Weekend To-Do List: Rodney Block at Wildwood, Pride Gay-llery Walk in Hot Springs, Tails and Tunes at the zoo – Arkansas Times

June 1, 2021 News Editor

RODNEY BLOCK
FRIDAY 6/4. Wildwood Park for the Arts. 8 p.m. $25.

“Everybody is multi-dimensional,” trumpeter and bandleader Rodney Block told us. “If you see me today, I have on khakis and Oxford shoes and a button-up shirt and a jacket. This is professional Rodney Block. But if you catch me on the weekend, I may have on a tank top, and I have tattoos. I have a septum piercing. I have a nose piercing. That’s another dimension of me.” Maybe that multidimensionality is what made it inevitable that a musician like Block, who works by day in pharmaceutical and medical sales, would adopt alter egos for himself as his music has shifted shapes over the years — “Black Superman,” for example, a moniker Block adopted a few years back. His forthcoming record is called “Percival Jenkins,” and it takes its name from Andre 3000’s character in the film “Idlewild,” who Block sees as a kindred spirit. “I really identify with him; he’s a music guy, but he’s kinda nerdy. He loves his music.” Expect to be charmed; Block in any of his dimensions is ever adept at breaking the ice in a room (or on Wildwood’s verdant grounds, in this case) with sheer charisma and lyricism; he’s the sort of performer whose even-keeled energy seems to emanate from the bell of his trumpet and set audiences at ease. Admission is $25, and soda, wine and beer options are available at Wildwood’s donation-based bar. Dress is picnic casual. Bring blankets and chairs and grab tickets at wildwoodpark.org. In case of rain, the show moves to the park’s pavilion. And if you can’t catch Block this time around, catch him the following evening at The Library in the Little Rock River Market for a show celebrating the birthday of Block’s keyboardist, Andre Franklin, on June 17 in Fort Smith for the city’s Levitt Amp Music Series, or here in Little Rock on July 4 at Pops on the River, where Block’s performance precedes the annual riverside concert by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

Also at Wildwood: Classical music fans, mark your calendar for Friday, June 25, when soprano Kelly Singer gives a sunset concert of “Mostly Mozart, with a little Von Trapp” at Wildwood’s Butler Gazebo. Get tickets at wildwood.org.

TAILS AND TUNES
THURSDAY 6/3, 6/10, 6/17, 6/24. Little Rock Zoo. 6 p.m. $13 admission for adults, $10 admission for children 3-12, $3 parking.

Every Thursday night in June, the Little Rock Zoo is trotting out some of its fauna for after-hours fun, with wine, beer and food vendors onsite and live music at the Civitan Elephant Stage from 6 p.m.-9 p.m.: Cliff and Susan Erwin Prowse, June 3; The Rodney Block Collective, June 10; The Juice, June 17; and Off the Cuff featuring vocalist LaSheena Gordon, June 24. Sidle up to the omnivorous sloth bears, feed the fish and admire the alpacas until 9 p.m., when all sensible animals quit their revelry and get some shut-eye.

PRIDE GAY-LLERY WALK
FRIDAY 6/4. Downtown Hot Springs. Free-$30.

From Emergent Arts, the Hot Springs LGBT Alliance, Central Theater and the PrideHawks — the student-led gay-straight alliance at National Park College — comes the Pride Gay-llery Walk, a Friday night stroll through downtown Hot Springs. Meet up at Emergent Arts at 5 p.m. for Pride-themed crafts, face painting and refreshments, and to see the “Equilateral Project,” a multi-media art installation created by the PrideHawks and art students at National Park College in celebration of Pride Month. At 6:30 p.m., congregants will follow the sidewalks down Whittington Avenue and onward down Bathhouse Row and to the lawn at the Arlington Hotel, where Superior Bathhouse Brewery will sell you some of the best beer in the state (if you ask us). At 8 p.m., the Mr. and Miss Spa City Pride Pageant commences at Central Theater; get tickets on Eventbrite by searching “Spa City Pride Pageant.” Let’s face it, the best way to counter a hate-filled 2021 legislative session is through community, visibility and maybe some rainbow-hued pageantry; this event boasts all of the above.