
Ozarks At Large

Senator John McCain was in Little Rock late last week, and he called President Obama's reaction to tension in Syria a failure of American leadership. Speaker of the Arkansas House Davy Carter wanted more time to explain the federally backed Medicaid expansion to constituents, so the vote was postponed until today. And Governor Mike Beebe speaks in favor of changes that are coming for some child welfare programs in the state.

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.
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.

Christina Thomas visits Timothy Nutt, head of special collections for the University of Arkansas library. Nutt says that the library's collections are directly affected by the death of letter writing.



Forty years ago Jed Clampit left his day job to become a professional musician. Saturday night he performed live at KUAF for Mike Shirkey’s program, The Pickin’ Post. We hear one of the songs.
Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, October 25, 2013
Ahead on this fundraising week edition of Ozarks, Michael Johnathon joins us in the studio, our weekly conversation with Michael Tilley of The City Wire and more.
Becca Martin Brown, from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers, says Toto (and Dorothy) will be here soon.
Louis Jordan is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Still, many Arkansans might not know about their native son. Stephen Koch, the host of Arkansongs, has written a new book about him.
Here is the list of the ten clips we used as our salute to The Wizard of Oz (and the explanation for each):
1. Pinball WIZARD by the Who
2. Jed Clampett as played by Buddy Ebsen, the actor originally cast as the...
3. ...TIN MAN, also the inspiration for a song by America.
4. A 1961 documentary about Ham, sent into space by NASA...a real-life FLYING MONKEY.
5. John Cougar Mellencamp sings Rain on the SCARECROW.
6. Famous television doctor, Dr. OZ.
7. The song Africa by TOTO.
8. A 1966 commercial for the game TWISTER. (as in the phenomenon that sent Dorothy to Oz)
9. The Tokens sing the (cowardly?) LION sleeps tonight.
10. Elton John with the title song from his album Goodbye YELLOW BRICK ROAD.
Apologies to the band Kansas and the song Witchy Woman by the Eagles. Maybe next time.
Next year an LLM degree at the University of Arkansas will be obtainable in a face-to-face setting or from a distance.`
at end of show: "Amanda Jewell" by Ricky Skaggs
Michael Tilley, from The City Wire, helps us dissect an odd news week.