Dogtown Wire

It is finally time for another Dream Big Festival of the Arts. Mark your calendars, because the festival will be Saturday, July 19 from 10 a.m. till 3 p.m. at the Jim Wetherington Boys & Girls Club at 13th and Main streets.  

Summer Interns from L’oreal are teaming up with the Mayor’s Youth Council and the Mayor’s Office to bring back the one-day arts festival. It was such a success two years ago in East Washington, and this time we want to outdo ourselves.

This year we are planning on giving t-shirts away, and letting the kids decorate them...hopefully with tie-dye.  

Katelyn Abel standing by a sign to come?

Rose City may have a budding Hollywood director in its midst.

Katelyn Abel, 14, just won a first prize ARKANSTAR award for her documentary, “Dogtown: It’s Not What You Think!,” in the fourth annual T Tauri Film Festival .

“Very shocked, happy,” Katelyn said of her feeling of winning a second award for her film.  

“This year, we received 106 entries to the T Tauri Young Filmmakers Competition. Exactly half of the entries were in the Documentary category, so the competition was stiffest among the documentarians,” said festival co-founder Bob Pest.

The T Tauri Film Festival is sponsored by Batesville-based Ozark Foothills Filmfest Inc. that Pest runs with his wife Judy Pest since 2001 he said.

North Little Rock is a bundle of small towns with names like Argenta, Baring Cross, Levy and Rose City, among others.

Throw in, too, the 19th century names of DeCantillon and Huntersville.

Each has a history of its own that rests as much on legend as fact.

Before the railroads took hold economically in the 1870s and ‘80s, the north side of the Arkansas River nourished a smattering of homesteads (and plantations down river). Agriculture, timber, hunting, mining and two ferry terminals provided livelihood in the locale, identified on Civil War era maps as “The north side of the Arkansas River opposite Little Rock.”

The Wire will now be posting a list of some of the new books now available at the William F. Laman Public Library as we receive them from the library staff.

So head to the main library or the Argenta branch to pick up some summer reading.

New Nonfiction at Main Laman Library

History of the Mosaic Templars of America

Race Relations in the Natural State by Grif Stockley

IPod & iTunes for dummies by Tony Bove

(Disney/Pixar)

Somehow, someway Pixar has done it again, made a wonderful film that will intrigue the kiddies and delight adult viewers. WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifer – Earth Class) is alone on earth.

His only job is to pick up trash. And what a bunch of waste there is, literally mountains of trash. WALL-E takes the random trash and puts it into order. His only friend on this seemingly lifeless planet is a robot cockroach.

WALL-E whiles away the day listening to music and finding interesting objects that he collects. At night he watches “Hello Dolly” enjoying the music and dancing. He watches the romance scenes and realizes that something is missing in his life.

A spaceship lands and deposits a robot that starts searching for something throughout all the rubble. WALL-E finally introduces himself, after almost being vaporized by the other robot. Eve (voiced by Elissa Knight) is intrigued by WALL-E’s home, a repair shop for robots like him, where he has dozens of objects.

An update from the Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market Manger Jody Hardin:

New produce (projected) in season this Saturday at the Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market in Argenta: Watermelons, Sweet Corn, Cantaloupe, Plums, Peaches, and more Tomatoes.  More Blackberries and Blueberries, too.

Falling Sky Farm will be coming back with more Pastured Poultry.

AR Travelers June Home Games: Home games played at the Dickey-Stephens Park. 6/26-6/28 vs. Midland; 6/28-7/1 vs Frisco RoughRiders; Visit www.travs.com for a complete schedule and game times. For tickets call 501-664-1555.

June 28: Certified AR Farmer’s Market: Located along the Trolley route in the parking lot on Main between 4th and 5th streets. Open on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 7a.m. to NOON. Some of the state’s top local farmers will provide all types of local produce, meats, poultry, eggs and plants. For details contact Jody Hardin at 501-231-0094 or visit www.arkansasfood.net.

June 28-29: American Taekwondo World Championships at the State House Convention Center. For details visit www.ataonline.com.

June 28 - July 2: USTA National B/G Opens at the Burns Park Tennis Center. Call 501-791-8585 for details or visit www.burnsparktennis.com.

Friday

University of Arkansas at Little Rock  Gallery I "Pairings"  paintings from the permanent collection through July 10. Gallery II "Afloat" etchings, silk screen & digital project by Shahzia Sikander through July 18, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon-Fri. Call 569-8977 for more information.

Arkansas State Capitol: "American Presidents: Life Portraits" oils and sketches by Charles Fagan. For more information call 683-1441.

Saturday

Lights Over the Lake by the  Conway Symphony Orchestra starts at 7 p.m. at Beaverfork Park in Conway. For more information visit, www.conwaysymphony.org.

One of the wonders of the south I was excited to partake of again when I was hired to come to North Little Rock was barbecue .

As a matter of fact I think it might have been the deal maker. After then-NLR Times managing editor Eric Francis had finished grilling me about my qualifications, I told him it was my turn and I had a few questions for him during my phone interview in December 2006.

I had done my online research on NLR and told him the most important thing I needed to know was if the White Pig Inn, Lindsey’s Barbecue, or Dixie Pig had the best BBQ.  

Mike Myer’s latest film offering “The Love Guru ” has hit the theaters with both feet running.

Guru Pitka (Myers), called GP by his close personal friends, has moved to the USA so that he can break into the self help business and replace Deepak Chopra as number one. Pitka is tutored by Guru Tugginmypudha (a funny Ben Kingsley) in the fine art of becoming a guru.

In Los Angeles at the Guru Pitka Ashram, we find Pitka being told by his personal manager Richard Pants (The Daily Show’s John Oliver) that if he can get the love life of hockey player Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco) straightened out then he will be booked on Oprah and become the undisputed number one guru.