying it as Keet's "official photo." Earlier today, the image above was the only Keet photo I could find with a Google search.

Cheese dip as religion

Little Rock lawyer and filmmaker Nick Rogers tries to get to the bottom of the peculiar relationship Arkansans have with a spicy concoction known as cheese dip.

I lived in upstate New York some years ago, and one of the things I missed the most about Arkansas was cheese dip. After much searching, I found the needed ingredients (Velveeta is everywhere, but a 50-cent can of Rotel cost me 3-dollars at a gourmet grocery in Syracuse) and made my first batch of the good stuff in months. Not only was it a gut-warming taste of home, but cheese dip was also a huge hit with every Yankee who gave it a try.

So break out the good stuff (no Frito-Lay canned product please) and watch this cool little 20 minute movie.



So, who makes your favorite cheese dip? I think I'm still partial to the old-school Blue Mesa-style white dip served at Juanitas. Your recommendations?

Alison Bechdel's Fun Home

I'm a big fan of what you might call literary comics or graphic novels. No, I don't mean superhero stories. I'm talking about modern comics that are more related to the underground comics of the 60s and 70s than the DC or Marvel books of our childhood.

In time, I plan to discuss many of my personal favorites, like Dan Clowes' Ghost World, Art Spiegelman's Maus, and Paul Hornschemeier's Mother Come Home. But today I want to talk about a fine book I have just finished reading.

Alison Bechdel is a 49 year old Pennsylvania cartoonist best known for the long-running strip Dykes To Watch Out For. In her 2006 memoir Fun Home, Bechdel describes her teenage discovery that she is a lesbian and that her father was a closeted homosexual. Fun Home is brutally honest, funny, confessional, heartbreaking. A great introduction to the art of telling an adult story with words and pictures. I checked the book out of CALS, but it's available for $10 from Amazon. You can read a few pages at the link above.

Click this image to enlarge:



Here's a little video of Bechdel at work:



If you haven't read a literary comic, I beg you to give this genre a try. It's hard to explain, but the experience of reading a really good one is a profound discovery, like the first time you saw a really good movie and realized they could be more than Adam Sandler and Sly Stallone. Finding one or more of the books mentioned above at your local library would be a good place to start.

Ain't nobody here but us poets

This website is strange and fun.

Sort of an interactive web-based poem. Sort of.

Just click on stuff and see what happens. You may eventually find yourself looking at strange dream imagery like this:



Enjoy.

Roger Ebert faces death at the movies

The only film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize, and for my money the best writing today, is Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times.

Ebert continues to write prolifically, but you may have noticed that his long-running TV show is no more, and he doesn't even appear on Leno or The View to discuss the Oscars these days. That's becauase Roger has had a series of serious health problems in recent years.

Today, Ebert cannot eat, drink or talk, but he writes on. There's an excellent profile of Ebert in the latest Esquire magazine. That's a picture of him above.

The man appears to be facing death with grace and wisdom. From the article:

Ebert is dying in increments, and he is aware of it.

"I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear, he writes in a journal entry titled "Go Gently into That Good Night." I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can't say it wasn't interesting. My lifetime's memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris. "

There has been no death-row conversion. He has not found God. He has been beaten in some ways. But his other senses have picked up since he lost his sense of taste. He has tuned better into life. Some things aren't as important as they once were; some things are more important than ever. He has built for himself a new kind of universe. Roger Ebert is no mystic, but he knows things we don't know.

"I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out."

Hear, hear.

Police seek cartoon character in robbery, shooting

Not sure how many of these could possibly be real, but entertaining nonetheless.

The Mighty Boosh: Absurdist comedy at its best

How does one begin to explain The Mighty Boosh?

The BBC comedy series has been airing late nights on Adult Swim for about a year, but I still get blank looks from most people when I mention the show. I'd like to change that because the Boosh is brilliant, surreal, silly and uplifting.

The Mighty Boosh features two main characters, Vince Noir and Howard Moon, plus an assortment of supporting figures, including a talking gorilla and a shaman. British comics Julian Barrett and Noel Fielding created the show and write each episode. They also star as Noir and Moon, plus dozens of other characters.

The Boosh is sort of like an R-rated version of H.R. Pufnstuf or another of those Sid and Marty Kroft kids shows from the 1970s. Anything goes... each show features a musical number, sometimes a cartoon, crazy costumes and lots more.

I first discovered this show a few months ago, and must say I didn't "get it" right away. But after watching several episodes and rewatching a couple of favorites it clicked. I think one key to the show's success is its essential good heartedness. There's not a mean-spirited moment in the entire series.

All three seasons (20 episodes) are available on DVD through Netflix and the Central Arkansas Library System. You can also watch clips of the show and even one full episode here at the Adult Swim website.

Here's a short animated segment to give you a taste:



Give the Boosh a try, and before long you'll be crimping with the best of 'em:

New book looks at Nolan Richardson's legacy

I just finished reading an excellent new book about former Razorback basketball coach Nolan Richardson. It's called Forty Minutes of Hell, named after Nolan's up-tempo style of play. (You can read the first chapter at amazon.com by clicking the link.)

Author Rus Bradburd says Nolan is the most important black coach in U.S. history. In this story to air Monday on KUAR, Bradburd compares Richardson's importance to that of boxer Muhammad Ali. They kicked down doors, he says, for more recent figures like Barack Obama, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.

The book alternates between telling the story of Nolan's upbringing as the only black kid in the Mexican neighborhoods of El Paso, Texas and the history of Arkansas's strained race relations, particularly Frank Broyles' excruciatingly slow integration of Razorback athletics. Broyles refused to talk with the author, and he comes off looking pretty bad. So does the state of Arkansas.

For Arkansans who have wondered why a UA coach making a million dollars a year would complain about his situation, the book clearly explains how Nolan's unique experiences in the Jim Crow south shaped his attitudes. Fascinating stuff.

Coach Richardson will be reading from the book and signing copies on the afternoon of Saturday, February 27 at Pyramid Books and Art on Wright Avenue in Little Rock.

Bradburd will appear in LR this April as part of the Arkansas Literary Festival.

Film officials decide to talk

The Benton Courier is now reporting on the Hank Williams movie.

And local TV has been on the set in Benton today shooting stories to air tonight.

After my blog post on Tuesday and a KUAR story Wednesday in which I reported that Arkansas Film Commissioner Christopher Crane would not discuss the movie project, Crane was apparantly swamped by other reporters wanting details. That prompted him to request permission to discuss the film with local media, which he recieved last night.

First thing this morning, Crane was on the phone calling to provide me with further detials, though not too many. He confirms Harry Thomason is directing and shooting will last about three weeks in Little Rock, Benton and elsewhere in central Arkansas. He says the movie will have a theatrical release in about a year.

We still don't know the budget for the project or which studio will release the movie.

Crane also would not confirm that former child star Henry Thomas is playing Hank Williams, though reporters visiting the set today would obviously be able to determine that fact.

Anyway, I am thankful the story on this project is finally getting out. As I say below, the best way to promote Arkansas as a filmmaking destination is to openly talk about it as such.

Hank Williams film shoot begins in Arkansas

It's been rumored for weeks, nay months, and now it's underway.

A sort-of biopic of country singer/songwriter Hank Williams is now shooting in central Arkansas. The shoot began today.

The movie is tentatively called The Last Ride, and will focus on the final week or so of Williams' life, including his death of a heart attack while riding to a gig in the back seat of a Cadillac.

There has been no official announcement of the project by the Arkansas Film Commission, but it did send out the following casting call email today:

Christopher Crane
Film Commissioner
ccrane@arkansasedc.com
Economic Development Commission

(501) 682-7326 Fax 501.682.3456 Cell 501.902.9283 Arkansasedc.com
One Capitol Mall Little Rock, Arkansas 72201

hey friends....need extras, see below, please pass the word!

MOVIE EXTRAS NEEDED FOR FEATURE FILM.

The Last Ride, based on a true story of a famous country western legend, will be filming scenes in Central Arkansas through the end of February.

We are not at liberty to announce the lead actors yet, however they are well known ,and you might get to work with them!

We need several extras, stand-ins and photo doubles to work various days beginning Tuesday, February 16th.

Seeking: Older men and women, males and females, middle age, younger and a few teens. All scenes are in rural areas of the south, thus we are seeking REAL faces - farmers, honky tonk folk, plate lunch diners, coal miners, etc......

Rate of pay varies, with a 75.00 minimum. Some of the cast may be needed more than one day.

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY

Those interested should send the following stats to the casting dept. filmARcasting@gmail.com (not case sensitive):

name
age
phone, cell, msg number, email address, any and all contact numbers please!
height
weight
eye, hair coloring
any 1950's wardrobe?

Also, please attach a current snapshot or digital picture to your email. If you have film or theatre experience, feel free to attach a resume or just highlight your experience in an email application!

Casting begins immediately. Please help get word out to friends and associates - just forward this email! You may not hear back immediately, as casting is a work in progress and will be on-going through the end of the month.

Again, help pass the word, ARKANSAS NEEDS TO MAKE A GREAT IMPRESSION on this director…..part of which will be accomplished by providing him with wonderful Arkansan's to fill his requests! Pass email ASAP!

Thank you in advance!!!!!

Casting Department
The Last Ride

No phone calls
please. Email correspondence only.
We will respond as time permits.
Thank you in Advance and hope to see you in the movies.

Again, there has been no official word of this project from the Film Commission or anyone else, but sources tell me Arkansas native Harry Thomason is directing.

Thomason last directed a feature film in 2004, and that was the documentary The Hunting of the President. His last movie with actors, sets and a script was in 1979. That's the year he directed no less than two narrative features, The Day It Came to Earth, and Revenge of Bigfoot. Since then, he has directed lots of TV, mainly his own shows Designing Women, Evening Shade and Hearts Afire.

No word on the film's budget or what sort of release the movie will get.

Work on this project has been underway for a while. This report from a Knoxville, Tennessee area blog says Thomason worked with local vintage car owners there to shoot footage of a baby-blue 1953 Caddy and other old autos around the first of the year.

Two things about the casting notice above: First, the "well known... lead actors" mentioned are not Brangelina level talent, but one name I've heard is a former child actor currently starring in a big theatrical release. (Sorry, I can't name names cause my source won 't let me.)

As for the need for Arkansas to "make a great impression" on the director, well Thomason is from here, knows the place well, so it's not like we're trying to impress Speilberg, but, hey, we DO need to make a good impression in terms of the state's ability to mount a major film production.

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It's funny. Covering Arkansas news for many years now, I've noticed a pattern: when a film project like this comes to town, NO ONE will talk about it. I've had Chris Crane, the state film commissioner, and his predecessor Joe Glass tell me repeatedly that producers and state officials are worried that over-zealous fans and lookie-loos will swarm a shooting location and make work difficult.

But I've always argued that the best way to promote Arkansas as a movie-making location is to talk about it as such. You don't have to say "Billy Bob Thornton will be at the Lonoke County courthouse square from noon until 7:00 p.m today." You can just say something like: "A $12-million film about the life of Louis Jordan is being shot at various locations in Pulaski and Lonoke Counties over the next six weeks. The movie is being directed by Frank Capra and stars Chris Rock, Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The film is slated to air on HBO this September."

Now would a press release like that really cause anybody any problems?

How to do a TV news report

This BBC report perfectly sums up the formula for much of the reporting you see on local and even network TV. Watch for an appearance by Dowdy Kitchen Man. My hero.

Seeing this reminds me to avoid the sort of formulaic storytelling that can pop up on radio as well.

Movie trailers at bottom of this page

Hey gang. Some of you have no doubt noticed that the little news and weather widgets in the right hand column of this page have changed from time to time as I have learned what works and what doesn't here in the blogosphere.

I have now discovered a particularly cool little tool I've placed at the bottom of this page. It's a widget displaying the most recent movie trailers from Hulu. When you click on one, it opens in a little javascript window without you ever having to leave my site. You can even go full screen from right on this page.

What's more, you can search for something like LOST or 30 Rock or The Simpsons and it will load up the most recent full-length episodes. There are even full length movies. Try watching the Coen Brothers' Raising Arizona.

Enjoy.

Jon Stewart as Glenn Beck: The 11/3 Project

I know I'm months late, but Jon Stewart in full Glenn Beck mode is a priceless 8 minute segment of The Daily Show.

Even if you haven't watched much of Glenn Beck you'll get a giggle out of this.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The 11/3 Project
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

9-11 photos show new perspective on tragedy

Some dramatic new photos have now been released that are sure to fuel more 9-11 conspiracy theories.

These are pictures taken from NYPD helicopters hovering over the scene, the first shots we've seen from above of the twin towers collapsing and sending plumes of smoke billowing through lower Manhattan.

The pics are a result of a FOIA request filed by ABC News.

Oscar voting algebra

Very interesting analysis piece in the New Yorker about the Oscar nominations.

In addition to expanding the best picture nominees from five to ten this year, there's been a big change in the way votes are cast for the top award. In the past, members voted for their favorite picture, and the nominee with the most votes won. Not so starting this year. Who knew you would need a degree in higher mathematics to understand the rules:

Members—there are around fifty-eight hundred of them—are being asked to rank their choices from one to ten. In the unlikely event that a picture gets an outright majority of first-choice votes, the counting’s over. If not, the last-place finisher is dropped and its voters’ second choices are distributed among the movies still in the running. If there’s still no majority, the second-to-last-place finisher gets eliminated, and its voters’ second (or third) choices are counted. And so on, until one of the nominees goes over fifty per cent.

The story also says the two frontrunners are Avatar and Hurt Locker, and it makes the case for why the Hurt Locker might actually win. Bottom line: most everyone likes it and a vote for this little war drama is a vote for the first woman (Kathryn Bigelow) to direct a best picture winner.

Arrrrrggggghh!!!

Due to the record snow storm that has paralyzed the Washington D.C. area, FM 89's Diane Rehm event tomorrow night has been rescheduled.

This is the second time Diane has been rendered unable to attend a fundraiser for the KUAR tower campaign. She earlier had to cancel because of a fall and broken pelvis (ouch).

So we have rescheduled for March 4th. Hopefully third time's the charm.

Broyles event snowed out

The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center event featuring Frank Broyles talking about the racial integration of Razorback athletics was cancelled today.

No word yet on if and when it can be rescheduled.

David Lynch gets animated

This short animated film called When Lynch Met Lucas uses audio from an interview with the Blue Velvet/Eraserhead director describing the time he met with George Lucas about possibly directing a Star Wars film.

The filmmaker, identified on Youtube only as sciezata77, says "This was shot entirely with my iPhone 3G using the iMotion app. I take credit for the crude illustrations."

Funny stuff. One wonders what a Lynch-helmed Star Wars movie might have actually been like.

LR9 featured in the New Yorker

As part of an interactive online multimedia project called The Promise, the New Yorker has posted a brief video of the Little Rock Nine. They're in the middle of the top row. It's worth watching all 17 of the tributes.

The aging civil rights pioneers were just teenagers when they braved jeering crowds to integrate Central High School in 1957. They were reunited by the magazine for a photo shoot outside the school some weeks ago.

FM 89's Michael Hibblen filed this report about the Little Rock 9 reunion.

The Onion takes on Wal-Mart

The cruelly funny online humor magazine The Onion aims its big guns at that little northwest Arkansas mom-and-pop known as Wal-Mart.

In this article called "Wal-Mart Cuts Over 13,000 Of What It Calls Jobs" the retailer comes under bitter attack.

I've decided not to quote from the story here. You can read at your own risk. I'll warn you: it contains the "F" word and humor of an adult nature. Some may find it totally unfunny.

I just think it's worth a mention that one of our state's largest corporate citizens is coming under such a savage attack. Despite years of trying to improve their image and "branding," it's clear Wal-Mart still has an image problem in certain urban hipster circles.

Frank Broyles, the Razorbacks and racial integration

An event scheduled for tomorrow at noon at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center as part of Black History Month observances is causing quite a stir.

Max Brantley at the Arkansas Time Blog posts a pastoral letter from Wendell Griffen raising questions about the event, which will feature former Razorback Athletic Director Frank Broyles discussing the racial integration of Arkansas sports.

When FM 89 News did a story previewing this event a week ago, we specifically asked a spokesman for the MTCC why Broyles was being honored in this way. Jajuan Johnson told us the event was the brainchild of Muskie Harris, an African-American former Razorback who was also a Republican candidate for Lt. Governor in 1990.

You may remember that Broyles coached the Hogs in the nation's last major sporting event played by two all-white teams. The picture above is of Broyles (left) and Texas coach Darrell Royal after the Longhorns' 15-14 win over the Razorbacks in 1969 for the national college football championship.

President Richard Nixon flew into Fayetteville for the historic event. Here he is at the game with (from left) Arkansas Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt, Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, U.S. Senators Fulbright and McClellan and Texas Congressman George H.W. Bush.
(I think I have these right.)

This is one of those important pictures in Arkansas history, like this one.

Oaklawn: portrait of a winner

Certain acquaintances of mine were caught on video celebrating their handicapping success during the feature race Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs:


Certain other members of their party had less luck. :(

No Weiner Delight for Arkansas after all

Pun-lovers are out of luck now that the state board of education has officially rejected the planned consolidation of two school districts, one near Jonesboro and the other 200 miles away near Texarkana.

Arkansas News Bureau/Stephens Media reports on today's meeting at which the vote was taken:

Officials of the Delight and Weiner districts, both of which have fallen below the state minimum of 350 students, argued state regulations allow such mergers and that technology made their distant union feasible...

The districts contended the proposed Arcadia School District would save millions of dollars and improve learning opportunities for students. But board members questioned whether the merger would serve the best interests of students and voted 7-0 to reject it.

Man ODs on pot, disrupts flight

A California TV station reports on the case of a man facing a fine of $250,000 and up to 20 years in prison for interferring with a flight attendant.

According to the station website:

He told police he'd taken a double dose of his medicinal marijuana, eating two pot cookies before the flight.

Here's the full report:

Snow stays south of the border

Rather unexpectedly, the snow came to Little Rock overnight and continues at midday Monday.

Schools are closed and roads are slick, as evidenced by the first photo above.

So, DC gets two feet of snow, Arkansas gets six inches yet in Vancouver they're scrambling to truck-in snow for the winter olympics, opening in just a few days.

Obama names blizzard of '10

You've doubtless heard about Snowmageddon, the historic storm that has paralyzed much of the northeast.

Airports are closed, people are trapped, but it looks like lots of fun in this video from the Washington Post. Big snowball fight on DuPont Circle.

Wes Anderson's Spiderman

A funny parody:

Have Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof LOST their minds?

The creators and producers of the amazing ABC TV show LOST have really got fans buzzing after airing just one episode of the final season.

"Darlton" had promised LOST's loyal audience that after five years of a series told with flashbacks then flashforwards they were going to unveil a new storytelling device for this final season, which premiered last Tuesday. The show featured two seemingly alternate and parallel versions of reality. Now, the ABC LOST website has up a page explaining the phenomenon as a flashsideways.

I know this all sounds a little nutty to the non-LOST fan, but as the show winds to a close in the next few months devotees like myself will be looking for the series to tie up a boatload of loose ends and explain a whole bunch of mysteries seen as key to the show's mythology. So for the writers to seemingly introduce a deeply complicating plot device was shocking to say the least.

LOST, the TV series airing on Tuesday night's this season, is just one part of a larger fan experience:

I begin the experience of each episode with a "pre-hash" audio podcast released two or three days before each new show and available free through iTunes. Carlton and Damon talk about what happened last week and what we can expect in the next episode. They read and sometimes answer questions submitted by fans. They definitely prompt you to notice something you wouldn't otherwise, or wouldn't consider significant at least.

Then, after watching the show on ABC, I go to Mac Slocum's great LOST blog. He writes a fully cross referenced episode recap, post usually four hours or so after the show airs. Mac's blog entries are well organized, insightful and funny as hell. Then an incredible community of fans discusses the show's minute details and the potential meaning of it all. (Link to this blog lives always in the list at right.)

I then try to watch each episode a second time before the next one rolls around. ABC knows LOST fans like to do this, and has in past years even run a pop-up-video-version of last week's episode just before this week's new one. The so-called enhanced and non-enhanced versions of each episode are also available to watch anytime for free at abc.com

The judge was no drudge

Strange little item in this week's Arkansas Times.

On page three, the Insider item "We Get Letters" details the discovery of dozens of letters from probationers to now-disgraced and removed Pulaski County Circuit Judge Willard Proctor.

One in particular conjures up images of unusual role playing games and who-knows-what:

One of the strangest letters is a three-page missive from a probationer who was locked up in the Pulaski County Detention Center. After telling the judge twice that he loves him, the writer ends with: “You know I like when you called me Mrs. President.”

And the judge liked it when the probationer called him the Deputy Under Secretary of Morality and Clean Living.

HD local news slow in coming

I just posted at kuar.org my story which aired this morning about if and when we'll get to see local TV newscasts in high def.

No, the delay is not a result of special calibration needed for HD cameras to handle the contrast issues raised by the "man with the tan" Ned Perme.

Basically, it's a matter of money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are needed to replace equipment from cameras to switchers, plus tweaks to sets and maybe even some talent.

Check out the story.

Crazy Heart opens in LR

One of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2009 is finally making it to central Arkansas.

Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhall along with Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall, opens today at the Rave theater, at Col. Glenn and I-430. Showtimes 1:15, 4:20, 7:20 and 10:10.

This movie currently has a 92 rating at
Rotten Tomatoes. Bridges' performance is being touted as one of the year's best, and he's the favorite for the best actor Oscar this year.

Here's the trailer:

Can't wait to see this movie. Bridges is one of our most underrated actors, and his performance in The Big Lebowski is priceless:

Elvis and Garrison warm up a cold Arkansas night

Tonight about 150 fans of A Prairie Home Companion gathered at west Little Rock's Breckenridge Village Theater for a live nationwide cinecast on the big screen.

Host Garrison Keillor and the rest of the gang brought to life all the usual features of the weekly radio show (heard on FM 89 KUAR @ 5:00 p.m. Saturday and 11:00 a.m. Sunday). The crowd heard and saw Guy Noir, Dusty and Lefty and News from Lake Wobegon.

But for me the highlight of the show was the musical guest, the legendary singer/song writer Elvis Costello. He performed five songs by my count, hammed it up with large roles in most of the major sketches and joined in the big show-ending sing-along.

It's always nice to see and visit with members of the central Arkansas public radio community. Thanks to all who came out on a cold, nasty night (though not as nasty as in St. Paul, Minnesota apparantly).

If you missed tonight's performance, there's a second chance to see it next Tuesday, February 9th. Tickets for the big-screen repeat are available here.

Here's a little video of rehearsal for tonight's program:



And just for grins, here's my favorite Elvis song (no, he didn't do this one tonight) filmed live at the Hi Tone club in Memphis in 2007.

The Blind Side: Oscar quality? Really?

Mulling over the Oscar nominations announced this week I am most troubled by one entry: The Blind Side, a formulaic film some have compared to a Lifetime Movie.

I'll just say it wasn't very good.

The Blind Side has been a surprise box office hit with midwestern and southern audiences. Houston Nutt makes a cameo appearance.

The film was one of the 10 best picture nominees. Star Sandra Bullock is up for best actress.

The movie is about a upper-middle class white family in Memphis who befriend and adopt a hulking, mute black teenager. Based on a true story, the movie follows him from homelessness to the NFL, but in the end we know almost nothing about the kid, Michael Oher, because the movie is really about the fiesty Bullock character. Actor Quenton Aaron as Oher has a total of maybe 50 lines in the whole movie.

The film, especially it's contrasts with Precious, has sparked some very heated debate about race, politics and more. See here, here, and here.

Any black folks out there seen Blind Side? How many whites saw Precious?

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Otherwise, no major Oscar surprises. District 9's nomination for best picture makes me reconsider whether it should have been on my list of the best for '09.

It looks like Hurt Locker has a real chance at best picture, and director Kathryn Bigelow for best director. That's good.

Should be an interesting Oscar show next month with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin co-hosting.

Blanche Lincoln - Barack Obama showdown

Our very own Arkansas senior senator sparred with the president today at a retreat for Senate Democrats.

Here's the C-SPAN coverage. You can watch the entire exchange beginning with Sen. Lincoln's question at about 36:45 into the file.

From The Hill:

Centrist Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) on Wednesday asked arguably the most contentious question during a discussion between Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama, hitting at conservatives and liberals.

Lincoln, who faces a tough reelection fight, asked Obama to push back against "people at the extremes" of both parties, especially against Democrats "who want extremes."

She also took a swipe at Obama's White House, referencing a constituent who "fears that there's no one in your administration that understands what it means to go to work on Monday and make a payroll on Friday."

Lincoln faces a steep reelection bid in 2010. She trails the likely Republican nominee, Rep. John Boozman, by 23 points and has only a 27 percent approval rating in a recent poll.

Obama responded by defending steps his administration has taken to right the economy and said "Moving forward, Blanche, what you're going to hear from some folks...[is that] the only way to provide stability is to go back and do what we did before the crisis."

The president reiterated that he would not return to past policies.

"If the price of certainty is for us to adopt the exact same proposals that were in place for eight years leading up to the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression...the result is going to be the same."

But Obama conceded that "Blanche is right that we sometimes get bogged down in ideology."

FOX 16, the 10:00 news and Conan O'Brien

While working on another story this week, I had occasion to speak with Chuck Spohn, general manager at FOX 16... and he made a little news on the late-night-wars-front.

Now that Coco is gone from NBC, the most likely scenario I'm hearing is that he will wind up back on the air this fall on the FOX network. And it's been widely speculated that FOX would put Conan on at 11:00, 10:00 central time to get the jump on the other guys. After all, FOX does only two hours of prime-time each evening, leaving local affiliates with the 10/9c hour for local news.

While hearing that speculation, I've also noticed that FOX 16 in Little Rock just launched an additional half-hour of local news beginning at 10:00 p.m. So, I ask the big guy at 16 what he'll do if and when he's faced with a decision.

Spohn started by telling me he has no inside information, that FOX has not contacted him about his interest or willingness to air a late-night Conan show. But Spohn noted that several of the FOX/NewsCorp owned-and-operated stations also do that additional half-hour of news at 11/10c in direct competition with the ABC/CBS/NBC affiliates. He indicated that what ever happens he didn't think it would be a major crisis for FOX affiliates, and that the network would find a way to clear the show on most of its stations if it does acquire the services of Mr. O'Brien.

The other option for Conan to go directly up against Leno and Letterman would be ABC. He could bump back Nightline and Kimmel by an hour, or they could just kill Nightline outright (it's been on life support since the departure of now-NPR reporter Ted Koppel). That would raise an interesting question for KATV, channel 7 in Little Rock, which has for years delayed Nightline and Kimmel by a half hour so they can run According to Jim, and before that Everybody Loves Raymond. These bland sitcoms are syndicated fare, providing KATV with additional avails, or slots to air local commercials. The practice must be profitable, but would Dale Nicholson throw it overboard to put Conan on at 10:35 in central Arkansas?

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By the way, it's just this kind of local TV coverage I miss from the Little Rock newspapers. Back in the days of the old Democrat/Gazette newspaper war, each paper employed a fine TV and radio columnist who wrote about prime-time network programming, but also about format changes, the ratings and the comings-and-goings of local broadcast "talent."

Michael Storey of the current Dem-Gaz writes exclusively about national, network programming, and often it seems the paper leaves any mention of other broadcast news to the Paper Trails column. Today's item there about Spirit Trickey appearing on NBC Nightly News this Friday would more correctly be found in a full-service local TV and Radio column.

THEA Foundation

I had to visit the Argenta district of downtown North Little Rock today for a meeting, so took the occasion to stop by for a visit to the THEA Foundation, catty-corner from Argenta Drug on Main Street.

My niece Sarah Mattingly recently started working there with founder David Leopoulos, who started the arts non-profit in honor of his daughter, who's love of the arts lives on after her death at age 17.

This afternoon, Sarah was helping notify the winners of college scholarships in the visual arts. I got to see some of the paintings, drawings and photographs by Arkansas high school kids, and it was a remarkable collection of work.

The THEA Foundation also awards scholarships in film and the performing arts, organizes the exhibition of big-name art in the public schools (like the Peter Max painting above) through the Art Across Arkanas program and helps provide arts supplies for teachers who would otherwise be buying stuff out of pocket.

Click here to learn more about this fine Arkansas non-profit devoted to arts education.

LR9 feature

KUAR's Michael Hibblen has a nice piece up here on a recent reunion in Little Rock for the nine black students that integrated Central High back in 1957.

They were brought together for a photo shoot organized by the New Yorker. As one of them comments, they are are all getting older, some in failing health, and every time they reunite it could be the last time.

LAX one sentence review

Season 6 of Lost will be confusing, but Juliet says "it worked," so I guess we're gonna be okay.

Lost episode LAX tonight at 7:00

It's here! Finally, Lost fans can rejoice. Just hours until we get to see episode one of the final season on KATV and ABC.

As I said in an earlier post, I've seen the two-hour episode already, though I didn't hear much of it. Looks like another bewildering storytelling device will replace the flash backs and flash forwards of recent seasons.

Look for star Evangeline Lilly early in the episode climbing around in a tree, something the producers have said the actress does regularly. It's part of the character Kate's charm that she is fearless, and a bit of a tomboy.

Lilly's acting career outside of Lost hasn't amounted to much yet (she has a tiny role in The Hurt Locker) but she has recently started appearing in commercials for Cover Girl or some other cosmetic company, so I see her beauty hasn't been entirely lost on the entertainment industry.

I'm smitten, of course.

Jackie Brown

Needing an image for the header above (the first of many I plan to rotate into that slot) I reached back to 1997's underrated Jackie Brown, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring from left to right Robert Forster, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, Pam Grier, Robert DeNiro and Bridget Fonda, seen at left as the film's pothead beach bunny on a French poster for the movie.

That got me wondering, whatever became of this lovely heir to the family of cinema royalty? It seems like a long time since I've seen her in a film. Turns out she got married in 2003 to composer Danny Elfman, had a baby and retired from movies, at least for now. Fonda's other credits include Point of No Return and A Simple Plan.

Her last credit listed at IMDB was a made for TV movie in 2002.

I miss Bridget Fonda.

Here's the trailer for Jackie Brown:

Heroes of Children's Hospital

The Little Rock-based Renaud Brothers have made another fine documentary. It aired on Dateline NBC Sunday night, but is now available online. The filmmakers shot at Arkansas Children's Hospital for a full year. The brothers discuss the project here:

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The piece is reported by NBC chief medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman, formerly a LR physician and KATV-7 health reporter before going nationwide in the 80s. She actually "scrubs in" to go into surgery with young doctors-in-training. Here she discusses her return to Arkansas Children's Hospital to make this film.

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Here's the hour-long film itself. A warning: it includes some really emotional stuff. There's one particular moment near the end when a preemie is unplugged from life support, wrapped in a pink blanket and given to the weeping teenage parents. Tough to watch.

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Broadway Bridge historic photo

Nice story in today's Democrat-Gazette by transportation reporter Noel Oman about the need to overhaul or replace the Broadway Bridge.

In working on a follow-up story today, I wanted to include this historic photo on our website and refer to it on the air as evidence of the bridge's role in the 1957 crisis. KUAR/KLRE Gen. Manager Ben Fry helped me find the photo, but we had trouble confirming my memory that it was indeed a pic of 101st Airborne troops rolling across the Broadway Bridge into Little Rock after being sent here by President Eisenhower. It turns out they had flown into LRAFB in Jacksonville, then organized at Camp Robinson in NLR before heading south into LR and history at CHS.

I called on several people to help me confirm the bridge's connection to the photo. Dr. Johanna Miller Lewis at UALR and Tim Nutt at the UA Library Special Collections Department were especially helpful.

Larry Obsitnik, the Arkansas Gazette's chief photog at the time, took this amazing shot. Note the ironic billboard. Priceless.

Glad we could include this info in my story here.

Thanks to all who helped out.