[UPDATE: CANCELLED] THURSDAY 6/28, SUNDAY 7/1

‘RBG’

Advertisement

6 p.m. Thu., 2 p.m. Sun. Clinton Presidential Center. Free.

This event has been cancelled. Every time the “Black Lives Matter” mantra is met with an “All Lives Matter” counterpoint, we are reminded again: It is difficult to go about the business of fighting discrimination if everyone does not agree that it exists. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of only nine women in her Harvard Law School class of hundreds, had to lay some similar groundwork on the gender discrimination front, proving her mettle at a time when women were hired only as clerks — or, more often, not hired at all. She took that sharp affinity for fairness and argued her way up to a Supreme Court appointment in 1993, helping secure majority rulings on issues like gender-exclusive college admissions policies, same-sex marriages and gender-based pay disparities — and writing firm dissents when she thought the majority was in the wrong. And, sure, this film from directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen tackles all the range of RBG’s career before she acquired meme status, but it also takes a warm look at “Notorious RBG’s” relationship with her husband and devoted champion, Marty Ginsburg. So, if you missed the flick during its run at Riverdale 10 Cinemas, consider these two free screenings from the Clinton Center. Concession snacks will be available for purchase. RSVP at wjcf.co/RBG or by calling 501-748-0425.

Advertisement

THURSDAY 6/28

Advertisement

SCIENCE AFTER DARK: DANGEROUS SCIENCE

6 p.m. Museum of Discovery. $10.

Advertisement

When we checked in with the Museum of Discovery last week to see what exactly it considered “Dangerous Science,” staffers were still working out the specifics for this adult-only science-but-with-beer event. They did, however, mention a few prospects: something called Shock Tato Extreme, lasers, weapons throwing, a micro forge, “a large explosion demo, hand-held fireballs, fireworks painting, laser demos, liquid nitrogen and probably dangerous animals.” So, consider spending Thursday night with some folks who dabble in the “don’t try this at home” milieu regularly enough to keep you from actual danger while still getting you close enough for some serious science jollies. Beer from Stone’s Throw Brewing will be available for purchase, along with pizza from Damgoode Pies.

THURSDAY 6/28

Advertisement

POTLUCK AND POISON IVY: SPOKEN WORD

7 p.m. The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse. $35.

Advertisement

Some of the century’s finest musicians aspired to be poets first and foremost, and some poets make their music without the help of instruments or melody. Count the folks on stage for this month’s Potluck and Poison Ivy among the latter. On the lineup for this installment of the Argenta dinner-meets-storytelling series are LeRon McAdoo (also known as Ron Mc), a hip hop advocate, musician, educator and founder of a poetry troupe called Foreign Tongues; Bud Kenny, the founder of the Wednesday Night Poetry series in Hot Springs (since 1989!) and other long-tenured slams, who once set out on foot peddling poetry from Hot Springs to Maine with his wife and a pack mule named Della; Karen Hayes, the sprightly mind behind the improvisational “Poetry on Demand” project and keeper of the manual 1971 Olivetti typewriter on which it occurs; Caroline Earleywine, an educator who, in her words, “tries to convince teenagers that poetry is actually cool”; and Zachary Crow, a filmmaker and powerful speaker who also serves as executive director of decARcerate, a grassroots coalition focused on ending mass incarceration in Arkansas. Add to that this Thursday’s musical guest, Harry Blanton, the seamless bass-baritone voice behind country tunes like “Bury Me Close to a Tavern” and “You Sure Know How To Do Wrong So Right.” Grab tickets at potluckandpoisonivy.org.

THURSDAY 6/28

SUPERSUCKERS

Advertisement

8 p.m. Four Quarter Bar. $12.

If throat cancer hasn’t halted Eddie Spaghetti and the Supersuckers, Spaghetti’s rolling front of booze and brawl, probably nothing will. Their long history is characterized by a soft spot for meta-fame antics like “fake encore” stage exits and an album titled “How the Supersuckers Became the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World” and an even softer spot for the West Memphis 3’s struggle for redemption. With hard-driving barnburners like “Born With A Tail,” they’re burning rubber toward Texas for an “Austin City Limits Live” appearance, stopping at Four Quarter Bar along the way. Speedealer and OC45 kick things off.

FRIDAY 6/29

WILLIE NELSON AND FAMILY

4:30 p.m. Verizon Arena. $28-$100.

Maybe it’s that he’s got Arkansas roots, but Willie Nelson told Rolling Stone in 2014, “The other night in Arkansas was the best show we’ve ever done.” It bodes well for this weekend, though Nelson did concede a bit of short-term memory loss after that comment, as he’s wont to do when caught in acts of grand hyperbole, or when he’s hazily recounting some of his more certified outlaw moments — smoking dope on the roof of the White House after being arrested in the Bahamas for marijuana possession, for example, or getting crossways with the IRS over tax debt. Hyberbole notwithstanding, Nelson and his team have pretty much guaranteed a solid night of cold hard country at Verizon Arena as part of this “Outlaw Music Festival,” bookending the pigtailed tenor’s trademark warmth and enigmatic one-liners with an eclectic hotpot of a bill that includes fellow rabblerouser Sturgill Simpson, folk rock outfit The Head and the Heart, a gravel-voiced California cowboy named Ryan Bingham, sons Lukas Nelson and his band Promise of the Real and fringe rocker Micah Nelson as Particle Kid. This one’s a marathon; doors open at 3:30 p.m. for a 4:30 p.m. show that’s bound to stretch into late night territory. Plan a midday siesta Friday if you’re able.

FRIDAY 6/29

CELEBRATION OF THE MIGHTY 1090 KAAY

7 p.m. CALS Ron Robinson Theater. Free.

Born of a 50,000-watt AM station with the call letters KTHS (“Kum to Hot Springs”), the figure-eight-shaped signal of KAAY-AM, 1090, reached all the way to Cuba, transmitting a mish-mash of farm reports, parody, jingles, weird news and weirder music until it went dark in 1985. Much of the latter rang out to night owls courtesy of longtime “Beaker Street” host Clyde Clifford, who broadcast rarities and oddities from the RCA BTA-50F transmitter site in Wrightsville while doubling as the station’s licensed engineer — one of which the FCC required to be on duty at all times. Clifford, along with fellow on-air personalities Bob Robbins, Sonny Martin, Bob Steele, David B. Treadway and Barry Mac, celebrate the station’s legacy as part of the Central Arkansas Library System’s Arkansas Sounds series. Tom Wood moderates; special guest is Barbara Raney, whose rendition of “Cindy’s Cryin'” with a band called Deepwater Reunion epitomizes the ’60s-era folk-tinged, fringe-tinged tunes Clifford sent out into the world on “Beaker Street.”

FRIDAY 6/29

THE SWORD

8 p.m. Maxine’s, Hot Springs. $18.

“How Heavy This Axe,” indeed! The Sword, an Austin-based assault of double guitar harmonies, Blue Cheer-style mixed meters and Orange loudness, is headed to Maxine’s for a hard rock show with New Jersey’s Atomic Bitchwax. Revisit 2010’s beloved “Warp Riders” for a taste of The Sword’s earlier love affair with science fiction, and cue up the pixellated video game face-off that accompanies its 2018 title track “Used Future” for a whiff of the band’s current, cleaner sound.

FRIDAY 6/29

COFRESI

9 p.m. Rev Room. $12-$15.

You know that super satisfying part of a house track where the percussion kicks into double time and the bass drops like a behemoth hot potato? Chicago producer Cofresi’s work has lots of that, too, except that in lieu of a track, dude actually plays the drums. Check out his flipped, chopped, dexterously live remix of “Mr. Sandman” on YouTube, and keep it in mind for the next time the notion is floated that EDM performers don’t have any musical talent. Z Dougie, Fractal Sky, Trixx and Kramer Live open up the show.

SATURDAY 6/30

‘GENERATION WEALTH’

6:30 p.m. CALS Ron Robinson. $20.

Rampant materialism certainly isn’t a new phenomenon, but the way news of it travels is; in a few search engine-generated clicks, the 99 percent can lay eyes on a $25,000 taco from the Grand Velas Las Cabos with Kobe beef and gold leaf, or a network of London “luxury basements” outfitted with infinity pools and car carousels that lift and lower vehicles according to the driver’s daily whims. In “Generation Wealth,” filmmaker Lauren Greenfield explores the cultural (wealth-obsessed) zeitgeist that got us here, and she does so by way of multiple platforms. There’s an elaborate coffee-table book, a museum exhibit with 42 first-person interviews and a documentary film of the same name, to be screened here as a collaboration between the Arkansas Cinema Society, the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Greenfield began work on it in 2008, but it’s the culmination of a catalogue of older pieces “about gender, about fashion, about consumerism, about how our values have been exported,” as she told NPR in 2017: “It wasn’t until the 2008 financial crash I realized that the stories that I’d been doing for a couple of decades were all connected, and kind of formed a morality tale.” A Q&A with Greenfield follows the screening, and an after-party is scheduled at the soon-to-be-shuttered downtown branch of Zin Urban Wine & Beer.

SATURDAY 6/30

ADAM FAUCETT, ISAAC ALEXANDER

9 p.m. White Water Tavern. $10.

Real talk: Towns the size of Little Rock should count themselves lucky to have one songwriter with the breadth and bite of an Adam Faucett or an Isaac Alexander. Both musicians have chosen to call this place home, and they’re teaming up for this bill in celebration of Faucett’s newest full-length album, “It Took the Shape of a Bird,” out June 29. Pregame with “Like A Sinking Stone,” Alexander’s stellar 2017 release, and follow that up with one more spin of “Blind Water Finds Blind Water,” the 2014 Faucett record you’ll finally be able to shelve for a bit while this new one sets in.

SATURDAY 6/30

TRINITY TAYLOR: SWAY PRIDE 2018

9 p.m. Club Sway.

In a documentary on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Trinity “The Tuck” Taylor, images of a perfectly coiffed, leather-clad Taylor greeting a roaring Australian crowd are juxtaposed with echoes of the performer’s past: growing up in a trailer in Alabama, seeking acceptance from family, a slow transition from a love of painting to a love of drag and makeup. Trinity’s penchant for drama on the reality competition show — and her trademark (ahem) “tuck” — landed her at the forefront of a 2017 “Saturday Night Live” skit in which a breakroom full of macho car mechanics land on the decidedly un-bro topic of “Drag Race,” pussyfooting around about the drama therein until it becomes clear that their knowledge of what constitutes “fishy realness” runs truly deep. Now, armed with top shelf cosmetics, turns of phrase like “Trin-tastic-plastic injectable realness! … I’m the mother-tucker, what can I say?” and a signature video game called “Stanky’s Big Adventure,” Taylor is serving that realness Friday night at Sway for a Pride Month celebration hosted by the fierce-maned (and conspicuously untucked) drag performer named Hairy-Kate Olsen. Envy S. Hart, Gogo Boy Kyle Ramirez and Miss Gay Arkansas America 2017 Cassandra Rae join Hairy-Kate on stage for the festivities; this one’s gonna get stanky.

Invest in the future of great journalism in Arkansas

Join the ranks of the 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 daily email blasts who know that the Arkansas Times is the go-to source for tough, determined, and feisty journalism that holds the powerful accountable. For 50 years, our progressive, alternative newspaper in Little Rock has been on the front lines of the fight for truth, and with your support, we can do even more. By subscribing or donating to the Arkansas Times, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be helping us hire more writers and expand our coverage. Don't miss out on the opportunity to make a difference with your subscription or donation to the Arkansas Times today.

Previous article Court hears arguments for permanent stay of abortion law Next article Cotton Plant is burning. Is it going to pot?