Straight to yard, as the pig flies
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE — Rogers native Susan Stoltz has been calling the Hogs for years, but she never really believed one would find its way into her yard in a gated community in La Quinta, Calif.
Stoltz, a 1974 University of Arkansas graduate and staunch Razorback supporter, awoke April 28 to find half the remnants of a two-story inflatable pig, which had floated away from the nearby Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival the night before.
The pig, used by rock band Pink Floyd as a prop since the band’s Animals album in 1977, belonged to former Floyd frontman Roger Waters, one of the festival’s headliners. Prince and Jack Johnson also performed.
Stoltz says Coachella takes place less than two miles from her house, as the crow — or pig — flies. Stoltz admits she’s not a Floyd fan, knew nothing of the pig balloon, and didn’t know what it was when she and her husband, Steve, a commercial real estate investor, discovered what she deemed “more like shredded pork.” “It was this latex-y, vinyl stuff, all shredded up, painted... just big piles of it,” recalls Stoltz. They first thought they’d been the target of a prank and threw it away.
Once she realized what she had, she made contact with the festival’s producers, and a media frenzy ensued. Another neighbor had the rest of the pig, and the group has since given literally hundreds of interviews with newspapers, television stations and radio stations, including BBC London and two Australian radio stations. A Google search for the phrase “pig and Susan Stoltz” produced 39, 100 hits as of Friday.
Festival officials reclaimed the shards of plastic (minus a small piece Stoltz kept for posterity ) and bestowed the Stoltzes and their neighbors with a $ 10, 000 reward and Coachella tickets for life. The Stoltzes have decided to use their portion of the reward money to buy musical instruments for three local middle schools.
It made a great story to tell their friends back in Northwest Arkansas. The couple have been in the area to watch their son, golfer Drew Stoltz, play in the Fort Smith Classic at Hardscrabble Country Club. The couple had a manufacturing firm in Conway before moving to Fort Collins, Colo., in 1992. They spend the winter months in California.
Stoltz has been in contact several times with the Coachella production company, Goldenvoice, but says she hasn’t heard from Waters.
SIXTH TIME’S A CHARM The future of the Fayetteville Arts Festival as it exists rests in the hands of bride-to-be Pearl Covington. That’s a scary thought considering she’s marrying for the sixth time and that the prospective bridegroom is in the penitentiary. Covington’s May 17 wedding to Spike “Skillethead” Pinkley is the latest in the hilarious series of plays set in fictitious Dupont, Miss., produced by Mark Landon Smith and Julie Gabel’s Ceramic Cow Productions Inc. Tickets to the wedding are $ 20, with proceeds to benefit the fledgling arts festival, scheduled for the last weekend in August and the first weekend in September at the Fayetteville Town Center. Popular Fayetteville High School drama teacher Warren Rosenaur is set to play Pearl, a meter maid with horrendous fashion sense and makeup habits to match (think Mrs. Doubtfire with purple eye shadow ). Gabel and Smith are reluctant to give too many details about the bridegroom except to say he has only a third-grade education and is a felon.
“It’s true love — for the sixth time,” says Smith.
The nuptials will take place at 509 W. Spring St., in a space above the Flying Burrito Co. large enough to hold about 200. The hilarity will continue at a wedding reception afterward. Much of the wedding is scripted, but there’s plenty of room for improvisation, Smith says.
He and Gabel are members of the board of the Fayetteville Downtown Partners, the nonprofit that produces the festival. Board president Daniel Keeley has said the fate of the festival depends solely on the generosity of the people of Northwest Arkansas. The board had hoped to raise $ 50, 000 by April 15, but had “definitely not” met its goal, Keeley says. That deadline was extended pending the Saturday fundraiser, he says.
“We’ll have to see how much money we do have and see what’s possible going forward,” Keeley says.
An estimated 9, 000 people attended the 2007 festival, which included a weekend for visual arts and a weekend for performance arts. More than $ 40, 000 worth of original art was sold. Gabel seems committed to pulling off the performance arts part of the festival regardless of whether the funding is found, Keeley says. “It’s just going to be more difficult to produce it on a shoestring [budget ] and do it effectively,” Gabel says. More than half the tickets to the wedding have been sold. The affair will also include an opportunity to win a pair of pearl earrings from Romance Diamond Co. and a “date” with Pearl, among other items. Information and tickets are available at (479 ) 571-4879.
BEAST FOR A BEAST A recent pet event at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale resulted in the adoption of a boxer mix, Gus, to the main guy who plays Strike, the Northwest Arkansas Naturals’ sasquatch mascot. Angie Kyser, executive director of the Humane Society of the Ozarks, says the match was made during an event titled Bark in the Ballpark, where fans were encouraged to bring their pets to a Naturals game. Gus was one of five dogs rescued after having been tied to a tree in some Madison County woods last November, she says. Strike, played that day by a Bentonville High School student, encountered Gus at the ballgame, and the pair hit it off immediately, Kyser says. “[Gus ] tried to stay with him when [the mascot ] walked off,” she says. The adoption was completed Monday. Items and suggestions may be emailed to cking@arkansasonline. com
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