Ozarks At Large
Tonya Lewis Lee helped bring Christopher Paul Curtis' novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham to Tv this month. Tonight the film is being shown, for free, at Bentonville High School and today we talked with Ms. lee about the project that premiered earlier this month on the Hallmark Channel.
Late last week, the federal Department of Health and Human Services accepted Arkansas's plan for Medicaid expansion. The city of Bentonville will give away compost and wood mulch this week. A couple of roads close or otherwise reroute in the River Valley starting today. And gas prices dropped slightly in Arkansas over the past week.
With this morning's montage, we say several goodbyes; to Summer, to a famed Yankees pitcher, and to one of our longest-tenured colleagues at KUAF. Here are our 10 pop culture references we used to say goodbye.
- "So Long, Farewell" from the Sound of Music
- Lou Gehrig's farewell speech
- "Goodbye my Lover" by James Blunt
- ET says his goodbye
- The famous words from Gone With The Wind
- "Hello, Goodbye" by The Beatles
- The Friends leave the apartment for the final time
- "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John
- Jim Carey tells his fare goodbye at the beginning of Dumb and Dumber
- Leaving Casablanca for the final time
- Johnny Carson bids his final farewell to the audience during his final time hosting The Tonight Show
The Arkansas Center For The Book this week made its selection for the 2013 If All Arkansas Read The Same Book Program. Kyle Kellams spoke with Vivienne Schiffer, the author of the novel Camp Nine, this year's selection.
State officials continue to seek a solution to the teacher insurance crisis in Arkansas. New numbers are out regarding Arkansas students' achievements on Advanced Placement tests. And, the Connecting Arkansas Internet Conference is being held in Little Rock this week.
You can go to a workshop at NWACC to learn about the state's Freedom of Information Act, or you can participate in one of many lake and other outdoor cleanups in the next few days.



Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, May 9, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks, Michael Tilley talks about a new owner for some long-abandoned real estate in Fort Smith, and the official announcement of a Whole Foods in Fayetteville. Plus, Cletus Got Shot gets ready to perform at a few festivals in the next month.
Maser, an artist from Ireland, was back in Arkansas to work on another new piece of public art.
"Red Meets Blues" by Matt Mertz
Here are our 11 clips (listen closely) for our montage devoted to courts, lawyers and juries...
1) The Long Ryders (a much under appreciated band) rev it up on Tell it to the judge on Sunday.
2) Jack Nicholson prepares to tell Tom Cruise the truth in A Few Good Men.
3) Julianna Margulies holds her own, and then some, on The Good Wife.
4)Warren Zevon asks for Lawyers, Guns and Money.
5) Peter Boyle, Craig T. Nelson and Bill Murray in the courtroom in Where the Buffalo Roam.
6) The theme from Night Court, an NBC sitcom in the 80s. written by Jack Elliott and featuring Ernie Watts on sax.
7) Michael K. Williams as the best (the best!) character in the history of television, Omar Little, in The Wire.
8)Blossom Dearie sings My Attorney Bernie, written by Dave Frishberg.
9) Henry Fonda holds his ground in 12 Angry Men.
10) The Law & Order sound.
11) Jackson Browne sings about Lawyers in Love.
Apologies to: Harry Hamlin and the cast of L.A. Law, The Paper Chase, Fall Out Boy, Atticus Finch and Inherit the Wind. Maybe next time.
Huntsville resident, Tobe Bohannan just turned 100. But instead of being idle like most of his peers, "Mr. Tobe" continues to work full time-- as a security and maintenance man at a local primary school. Plus? In the summer, he operates his own private concrete finishing business. And he has a handshake to prove it.
Becca says that there's quite a lot of theatre happening in the area today.
Block Street Hot Club performs its rendition of Django Reinhardt's "Douce Ambiance."