Cirque de Soleil's "Crystal: A Breakthrough Ice Experience" Matt Beard

In case you’re still waffling about Halloween and pre-Halloween plans, grab a copy of this week’s Arkansas Times and check out the To-Do List and In Brief in our entertainment section. In case that doesn’t do the trick, though, here are a few extra ideas for how to spend the tail end of October.

TUESDAY 10/24

“BONE BY BONE: A LOVE STORY”
6 p.m. William F. Laman Public Library. Free.

If you’ve had a chance to read “Bone By Bone: A Love Story,” the new book from “Potluck and Poison Ivy” host Paula Martin, you’ve been privy to the way it winds through generations, connecting the stories of ancestor and descendant as seamlessly as it connects those lives, in turn, to the land on which they take place. More directly relevant to the season, you’ve also been privy to a collection of the most lyrical, exhilarating depictions of death, and Martin conducts a reading and discussion of her latest work tonight at Laman Library. A book signing follows.

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TUESDAY 10/24

SELECTOR DUB NARCOTIC, LANDLADY, GINSU WIVES
8 p.m. Capitol View Studio. $8.


Selector Dub Narcotic
is in charge of a dance party at Capitol View Studio tonight, and his ample, eclectic record collection has been paired up with the inquisitive, twinkling sounds of Brooklyn’s
Landlady and our local purveyors of freaky, sexually electric noise, Ginsu Wives. Here’s some pre-show mood setting, courtesy of NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series and Ginsu Wives’ utterly unsettling “Tent Revival:” “You wanna panic, you panic with me.”

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THURSDAY 10/26-MONDAY 10/30

‘THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW’

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8:30 p.m. Club Sway. $20-$25.

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On the one hand, it’s pretty remarkable that this musical gets embraced year after year in theaters everywhere in the year 2017, when collectively yelling “Slut!” at a female protagonist and portraying the so-called “sweet transvestite” as a monstrous, cannibalistic sexual predator seems like a problematic reinforcement of trans tropes, at worst, and outdated at best. On the other hand, it’s a wonder more gay clubs like Sway haven’t taken it and made it their own. At a preview performance, Cody Dunbar (Dr. Frank-N-Furter) and company sashayed and paraded their way through their 90s club kid interpretation of the score, making use of all the wandering spotlight opportunities the multi-level club space afforded. It’s a match made in heaven; the collective sense of camp that Sway exercises in drag series like the “Fresh Fish” competition behooves the production, directed in its third year by the drag queen that performed the role of Frank for the two years past, Queen Anthony James Gerard. For some inspiration, here’s Laverne Cox slaying the role last year on FOX’s televised reimagining.

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THURSDAY 10/26

HAUNTED ARGENTA

8 p.m. Argenta Arts District. $15.

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Evidently, there is a storied “Argenta Devil” and a “Werewolf of Cherry Hill,” and both are on the agenda for this 90-minute walking tour of the Argenta Arts District’s spookier corners, hosted by Paul Prater. The tour meets at the foot of the Main Street Bridge at the corners of Washington and Main Streets.

FRIDAY 10/27

JACK HANNA’S ‘INTO THE WILD: LIVE’

7:30 p.m. Reynold Performance Hall. $27-$35.

If you watched any “Late Night with David Letterman” during the 1980s, you probably remember “Jungle” Jack Hanna. Forever enthusiastic about things like wingspan and the intricacies of food chains, his appearances made for some superbly off-script television moments; cranky tiger cubs and terrifying admonitions from Hanna like “That cat, you’ll never hear it. Unless you’re in its stomach, then you’ll hear it,” and “This animal could take you and throw you up into a tree like you were a marshmallow.” The longtime animal whisperer appears at Reynolds with his touring zoological showcase, “Into the Wild.” Here’s some vintage, guileless Jack Hanna narrating some bits from the “Into the Wild” blooper reel.


FRIDAY 10/27

JUSTIN PETER KINKEL-SCHUSTER

8 p.m. The Undercroft. $20.

Guitarist and former Water Liars singer Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster has carved out a place for performing his latest music in cozy, intimate listening venues through a show intermediary called Undertow. The Undercroft, the basement space of Christ Episcopal Church at the corner of Scott and Capitol Streets, should be a perfect spot to take in Kinkel-Schuster’s tiptoeing tunes and slow burns. Get tickets here.

THURSDAY 10/26-SUNDAY 10/29

CIRQUE DE SOLEIL’S ‘CRYSTAL: A BREAKTHROUGH ICE EXPERIENCE’

7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 3:30 p.m. Sat., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sun. $33-$150.

This looks absolutely wild. Cirque de Soleil has taken its talent and put it on ice, literally. There are acrobats, skate ramps, ice skaters and a tagline about a protagonist named Crystal, who evidently “soars through this surreal world at high speed to become what she was always destined to be: confident, liberated, empowered.” 


SATURDAY 10/28

BALLET ARKANSAS HALLOWEEN MASQUERADE BALL

7 p.m. Ballet Arkansas, 520 Main St. $25.

Lost Forty Brewing, Whole Hog Cafe, Soul Fish Cafe and Blue Sail Coffee are descending on this masquerade ball. Come meet the new directors Michael Fothergill and Catherine Garratt Fothergill, and check out the ballet’s new offerings: a children’s series presenting Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” at Pulaski Technical College’s Center for the Humanities and Arts, 2 p.m. Saturday, November 11; and the “Big Bands and Ballet” series, presenting a mixed bill at CHARTS November 10-12 featuring, as a press release reads, “excerpts from Sleeping Beauty, a Little Rock World Premiere and a tribute to the ‘Big Band’ greats of the 1930’s.” 


SUNDAY 10/29

CATFISH ROAD FESTIVAL

2 p.m. Burns Park Soccer Complex, North Little Rock. $1.

This new festival from North Little Rock Parks & Recreation sets up shop Saturday afternoon at the sprawling Burns Park with music from Runaway Planet and Joseph Darr; food from Margo’s, Pat’s Kitchen and Bragg’s Big Bites; Baggo boards; a beer garden; and an NFL GameDay Trailer, and some pocket change will get you into the gates. Children 12 and under get free admission.

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