Two groups announce intentions to file suit to block a new law that they say would make it more difficult to circulate petitions to get initiatives on the general election ballot. Two area schools get recognized, one for ESL proficiency and the other for overall achievement. And the Joe Martin Stage Race gets underway, with cycling traffic set to peeve some motorists on certain area roads this weekend.
Ozarks At Large
Here is the key to our clips heard in this morning’s montage of famous cemeteries, graveyards and funerals in pop culture:
- Thriller by Michael Jackson. The most famous dance routine set in a graveyard.
- Opening moments from the original Night of the Living Dead.
- The original “graveyard smash”, "The Monster Mash" by Bobby Pickett.
- A wonderful Lee Marvin stumbles into a funeral in the underrated comedy, Cat Ballou.
- Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman have a rough night in the cemetery in Young Frankenstein.
- Opening moments from a 1940 film version of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
- Abe Vigoda and Al Pacino is a pivotal scene at Don Corleone’s funeral in The Godfather.
- Theme from the HBO series Six Feet Under.
- Reginald Owen as Scrooge in the 1938 film A Christmas Carol as he sees his own grave.
- The Crypt Keeper from an opening episode of the HBO series Tales From the Crypt.


We continue our series previewing this weekend's poetry festival at Nightbird Books. Katie Nichol grew up in St. Cloud, Minnesota and says she started writing poetry when she was about 12 years old:
Artosphere is just around the corner, and as a result, a full slate of activities are on the schedule at Walton Arts Center.
The Fifth Annual Celebration of Heroes event benefiting the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the American Red Cross is next Saturday May 4. Today, we meet a local hero who saved the life of a three-year-old girl.
Emily Chase recently received a national honor for her thesis work at the University of Arkansas. She told us about the creation of her paper gowns.
Becca Martin Brown says that Fleetwood Mac, Little Big Town and Jewell are a few of the music acts to keep an eye out for in the coming days.
A Fort Smith homeless agency halts its plans to move to a homeless campus until certain criteria are met. Ozarks at Large’s Christina Thomas takes us on a tour of the organization and potential campus.

Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Ahead on this edition of Weekend Ozarks, the area's first green cemetery, plus a conversation and silly questions with Frank Tavares, whose voice can be heard reading underwriting announcements on NPR.
Bill Parry, from the cast of Memphis, talks to us about the musical, life on the road and the changes theater has had in the past couple of decades. Memphis is at Walton Arts Center through the weekend.
"Big Love" performed by Will Mann, from the Memphis soundtrack
The Valley of the Vapors music festival turns Hot Springs into a hotbed of DIY and experimental music each March. There's a new documentary film out about the fest making its Northwest Arkansas debut at Nightbird Books in Fayetteville this Saturday. Ozarks at Large's Katy Henriksen has more.
The Arkansas Legislature considers a ban on the parental rights of convicted rapists, as well as a bill barring school districts from considering home school students as public school students. Plus, University of Arkansas chancellor G. David Gearhart calls for an independent audit of the university's advancement division.
"We Will Become Silhouettes (Matthew Dear's Not Scared Mix)" by The Postal Service
In reaction to the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school massacre, Arkansas schools continue to bolster security—from hiring armed guards to installing heavy surveillance. We check districts around the region, talk with school security experts, look at current state legislation, and hear from former U.S. Congressman Asa Hutchinson on the status of his National School Shield Emergency Response Program, commissioned by the National Rifle Association.
We talk to an expert who has studied norovirus for 10 years about the symptoms and conditions to lead to its exposure to humans.