Texarkana Entertainment Blog

I have always appreciated Elizabeth Taylor – her grace, charm, honesty and passion – but would never say I was an aficionado of her work. I find her passing to be tremendously sad, though, in part for what she represents, as well as when I think of all the great work she did in addition to the incomparable acting (for example, her brave and pioneering work to promote acceptance and treatment for people with HIV and AIDS). To my way of thinking, she was the last of the big stars, those classic Hollywood beauties so prominent in the collective movie imagination from the 1930s onward. They don’t make them like her anymore, unfortunately – that is for sure. The only contemporary movie star who comes close, in my opinion, is Kate Winslet (my workmate Marie says the Brad Pitt-era Angelina Jolie fits the bill). What do you think? Any comparable, contemporary Hollywood beauties in the mold of those old film stars?

- Aaron Brand

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Watercolors have an image issue—well, probably that’s more with me than with others. Usually when I think of watercolors, in my mind’s eye I think of light and airy landscapes, paintings where you can feel how the sweet breeze and sunshine poured over the canvas. Pleasant stuff.

There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, and that art has its place in the world, but a new exhibit at the Regional Arts Center, I believe, shows the diversity possible in watercolor works. Culled from an impressive collection at the Arkansas Arts Center, these 24 pieces include a healthy share of landscapes, but even there included in the exhibit is an interesting array of techniques and approaches, from the warm, organic and earthy feel of “Headin’ West” to the more realistic “Whitaker Hollow.” Other works too, such as “Nude Resting” and a few portraits, underscore the subtle diversity to be found in watercolors. It’s an excellent exhibit and just opened at the RAC, where it will be displayed through May 7. Check out our Friday Accent piece about it: Watercolors at RAC.

Also coming up at the RAC: next Thursday’s Occasional Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. brings the wine out. Los Pinos Ranch Vineyard of Pittsburg, Texas, will be on hand to give tastes of their wines—Sangiovese, Grand Reserve, Pinky Tuscadero and others. Women for the Arts provide the wine pairings, and you can even get down and make some of your own art in the basement. Like all Occasional Thursday events, it’s free and open to the public. More info: 903-792-8681.

- Aaron Brand

Submitted photo. “Boy with Gull,” a watercolor by Hugh Gumpel, is one of the works on display at the Regional Arts Center in Texarkana. The painting is from the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection.

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A quickie roundup:

Live music this weekend is plentiful in Texarkana, starting with Chalk Line 259 tonight and Crooked Halo tomorrow night for Fat Jack’s Oyster and Sports Bar. Hopkins Icehouse has the blues of John Calvin Brewer tonight and then Kiley Bland back in town for Saturday. At the Blues Iguana tonight, you can catch Jasper McAdams, Nude Beach and the fun and talented hometown crew of the band Ida Myrtis. Over at Lee’s Catfish this evening it’s the super trio of Candace Taylor, Anthony G. Parrish and Jimmy Roberts – doesn’t it seem like a great spring day to check out their music on the Lee’s Catfish patio? Brantley Gilbert comes to Shooters Sports Bar tonight as well. The Maytag Opry has its house band and Laquita Moore, Jimmy Calicott and Dwayne Johnson tonight. Mystery Machine plays at Cedar Shake for Saturday night, and the Big Easy downtown on Broad has started hosting Sunday night rap battles.

Do you have some live music coming up to recommend? Let us know!

- Aaron Brand

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I’ve spent much of this morning and early afternoon listening to the lively, inviting music of Clint Needham, a Texarkana-born composer whose commissioned work, “Southern Air,” is slated to be performed at the upcoming Texarkana Symphony Orchestra concert, “Sounds of the Next Generation.” His music is the perfect earworm for a pleasant spring Friday.

Also on tap for this performance on April 9 (7:30 p.m. on a Saturday) at the Perot Theatre is young violinist Elena Urioste (her playing has been described as “passionate” in the New York Times) for a repertoire also including “The Pines of Rome” by Ottorino Respighi and “Violin Concerto in D Minor” by Jean Sibelius.

It’s the TSO’s concluding presentation for the 2010-2011 season, which has seen TSO folks celebrate five years of providing classical music of all stripes to local music lovers. See next Friday’s Accent page for a big advance. Check out more about Needham here at his Website: ClintNeedham.com. And the TSO Website: Texarkana Symphony Orchestra.

- Aaron Brand

- Aaron Brand

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Filmed in and around the Atlanta and Linden, Texas, area last summer, the Dan Jackson-directed rodeo feature “Open Gate” gets its premiere soon at the 44th WorldFest Independent International Film Festival. Slated for a Saturday, April 9, screening (9 p.m.) down in Houston, Texas, at the AMC Studio 30 Theatre, the independent film features Tyler Hoechlin, Agnes Bruckner and William Sadler. Hoechlin stars as a rodeo bull fighter who discovers a seedy underside of the rodeo world: drug running with the bulls. Check out more (including a trailer) at the A Certain Film Productions Website. Also check out our Sunday Accent feature from last July. We had fun watching cast and crew film a scene: On Location in Linden.

- Aaron Brand

Staff file photo by Christena Dowsett. Tyler Hoechlin, lead actor in “Open Gate,” plays a bull fighter (rodeo clown) from East Texas. The production crew was forced to work around unfavorable weather conditions at the Cass County rodeo grounds.

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We’re proud of our award-winning photography department here at the Texarkana Gazette. The photo department recently initiated a new photo blog. Once at the site, you can see hard news and features photos, including a “This Week in Pictures” section, archives of past work, multimedia projects and information on purchasing photos. You can view it here: Texarkana Gazette Photo Blog.

- Aaron Brand

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Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing something of a rare asset in the news world: Morris Craig, editor and publisher of The Monitor in the small, East Texas town of Naples. He’s been at the job more than 50 years, plying the trade of “newsman” and all that entails with perseverance and dedication. He loves the job. He says when he started out in 1956 he had to do it all, a juggling act of duties likely familiar to anyone who works on a weekly. The Texas Press Association honored him last year for his service to Texas news. The fruits of our chat back in the Monitor’s bookkeeping office will appear in Sunday’s paper as the main feature. Check it out.

- Aaron Brand

Staff photo by Evan Lewis. Morris Craig, owner/publisher of the Naples Monitor, at the paper's office on Main Street in Naples, Texas, on Friday, March 11, 2011. Craig got his start at the weekly newspaper in 1956 and is keeping the small town's news viable through a strong emphasis on community coverage.

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I’ve been listening to the new R.E.M. album this past week and it has grown something fierce in me. It recalls the R.E.M. of the late ’80s to the early ’90s, starting with “Green” and going to “Out of Time” and “Automatic for the People.” Happy, positive rock songs and more tender ballads – it’s a rock music era created by the boys from Athens, Ga., that I still appreciate a whole lot. I’d put “Automatic for the People” up there as one of the best rock albums of all time, in fact, and the ’80s already established them as unique visionaries when it came to fashioning indie rock with integrity and lyrical depth. See Sunday’s Accent page for a full review of “Collapse Into Now.”

- Aaron Brand

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Remember the scene in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” when Cameron Frye examines a pleasant painting of people enjoying a beautiful day at the park? That’s Georges Seurat’s “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” Having grown up in Chicago, it’s one of the pieces that made me a fan of Impressionism (think Monet and Renoir) and Post-Impressionism (that’s Seurat), along with other similar works on display at the Art Institute of Chicago (to which Bueller and crew escaped, among other places, on their day of playing hooky from school).

Impressionism comes to Arkansas soon when the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock presents the exhibit “The Impressionists and Their Influence,” a collection of more than 100 pieces which runs from April 1 to June 26. On tap are artists like Monet, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Vuillard and others, including Mary Cassatt, an American. For more info, check out ArkArts.com.

- Aaron Brand

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This Sunday provides a chance to see something new (and old): items locked away in the storage vaults over at the Texarkana Museums System. Their three “Behind the Scenes” tours at the Museum of Regional History and Discovery Place Children’s Museum starts on the hour between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Show up at the MORH (219 N. State Line Ave.) to participate; tickets are $10.

What do  you get? A look at stuff too delicate to display to the public and historic items (such as photos and maps) there’s not enough room to put on view all the time at the three TMS properties now open to the public. The archives and research library are included in the tour. More info: call 903-793-4831.

- Aaron Brand

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