
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.
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.