Eureka Springs has been known as an art enclave since the 1930's and the city's art community in 2007 is more vibrant than ever. With a population of 2100 the city is home to more than 300 artists with many more artisans scattered among the surrounding hillsides.

Listed in the top 25 USA art destinations by American Style magazine, Eureka has more than 20 galleries, hosts a month long festival in May devoted to the arts, and is home to the Eureka Springs School of the Arts.

On the first Saturday of each month several galleries participate in a stroll showcasing works by featured artists. Not to be missed is the Eureka Springs Fall Art Fair the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving held in the Convention Center of the Inn of the Ozarks. During this show patrons will find the largest gathering of the town's artists under one roof than at any other time during the year.

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Not that we need an excuse to party the heels right off our stilettos but we thought we'd seem more like grownups if we could make up a reason to try out Eureka Springs' fine establishments and gossip about them with you.

Ta da! We're proud to announce Ruthless Reviews, a new feature from the roving pack of bons vivants here at Gay News. Do you want the down-low... er, we mean the lowdown, on any business in Eureka Springs? Email us with your questions and, honey, we'll tell you more than you want to know.

You can also submit a Ruthless Review of your own to ruthless@gaynewsbureau.com.

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Yeah, yeah, I know. Maybe I spend way too much time either online or thumb typing frantically on my phone, but WTF?

In web and phone text land, WTF stands for What The F...k?

And given the last few months and especially the last few weeks of listening to know-it-all Jesus-speaks-and-directs-me throughout-my-honey-selling-days preacher boys, I was fully expecting, as they preached and predicted, for every last person (of the faith-based variety) to come to town screaming WTF? Can't co-mingle the WWJD with the WTF Diva crowd. Too long of sentence? BMA.

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If you weren't in Eureka Springs for the first day of the Domestic Partnership Registry, we're sorry, but you missed it--the ceremonial opening of City Hall's official can of worms.

Dedicated Gay News Bureau staffers presented Mayor Dani Wilson with a lovely, recyclable container of genuine, imported Canadian Nightcrawlers--a deeply symbolic gesture since, after all, gay marriage is legal in Canada.

Mayor Wilson accepted this munificent, diplomatic offering with all the pomp we might expect from her high office. (In other words, a couple of worms got loose on the mayor's Oriental carpet and only two or three onlookers shrieked and jumped on chairs.)

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This just in from the Eureka Springs City Advertising & Promotion Commission (CAPC.)

Actually, we got it yesterday but we so busy celebrating with the first registered domestic partners in the entire State of Arkansas we dropped the ball right into our Martini glass. Fortunately, Ken Rundel at the CAPC was on the job.

And now a word from Ken....

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Don we now our gay apparel. Put on your best party frocks, boys and girls. It's time to celebrate!

Saturday
June 23rd
7 pm
THE ART COLONY

potluck music fun blessings art drumming comedy games dancing and LOVE!!!

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(Eureka Springs, AR) -- One hundred seventy three days after four ordinary civilians armed with laptop computers hunkered down in a Eureka Springs living room to Google the subject, the first Domestic Partnership Registry in Arkansas became a reality today.

Even before the doors of Eureka City hall opened this morning, eleven couples--10 gay or lesbian and one straight--had lined up to be among the first Eurekans and the first Arkansans to have their relationships officially recognized by the city. Each couple paid the $35 fee, showed their ID, swore they were in a «relationship of mutual support, caring and commitment» and received a certificate signed by Mayor Dani Wilson and City Clerk MJ Sell.

What had begun on New Years Day 2007 had, six and a half months later, become law. Ordinance 2052 to be exact. It survived three votes by the city council and two ferocious attempts by an anti-gay minister to block it.

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(Eureka Springs, AR) For the second time in two days, an anti-gay minister's eleventh-hour attempt to halt enactment of the state's first Domestic Partnership Registry failed Thursday.

As a result, the Eureka Springs Registry will go into effect as scheduled today (June 22).

Fundamentalist preacher Philip «Flip» Wilson yesterday submitted a fundamentally flawed petition seeking a referendum election to block the Registry, unanimously approved by the city council May 14.

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What's with the brimstone preachers that every time they get a microphone, a TV camera or a group of 3 ants at a picnic they use the worn out terms of gay mecca and sex destination to tell their tale of woe?

Of course Eureka Springs, Arkansas is a gay mecca. Always has been. You don't put a 7 story concrete boy in a dress on the hillside and then not expect other boys in dresses to move to mecca. Then add a couple of thousand rooms, B&B's, cabins, cottages, luxury suites all complete with lipstick red heart shaped Jacuzzis, dimmer switches, twin wine glasses and then holler when heart-a-pumping love struck lesbians show up in town. Sex destination? Yes. Hell yes.

And just as comical is the highway motels with that Fish symbol dripping off everything. They proudly announce «family owned» or «family friendly» and then act shocked when Adam and Steve and the triplets arrive or Mary and Ruth come dragging in with 3 boys under 10 and Grandpa, who has been an added appendage for several years now. Whew! A Family (translate - GLBT) owned motel with a friggin' pool and a first floor room.

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Eureka! The «I found it»

The slogan has been attached to Eureka Springs, Arkansas travel and relocation information for well over a hundred years now.

Evolving, welcoming, inviting, Eureka Springs has drawn an eclectic assortment of travelers and those seeking to make this «I found it» their perfect home since 1879.

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