The Waves of COP 24/7

CHER Cometh...Again!

Just when you thought that you had heard the last of Cher...there was a proverbial Not! As one who enjoyed her "farewell tour" that seemed to never end, it seems that she can continue to rock it out and sell out venues all over again. The then Farewell Tour that later morphed into the" Never Can Say Goodbye Tour" played over 326 global dates including 2 swings through Little
Rock! And now the grand pop diva, now 67 states that...are you ready for it..."this is her farewell "farewell" tour and will be her last. Well what else would a diva of this stature say?

To skip to the skinny, CHER will roll into town this Friday, March 28, 8pm at Verizon Arena. From what I can discern, tickets are still available if you care to go. Prices range from $36.50 upwards to $127 for floor seating. I would state that no matter where you are in the arena, you can catch the Cher vibe and according to the Facebook dedicated to the tour, many in the area are ready to see her in action.

To add to the fun, TRAX's which has a plumb spot in the mix at 415 Main Street will have a "all things CHER...pre-show event", which will most likely include their happy hour. According to bartender Aaron Garcia, he has high hopes of a packed house after receiving many calls inquiring as to what will be going down. After the show and across town, The House of Avalon kicks an after party being hosted at Club Sway, 415 Louisiana, 10 pm start time. They will be offering beverage specials, no doubt hot Cher mixes and CD giveaways. Not sure if these will be her latest CD or not.

The tour jump started 3/22/14 in Phoenix and is slated to run through July and will feature special guest Pat Benatar and Neal Giraldo will be on the Little Rock stop with gal pay Cyndi Lauper who stormed the stage during the past tour will join again on the tours April leg. If you are going, then by all means shoot some pictures and share them with us on our Facebook page!

Sheridan Yearbook Flap Get's Pushback

In the last few weeks the Net lit up with folks talking about Taylor Ellis's coming out story and six other personal accounts by other students being left out the schools year book. His specific situation became a flashpoint that resulted in individuals offering assistance including what I learned was a person willing to actually "pay" for an addendum or insert featuring his story.

This matter also got national media play such as the New York Daily News and a swiftly organized visit from HRC's Chad Griffin who swooped into town to make the case for his inclusion in the project. With all the TV cameras turned off, crowd disbursed back to their daily lives, and that "news" now seen as old news, we now hear from Sophomore Nick Smith who also had a profile.

His detailed his best friend who died last year. Smith found out it wasn't going to be in the yearbook on the news. While it was a shock, Nick believes all of the profiles were too personal, and he's not thrilled with the attention Ellis' activism has brought.

"I'm kind of disappointed to the level [Taylor] took it," Smith said, "It's got a bunch of attention, negative attention towards the school, towards us, and like I said, it went from the six stories to his one story.  His story got taken out because he was gay... I mean, we all got taken out."

Although his story was pulled, Nick said he will continue the memory of his best friend, and will gladly tell his story to anyone who asks.  Even though HRC has continued to ask for the Ellis profile to be reinstated, COP 24/7 ponders the thought of was exactly was the ROI ( return on investment) for this action that might could have been better channeled by expending all cost involved in developing what's already in place in Arkansas. Furthermore, I have questions about the recent HRC assessment which also will involve some meet up's to discuss their findings as to what is driving this and with my eyebrow raised, I'm always interested in following the money and who is zooming who?

I find this extremely disturbing as local community based groups stay in struggle mode and only
steps away from being possibly extinct. Yes folks that means "out of business," of doing the boot's on the ground work that doesn't get to fly off to a  fully paid staff's, glistening office building or high profile events featuring Vice President Biden.

Unfortunately, the folks left behind are doing what they do daily, gather what they can from where ever they can get a dime, do more with less and still stay in place to address the "human rights" issues that occur each and every day without much fanfare. Now tell me who is going to swoop in fix any of this if it fails to exist. Let's all think about that for a moment...