IT'S A SMALL, SMALL WORLD: The reigning Miss Universe Japan, Ariana Miyamoto, who was reared near Nagasaki, has an Arkansas connection. Miyamoto, 21, competes for the title of Miss Universe later this year. But she's already making international news as the first biracial Japanese (her mother is Japanese; her father is black) to hold the national title and has experienced criticism from some fellow Japanese.
Her Natural State connection? Dad Bryant Stanfield, 43, lives in Jacksonville. He met her mother while stationed in Japan with the military. After her parents parted ways, Ariana grew up in Japan but later reconnected with her dad and spent time in Arkansas. She attended Jacksonville High from November 2009 to February 2010, says Deborah Roush, Pulaski County Special School District spokesman. After returning to Japan, Ariana began a modeling career.
ON THE MAP: Fox's American Idol, which wraps after its 15th season next year, will hold a live audition Aug. 8 at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock. The reality singing show will also visit Denver; Savannah, Ga.; Philadelphia; and San Francisco this summer. Its smaller-scale bus tour stopped at the Clinton Presidential Center in 2013.
AT BAT: Actor and director Billy Bob Thornton will narrate director Larry Foley's documentary, The First Boys of Spring. The film chronicles the role Hot Springs played as the birthplace of spring baseball training.
Thornton, a Hot Springs native, was an accomplished baseball player who once tried out for the Kansas City Royals, says Foley, professor and chairman of the journalism department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Razorbacks basketball coach Mike Anderson also has a speaking role.
The film's world premiere is set for the 2015 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival's opening night Oct. 10 with a second screening Oct. 25 at the Fayetteville Public Library.
SPINNING WHEELS: The June issue of Bicycling includes news of the 12,000-calorie-a-day diet of ultracyclist Kurt Searvogel of Sheridan, who's riding 225 miles a day, trying to break the record for the longest distance pedaled in a year (76,065 miles). He begins with breakfast and snacks of an FRS energy drink mixed with glucosamine and milk, four to six bottles of SPIZ meal-replacement drinks, two Pop-Tarts and a couple of McDonald's sausage-and-egg biscuits. For lunch, he has two McDoubles.
"Most McDonald's food is really processed, but it's easy to digest," says Searvogel, who has an afternoon snack of a ham-and-cheese sandwich, a large pizza for dinner and a late-night snack of half a bag of Fritos, cheese dip and two to four beers.
He may need to eat more because he's lost 30 pounds in the first three months of riding at this level.
REST OF HIS STORY: Alan Rackley, recently mentioned here, holds a degree in vocal arts from the University of Southern California.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or [email protected]
Metro on 05/17/2015