
Ozarks At Large

The Jones Center has plans to renovate some of its outdoor recreational facilities, while the city of Fayetteville has plans for expanding the city's trails network in 2014. And one Springdale-based poultry company issues a recall for more than a million pounds of frozen chicken products.

University of Arkansas Fort Smith's "Read This" 2014 book is "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien.
"Tilted World" by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly, both University of Arkansas graduates, takes readers inside a different era,when Prohibition was big business and foot travel was as likely as horse or car travel in rural Mississippi. The two will read from their novel Friday evening at Nightbird Books in Fayetteville.
If voters fail to approve an $85 rural ambulance fee, Siloam Springs will no longer respond to 911 calls in rural areas surrounding the city.
The Arkansas Department of Health continues to urge residents to get a flu shot as the number of people in the state who have died from flu-related illness continues to climb. The IRS reminds residents that tax season is about to get underway. The risk of wildfire continues to increase across Arkansas. And Sam's Club announces that it will lay off roughly 2 percent of its overall workforce.


Here is the list of clips for our Denver/Colorado montage. We'll have Seattle next week.
1. Ho Hey by Colorado-based band The Lumineers.
2. Robin Williams, as Mork, introduces himself to Boulder, Colorado (where the show was set).
3. Earth, Wind and Fire (with three Colorado natives) sings Boogie Wonderland.
4. Jack Nicholson crashes through in The Shining (at a Colorado hotel).
5. Voices from South Park, Colorado.
6. The song Colorado, My Home from the Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
7. Joan Collins and Linda Evans meet for the first time on the Denver-based soap opera Dynasty.
8. A 1970s commercial for Coors.
9. Colorado native Ralph Edwards surprises yet another celebrity on This is Your Life.
10. John Denver with Rocky Mountain High. Of course.
Apologies to: Lon Chaney and Douglas Fairbanks (how do you get silent stars into an audio montage?) and Hattie McDaniel.
1. Ho Hey by Colorado-based band The Lumineers.
2. Robin Williams, as Mork, introduces himself to Boulder, Colorado (where the show was set).
3. Earth, Wind and Fire (with three Colorado natives) sings Boogie Wonderland.
4. Jack Nicholson crashes through in The Shining (at a Colorado hotel).
5. Voices from South Park, Colorado.
6. The song Colorado, My Home from the Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
7. Joan Collins and Linda Evans meet for the first time on the Denver-based soap opera Dynasty.
8. A 1970s commercial for Coors.
9. Colorado native Ralph Edwards surprises yet another celebrity on This is Your Life.
10. John Denver with Rocky Mountain High. Of course.
Apologies to: Lon Chaney and Douglas Fairbanks (how do you get silent stars into an audio montage?) and Hattie McDaniel.
Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks at Large, though the next presidential election is more than two years away, some are already ready for HIlary. And as the Bentonville School District grows, so too does its course offerings. We visit a junior high school as students prepare for mountain biking. Plus, we learn about a Bentonville before Sam Walton.
Forty-five states, including Arkansas have adopted Common Core career and college readiness K-12 education standards. But under the technology-enriched curriculum, cursive handwriting is optional. A St. Joseph third grade class in Fayetteville helps us to parse the implications.
Becca Martin Brown of Northwest Arkansas Media tells us about a showing of They Were Promised the Sea which is the latest presentation in the Caravanserai series.
"Becca and the Blue Capo" by Trace Bundy
In case you need a spot to duck into in between April showers, local and regional art galleries and exhibition spaces will have plenty for you to soak up throughout the month, including exhibits at the Arts Center of the Ozarks, the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, the John Brown University art gallery, and elsewhere.
Here are our ten clips from our montage dedicated to April Showers. Well, dedicated to rain at least…
B.J. Thomas sings "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Hugh Grant and Andie Macdowell admit their mutual love at the end of Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Prince sings "Purple Rain."
Bill Cosby with an early TV rendition of his famous Noah routine.
Mahalia Jackson with the gospel great "Didn’t It Rain".
Gene Kelly about to launch into the best three minutes ever recorded in a movie musical.
Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst exchange a rainy kiss as Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson.
Tom Hanks (as Forrest Gump) describes the many kinds of rain.
Sam Neil tries to save kids from a hungry T. Rex in Jurassic Park.
Audrey Hepburn finds the cat…and George Peppard…at the end of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The Mancini notes should have given this away.
Apologies to: The Weather Girls, Andy’s escape in Shawshank Redemption, the bubbling skeletons in Poltergeist, the Eurythmics, John Wayne in the Quiet Man and all those movies with Notebook in the title. Maybe next time.
The proposed expansion of Arkansas' Medicaid system cleared a preliminary hurdle in the House yesterday, though final approval is still pending. And families who live near the Pegasus Pipeline rupture in Mayflower will be allowed to return to their homes this weekend.
"Situation (Deadline Mix)" by Yazoo