Who: Hosted by members and sponsors of Block Street Business Association. Everyone welcome to attend.

Where: Block Avenue in Downtown Fayetteville (from Dickson Street to Mountain Street and all the in-between nooks and crannies)

When: 11 a.m. until dark, May 20

Why: Let’s celebrate the wonderful diversity and funkiness that make up the unique Block Street downtown district. This is a party by Fayetteville for Fayetteville!

Cost: Absolutely free to attend and to participate in activities. Some vendors will have food, goods and services for purchase.

LIVE MUSIC

Bank of Fayetteville Goodfolk Stage

David Singleton

Emily Kaitz & Friends

Mike Sumler

Block Street Pickers

And more …

ZoneOne Stage

1 p.m.: The Erratic Ninja – Dirt Nap (Chill Out/Electronica)

2 p.m.: Ultrasonic Nozzle – Audible Chocolate (Chill Out/Electronica)

3 p.m.: Randal Soeung – Aerosault.com, Headset Rec, Household Science (House)

4 p.m.: Jason DuB – Jambalay Records, Aerosault.com, Techdics House Audio (House/TechHouse)

5 p.m.: Chaz Bizar – Aerosault.com, Theoretic Records and BCR (Breaks/HipHop/Electronica)

6 p.m.: DJ Merl – Aerosault.com, Theoretic Records and Dirt Nap (Party Jams)

7 p.m.: Domewrekka – ZoneOne (Dub/Dubstep)

8 p.m.: Xaphan vs. Zac Slade – ZoneOne (Elektro/House/Electronica)

Sound Warehouse JR’s Lightbulb Club Stage

1 p.m.: Messy Sparkles

2:15 p.m.: Teenagers

3:30 p.m.: Thunderlizards

4:45 p.m.: A+ Set Up

5:30 p.m.: Color Club

6:45 p.m.: Glory Bones

8 p.m.: Ray Porter (Live Comedy)

8:45 p.m.: Fauxnz

Little Bread Company at Block Street Businesses Stage (Spring and Block)

11:30 a.m.: Terra Nova Tribal Dancers

12:30 p.m.: Afrique Aya

1:30 p.m.: Farmer and the Markets

2:30 p.m.: Shawn James

3:30 p.m.: Snake Eyes ‘n’ the Bug Band

4:30 p.m.: Devil’s Promenade

5:30 p.m.: Amanda Rey & Ross Hutchinson

6:30 p.m.: Hot Bravado Trio

7:30 p.m.: Trash Can Bandits

Artist’s Laboratory Theatre Sheet Fort Experience Kid’s Stage

11:30 a.m.: Brandi Hoofnagle Puppets Playing Pretend

12:30 p.m.: JoAnn Kaminsky

1:30 p.m.: Shout Lulu

2:30 p.m.: Marshall Mitchell, The Singing Cowboy

3:30 p.m.: Shannon Wurst

4:30 p.m.: Terra Nova Belly Dancers

5:30 p.m.: JoAnn Kaminsky

Adventure Subaru Tables & Ale Stage

12:15 p.m.: Swimming

1:45 p.m.: Leah & The Mojo Doctors

3:15 p.m.: Honeyshine

4:45 p.m.: Surf de Soleil

6:15 p.m.: Charliehorse

7:45 p.m.: 1 oz. Jig

FOOD VENDORS

Squeaky Wheel Cart (Sliders)

Diamond Bear Brewery

Mountain Bird Coffee

Greenhouse Grille

Arsaga’s Coffee and Lemonade

Kind Kitchen

Petra Cafe

Hammontree’s

Joseph Anfield/Joe Kool’s Italian Ice

Gilberto Alanis (Bagged snacks, candies, drinks and ice cream)

HIGHLIGHTED EVENTS

All day: Art Piano

All day: Block Street Block Party Character Photo Station

All day: Fire Truck

All day: Giant Checkers

All day: Chalk Drawing Competition

5:15-8:15 p.m.: Hot Air Balloon Rides, $8 per person

All day: Pony Rides

2 p.m.: Waiters’ Race

Jump Roping Competition at I.M. Spa

Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Places

$5 Entry Donation goes to OMNI Center

1 p.m.: Elementary to 5th Grade Competition

2 p.m.: All Ages Competition

4 p.m.: Relay Elimination

5 p.m.: Double Dutch

All other times – Jump rope for free!

Every half hour all day: Adult Tricycle Races

All day: Bouncy House

All day: Tutu Making

All day: Puppet Making

Fat Tire Bike Raffle to benefit Bike City

All day: Block Party T-Shirt Tie-Dying

All day: Cox Communications Water Booth and Sandcastle Building Station

All day: Paint and Play Station

All day: I Spy Game

Rachel Birdsell is a freelance writer and artist. You can drop her a line at rabirdsell@gmail.com

Last year the innovative and critically acclaimed American rock group Wilco released its eighth studio album, “The Whole Love.”  They played quite a few festivals early this year, but have since taken a two-month break. Fayetteville will host the band’s first show for this leg of the tour at the Arkansas Music Pavilion today, May 10.
“We like touring this part of the country,” says Pat Sansone, who plays guitar, keyboard and a whole host of other instruments for the band. “I’m from Mississippi, so the South always feels like home to me.”
From the beginning through 2004, Wilco’s lineup remained unsteady. Musicians joined and left after almost every release following the 1995 debut “A.M.”, with the band’s only constants being Jeff Tweedy on lead vocals and guitar, and John Stirratt on bass. But in 2004, when they teamed up with Pat Sansone and avant-garde guitarist Nels Cline, as well as drummer Glenn Kotche and keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, the band’s roster was finally solidified. Together, this lineup released “Sky Blue Sky” in 2007, Grammy-nominated “Wilco (the Album)” in 2009 and then 2011’s “The Whole Love.”
“For “The Whole Love” there was more of a conscious effort to get back into using the studio,” Sansone said. “Not to use a cliché, but we moved back toward really using the studio as an instrument, as they say. We decided not to worry about the stage, and to just focus on making an interesting sounding record, using all the colors and instruments and toys we had at our disposal.”
It’s on the album’s opener “Art of Almost” that this studio-playing is most noticeable; the epic seven-minute lush-but-crunchy bass ride features gorgeous string movements, digitally affected drum samples, sewer pipe synth sounds and a furious storm of guitar shredding. To date, it’s some of the strongest and most potent sensory indulgence the band has offered up.
And it’s appropriate that this album bears such a uniquely strong mark of the studio for the band; “The Whole Love” is the first album to be released on Wilco’s own record label, dBpm Records.
“I think because of the way music is consumed now, these days there’s just less and less of a need for a record company,” Sansone commented. “It’s gotten to the point where it makes more sense for us to handle those things ourselves. And that’s one of the reasons why I might say “The Whole Love” has been my favorite Wilco album to record; I got very involved in the production and the mixing of this record, and that was really enjoyable for me to do. It was great to get to use that part of my interests and skill sets for the band.”
Sansone also wrote some of the string arrangements for the album, including for the lonely midnight desert ballad “Black Moon.”  Slow-moving and pensive, the strings vibrate and hover in the air as Tweedy sings, “And I’m waiting for you, waiting forever / Are you awake now, too?”
“I think everybody in the band feels like they were given more free rein to do what they want to do,” Tweedy was quoted as saying.  “I feel really good about the way the songs have all come together, and the lyrics especially.  I don’t feel like I’m repeating myself, which is the best I think you can hope for after writing, I don’t know, a couple thousand songs.”
Rolling Stone ranks “The Whole Love” as the eighth best album of 2011, remarking that Wilco is “pretty much the only band from the Nineties this side of Radiohead who keeps experimenting and growing its audience at the same time.” And in fact, because of the band’s genre-spanning musical catalogue and consistent critical acclaim, very many listeners have called the band “the American Radiohead.”
“There are worse things we could be called,” laughed Sansone. “I think that nickname started popping up around when Wilco released “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” in 2001. Radiohead had just released “Kid A,” and there was probably a feeling that there were these two bands that, around the same time, put out records that were kind of left turns from the records they had made before. I don’t agree with it completely, but it’s understandable.”
Whether you think the nickname is fitting or not, there’s no denying that, like Radiohead, Wilco has redefined their sound quite a few times. With each record, the band’s sonic palette continues to grow and evolve.
“And we’re still really enjoying playing the new material, and still kind of discovering it for ourselves. So I would expect a healthy dose of our new album at the concert.”

— Expressive

As lame as some creative writing exercises sound — “Write a haiku about what you had for lunch!” — a thinly veiled portrait of your chicken salad will cause way less relationship stress than “Turn your fight with your girlfriend into a blog post!” (And no, you can’t just change her name from Molly to Holly so nobody but your 546 Facebook friends will know it’s her.)

Yes, I’ve heard: privacy is reportedly dead. It was pronounced dead in 2006 at an Internet security conference. This doesn’t mean that it is actually dead or should be — just that lots of people are finding their dirty laundry uploaded to Instagram and their private conversations turned into content. Chances are, those nonchalantly ripping away others’ privacy online would be spraining their tongues tsk-tsking if somebody did it the nonvirtual way, like by hijacking the mic at an outdoor concert series: “My girlfriend, Molly … second row, that blonde in the red … FORGOT to tell me she was weapons-grade slutty in college. She’d have a tat of that McDonald’s “x million served” sign, except that there’s no room on her disturbingly small breasts.”

Like websites, relationships these days seem to require a privacy policy — one agreed upon in advance (before anybody becomes relationship-o-tainment) and maintained in the event of a breakup. Clearly, your preferred policy would be “By sharing your life with me, you agree to share it with anyone with an Internet connection.” Sorry, but the more private person gets to set the standards, and sadly, this woman only wants to be your girlfriend, not your cure for writer’s block. Yeah, I know, you’d think it’d be any woman’s dream, sitting with you in some out-of-the-way Paris cafe as you chronicle her shortcomings on your netbook.

But, wait — if you and your girlfriend have a fight and nobody comments on it on Facebook, how do you know your lives are worth living? The answer is, decide which you want more, this girlfriend or an audience. This isn’t to say you have to stop writing about her; you just don’t get to hit “publish.” Try to see this as an opportunity to expand your writerly horizons. Go do things you can write about: Climb something. Fish for marlin. Drop in on the Spanish Civil War.

And remember, everybody’s got a story, and lots of people are just dying to have theirs told. Seek them out, look deep into their eyes, and say, “So, tell me the horrors you experienced as a prisoner of war, and would you mind not leaving any participles dangling?”

Early voting has begun for the May 22 ballot on which Washington County voters will decide whether to approve a sales tax that would pay for the expansion of mass transit in the county. The sales tax, which would be the equivalent of 25 cents for each $100 spent, would provide $7.5 million for the transit services. Current funding is split between Razorback Transit and Ozark Regional Transit, however, Razorback Transit declined to be included in the ballot’s provisions.

Conversation surrounding Washington County’s mass transit infrastructure began in 2010 when unexpected population growth pushed the county into a different category of federal funding. For more than two years, officials at Ozark Regional Transit have been investigating plans to secure additional money and expand the current service to accommodate the population growth. According to the Northwest Arkansas Transit Development Plan, the existing transit system is inadequate to meet the current and growing transportation needs of the Northwest Arkansas Region. The report goes on to say that if the region hopes to make mass transit a viable alternative to single occupant vehicles, an expansion is needed.

Michale Lanier, a member of Advocates for Public Transit, echoes this sentiment, saying, “We don’t want to just maintain the transit system that we have, we want to expand it to be a viable alternative to automobile travel.”

Advocates for the tax say the time is right to begin addressing mass transit infrastructure in Washington County. In the past 20 years, the population of Washington and Benton Counties has increased from 70,000 to 295,000 — more than fourfold.

Phil Pumphrey, the executive director of Ozark Regional Transit, points out 15 percent of that population is at or below the poverty level, and low-income residents currently make up a larger percentage of the ridership.

Seniors and those with disabilities also benefit from paratransit services, which are designed to provide transportation to those who are not physically capable of accessing a fixed bus stop.

If the tax passes, it would add about $38 in sales tax per year for the average resident, Lanier said. He said those with low incomes are the ones most affected by sales tax increases.

This tax, however, would work to aid them. It takes thousands of dollars a year to run and maintain a car; but a resident can ride the bus for $360 a year.

“It will bring back more to those in the county than it will take away,” Lanier says.

In addition to significant savings for riders, advocates for the tax say by spending money to promote local transportation, they will be keeping more money in the local economy.

When paying for gas directly at the pump, less than a nickel of the purchase remains in the local economy. By cutting down on individual gas purchases and investing in mass transit, consumers can keep dollars rotating through the local economy.

Currently, only 22 percent of residents living in Washington and Benton counties live within a quarter-mile of a bus stop. If ORT receives the requested amount of money, that radius will apply to 46 percent of residents.

Not to mention 68 percent of businesses — another selling point for advocates who stand behind the tax as a booster for the local economy.

In a Northwest Arkansas Times article, Pumphrey said, “It’s a local solution to a local need.”

Mike Malone sees this as a potential problem for future regional infrastructure. Malone, who is the president of Northwest Arkansas Council, said in the same article “They’re bringing you a one-county solution to a four-county problem.”

Currently, Ozark Regional Transit serves Carroll, Madison, Benton and Washington counties. The Benton County Quorum Court did not accept the bid to put the sales tax on the ballot. If the sales tax is passed, Ozark Regional Transit will continue to serve the Rogers and Bentonville as long as the local funding is provided.

Another concern among critics is the upcoming statewide tax on the November ballot. If approved, the half-cent tax will provide $400 million for roads. Those who support the state highway tax fear approving one increase in sales tax will be a deterrent in receiving approval for the other.

However, according to a survey conducted by the University of Arkansas, when voters were asked to choose between public transportation and highways and roads, 66 percent said both should receive funding.

I came to the United States when I was 3 years old. I was born in Gomez Palacio, Durango, which is a state in the northern part of Mexico.

I can’t recall much of my first home. I do however remember the scent of fresh-made tortillas and the sound of my grandfather plucking away at his old Spanish guitar.

Honestly, I don’t remember anything about coming to the United States. I know what I’ve been told because I asked my parents. I know that we flew in whenever I was 3, and that was it.

We don’t really like talking about it. It is slightly shameful, and it’s like opening up a closed wound.

My mom knew how to read and write in English. She started teaching me little words here and there in Mexico.

After arriving in the United States, we moved to Bentonville. One of my uncles had already established a home here.

My parents really liked the calm atmosphere that was in Bentonville. They decided to stay there also because of the schools.

I had a cousin here who spoke English and Spanish, and we would play together, and he would speak to me in English, and I would speak to him in Spanish. By the time I was 5, I was fully bilingual.

I was the only Hispanic child in my kindergarten class. No one looked like me and no one spoke like me. My skin tone was different. My hair was very different. My mom would braid my hair and try to make sure it was very slick and very clean and very proper.

In schools in Mexico, if you went to school and didn’t look clean and proper, they would return you to your home until you were proper, and then you would return to school. That was the mentality.

Just speaking another language, that was something that made me very different. There was one student who slightly looked like me, and I went up to her and started speaking, in Spanish, saying “Hi, How are you? My name is Leticia*. Where are you from?” I was really excited because I finally saw someone who looked like me. She stopped for a second, gave me a really weird look, said, “I speak English” and ran off. I later found out she was Cherokee.

Because I was the only one, and I grew up with the same kids, it was never an issue. All through first through fifth grade, they would take me out of recess and have me translate for new parents that were putting their kids in school. Talk about a huge responsibility for a 10-year-old.

There were hints of being undocumented, when I was younger. Everyone would talk about going to Mexico. Elementary kids talking about trips they’d gone on with their parents.

They would ask me if I had been there, and I would say, “ I haven’t. “

I knew something was going on because we couldn’t leave.

I knew that I wasn’t born here. I knew that I had limitations. I knew that it wasn’t something that should be talked about with people who were not close to us. My status was never discussed with anyone outside the family because I knew that it didn’t need to be talked about with anyone who didn’t already know.

In the early ’90s there were a lot of immigration roundups at the factories and plants where immigration officers would go in and ask people about their documentation. If things didn’t match up, they would take them and they would get deported. This was something that was very much talked about in our community because it was where almost everyone I knew was working. My parents, my uncles, my aunts — everyone we associated with. This was where everyone went to work for the first couple of years when you moved to Arkansas.

I was very well aware, even then, that at any point in time, if any of our statuses were revealed, we could get picked up and we could be deported.

Whenever we would have family dinners or any kind of family gathering, I would hear, “Did you hear about so-and-so?” There are many cases where one parent is deported and the other stayed in the states because the children were in school.

These are adult problems, but these are things you can’t help but hear in passing conversation.

It wasn’t until you get to high school and everyone is getting their driver’s licenses and their college applications. It wasn’t until then that I saw my limitations. Growing up, I led a very content life. I didn’t have to worry about my status until high school, and that’s a big turning point for a lot of undocumented students.

It finally hits you.

I can’t apply for a job.

I can’t drive.

I can’t go on these school trips because it’s potentially dangerous.

I can’t fly.

I can’t take out a state-issued ID.

s  s  s

Students in my position, we’re kind of like Generation 1.5 — because we’re caught in between. We’re not first or second, we’re in the middle. We’ve seen what our parents go through, which are first generation issues. But we ourselves go through the assimilation process as the second generation would be doing — losing the accent, losing the history and really accommodating to what your new country has to offer for you, and you slowly lose your identity as an immigrant from X country and begin becoming an American. We’re caught in the middle because we don’t qualify as citizens.

I feel like I am Mexican because I was born there, but I also feel American because I grew up here. All I know is this American culture. I get glimpses of the Mexican culture through what my parents say and celebrations that we have, but I don’t have a full grasp like they do. We really are caught in the middle of both identities.

My favorite Mexican celebration, is Dia de los Muertos. We don’t do it as much here. I wish we would though. I’ve only seen it in books, but we always send money to my grandmother so they can decorate the house and send flowers to those who have passed on. It’s not a celebration, but it’s not a time to be sad. It’s a celebration of their life and carrying on their memory.

My grandfather lived with us for a few years when we first moved to the United States. He would sing me to sleep and tell me about our home back in Mexico.

He had been in a trio band when he was younger. When he wasn’t working as a seasonal worker, he would go back and play in his band. He would serenade people or go play at a club. On top of being a hardcore worker he was a hardcore musician. He would play old bolero songs, Spanish finger picking on the guitar, just beautiful, beautiful songs.

He talked about the dirt roads by our home in Mexico and how nice it smelled after the rain. The food he missed — chile rellenos and homemade tortillas and black Mexican coffee. He drank it black and scalding hot. He was big and strong. He was a very tall man. Very tan. He had a reddish brown tan, very strong Native American features and broad shoulders from working in the fields. His hair was black.

One of the songs he would always sing to me — because I would always throw temper tantrums — because both of my parents would be working, and I barely ever saw them.

And he would sing this song called “What’s wrong with the little girl?”

¼La niÖa triste que tiene la niÖa?

The girl is sad, what is wrong with this girl?

QuÎ puedo yo hacer para que sonrÒa?

What can I do to make her smile?

No puedo reÒrme me dijo la niÖa.

I cannot smile said the little girl.

Mi amor ha muertoy muerto mi vida.

My love has passed on and so my life has ended.

Coro

Chorus

SeÖor, ayÜdala dios mÒo por que a ella

Lord … help her my Lord because

Yo la quiero con todo mi coraz×n.

I love her with all my heart.

SeÖor…te pido que la ayudes es mi niÖa

Lord … I ask you to help her she is too young

y en su alma no tiene que haber dolor.

and in her soul she should never have such pain.

No quisiera nunca verte triste niÖa.

I don’t ever want to see you sad little girl.

Nunca verte triste amor de mi vida.

I never want to see you sad, love of my life.

Coro se repite

Repeat the chorus

¼La niÖa triste, que tiene la niÖa?

The girl is sad, what is wrong with this girl?

¼QuÎ puedo yo hacer para que sonrÒa?

What can I do to make her smile?

It’s an old song.

s  s  s

He moved back to Mexico so my grandmother wouldn’t be alone.

We talked a lot throughout the years, only by phone.

He passed away from old age. He lived a very good life, but I remember him one way, and he was not that way the last time I saw a picture of him. His voice changed drastically from what I remembered it to be. It used to be really strong and very manly, a booming, low bass voice. And then it started slowly deteriorating.

We never talked about my status. We always talked about how all of this was going to pass, and I was going to be able to come back home, and we were going to be able to see each other, and it would be OK.

I think out of everyone, my mom and I took it the worst. My siblings, because they were born here, they were able to travel back and forth; so they got to see him and enjoy him for a couple of summers.

I last saw him when I was 10 years old. I am now 23.

One night my dad was talking to a family member in Mexico, and he said we live in a giant prison. I had never thought of it that way.

We can roam around the grounds and work the land but we cannot escape the borders that separate us from the outside world.

STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE

J.T. Wampler, brewmaster and owner of Tanglewood Branch Beer Company in south Fayetteville, pours a pint of his English India Pale Ale — the first of his locally brewed beer — for a customer to sample Friday, May 4, 2012, from behind the bar using one of several taps custom made by local artist Rae Russell. The taps were made using roots unearthed on Russell’s Washington County land and will be used on Wampler’s locally produced brews.

PREMIER BEER TASTING TONIGHT AT TANGLEWOOD BRANCH BEER, CO.

Where is it? HERE!

- BACON, BEER AND THE FANTASTIC MATT JENKINS FOR LIVE MUSIC!!

Foam Fest passes come with a mug, live music and free rein to sample international and national brews. Locally crafted brews from West Mountain Brewery, Hog Haus, Fossil Cove Brewery and Tanglewood Branch will also be featured.

Foam Fest attendees can sample their brews while enjoying live music from Tiffany Christopher, Durham, Bill Dollar and Loose Change. Local food vendors Hammontree’s, Mellow Mushroom and Hog Haus Brewing Co. will also be on site. Designated drivers will receive a free gift of appreciation at the gate as well as free nonalcoholic beverages.

Foam Fest organizer Brandon Karn says, “I was motivated to start a craft beer appreciation festival in Northwest Arkansas because this region has potential to be the craft beer headquarters of Arkansas, and the Fayetteville Foam Fest will allow our community to enjoy craft beers that might not normally be available.”

Tickets are available for $30 at Jammin Java, U.S. Pizza, West Mountain Brewery, Hog Haus, Brewski’s, Mellow Mushroom, Hammontree’s, The Glass Station, The Mustache and other local Fayetteville shops.

Proceeds benefit Feed Fayetteville, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to alleviate hunger and create food security in our community by cultivating a sustainable local food network. For more information about Feed Fayetteville’s work, visit the website at www.feedfayetteville.org. To participate in the ongoing conversation, join our Facebook page by visiting Feed Fayetteville or follow  on Twitter at feedfayville.

For more information about Fayetteville Foam Fest, contact Brandon Karn at 443-2233 or by email at Brandon@jammin-java.com. Visit the website at www.fayettevillefoamfest.com or find us on Facebook at Fayetteville Foam Fest.