Bittersweet note haunts final song
HIS SWAN SONG:
Arkansan and country music legend Glen Campbell, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2011 and is now 78, has released what is being deemed his final song and a music video for it.
The song, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” written for his wife, Kim Woollen, is bittersweet. As he performs it, the accompanying video includes photographs of the Delight native through the years and with his relatives and friends as he sings of never having to suffer the pain of missing his loved ones.
In the years since his diagnosis, Campbell has created a final album, gone on a lengthy farewell tour and shared his story in a documentary film, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me. He also has appeared before Congress in Washington as his youngest daughter, Ashley, spoke about the need for more research and resources to combat Alzheimer’s. He also has been honored with awards from the Alzheimer’s Association and a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys in 2012, during which he performed on the awards show.
Visit tinyurl.com/ qe5nge4 to view the music video.
RESTORATION NOTES:
The welcome-home concert for Central High School’s 1927 grand piano, believed to be original to the Little Rock school, has been set for 2 p.m. Sept. 27 in the school auditorium, said Julie Keller of the Tiger Foundation, a private, nonprofit group that supports the high school. The event will be free and open to to the public and is set weeks after the start of the 2015-16 school year.
Keller led the fundraising efforts that collected more than $37,000 to restore the 1927 Steinway & Sons piano.
The piano is undergoing restoration and a permanent, lockable storage compartment for it has been built in a locked room at the rear of the school’s stage.
PRINTS FROM THE PAST:
A new exhibit on Arkansas photographer Mike Disfarmer opened at the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College, State University of New York, earlier this month. The exhibit runs though March 22. Disfarmer was a commercial portrait photographer in Heber Springs from 1915 to 1959. The exhibit includes about 50 examples of his portraits on postcardsize paper as well as 30 posthumous enlargements made between 1976 and 2005. Supporting materials on display along with the photographs include newspaper articles, historical journals and audio edited from earlier interviews with those who knew Disfarmer. The exhibit marks the first museum survey to display the vintage prints alongside the enlargements and to examine how Disfarmer’s images have been revalued and recast through the years.
DOG DAYS OF WINTER?
The 2015 edition of 365 Dogs page-a-day calendar by Workman Publishing features an Arky barky. Beast, a Pekingese owned by Dan and Beth Dickey of Little Rock, appears on the page for Tuesday, Feb. 24.