
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.
Bentonville native Sheldon Tucker, who’s also a cast member of “Bring It On: The Musical,” talks to us about his career and “Bring It On.”
“White Knuckle” by Ok Go
Over the next several weeks, Ozarks at Large will examine the critical role of social workers in our lives. Arkansas is one of only 20 states that does not mandate the number of social workers placed in school districts.
Today, Christina Thomas visits with social workers in two school districts in our area as well as talks to parents who’ve been helped by them.
“Rain” by Uriah Heep
Lamar Pettus, the interim executive director of the Mount Sequoyah Retreat and Conference Center in Fayetteville, talks about the year-long series of concerts on Mount Sequoyah called Music on the Mountain. Singer-songwriter Randall Shreve performs tonight in the second concert of the series.
Efforts to expand an energy transmission grid used by nine state including Arkansas gets approval; Arkansas-based Acxiom adds jobs; and more – on today’s edition of Ozarks at Large Half-Time.
“Scrooge Counts His Money” by Alan Silvestri
“Willy Wonka, Jr.” comes to Rogers; Mother Nature returns to Hobbs State Park; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art hosts a gallery talk. Becca Bacon Martin from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers has the details.