Arkansas Times | July 2023

YOU VOTE, WE NAME THE G.O.A.T.

FEATURES

29 BEST OF ARKANSAS

The voters have spoken.

30 CLIPPER QUEEN

Hannah Anderson is pulling up the floristry business by its roots. By Mary Hennigan

34 CANINE COUTURE

Hounds Lounge is where your dog wants to go on summer vacation. By

Rhett Brinkley

38 BIG ON BOOKS

Newcomers to the bookstore scene in Arkansas.

By Mary Ruth Taylor

42 AFTER DARK

In a pinch for pasties? Cupids has you covered.

By

Austin Bailey

46 CAT, MEET RADIO

Artist Sulac's friendly surrealism. By Daniel Grear

50 DEAD SERIOUS Pondering matters of life and death at Smith Funeral Home.

By Benjamin Hardy

52 MAKE IT STICK

When it comes to window tinting, D&D Sun Control is king.

By Stephanie Smittle

57 WINNER, WINNER

The results of our annual readers poll.

9 THE FRONT

From the Farm: Early summer optimism.

Q&A: With author and journalist Monica Potts.

Big Pic: Fireworks by the numbers.

17 THE TO-DO

LIST

Melissa Carper, a Trust Tree fundraiser, "Paris Is Burning" at the Arkansas Times Film Series, The Chicks at Simmons Bank Arena, "Rent" at Argenta Community Theater and more.

23 NEWS

On the Duggar doc, the fundamentalist cult at its core and why it matters.

By Guy Lancaster

68 SAVVY KIDS

Strategies for warding off back-toschool anxiety.

By Tricia Larson

72 FOOD & DRINK

A love letter to the Mexican restaurants along Stagecoach Road.

By Guy Lancaster

77 CANNABIZ

The state's medical marijuana industry is getting fizzy.

By Griffin Coop

82 THE OBSERVER

An ear catastrophe.

'ETERNAL LIGHTWEIGHT': Adventureland (pictured), Way Away and The Dreaded Laramie play the White Water Tavern in July.

ON THE COVER: "Longing for Belonging," a collage painting by Sulac.

LEXI ADAMS

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PUBLISHER Alan Leveritt

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Austin Bailey

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Mandy Keener

SENIOR EDITOR Max Brantley

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Stephanie Smittle

MANAGING EDITOR Benjamin Hardy

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rhett Brinkley

CANNABIZ EDITOR Griffin Coop

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Daniel Grear

REPORTER Mary Hennigan REPORTER Debra Hale-Shelton

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Mara Leveritt

PHOTOGRAPHER Brian Chilson

DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL STRATEGY Jordan Little

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Wythe Walker

ADVERTISING ART DIRECTOR Mike Spain

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sarah Holderfield

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING

Phyllis A. Britton

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Lee Major, Terrell Jacob, Kaitlyn Looney and Evan Ethridge

ADVERTISING TRAFFIC MANAGER

Roland R. Gladden

SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS PUBLISHER Brooke Wallace IT DIRECTOR Robert Curfman

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Jackson Gladden

CONTROLLER Weldon Wilson

BILLING/COLLECTIONS Charlotte Key CHAIR MAN Lindsey Millar

PRODUCTION MANAGER Ira Hocut (1954-2009)

Little Rock, Arkansas, and

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ARKANSAS TIMES, 201 EAST MARKHAM STREET, SUITE 200, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $60 for one year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current single-copy price is $5, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $5.00 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

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GROWING R TS in the ozark’s ca abis co unity cR EEK OS age

From a serene perch on his back porch overlooking the Osage Creek, Jay Trulove found the natural name for Built upon the strong cornerstone of family ethos, Osage Creek is more than a business - it's a testament to the spirit of unity, inclusion, and the warmth of a close-knit family. This ethos is echoed in their recent rebranding, breathing new life into the brand while staying true to its roots. Trulove says, "This rebrand shows that we are staying true to our roots and always will.”

his new venture: Osage Creek. Located close to home, between the verdant environs of Eureka Springs and Berryville, this family-owned gem in the heart of the Ozarks, was envisioned to create local jobs and ehance the well-being of a community Trulove holds dear.

In the rapidly evolving cannabis industry, Osage Creek is setting the pace. With commitment to research, development, and new innovations, the team ensures they deliver the best to their customers. However, they do not forget their roots.

“We strive to keep up with all the new technology while staying true to our roots,” Trulove asserts.

Through their unwavering dedication to quality and service, Osage Creek has positioned itself as more than a business. It stands as a beacon in Arkansas's medical cannabis community, providing safe, high-quality products to those who need them.

“Greatly. I think it’s more awareness. I’ve heard many, many stories from people my age and older who take drugs, and other drugs to offset side-effects of thefirst drug. Now they’re trying medical cannabis and it’s working,” Trulove explains.

Over the years, Osage Creek has evolved and blossomed, much like the steadfast oak tree rooted by a creek depicted in their new logo. With expanded product range and refined services, Osage Creek has grown side by side with its community, fueled by a desire to serve more people while staying true to their origins.

Osage Creek embodies the spirit of the Ozarks by valuing nature and community. "Natural, pesticide-free. We try to hire locally and most everybody is from the Ozarks,” says Trulove. "It's been surprisingly accepted. We've been here for many years and thought we'd lose friends and just surprised on how accepted it was."

Despite the challenges posed by Covid, Trulove finds the journey rewarding. “I’m an old guy and this is the most rewarding thing I’ve done so far. This has created local jobs, as well as helped the community. We were surprised to see who was actually behind the idea.”

Osage Creek is more than a beacon in the cannabis industry. It stands as a steadfast neighbor, a trusted friend, and a symbol of the spirit of the Ozarks. Through each innovation and every carefully nurtured plant, Osage Creek reaffirms its commitment to keeping the Natural state, natural.

“This rebrand shows that we are staying true to our roots and always will.”

-Jay Trulove

“I’m an old guy and this is the most rewarding thing I’ve done so far. ”

-Trulove

Marijuana is for use by quali ed patients only. Keep out of reach of children. Marijuana use during pregnancy or breastfeeding poses potential harms. Marijuana is not approved by the FDA to treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the in uence of marijuana.

WAITING FOR LOCUSTS

WHEN FARMING IS AN EXERCISE IN CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM.

BY ALAN LEVERITT

Arkansas Times publisher Alan Leveritt has lived on his great-grandparents’ farm in North Pulaski County for 40 years. This is the latest in a series of columns about day-to-day life on the land where he raises heirloom tomatoes and other crops for local restaurants and the Hillcrest Farmers Market.

It has been a cool spring and a warm June with many days of low humidity. But as we inch toward July, it's like someone turned on the lights in hell. The air is several degrees hotter than my body temperature, and I’m soaked by the time I walk to the field. The hoop houses are 15 degrees hotter than outside but the hydroponic heirloom tomato plants are exploding with perfect fruit and perfect flavor. I’m picking 100 pounds per day from a single hoop house. And don’t let anyone tell you hydroponic tomatoes can’t taste as good as soil-grown fruits. Since most hydroponic systems are in plastic-covered hoop houses, farmers are tempted to plant fungal-resistant hybrids like Rebelski or Bigdena that trade flavor for endurance. But these heirlooms, with little disease resistance, thrive in blue buckets filled with sterile pearlite medium, fed by nutrientrich water and protected from bacterial wilt and myriad other soil borne diseases. I’ve lost some of the romance of traditional organic farming, but for me the proof is on the plate.

Outside in my hay-mulched fields, there’s still plenty of romance. My big Mexican mystery tomato, with its super-sweet gold and red flesh, is delicious. I found it in the Mercado San Juan in Mexico City and saved the seeds on toilet paper. A single fruit yielded 34 plants that are now planted in both the hydroponic hoop house and outside in the soil. The outdoor Cherokee Purple, Carbon and Goldie tomato plants are healthy as rats. Where, I wonder, is my plague of locusts? This spring I shoveled 20 tons of Clarksville turkey litter onto my rows and I can see a difference. It’s a time of plenty … plenty of heat and plenty from the earth.

I am harvesting Ambrosia cantaloupes every day. It is the sweetest cantaloupe variety in the world. Nothing comes close. I can stand in the middle of the patch and smell the fragrance from the fruit. Years ago, when Dillaha Fruit Company was located at Markham and La Harpe where Diablos is today, I was always smitten by the perfumed fragrance from the crates of cantaloupes in their warehouse. Dillaha is gone but my memory of that place comes rushing back as I harvest boxes of ripe Ambrosia cantaloupe.

I have squeaked by with only one garden disaster this season. I had a thousand heirloom tomato plants that had been grafted onto disease-resistant rootstock arrive early. As the plants grew out of their six-packs and the grafts began to break, I was compelled to plant in early April instead of later in the month. A late killing frost never arrived but the cold, wet weather caused stem rot that killed at least half of the tomatoes. Sometimes only three or four plants survived in a 150-foot-long raised bed. Cutworms killed another 150. I came back in May with some replacement plants and they have done well, but it has been a discouraging ordeal.

Now with parts of the field nearly vacant, I filled one 150-foot raised bed with sweet potato slips a friend brought me from Brinkley. My neighbor, who germinates my seeds, found an overlooked packet of seed and brought me 250 Cherokee Purple plants in late June that I hope will yield fall tomatoes. But the attrition from this spring is still evident.

A few years ago I came across some light steel arches and erected them to form a 68-foot tunnel which I covered in plastic. With the sides open, I intended to plant

A HEAVY CROP: Two 68-foot rows of table grapes, a red Jupiter and a green Gratitude, both varieties bred for Arkansas by the incredible University of Arkansas plant breeding program.

ALAN LEVERITT

heirloom tomatoes beneath the plastic to see if I could prevent fungal leaf disease by protecting the leaves from rain. Like a hoop house but with no sides. But I changed my mind and three years ago planted two 68foot rows of table grapes, a red Jupiter and a green Gratitude, both varieties bred for Arkansas by the incredible University of Arkansas plant breeding program. Grapes in humid Arkansas usually require constant spraying with powerful fungicides. I hate the stuff and learned early I was not cut out to raise grapes, but that has changed. My vines are now 3 years old and I am getting my second, very heavy crop of sweet table grapes. I’ve never sprayed anything. The plastic has

BOUND FOR MARKET:

At top left, heirloom tomatoes sit in the sorting shed waiting to be delivered to restaurants. Below, table grapes grown under a plastic shelter, blissfully free of either chemical sprays or leaf fungus.

provided the same protection to the leaves as Manzate or Captan chemical sprays. The red Jupiters ripen in July and just as they finish, the green Gratitude grapes come on. Seven plants of each variety provide more than enough grapes to sell at the Hillcrest Farmers Market and more for canning.

I planted green zucchinis in the ground this year in my No. 1 hoop house along with Moon and Stars watermelons. It is fecund chaos in there, with the watermelons covering every inch of ground and the zucchinis surfing on top of the watermelons. You can practically hear them growing at night. I’m picking zucchini to supply my restaurants every night. The watermelons, though, are waiting, biding their time.

ALAN LEVERITT

Sat. July 15 | 11 AM - 2 PM Sunset Lodge at Rusty Tractor

LOOKING FOR ‘THE FORGOTTEN GIRLS’

A Q&A WITH AUTHOR MONICA POTTS.

In late May, Monica Potts published “The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America.” The book — which Kirkus called “a hauntingly cleareyed and poignant memoir with strong, illustrative reportage” — examines why the 2010s have been a decade of disturbing decline in life expectancy for the least educated white Americans, a downturn that’s even more exaggerated for women. This trend, identified by Potts as “the longest and most sustained in a hundred years,” is made tangible through Darci, Potts’ childhood best friend and the primary subject of “The Forgotten Girls.” Though Darci and Potts grew up together in rural Clinton under similarly modest circumstances and shared a youthful affinity for imagining exciting, wordly futures for themselves, their lives turned out vastly different: Potts left for college at Bryn Mawr and eventually became a successful journalist in New York and Washington, D.C., writing for outlets like The New York Times, The Atlantic, The American Prospect and FiveThirtyEight, while Darci struggled with early motherhood, mental illness, substance abuse, homelessness, incarceration and intimate partner violence. By placing Darci at the center of her story and moving slowly through the ways in which their trajectories deviated, Potts compellingly indicts the cultural and political forces that stifle the potential of women like Darci.

a member of the Clinton community and go to a public space that isn’t a church or a restaurant. I think that sense of civic life is really important. It’s one of the things I miss most about living in cities: You can roll out and go to a public event and make connections with people that aren’t related to identities that can be kind of atomizing, like church and family.

AGE: 43

HOMETOWN: Clinton (Van Buren County)

RECENT READS: “Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water” by Marc Reisner and "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming" by David WallaceWells

It’s clear the book was crafted with Darci’s blessing, given how heavily she’s quoted throughout it. Why do you think she was willing to let herself be depicted so vulnerably while her struggles were still ongoing? When we first reunited as friends, I was already working on a book project like this. When I told her about it, she kind of jokingly said, “Well, maybe you should just write about me.” We talked about it over the next few days and weeks, and I think her motivation was that she wanted to help people. She thought that if her experiences and the tough things she had been through in her life might help other people like her, then it would be worth it. Also, she was 35, and I think that’s a point in your life where you’re looking back and thinking about the choices you made and what they all mean. I explained that she wouldn’t get to see the book in advance, and I explained what it meant to interview her and other people about her life, and she was still willing — and I think it was that sense of trying to contribute to the greater good.

Your mother seems to be a significant factor behind why you took a path different from many of your peers. How would you describe her worldview and approach to parenting? It was really clear to us from an early age that she wanted us to leave our hometown and experience the world as a big place that we had access to and could explore — and that we would grow if we did that.

One of the book’s strengths is the way you point to a multitude of intertwined causes in explaining why the status quo for some rural white women is so dismal. If you could implement one specific intervention, what would it be? That’s a tough question. Not just for young women, but also for older adults as well, I would like to see more opportunities for education and personal growth. And that’s not just school. I live in downtown Clinton again, and there’s not a way to easily walk out of my house and just be

When did you move back to Clinton and what motivated you to do so when you were so focused on leaving in your early years? January 2018. At some point in my mid-30s, I realized how beautiful this area was. I had seen a lot of pretty places, but there was something about Clinton that just felt like home in a way no place else really had. I hadn’t really settled anywhere. That’s partly my personality — I like moving around. But I have really deep roots here. A lot of my family is buried here. My family still has land here. My mother still lives here. I wanted to experience this place again, because when I was growing up and my mom wanted me to leave, it was hard to appreciate the parts of the Ozarks that I really liked. My partner, Samir, gets to pick where we go next, if we go anywhere, because it’s his turn and he came here for me. I don’t know how much longer we’re going to stay, to be honest. But that’s nothing against Arkansas. We just kind of bounce around. —Daniel Grear

BRIAN CHILSON

RED, WHITE AND BOOM

ARKANSAS LOVES A GOOD EXPLOSION.

When the days are long and the smell of fresh cut grass wafts through open car windows, you know Independence Day is looming. It’s the perfect time to be flung off an inner tube on the lake, crack open a cold one with your besties, hang out with your drunk uncle and blast Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” But we all know a fireworks show is the climax of a good Fourth of July celebration — whether we’re talking groundlevel firecrackers, sparklers and fountains, or aerial showstoppers like waterfalls, strobes and dragon eggs. Some keep it classy at Pops on the River in downtown Little Rock or the Orchards Park Bentonville extravaganza. Others buy a case of canister shells at the nearest pop-up tent and fire away into a field. No judgment, we’ve enjoyed both.

Stephen Redd of Arkansas

Yeehaw Pyrotechnic Productions in Cabot chatted with us about his 15 years of experience in the fireworks industry and shed some light on what goes into purchasing, planning and lighting a presentation. Here are some figures to ponder before lighting up this holiday.

PERCENTAGE OF FIREWORKS-RELATED INJURIES IN THE U.S. THAT INVOLVED HANDS AND FINGERS IN 2021:

DATES WHEN FIREWORKS ARE ALLOWED IN ARKANSAS: JUNE 20-JULY 10 AND DECEMBER 10JANUARY 5

“PUT IT IN REVERSE, TERRY”

VIDEO VIEWS:

CHANCE OF RECYCLING SPENT FIREWORKS: 0%

AT LEAST 14 MILLION

BALD EAGLES IN ARKANSAS: AT LEAST 360

AVERAGE LENGTH OF A FIREWORKS SHOW:

10-25 MINUTES

FIREWORKS-RELATED

DEATHS IN THE U.S. IN 2021:

APPROXIMATE DATE THE CHINESE INVENTED FIREWORKS: 200 B.C.

AVERAGE COST OF AN ELABORATE AERIAL SHOW: $1,000 PER MINUTE

FIREWORKS-RELATED EMERGENCY ROOM TRIPS IN THE U.S. IN 2021: 11,500

TEMPERATURE OF A SPARKLER: 2,000°F

BY DANIEL GREAR AND STEPHANIE SMITTLE

DISCOVER TRUST TREE

SATURDAY 7/29. MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY. 7 P.M. $20-$50.

Musicians pride themselves on being an inclusive bunch, and yet, scenes across the country are still mostly dominated by straight white men. There’s a whole host of factors contributing to that sorry truth, but it’s hard to imagine that the messages absorbed by women and queer people in their teenage years don’t play a significant role in discouraging them from becoming self-assured rock ’n’ rollers. That’s where Trust Tree comes in. Founded by veteran musician Correne Spero (of DOT and Northern State) in 2017, the nonprofit organization offers summer camp programming for girls and LGBTQ+ youth ages 8-18 who want to dip their toe into songwriting and visual art. About 60% of the attendees receive scholarships or financial aid. To help them keep the lights on, consider coming to Discover Trust Tree, a fundraiser held at the Museum of Discovery, where you’ll be treated to performances by the rising star campers themselves. Signature cocktails and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served. Kids under 18 get in for free, and the cost of admission for adults is on a sliding scale. DG

SARA REEVES

ARKANSAS TIMES FILM SERIES: ‘PARIS IS BURNING’

TUESDAY 7/18. RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA. 7 P.M.

The most remarkable things often have a way of staying invisible to the wider world. That’s the case with ball culture. Until director Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary “Paris Is Burning,” few people beyond those intimately involved knew about the thriving subculture of drag pageants, which had been a haven for queer people of color for decades. In addition to providing a fresh glimpse into the elaborate aesthetics of the New York City scene, the film showcases many of its integral performers, a number of whom ended up dying young from complications related to AIDS. Writing for the Criterion Collection three decades after its original release, Michelle Parkerson offered the following praise: “It is not only a politically astute, historically vital record of lives not typically given such a platform, in a particular place and time, but an embodiment of the axiom that great documentaries must also be good dramas.” DG

BOZ SCAGGS

TUESDAY 7/25. ROBINSON CENTER. 7:30 P.M. $44-$249.

There’s about 2.5 seconds of an episode of “Mr. Show with Bob and David” in which a pre-“Better Call Saul” Bob Odenkirk, getting in a dig at an outmoded yacht rock icon, stands atop a tiny platform in a dimestore polyester suit behind a sign that reads “Today’s Specials: Steamed Beans, Steamed Corn. Appearing Today: Boz Scaggs.” And, hey, the joke works. Or it did, at least, when that episode aired in 1996. But what about in 2023, when Beyoncé’s wearing her Donna Summer DNA on her sleeve and Donald Fagen-style synths are ubiquitous? Drugdealer’s “Madison” was one of the best dance tunes to come out in 2022, and it halfway sounds like a bonus track on Scaggs’ flagship 1976 “Silk Degrees.” Maybe enough time has elapsed that the flutes and “Saturday Night Fever” bass riffs on “Lowdown” don’t scream, “I own a catamaran and have a reliable cocaine hookup” anymore. Or maybe they do, and we’re just cool with that now. And maybe Boz Scaggs is cool, too? SS

MELISSA CARPER

FRIDAY 7/14. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 8:30 P.M. $15-$20.

There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the direction of country music these days, many of them Arkansas-connected — Nick Shoulders, Bonnie Montgomery, Dylan Earl, Cody Belew. Add to that the work of multiinstrumentalist Melissa Carper, the bassist for Sad Daddy and half of the duo Buffalo Gals, who’s responsible for churning out two absolutely golden solo records since 2021. Carper’s is real-deal country music, the kind that dabbles freely in blues and jazz and swing, funneling every ounce of charm and honeysuckle that Carper lends to her ensemble work and amplifying it exponentially with the help of both seasoned and up-and-coming Nashville players like Chris Scruggs, Lloyd Green, Brennen Leigh and Sierra Ferrell. Pregame for this one with “Hanging on to You” — a love song for the ages — and “Makin’ Memories,” which had a prominent cameo on an episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” SS

‘RENT’

WEDNESDAY 7/26-SATURDAY 8/5. ARGENTA COMMUNITY THEATER. $25-$35.

A few months after my 11th birthday, my family took a summer trip to New York City. When it came time to pick out what Broadway shows we were going to see, my older sister led the way and insisted we get tickets for “Rent,” the hit musical about a struggling set of romantically entangled late ’80s bohemians, despite it being way too mature for my age. While most of its engagement with the AIDS crisis went straight over my head, the play’s bleeding heart was not lost on me. Compared to almost everything I’d previously seen on stage, “Rent” was unabashedly sincere — extremely dramatic but never hamming it up. That viewing felt like a transformative moment, one of the first times I’d seen love and art portrayed as life-or-death affairs. Though the show’s attempts at gritty realism ring less true in 2023, the songs are still poignant, especially now that “Seasons of Love” has been out of the public ear long enough to regain some of its original power. “Rent” is a tall order for a local production, but if anyone in Central Arkansas is capable of pulling it off, it’s the Argenta Community Theater. DG

DELTA VOICES

THURSDAY 7/13. ARKANSAS MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS. 6 P.M. $5.

Instead of thinking of each other as competition like the world of capitalism often teaches us to do, museums tend to like one another. Inspired by this collaborative spirit, curators from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Philbrook Museum of Art and the AMFA are banding together for Delta Voices, an evening of conversation about what it means to make and uplift art in the Mid-South region. Each participating institution has selected a specific artist to join the discussion. Expect appearances from Anthony Sonneberg, a Fayetteville-based sculptor and ceramicist whose frequently gilded pieces are made from materials as varied as hand-crafted brass, vintage fabrics and taxidermied animals; Keli Mashburn, an experimental filmmaker and photographer whose work engages with her upbringing on the Osage Reservation in northeast Oklahoma; Francisco Moreno, a maximalist painter who splits his time between Dallas and his hometown of Mexico City; and Zeke Peña, a cartoonist from El Paso, Texas, whose comics explore the reality of life along the Mexico-U.S. border. DG

LYZA RENEE

ADVENTURELAND, WAY AWAY, THE DREADED LARAMIE

SATURDAY 7/8. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 8 P.M. $10.

Maybe it’s because it was ushered in with the new year, or maybe it’s because it arrived after a wave of pandemic-induced solo records, but there’s something refreshing about the way Adventureland’s sophomore release “Eternal Lightweight” leans into ensemble and collaboration. Each of the band’s three members — Travis Kish, Nate Drahn and Daniel Grear (also culture editor for the Arkansas Times) — penned roughly a third of the album, but it manages to sound like a cohesive whole, collectively about transience, listlessness, being in love with your friends and the ways in which adolescence occasionally pokes its head through the doorway of the room where adulthood long ago set up living quarters. Come for “Southern Girls,” stay for “Blankets” and “Next Summer.”

With Little Rock quartet Way Away and Nashville’s The Dreaded Laramie sharing the bill, this show’s for the real ones who know that “pop music” is not a synonym for “vapid.” SS

JOSHUA ASANTE

THE CHICKS

SATURDAY 7/22. SIMMONS BANK

ARENA. 7:30 P.M. $39.50-$139.50.

It’s hard to say anything new about a band as timeless as The Chicks, so I’m just going to gush about one of their more recent songs. Have y’all heard “Texas Man”? Though not as sentimental as hits like “Wide Open Spaces” and “Cowboy Take Me Away,” I’d argue that it might be catchier. Something about its use of both the mandolin and muted acoustic guitar scratches as percussion instruments gives it a propulsive pep that will not leave me alone. Also, whoever’s idea it was to drizzle this tune with fuzzy riffs at every turn deserves a raise. Perhaps it was producer Jack Antonoff, the divisive figure who seems to be working with all the coolest women in pop. “Texas Man” somehow wasn’t one of the official singles from 2020’s “Gaslighter,” despite the fact that the incredible chorus — simultaneously humble and selfrespecting — hits after only 37 seconds. Right this injustice by playing it on repeat until The Chicks arrive at Simmons. DG

FRIDAY 7/21. WHITE WATER TAVERN. 8:30 P.M. $10-$12.

“All the Names of God at Once,” the new debut LP by former Amasa Hines and Velvet Kente frontman Joshua Asante, is the kind of record that beckons you to wander inside of it. Awash in layers of roomy, weathered synthesizers and reverbdrenched vocal and saxophone lines that linger like stars beyond the moment in which their light went out, the album is alluring but mysterious. Streaks of guitar show up here and there, but they’ve been transformed by effects pedals into something new and almost unrecognizable, subservient to the astral aesthetic Asante has been soaring toward over the last few years. Simple yet inventive beats anchor nearly every song, just in case you were worried about getting lost in all of that dark space. Asante’s gig at the White Water Tavern is the release show for this album, which drops on streaming services the same day and will soon be available on vinyl. A.J. Haynes of the Seratones is set to open. DG

LEXI ADAMS

KIM MAGUIRE

BLOODIES, BUBBLES AND BRUNCH

SATURDAY 7/15. RUSTY TRACTOR VINEYARDS. $35.

Honestly, the only appropriate response to the Arkansas heat is to perch in the shade with friends, a bloody mary or mimosa and a plate of fruit-topped waffles at a scenic vineyard, and this brunchfest from the Arkansas Times invites you to do just that. Thanks to sponsorship from Saracen Casino Resort, Opera Sauce, Murder Farms Hot Sauce, Charlotte Potts Insurance and Financial Services and Rock Town Distillery, who will supply the drinks. Ticket holders can eat brunch delights from El Sur Street Food Co, Copper Grill, Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa and more at Rusty Tractor Vineyard’s Sunset Lodge, a covered pavilion that sits alongside 5,000 expertly manicured muscadine vines along McHenry Creek. Get tickets and details at centralarkansastickets.com.

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BRIAN CHILSON

‘BIGGER THAN THE DUGGARS’

BY GUY LANCASTER

“I’m a great believer in hypocrisy. It’s the nearest we ever get to virtue. It’s a statement of what we ought to be. Like religion, like art, like the law, like marriage. I serve the appearance of things. It’s the worst of systems; it is better than the others.” —John Le Carre, “A Small Town in Germany” (1968)

Shortly after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which then-candidate Donald Trump was recorded bragging about sexually assaulting women, including the nowfamous “Grab ’em by the pussy” line, there started appearing at Trump rallies women wearing T-shirts featuring the words “Trump Can Grab My” with an arrow pointing down to the wearer’s crotch.

Once upon a time, public figures who promoted particularly rigid moral worldviews for public consumption, and were found to be living in violation of those same moral strictures, accepted their

failings, confessed their shortcomings, and departed, if but temporarily, the field of public life. Representative Bob Livingston of Louisiana, who supported the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, announced his resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives in late 1998 after revelations that he had been conducting an extramarital affair. Politicians and preachers used to do this sort of thing.

But those “Trump Can Grab My Pussy” T-shirts seemed to signify the public emergence of a different set of values. Hypocrisy this was not. You see, hypocrisy gets close to virtue because it at least acknowledges the legitimacy of certain moral frameworks and establishes standards of public behavior for when violations of that framework come to light.

“I am sorry for my moral failings” is the confession of a hypocrite, but “Trump Can Grab My Pussy” is the celebration of — and submission to — a dominance-based worldview that holds “our guy” above any

mere moral considerations. “Our guy” is moral no matter what, while “you people” are immoral for simply existing.

Surely, then, this was a departure from the more humble, Christian conservative, “family values” set that had constituted the essence of Republican Party politics since the election of Ronald Reagan as president. Wasn’t it?

Or was it? Has, perhaps, “Grab ’em by the pussy” been the unacknowledged mantra of reactionary religion and politics all this time? This question is the unspoken thread (and threat) that runs through the new fourpart Amazon Prime documentary series, “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.” The series, which premiered June 2, uses the public exposure of Arkansas’s own Duggar family as a hook to pry open the larger story of the fundamentalist Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and its continuing war against American society. Because as one interviewee notes, the whole story is “much bigger than the

“SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE” EXPOSES THE REAL GROOMERS.

A CHRONICLE OF ABUSE: "Shiny Happy People" breaks open the larger story of the fundamentalist Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and its continuing war against American society.

CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Duggars.”

The four episodes cover the story of the Duggars and their connections to IBLP in a somewhat chronological fashion, while each individual episode evokes certain themes. The only members of the immediate Duggar family to participate were Jill and her husband, Derick Dillard, but the series provides interviews with Amy King, a niece of Jim Bob Duggar, as well as longtime friends Jim Holt, a former Republican legislator, and his wife, Bobye. Also interviewed are a number of scholars, as well as, most devastatingly, numerous women and men whose lives were fundamentally scarred by IBLP and its cult-like leader, Bill Gothard, whose teachings the Duggar parents followed like the Word of God. The result is reminiscent of the movie “Spotlight,” constituting a gutwrenching and heartbreaking chronicle of abuse that has been going on for decades at one step removed from mainstream American society.

The first episode lays a solid foundation for the rest of the story, even as we find Jim Bob Duggar’s own foundation is built upon sinking sand. Here is recounted the story of his childhood in poverty, his courtship of former cheerleader Michelle and their young marriage, and their family's growing dependence upon IBLP, an empire of fundamentalist institutions and cultural products designed to foster godly families and nurture its adherents for a place in the halls of American power one day. Jim Bob’s election to the Arkansas House of Representatives and his 2002 U.S. Senate campaign drew national attention to his large family and led to the 2004 Discovery Health documentary “14 Kids and Pregnant Again!”

Following a series of one-off specials, the family landed a regular series on TLC that eventually became “19 Kids and Counting.” For Jim Bob and Michelle, the popular show was a way to smuggle their religion and Bill Gothard’s teachings into the public eye in a rather innocuous fashion. But, as the world would eventually know, Jim Bob had launched this campaign of publicity at almost exactly the same time he became aware that eldest son Josh had molested four of his sisters and one other girl. The second episode of the show touches upon the fallout of this 2015 revelation, but others had learned the story beforehand, as a heartbroken Jim Holt confesses. Josh had actually been courting Holt’s daughter for a while before Holt learned this story, and as he recounts, when he confronted the Duggar patriarch with this, Jim Bob’s response was: “We were going to have Josh tell her everything after they were married.”

As we know now, Josh’s teenage “punishment” for molesting his sisters was to be packed off for three months to a Little Rock “treatment program” run by IBLP. The “treatment” offered by IBLP more often took the form of unremunerated physical labor, and labor is the theme running through episode three, which compares the free labor upon which the millions of dollars of IBLP’s wealth is built with the free labor the Duggar children themselves provided in their TLC show, for, as we learn, none of the Duggar children earned a dime for their time on screen — papa took it all.

And here, the interviews of those once trapped in the world of IBLP prove especially horrific, as young women were regularly targeted for sexual exploitation by Bill Gothard himself, in addition to being assaulted by any of the young godly men alongside whom they were laboring for the glory of Jesus. Gothard’s brother, Steve, who once worked for the organization, had been the center of a sex scandal in the 1980s that forced his departure, but Bill remained head of the organization until 2014, when the growing revelations of his labor and sexual exploitation of countless young women finally became too much for the organization to continue to ignore.

The ongoing suffering of former IBLP followers is palpable on the screen. “This was my actual life these people fucked with,” says one. The last episode contrasts Gothard’s vision for a takeover of American society — IBLP even has a paramilitary organization for young men called ALERT — with the unfolding process whereby those victimized by Gothard and his principles slowly started to find each other, share their experiences with each other and then share those with the world. Thus does “Shiny Happy People” remind us of the threat posed to America by the continued existence and influence of IBLP and fundamentalist cults like it while also providing a little bit of hope that one particular line of scripture might see its fulfillment: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”

The real draw for many viewers, especially those who watched the Duggar family and television and followed Jill as she grew from a gawky girl into a young woman and then a wife and mother, has been the involvement of the one Duggar sibling thus far to turn her back upon her parents, especially given that her own experience is the crux around which so much of the story turns. After all, what are you supposed to do when the story of your own victimization, a story you hoped no one would ever know, becomes fodder for public consumption? And what do you do when the public consumption of

AS WE KNOW NOW, JOSH’S TEENAGE “PUNISHMENT” FOR MOLESTING HIS SISTERS WAS TO BE PACKED OFF FOR THREE MONTHS TO A LITTLE ROCK “TREATMENT PROGRAM” RUN BY IBLP.

The BridgeWay is more than a hospital-it’s a place of hope and recovery from substance use disorders and mental illness. With the belief that each person can change and heal, we offer a program and treatment plan unique to each patient. Our outpatient treatment represents our least restrictive and most flexible care options. Our Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) currently offer only daytime schedules. These options allow patients to receive recovery-focused treatment that addresses a full range of psychiatric and addictive issues while attending to daily family and work obligations. In addition, our outpatient programs provide specialized group therapy for adults 18 and older with specific mental health or substance use disorder needs.

that story threatens the very livelihood of your entire family?

Jill describes the interview she and sister Jessa did with Megyn Kelly, in which they publicly exonerated their brother for his deeds, as a “suicide mission” she was forced to undertake in order to save the family, and one of the great regrets from her entire time in the public eye. In that notorious interview, Jill and Jessa offered their bright-eyed and seemingly sincere sympathy, insisting that they had been barely aware of the attack, being asleep at the time, and only knew they had been molested when Josh later took the initiative to confess his sins to them.

The interview is a stunning example of what philosopher Kate Manne, in her 2018 book “Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny,” calls “himpathy,” being “the flow of sympathy away from female victims toward their male victimizers.” As she writes, “In the case of male dominance, we sympathize with him first, effectively making him into the victim of his own crimes.” In recalling that “suicide mission” years later, Jill’s eyes are filled with tears, and her voice trembles, and the filmmakers let other former IBLP followers say what she perhaps cannot: “Everything about that world sets you up to be a perfect victim.”

Indeed, the series explores the homeschooling curriculum offered by Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute (ATI), including a section for young girls on how to identify and avoid “eye traps,” or those exposures of flesh that might entice a boy to experience lustful thoughts. “Instead of learning math, I learned slutshaming,” says one interviewee. As Sarah Posner noted in a 2015 article for Talking Points Memo on the Duggars and their connections to IBLP:

Gothard’s philosophy on sexual assault is detailed explicitly in his publications, including in the Wisdom Booklets. When a woman is attacked, one booklet reads, “She is to cry out for help. The victim who fails to do this is equally guilty with the attacker.” A document Gothard sent to ATI families, “Lessons from Moral Failures in a Family,” purports to be a teenage boy’s meditation on his sexual assault of his sisters, which he blames in part on his mother, for allowing his sisters to run naked after a bath and for asking him to change his sisters’ diapers, something that would not have occurred if the family “had only applied Levitical law.”

“The idea of rapists as monsters exonerates by caricature,” writes Manne. But in Gothard’s world, rape is simply the normal consequence of women not policing their appearance or behavior sufficiently. Men and boys are exonerated

by the temptations so thoughtlessly offered by the other sex. And boys learn this. Creationists have long complained that a Darwinian worldview denigrates mankind by placing him on a level with animals, but fundamentalist Christianity has a much meaner trick up its sleeves. Here, God says it’s perfectly natural for boys to rape girls, and indeed rape almost becomes a righteous act, given that it punishes the girl for violating God’s ordinances. Darwinism may turn men into monkeys, but IBLP turns rapists into angels.

And yet it is “the world” that is said to constitute the real threat to virtue. As Jill says at one point, talking about IBLP and her own parents, “They wanted to protect us from the world.” The whole thing that made the Duggars so watchable was just how different they were. Anyone who has taken part in communities like this has heard that dark rhetoric about the evils of “the world.” But although these Christians like to imagine themselves as people who go out into the world to make converts of all nations, this rhetoric about “the world” and its evils is more for internal consumption, is designed to make believers fearful of what lies outside the protective umbrella of church and family, is specifically implemented to stem defection from the group of believers. And defection is always a real possibility. As the cognitive anthropologist Pascal Boyer writes in his 2001 book “Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought”: The message from the modern world is not just that other ways of living are possible, that some people may not believe, or believe differently, or feel unconstrained by religious morality, or (in the case of women) make their own decisions without male supervision. The message is also that people can do that without paying a heavy price. Nonbelievers or believers in another faith are not ostracized; those who break free of religious morality, as long as they abide by the laws, still have a normal social position; and women who dispense with male chaperons do not visibly suffer as a consequence. This “message” may seem so obvious to us that we fail to realize how seriously it threatens social interaction that is based on coalitional thinking. Seen from the point of view of a religious coalition, the fact that many choices can be made in modern coalitions without paying a heavy price means that defection is not costly and is also therefore very likely.

At one point in the series, Jim Holt expresses complete incredulity at the sheer hubris of Jim Bob thinking he could keep his family secrets under wraps while having a camera crew living with them almost nonstop. But the reality TV setup actually

"THE DUGGAR CHILDREN DIDN’T EVEN HAVE THE DISTANCE ACTORS CAN CLAIM FROM THEIR ROLES. ... THE CAMERAS WORKED LIKE A FENCE AND KEPT THE CHILDREN INSIDE WHILE PEOPLE GAWKED ON THE OUTSIDE." THE CAMERAS MADE DEFECTION NIGH IMPOSSIBLE.

reinforced Jim Bob’s own patriarchal authority over his children. As Sarah Jones wrote in a 2021 New York magazine article on the family, “I felt then, and still feel now, that the presence of cameras in their lives made escape more difficult, that a person can’t be entertainment and liberated at the same time. The Duggar children didn’t even have the distance actors can claim from their roles. Maybe the Duggar parents knew this, too. The cameras worked like a fence and kept the children inside while people gawked on the outside.” The cameras made defection nigh impossible.

This fear of defection is why, Boyer notes, “a good part of fundamentalist violence is directed not at the external world but at other members of the same cultural, religious communities. The most imperious domination is exerted inside the community: by leaders over mere members, by dedicated followers over noncommitted people, and above all by men over women.” And that is why rhetoric about the evils of “the world” dominates these communities. Imagine all the women who have suffered abuse and rape at the hands of pastors, fathers, brothers and spouses. And now imagine them thinking to themselves, “If this is what life is like within the community of Christ, how much worse must it be outside?”

And so the women convince themselves that their only option is to smile and rededicate themselves to this life. Or as the R.E.M. song from which this series takes its title puts it:

There's no time to cry, happy, happy

Put it in your heart where tomorrow shines

So should we ultimately be surprised that the same “family values” culture that filled our television screens with modestly dressed girls and boys following their chirpy mother like ducklings also gave us “Trump Can Grab My Pussy” shirts? This is not hypocrisy. This is the nihilism of a theology of dominance that holds that the sons of God ultimately have a right to rape your daughters. It is the end result of a patriarchal system that gives the man everything and the woman whatever the man wants her to have. After all, Bill Gothard himself condemned “the world” for advancing a view of “equal authority,” confusing the natural roles of women and men. Gothard’s authority came from God, and because God meant men to rule, Gothard’s authority also lay in his pants, as he drove home time and again.

If you’re a celebrity, they let you do it. If you’re a man, God ordains you to do it. As the series “Shiny Happy People” illustrates, there is perhaps no better distillation of the fundamental premise of this Christian culture than: “Grab ’em by the pussy.”

WINDGATE COLLECTION

BEST OF ARKANSAS

AND THE WINNER IS ...

PUP HOTELS, ‘PAPER GOLD’ AND THE RESULTS OF OUR ANNUAL READERS POLL.

BY AUSTIN BAILEY, RHETT

Every year, the Arkansas Times shoves its fists into its pockets, digs deep and emerges with a big ol’ thermometer to take readers’ temperatures on all things Arkansas. This year, y’all were definitely angling for that doctor’s office lollipop, opening up and saying “hell yeah!” to your favorite neighborhood festival, nodding in appreciation of your most trusted TV meteorologist and giving us a mouthful when it came to the “Worst Arkansan” category (was there ever any doubt, Sarah?). Readers weighed in on their favorite barber shops, banks and bike trails and offered up their picks for the best hotels, HVAC repair and home inspectors in the Little Rock area.

Mary Hennigan fell hard for the foliage creations of Petal to the Metal, a Lonoke-based flower studio that’s pulling up the roots on some of floristry’s stuffier traditions. Benjamin Hardy sat down with Jeff Smith of Smith Funeral Home to ponder the mysteries of the afterlife, the logistical difficulties of posthumous dentistry and the changing tides in the art of casket display. Rhett Brinkley ushered in the dog days of summer at Hounds Lounge, the multilocation canine hotel Central Arkansans trust to care for their pups while on vacation — and to return them safe, sound, freshly groomed and exhausted from all-day play and exercise. Daniel Grear examined the interplay between the dark and the adorable in artist Sulac’s collages, paintings and pastels. Austin Bailey ventured past the neon lights of the Cupids storefront downtown to peruse your favorite lingerie offerings and consider the ins and outs of this year’s best-selling, erm, device. Stephanie Smittle peeled back the vinyl at D&D Sun Control, a North Little Rock window tinting and vinyl wrap company that’s outfitting local school buildings with bullet-resistant window film, while Mary Ruth Taylor surveyed the bookstore scene for promising newcomers and came up with “paper gold” at Paper Hearts, Beautywood Books and Books by the Pound. Read on for the list of winners and finalists.

BRINKLEY, DANIEL GREAR, BENJAMIN HARDY, MARY HENNIGAN, STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND MARY RUTH TAYLOR

VA VA BLOOM!

HANNAH ANDERSON IS A FLORAL ROCK STAR.

BY MARY HENNIGAN

Hannah Anderson’s home near the end of a dead-end street in Lonoke looks like a commonplace dwelling from the outside, but its pink-painted brick and cherry red door contain a world where disco balls and butterflies hang from the ceiling, a giant upright bass demands attention in the corner and the walls are decked out in unique art from top to bottom. There’s hardly an inch that isn’t covered with something special. Even before speaking to Anderson, her home hints at her cultural interests, music tastes and striking personality. This is the place where she makes floral masterpieces for her business, Petal to the Metal Floristry.

BEST OF ARKANSAS

BEST BLOSSOM: Hannah Anderson wins the blue ribbon for Arkansas floristry. BRIAN CHILSON

"I AM 10 EMPLOYEES IN ONE." THANKS FOR

The mission of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is to ensure that all children and their families have the resources and opportunities to lead healthy and productive lives and to realize their full potential.

Anderson and her partner, Jordan, live on family land with their dog, Spud — an adorable, plump dachshund mix. In a small room at the rear of the house and in a studio out back, Anderson becomes a magician, combining luxurious silks with freshly trimmed magnolia and nandina. This year, she’s slated to work a total of 30 weddings in the spring and fall while also waitressing at a local cafe and occasionally killing it on the flute in the band Tempus Terra. She’s well-versed in her craft, a foliage expert and an overall delight of a human.

www.aradvocates.org

“I learned traditional American floristry through the trade for about four years and then I just went rogue and started doing whatever I wanted,” Anderson, 31, said. “I am 10 employees in one.”

A charming “I stop for flowers” sticker is slapped to the bumper of her car and a variety of blooming tattoos cascade down her arms. Anderson wasn’t initially drawn to floristry, but she landed in the field after her mom suggested she try a front desk position at a local flower shop about a decade ago. Though the clerical position meant that she was separated from the work of arranging flowers, she was eventually introduced to a dusty binder that held all of the tips and tricks to floristry. It changed the trajectory of Anderson’s career.

“That is what opened up the floodgates,” she said.

In the years since, Anderson has powered her business through great times and devastating situations. Petal to the Metal survived the COVID-19 pandemic, and Anderson has worked through deaths in her family, fights, a broken foot and a miscarriage. At this point, her body is on autopilot to get the work done, she said.

Anderson speculates that in a past life, she was a prominent figure in a church, bank or politics — and she believes it informs her work today.

“In my last life, I learned how to combine [those skills],” she said. “And in this life, it’s my free ride to do whatever I want. I’m doing that exact thing of combining arts and finance and being able to make a living off my art, which is very rare. … I am aware of the power that I possess.”

Making a floral arrangement is a surprisingly physical activity. While arranging, Anderson is standing up, stepping back, adjusting dried palm fans, trimming branches and tying bows, all in a constant state of motion. The trimmers and snips become an extension of herself. Branches and leaves fly everywhere.

“I let the branches tell me what to do and create the shape,” Anderson said as she placed fresh magnolia into a bulbous green vase. “I want to keep it very naturallooking. Once I get the greenery down, that gives me my basic roadmap.”

Anderson said she often pulls from an event site’s natural foliage to add to a design, and she isn’t afraid to think outside the box. Flowers can pop out of guitars or be accented with ribbon. They can be delicate or make a whole room go silent with their sheer size and impeccable composition. At her own wedding, Anderson and her partner both sported outfits covered in flowers — hers, a daring black gown covered in floral appliques with a deep V neckline, underbust corset and high-leg split, and his, a crisp white suit with embroidered orange florals and guitars on the shoulders.

Anderson brings edge to floristry. With a name like Petal to the Metal — inspired by her mom’s wild, California-native driving — and an unapologetic spirit, she’s breaking down barriers around how people think of flowers.

“[I think] I’ve made some sort of difference in changing the narrative of asking for things,” Anderson said. “It’s OK to ask for flowers, it’s OK to say, ‘I want flowers,’ and it’s OK to buy flowers for boys.”

Anderson also curates flowers for funerals; she calls it “good grief.”

Beyond being a badass florist, Anderson said she also acts as the behind-the-scenes rock star at weddings who will do just about anything for a bride to make them shine. She’s laid down to cover a puddle for a bride and isn’t afraid to be the sweatiest person in the room if it means things go smoothly.

“My career is not flowers,” Anderson said. “It never will be. My career is customer service.”

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Specializing

children

adolescents

Behavioral Healthcare System is the largest behavioral healthcare system in Arkansas. We offer acute and subacute inpatient care for children and adolescents ages 5-17. We also provide outpatient services in several locations across the state.

As a dog owner, one of the worst feelings is boarding your furry pal before leaving for vacation knowing (despite your best efforts of denial) your pooch is going to spend the majority of its time in a kennel anxiously waiting for your return.

Justin Harris and Mandy Marshall were facing that problem in 2013 when their house sitter wasn’t available to look after their “giant lap Doberman-children.” They were stuck looking for a place where their dogs would have a cozy private room with round-the-clock supervision.

“We kind of felt like there was a hole in the marketplace as far as a transparent, higher-quality establishment,” Harris said.

GROOM AND BOARD

HOUNDS LOUNGE IS LETTING DOGS BE DOGS.

BY RHETT BRINKLEY

In 2016 Harris and Marshall opened Hounds Lounge Pet Resort and Spa on Rebsamen Park Road in Riverdale. They envisioned a one-stop shop offering everything Harris and Marshall wanted for their dogs: professional and self-serve grooming, doggie day care, spacious private suites, an indoor/outdoor off-leash play area and 24-hour staffing. Self-serve wash stations — ideal for short-haired dogs or dogs who can’t resist a good roll in the dirt — feature brushes, shampoos, conditioners and dryers as well as large, ergonomic tubs with high walls designed to eliminate the back-breaking practice of bending over the home bathtub. A one-hour wash ranges from $15-$20.

“The best part is you make a big, giant mess and leave it for us to clean up,” Harris said.

But what sets Hounds Lounge apart is the 5,000-plus-square-foot indoor/ outdoor off-leash play areas — essentially playgrounds designed for dogs — divided into three sections based on dogs’ sizes and temperaments.

“It would be silly for us to lock up dogs in crates all day,” Harris said. “It’s positive to have social interaction with all these dogs in a pack. Also, it’s great for the humans at home because [their dogs] get exercise all day long.”

The private dog suites come in three sizes, and are big enough to accommodate dogs from the same household. All the

BEAUTY PAWLOR: Pet groomers

Patty (left) and Jennifer style Burr, a poodle/Bernese mountain dog mix.

BRIAN CHILSON

MEET EDWIN: PREACHER, TEACHER, FAMILY MAN

It was a beautiful Sunday morning and I said, ‘Okay, Lord, this is the day you were resurrected. It’s the day for my resurrection, too.”

READ MORE ABOUT EDWIN MYERS AND WHEN HE KNEW HE WAS IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT SNELLARKANSAS.COM

socialization at Hounds Lounge means the suites are typically empty during daytime hours unless dogs need some alone time, have health issues or are freshly groomed for their return home.

Harris and Marshall opened in 2016 and now employ about 100 people, with locations in North Little Rock, Fayetteville, West Little Rock and Bryant. A Rogers location is currently in development.

I toured the newest Hounds Lounge facility in Bryant last month and discovered that the off-leash area featured all the stimulation I think I would need if I were a dog: playground equipment, a sprinkler system, human employees walking about to restore order if needed. Best of all, I was warmly greeted with welcoming barks by too many dogs to count. Where else can you go where that many living creatures get excited about your very presence? Most of the dogs were running around playing, but some chose to chill. A Great Pyrenees was alone in the back of the indoor room lying on a raised bed, calmly observing all the action. It looked like it was smiling. The outdoor play area features a turf yard so dogs aren’t getting in dirt or mud.

On the walk to the spa on the opposite side of the facility, Harris explained the different grooming services Hounds Lounge provides. A full-service groom is a head-totail haircut. “Bath and the works” is a trim around the face, fanny and feet. Each of those services come with a trim of the nails, anal gland expressions and ear cleanings, as well as a full day of complimentary day care, Harris said.

Other grooming services offered include teeth cleanings, flea and tick treatments, blueberry facials and vanilla and oatmeal “pawdicure” treatments designed to leave your dog’s paw pads smooth.

There's also a mud bath spa treatment that is recommended for dogs with dry, flaky or itchy skin.

In the salon, Pippa and Humphrey, a well-behaved toy poodle and Shih Tzu, were being styled by dog groomers Patty and Jennifer. Directly behind Patty and Jennifer were post-grooming resting suites that appeared to be the coziest nooks in the facility. A puppy who’d just had his first groom was sleeping in one of them as a gentle dryer blew a steady stream of cool air into the cage.

Harris joked that Jennifer has been grooming since she could walk. Her mother owned a grooming salon, she said. She recruited Patty to be a groomer years

Edwin’s bond with Cara, his Snell prosthetist, was so strong that when she got married recently, she asked him to officiate.

Conway

ago when they both worked at a different grooming business.

“You do this long enough, you know when people have the right disposition,” Jennifer said.

Marshall said, “Paws down, the most important quality for a groomer is calming energy.”

If a dog that comes in for a groom is anxious, Patty said, the best thing for a groomer to do is to listen to it.

“You just have to take it really slow and go at the speed of the dog,” she said. “It’s all about respecting the dog and their boundaries and listening to them.”

“They’re just like us, they're emotionalbased,” Harris said. “Some days dogs come in here and they just love being here, and some days, like a kid at school, they’re grumpy.”

“Just like people,” Patty and Jennifer both said in succession.

Jennifer stressed the importance of owners preparing their dogs for grooming at a young age by desensitizing them to noises like blow dryers.

“We recommend a lot of electric toothbrushes, holding it to the paws, the ears, the nose,” Patty said.

Jennifer said that working at Hounds Lounge is the happiest she’s ever been grooming.

“We’re very well supported by reception, by our owners,” Patty said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Some days it’s not a job, and that’s really all you can hope for in a career.”

Harris said the mantra behind Hounds Lounge is the health and safety of the dogs and transparency.

“We’re not just taking care of dogs anymore,” he said. “Today our dogs sleep in our beds, eat high-end diets. Health insurance exists now for dogs. They’re extensions of the family, so we created a place where people can feel comfortable and know their dog is in great hands, so they can go on vacations or day trips and know they’re going to come back to a safe, healthy, clean and worn out dog.”

On the way out, I mentioned that my family and friends are always checking the constantly updated Hounds Lounge Instagram pages (there’s one for each location) to check on their dogs when they’re out of town.

“Everyone does,” Harris said. “It’s funny: People go on vacation and spend the whole time looking for their dog.”

The Galleries & Bookstore at Library Square shuttered for good this June, leaving a string of broken booklover hearts in its wake. Where now will we leisurely peruse the stacks? Page through lightly loved paperbacks? And how can we get our book-smell fix? Fear not. The indie bookstore scene in Central Arkansas still has much to offer. A handful of noble establishments — including WordsWorth Books, The Book Store and Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing — have been holding down the fort for decades, but there are notable newcomers. For all your bookish needs, here are the places you don’t want to miss.

GOLD’

A CENTRAL ARKANSAS BOOKSTORE CRAWL.

BY MARY RUTH TAYLOR

Beautywood Books

1704 N. Main St., North Little Rock

Crossing the threshold of Beautywood Books is like stepping into a storybook. Located in a picturesque little house built in 1904, the worn floorboards, sunbeams and floor-to-ceiling shelves give the shop that signature bookstore warmth. There’s something innately charming about browsing in a place that was once a home; it’s a feeling co-owner Jo Reinbold says can’t be curated.

Jo and Jon Reinbold bought the building in February 2022 to house their rapidly growing online business. The books are secondhand, gathered dutifully by Jon,

who travels the state exploring thrift shops and estate sales. Jo, a former librarian, jokes about being a “bookslinger,” but there is clearly a great deal of care put into the collection.

Oftentimes people bring in the books of someone who has died. “It’s almost like something sacred,” Jo said. “They’re passing on something that’s a part of someone they loved. It’s an honor to see someone’s personality through the books they owned.”

Donations are welcome, but the Reinbolds also do trade-ins, typically 25 cents per pound of books. Their collection focuses less on bestsellers and tries to bring diversity — the weird, the different and the

SPARKING JOY: Owner Beth Quarles created a space to make fellow bookish folks smile.

BRIAN CHILSON

Behind the scenes is a labyrinth of shipping boxes and conveyor belts. Jason Phillips, a self-described “paper gold miner,” sorts through thousands of books each day. “It’s like modern day treasure hunting,” Phillips said. When he finds something good, maybe an antique, or a signed first edition, he’s like a giddy kid.

Some books are reserved to be sold online, but otherwise they’re separated by genre and sold on-site. Anything deemed unusable is recycled, so no paper is wasted. Jamie said it’s been a long journey learning how to run a warehouse, but now they’re past the growing pains and looking to expand. A new location is slated to open in Hot Springs in mid-August, followed later by a store in Memphis.

Paper Hearts Books

420 E. 21st St., Little Rock

For the opening of Paper Hearts Books’ brick-and-mortar shop, the top priority for owner Beth Quarles was creating a space that felt warm and welcoming. Bookstores often have a serious atmosphere, she said, the kind that makes you feel like you shouldn’t talk. To Quarles, reading is social, so Paper Hearts goes the opposite direction. The small shop is an explosion of color, adorned in rainbows and local art.

Paper Hearts began as a pop-up shop. Quarles and co-founder Adrienne Autin partnered with local businesses and festivals to sell books wherever they could reach more people. Through a serendipitous series of events, Quarles acquired a space in Pettaway Square and opened shop back in January. The store is small but wellstocked. Their catalog is lovingly curated with community in mind, and Quarles looks for books with characters and authors that are representative of everyone.

“Reading is such a good way for people to grow, and to feel seen and recognized,” Quarles said. “We want that for all people.”

Books and reading are modes of connection for Quarles, and she says she wants her business to be a place where people can congregate. Her background in teaching and her education at the Clinton School of Public Service inform a kidfriendly, community-minded approach to the business. Storytimes are regular, and recently the shop hosted a “stuffy sleepover” inviting kids to leave their stuffed animals for an overnight visit.

Cupids Lingerie reliably wins accolades from Arkansas Times readers year after year, so much so that mention of the lingerie and novelties shop raises nary a titter around here. Still, we couldn’t help but feel mildly squeamish about visiting the saucy downtown storefront on a weekday morning.

Sandwiched between office space and condominiums, the facade glows at night with swirling pink and purple light shows emanating from screens stretched across the front windows. By day, though, the permanent sprays of plastic balloons flying above the entrance fail to deliver the same come-hither vibe.

CUPIDS AIN’T COUTURE, BUT IT GETS THE JOB DONE.

BY AUSTIN BAILEY

Nevertheless, store manager Jackson Dalby was open for business and ready for customers, and he assured us 10:30 a.m. is a perfectly fine time to peruse his offerings of cock rings, vibrators and fantasy fashion. Daytime business takes a hit in the summer, he conceded, when the middleaged parents who make up a healthy chunk of his customer base are saddled with children out on break.

Cupids has claimed first place in readers’ hearts for multiple years for “Best Lingerie,” but the majority of its retail space in downtown Little Rock belongs to latex tools and lascivious contraptions.

“Cupids Lingerie has been a trusted seller

GRAB 'N' GO: When you need some frothy lingerie immediately, these boxed sets are your go-to. They're reportedly hot sellers on weekend nights.

BRIAN CHILSON

of adult products, lingerie including plussized lingerie, sexy wear, hosiery, adult sex toys for her and him, fetish and bondage products, romance accessories, and more since 1999!” the website exclaims.

Phalluses in a bewildering array of shapes and sizes, both battery powered and not, take up most of the east wall. Penis-shaped water bottles and other phallic knickknacks, those bachelorette party favors de rigueur, claim a corner in the back. Bongs, cigarettes and whippet cartridges (used for cooking only and certainly for no other reason) line glass display cases and shelves by the cash register.

From his perch, Dalby can monitor a camera bank that records every part of the store, plus the sidewalk out front. Theft is a big problem for any retail establishment, he explained, but especially when embarrassment factors in. “Sometimes someone might not want to, like, go to the cash register with a 9-inch dildo. It’s a pride thing,” he said. The front door operates with a magnetic lock, another safety precaution for out-of-hand Friday and Saturday nights.

With so much foot traffic, the downtown store sells a lot of small stuff, easy to fit discreetly in a pocket or purse. Male enhancement pills and pocket pussies are the top sellers, Dalby reports.

Unsure what a pocket pussy is, exactly? Dalby didn’t bat an eye when I admitted my ignorance. Without any hesitation

he pulled out a few of the more popular models. These squishy latex sleeves are more valuable than gold for the trade circuit within prison walls, he explained. The analog models don’t have much to them, but higher-end versions light up and vibrate. Scolding comparisons of unchaste girls to already chewed gum came to mind when Dalby flipped on a display model with a suction feature and invited us to stick our fingers in. “It’s $30, but it’s USBrechargeable,” he told us.

Corsets are a hot seller this year, Dalby said, gesturing to a front corner stocked with silky, slinky, lacy skivvies. Full lingerie sets packaged in boxes for easy grab and go are popular, too, especially with the foot traffic that materializes near closing time.

Maybe it goes without saying that the lingerie at Cupids is not what one might seek out for smooth silhouettes and support. You’ll find no department store beige shapewear or practical cotton briefs.

On the contrary, the riot of faux fur, neon mesh, frilled edges and crotch-free knickers practically scream “handwash only.” Lace bodysuits seem tissue paper-delicate, like they’d easily snag. To be fair, these fast fashion Forever 21-equivalent ensembles weren’t crafted with function and longevity in mind, and that’s the fun of it. Prices are reasonable enough that you could chuck your dryer-shrunken sexy schoolgirl uniform or cupcake-shaped pasties after a single use.

HASTY PASTIES: Cupcakes, unicorns, diamonds ... Which are your favorite?

BRIAN CHILSON

ANIMALS, BUILDINGS, LADIES

BY DANIEL GREAR

The closest Sean Sapp came to having a profound museum experience as a kid happened while flipping through an accordion of neon-lit posters at the Spencer’s in his hometown of Midland, Texas. In between blown-up photographs of KISS and bikini-clad supermodels, he came across “The Scream” by Edvard Munch. The painting’s technique, odd yet legible, grabbed his attention. Unlike the untouchably technical artists he’d previously admired, such as M.C. Escher and H.R. Giger, here was something he might actually be able to imitate, something that allowed him to take his own compulsive doodling more seriously.

A few years later, Sapp was an 18-yearold working at Vino’s in the late ’90s, freshly transplanted from The Lone Star State in pursuit of cheap rent. After a year or two of watching pieces of local artwork with little price tags get hung on the walls of the restaurant, he finally brought it up to someone in charge. “So y’all just let anybody do this?” he asked, to which they replied, “Pretty much.”

He decided he’d try to sell some of his own work, but out of nervousness, he opted to sign it as Sulac, a nickname only his coworkers knew him by. In the decades since, he’s stuck by the pseudonym.

“I started making things as a teenager, but I had no idea that that was something you could really do,” he said recently. “If there were galleries or museums in the town where I grew up, I didn’t know about it. My family went to eat Mexican food if we went out. We didn’t go look at art.”

By the time he moved to Little Rock, he’d developed a love for collage, but through trial and error he found people favored his drawings and paintings and oil pastels, presumably because they thought collage was too simple and amateurish to be worth their money. Sulac didn’t give up on mixed media, though. “I was always trying to sneak collage in there. Like, all right, this’ll

be a painting, but I’m also going to glue some stuff on it.”

Sulac has an obsession with recycled paper, “especially if it has stuff printed on it or written on it,” he said. “I love old handwriting.” Beyond the look, he was first drawn to using salvaged materials because they let him feel less anxious about the creative process. “It developed out of working at restaurants and hanging out with my friends after work,” he said. “I would draw on the guest checks or napkins when we were sitting at the bar. There’s no

DARK BUT CUTE: Sulac's work is a clash of conflicting forces, effortlessly splitting the difference between edgy and adorable.

pressure, and so that’s when the best stuff would come out. I realized if I just glue a bunch of stuff to the canvas, it won’t feel like this blank space.”

Thematically, Sulac sums up his art simply: “Animals, buildings, ladies. Those are the top three things.”

He’s received little in the way of formal training: “One time I went to a figure drawing class. The model comes in and they disrobe and it’s no big deal to them. Everyone else is [cool], but I felt really weird about looking at them,” he said, laughing.

HOW ARTIST SULAC FOUND HIS WAY TO A FRIENDLY SURREALISM.

BRIAN CHILSON

“I couldn’t, man. I ended up painting a duck just floating in some water.” Sulac describes his work as a clash of opposing forces. “If it looks too cute, it needs something dark about it,” he said. If it’s too dark, though, “I want to cute it up. There needs to be a good balance of cuteness and darkness.” It’s a kind of friendly surrealism, one that shuttles the viewer back and forth between the strange and the familiar. Sulac is committed to bending reality, but his way of doing so is always playful. He’s one of those rare artists who can make work that charms most people without sacrificing its edge.

That broad appeal is one reason he’s been able to transition to being a full-time artist over the last few years. In the early days of COVID-19, just three months from

his youngest child’s due date, he surprised himself by quitting his restaurant gig.

“If you would have asked me that morning when I was driving to work, I would have said, ‘Yeah, I probably am always going to work.’ I didn’t know I was at the end of my rope until I looked down and there was the end of the rope in my hand.” While musing about where he might work next, he focused exclusively on creating and selling art, only to discover that the finances didn’t look much different from waiting tables. “I kept thinking ‘Any day now, I’m gonna have to get a real job,’ but it just kept working. And here we are, three years later.”

Sulac has a new exhibition, “Fake It Forever,” opening at the Argenta Branch Library in September, alongside SLUGKNIVES.

SALVAGED MATERIALS: Like "Cat Radio" (pictured above), most of Sulac's pieces include a backdrop of recycled paper.

Discover the great outdoors this summer at Top of the Rock Ozarks Heritage Preserve! Journey along the Lost Canyon Cave & Nature Trail, discover the Cathedral of Nature, and walk through history at the Ancient Ozarks Natural History Museum. Following your adventure, take in the Sunset Ceremony as a Civil War era cannon is fired overlooking Table Rock Lake. Tickets available online at: topoftherock . com

THEY URNED IT!

SMITH FUNERAL HOME IS NUMBER ONE.

BY BENJAMIN HARDY

The original Smith Funeral Home first opened its doors on Valentine’s Day 1955 in a house on North Little Rock’s Main Street that once contained an OB/GYN’s practice. Almost 70 years later, Jeff Smith said, his staff still occasionally hears from older locals with a personal connection to the spot.

“It doesn’t happen very often anymore, but we have done many, many, many funerals where people tell us, ‘I was born in this house.’ And then later, we have their funeral here,” he said.

Trafficking in the mysteries of death and life is all in a day’s work for Smith, 48, the third-generation owner of Smith Family Funeral Homes. He took over the business from his father, John, in 2010 and has grown it into a small empire, with 140 employees across funeral homes in Little Rock, Benton, Sherwood, Hot Springs, Glenwood, Beebe, Arkadelphia and North Little Rock, which Smith said may perform more services than any other facility in the

state. The old doctor’s house still stands, but it’s now incorporated into a larger building with a grand, colonnaded facade.

The business has doubled in size since 2019, driven by the acquisition of other family-owned funeral homes. “As baby boomers are transitioning to retirement, their kids aren’t necessarily wanting to come into the business,” Smith said. “They saw the long hours — you work nights and weekends, your phone rings all time.” Better to sell to a local competitor than a national chain, he argues.

Smith wears his faith on his sleeve (he insisted on starting an interview with a prayer), but he says he and his staff cater to everyone in the community. Being a funeral director requires meeting families where they are: As churchgoing rates have declined and fewer people have a go-to minister, a growing number of staff are trained as “celebrants” — non-clergy professionals who plan and officiate the ceremony in consultation with the family.

Other things have changed as well. Cremations, once a social taboo, are now half of all services. Evening visitations are more well-attended than funerals. Smith says one of the first things he did when he took over the business was to eliminate the casket display room and turn it into a visitation hall.

“When industry people did focus groups, people said over and over again that the worst part of the whole funeral experience was walking into the selection room. They come in and see all these full-sized caskets, and it’s real intimidating,” Smith said. In the ’80s, his father replaced full-sized caskets with “quarter-cuts” — a sort of cross-section display — and the response was positive. “When I took over in 2010, I took them out completely,” Smith said; families now browse their options on a computer monitor.

In general, services are becoming more tailored to the desires of the family and the deceased, Smith said. “If you think of the

SERVICE INDUSTRY: Jeff Smith has grown Smith Family Funeral Homes into a local empire.

BRIAN CHILSON

Greatest Generation, the people who came through the Depression and World War II, they were conformists. All funerals looked the same. Now the baby boomers come along, and their whole thing is ‘I want to be unique, I want to be different,’” he said. “The personalization is to whatever degree the family’s comfortable with.”

Some requests they turn down. Occasionally, a family will ask for gold fillings to be extracted from the deceased’s teeth. “We’re like, ‘No, we don’t practice dentistry,’” he said. (A family is welcome to independently hire a dentist to come “retrieve the metal,” Smith said, but most everyone abandons the idea when they realize the labor costs more than the gold.)

He’s aware of pictures on Instagram of so-called “extreme embalming,” in which a deceased person is displayed in a lifelike pose — playing video games, watching TV, studying a poker hand. “There’s one that’s come around multiple times of a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, sitting in his recliner with a beer in one hand and a remote in the other. That kind of stuff, like ….” Smith paused. “We’d have to really talk to the family about that. I’m not saying we wouldn’t do it, and we haven’t ever gotten a request, but … that’s pretty extreme.”

Embalming is not mandated by law, Smith said, but funeral homes generally require embalming to have a public viewing, for health and safety reasons. (Also: “An unembalmed body is going to look very different, and you can’t put up a sign that says, you know, ‘Warning, this person has not been embalmed.’”)

What’s the one thing he wishes the public knew about funerals? Smith answered without hesitation: Cremation is fine, but it’s not an alternative to a service.

“Cremation is simply a form of disposition. It is not the funeral,” he said. “A lot of people use the words, ‘When I die, just cremate me,’ and what that conveys to the surviving family is ‘My dad didn’t want to have a funeral.’” But the old saying is true: Funerals really are for the living. Failing to stop and recognize the significance of a death, and a life, can leave survivors “stunted in grief,” Smith said.

He’s often asked for advice about how to handle bereavement. “They’ll say, ‘My friend’s dad passed away, what should I do?’ I always say the same thing. One, go to the funeral or the visitation. And then, on the one month anniversary, call them or go see them or take them a meal. A lot of times, people feel like they’ve been forgotten.”

Is it hard to work with death so closely? No, he said, because the job is fundamentally about service. “It’s like being a nurse or teacher … You know you’re helping people every single day.”

BEST OF ARKANSAS

FUTURE’S SO BRIGHT

D&D SUN CONTROL IS THROWING SHADE AT THE COMPETITION.

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

There’s a mecca of car dealerships along U.S. Route 67 in North Little Rock — neat rows of polished windshields gleaming in the sun, billboards that shout “Hassle-Free Buying!” and “72 Months, 0% Financing!” What you might not see behind all the retail clamor, though, are the colonies of storefronts and warehouses that line the rear of the dealership lots — transportation, shipping and marine businesses where you can add a heated seat to your used vehicle or replace the rain-worn canopy on your speedboat. One such business is D&D Sun Control, the winners of the Best Window Tinting category in our annual Best of Arkansas poll and, evidently, the place to go if you wanna wrap your ride in sweet pearlescent purple vinyl.

Evans Dietz sits at The Big Desk up front, and has for 25 years. He’s a North Little Rock native — “Dogtown, born and bred,” he said — and his introduction to the business wasn’t typical. Most window tinting companies start out in home garages, but Dietz’s dad owned a lighting company that used a product called 3M, and when Dietz got wind that there was a thirsty market for 3M window tinting film in the area, he had an in.

“After I went to acting school and tried playing professional tennis,” Dietz said casually, pausing to take a five-second call when his phone began to whisper the opening lines of “Ice Ice Baby.” He liked acting, he said, but after dabbling in the industry — the Tom Cruise drama “Born on the Fourth of July,” notably, and a 1989 flick called “Teen Vamp” — he found the acting world “really terrible,” and a shoulder injury kept him from pursuing tennis.

“THE BIGGEST THING IS 3M KNOWS HOW TO MAKE THINGS STICK.”

DETAIL-ORIENTED: A crew at D&D Sun Control applies window tint to a Honda CR-V.

I told Dietz that the name 3M sounded familiar. They make 64,000 products, he said, including Post-It Notes. “They sponsor the Olympics. They sponsor car races and golf tournaments.” Dietz seemed like he’d know; his office walls are lined with golf tournament plaques, and a signed Tiger Woods photo hangs above his desk. “The biggest thing is 3M knows how to make things stick.”

Over in D&D’s garage bay, a crew of three did a silent and well-choreographed routine around a gray Honda CR-V, alternating between the car’s windshield and a giant “peel board,” a transparent panel mounted vertically on two poles, like a chalkboard. They used the panel to stretch the window film out flat, staging it for its final application. Dietz gestured to the man hovering over the windshield with a heat gun and said, “Smile, G!” G paused for a second, then allowed the corners of his mouth to turn up, barely. “You gotta be a certain kinda person” to do this, Dietz said. “Detail-oriented.”

“G’s been here 15 years,” Dietz said. D&D doesn’t have high turnover in its ranks, he added. The business employs 18 people and, Dietz said, “We take care of ’em. It’s super cliche, but we’re a family as much as we are a business. We’ve watched everybody’s kids grow up.”

By the time the window film gets to this stage, it’s been prepped meticulously, as have the car windows themselves, squeegeed till they’re squeaky clean so that no imperfections linger under the film. A $10,000 Roland printer in the corner had plotted a blueprint for the shape of the window film based on the car’s make and model, cut it to specifications with a razor blade and churned it out so that G and his team could shrink it to fit snugly against the window with the help of some adhesive. Back when Dietz started this work, before the computers came along to lend an assist, Dietz cut window film by hand.

In another bay at Dietz’s neighboring vinyl wrap business, Roll’N Wrapz, a FedEx truck sat, freshly wrapped in its signature white with the arrow logo, while an employee on a stepstool applied “chrome delete” to a Denali, hiding its silver window trim and giving it a sleeker, darker profile.

Wrapping the FedEx trucks is a huge contract, but Dietz’s crew does plenty of work beyond its climate-controlled bays. These days, they’re doing a lot of business wrapping the exteriors of buildings in something called “safety and security film,” a bullet-resistant material designed to deter forced entry and help prevent or slow down

2415 Broadway St • Little Rock • 501- 372-6868

John Barrow Rd • Little Rock • 501-224-2057

active shooters. They’d just done some window wrapping in the Beebe School District and at Little Rock’s eStem charter school, Dietz said, plus school buildings in Carlisle and Bryant. Dietz pulled up a YouTube demo video for a product called 3M Scotchshield Ultra S800, in which split screens showed an armed man in a ski mask shooting at a window panel. On the left, the bullet shattered the glass, and the man punched out enough of the window to enter swiftly. On the right, the bullet punctured the window but the shattered glass stayed intact, even after the wouldbe intruder gave it several swift kicks with his boot. The security film stymied a theft attempt at D&D, Dietz said, even after 13 hits with a crowbar. It halted two break-in attempts at Sissy’s Log Cabin, Dietz told me, and even withstands tornadic winds. Hospitals install the film to avoid having to evacuate an ICU unit in the event of a tornado warning, Dietz said. D&D’s wrap on the windows at Baumans Fine Men’s Clothing withstood the March 31 tornado, preventing glass shards from scattering across the shop.

Other jobs are smaller — much smaller. Dietz picked up a coffee thermos embossed

with a church’s logo beside the words “Every soul matters to God,” one of many novelty items D&D can wrap. Dietz’s own ride is currently decked out in the aforementioned pearlescent purple, complete with a laser “puddle light” on the driver’s side door that projects the words “Big Pimpin’” — a nickname Dietz’s employees came up with — onto the ground when you open it to climb in.

Meanwhile, I was doing the math on what it’d take to get a tint job on my battered, decade-old Prius. SPF devotees, take note: 99.9% of UV rays are blocked by window tint. Arkansas law mandates that the darkest legal tint for cars and sedans is 25% on the front and back side windows (meaning that 25% of the light passes through) and 10% on the rear window, but a doctor’s note can exempt you from those restrictions. “If you’re a lupus patient, we can make your car as dark as you want,” Dietz said. 3M’s website has a section titled “This sunblock doesn’t come in a bottle,” detailing its window film’s Seal of Recommendation from The Skin Cancer Foundation. “If you live in Arkansas and you don’t tint your windows,” Dietz said, “you’re just silly.”

A CUSTOM JOB: “Chrome delete” is applied to a Denali, hiding its window trim and giving it a sleeker, darker profile.

With properties around the state, you’re never too far from a comfortable night’s stay. At Beechwood Pinnacle Hotels, our welcoming rooms and suites are the perfect place to rest after experiencing everything the area has to offer.

PROUD SPONSOR OF THE

DATAMAX CONGRATULATES ALL THE WINNERS AND FINALISTS!

We are proud to be the sponsor of the 2023 BEST OF ARKANSAS competition in the Arkansas Times.

Your customers have rated you above your competitors as one of the best in the state. DATAMAX is proud to be associated with you. Whether you are a coffee shop owner, plumber or investment advisor, achieving “best” status hinges on the perception of those you serve. While opinions vary from customer to customer, there are a few universal principles that Datamax lives by every day, to not only create longevity for our organization, but to aim toward being our absolute best.

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RECREATION

BIKE TRAIL

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best of Arkansas 2023

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best Of Arkansas 2022

CONGRATS TO THE 2023 WINNERS!

OUTDOOR ATTRACTION

Winner: Buffalo National River

AUTHOR Winner: Ayana Gray

Winner: Arkansas River Trail

Finalists: Mt. Nebo State Park Monument Trails (Dardanelle), Northwoods Trails (Hot Springs), Pinnacle Mountain State Park Monument Trails (Roland), Slaughter Pen (Bentonville)

CHEAP DATE

Winner: Big Dam Bridge

Finalists: The Rail Yard, Riverfront Park, Rock Town River Outfitters, Pinnacle Mountain State Park

FAMILY ATTRACTION

Winner: Little Rock Zoo

Finalists: Museum of Discovery, Rock Town River Outfitters, Dave & Buster’s, Magic Springs Theme and Water Park (Hot Springs)

GOLF COURSE

Winner: Rebsamen Golf Course

Finalists: Burns Park Golf Course (North Little Rock), Country Club of Little Rock, The Alotian Club, Indian Hills Golf Resort (Fairfield Bay)

GYM/PLACE TO WORK OUT

Winner: Little Rock Athletic Club

Finalists: 10 Fitness, Sparkfit, Orangetheory Fitness, Jolly Bodies, Little Rock Athletic Club

HIKING TRAIL

Winner: Pinnacle Mountain State Park (Roland)

Finalists: Ouachita National Recreation Trail, Devil’s Den State Park (West Fork), Emerald Park (North Little Rock), Lake Ouachita Vista Trail (Mount Ida)

MARINA

Winner: Mountain Harbor Resort and Spa (Mount Ida)

Finalists: Brady Mountain Resort & Marina on Lake Ouachita (Royal), Eden Isle Marina on Greers Ferry Lake (Heber Springs), Rock Town River Outfitters, Fairfield Bay Marina (Shirley)

Finalists: Garvan Woodland Gardens (Hot Springs), Pinnacle Mountain State Park, Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort (Hot Springs), Little Rock Zoo

PARK

Winner: Petit Jean State Park

Finalists: Two Rivers Park, Devil’s Den State Park, Murray Park, Emerald Park

PLACE TO CANOE/KAYAK/TUBE

Winner: Buffalo National River

Finalists: Two Rivers Park, Little Maumelle River, Spring River, White River

PLACE TO MOUNTAIN BIKE

Winner: Pinnacle Mountain State Park Monument Trails

Finalists: Coler Mountain Bike Preserve (Bentonville), Northwoods (Hot Springs), Mt. Nebo State Park Monument Trails, Rattlesnake Ridge

PLACE TO SWIM

Winner: Greers Ferry Lake

Finalists: Jim Dailey Fitness and Aquatic Center, DeGray Lake, Lake Hamilton, Woolly Hollow State Park

RESORT

Winner: The Lodge at Mount Magazine (Paris)

Finalists: Gaston’s White River Resort (Lakeview), Mountain Harbor Resort and Spa (Mount Ida), Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort (Hot Springs), Club Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Bay (Fairfield Bay)

WEEKEND GETAWAY

Winner: Eureka Springs

Finalists: Petit Jean State Park, Cherokee Casino & Hotel (West Siloam Springs), Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort (Hot Springs), Buffalo National River

LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT ARTIST

Winner: Sulac

Finalists: Sunny Jenkins, Philip Rex Huddleston, Michael Shaeffer, SLUGKNIVES

Finalists: Bitty Martin, Kevin Brockmeier, Paula Martin, Kai Coggin

COMEDIAN

Winner: Nate Williams

Finalists: Big Dre, Stef Bright, May Gayden, Chase Myska

COUNTRY BAND/ARTIST

Winner: Ashley McBryde

Finalists: Dylan Earl, Cliff & Susan, Bonnie Montgomery, Arkansauce

DANCE CLUB

Winner: Discovery

Finalists: C4 (Fayetteville), Club 27, Club Sway, Club Nevermore

DJ Winner: DJ Nick Hud

Finalists: Dream Baby Dream, g-force, JJ Wilson, Shayne Gray

FILMMAKER

Winner: SeJames Humphrey

Finalists: Jordan Mears, Brooke Bierhaus, Graham Gordy, Mark Thiedeman

GAY BAR

Winner: Discovery

Finalists: 610 Center, C4 (Fayetteville), Sway

HIP-HOP ARTIST

Winner: Bankroll Freddie

Finalists: Penn Davis, Kvng Moses, Big Piph, 607

JAZZ BAND/GROUP

Winner: The Rodney Block Collective

Finalists: Funkanites, The Goat Band, Dizzy 7, Ted Ludwig Trio

LATE NIGHT SPOT

Winner: White Water Tavern

Finalists: Four Quarter Bar (North Little Rock), Overtime Lounge (Maumelle), Midtown Billiards, Brewski’s Pub & Grub

LIVE MUSIC FESTIVAL

Winner: na-West Helena)

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best of Arkansas 2023

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best Of Arkansas 2022

Finalists: Mutants of the Monster Fest, Hillberry Music Festival (Eureka Springs), Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival (Hot Springs), Yadaloo Music & Arts Festival (North Little Rock)

LIVE MUSIC VENUE

Winner: White Water Tavern

Finalists: The Hall, Rev Room, Four Quarter Bar, The Farm (Eureka Springs)

LOCAL ACTOR

Winner: Judge Reinhold

Finalists: Ben Grimes, Verda Davenport-Booher, Brett Ihler, Quinn Gasaway

LOCAL THEATER

Winner: Arkansas Repertory Theatre

Finalists: Argenta Community Theater (North Little Rock), Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, The Studio Theatre, The Weekend Theater

MOVIE THEATER

Winner: Riverdale 10 VIP Cinema

Finalists: AMC Chenal 9, Cinemark Colonel Glenn and XD, Movie Tavern, Regal McCain Mall (North Little Rock)

MUSEUM

Winner: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville)

Finalists: Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Historic Arkansas Museum, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Museum of Discovery

NEIGHBORHOOD FESTIVAL

Winner: Hillcrest Harvestfest

Finalists: Dogtown Throwdown (North Little Rock), Toad Suck Daze (Conway), Main Street Food Truck Festival, Hot Water Hills Arts & Music Festival (Hot Springs)

PERFORMING ARTS GROUP

Winner: Arkansas Symphony Orchestra

Finalists: Arkansas Circus Arts, Ballet Arkansas, The Main Thing, Red Octopus Theater Company

PHOTOGRAPHER

Winner: Katie Childs

Finalists: Kurt Lunsford, FestyPanda

Photography, Ebony Blevins, Rah Howard

PLACE FOR KARAOKE

Winner: White Water Tavern

Finalists: Town Pump, Brewski’s Pub & Grub, Dust Bowl Lanes and Lounge, Overtime Lounge (Maumelle)

Flying Saucer Draught Emporium

Finalists: Fassler Hall, Brewski’s Pub & Grub, Dugan’s Pub, Stone’s Throw Brewing

PLACE TO GAMBLE

Winner: Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort (Hot Springs)

Finalists: Cherokee Casino and Hotel (Roland, Oklahoma), Choctaw Casino (Pocola, Oklahoma), Saracen Casino Resort (Pine Bluff), Tunica, Mississippi

POET

Winner: Kai Coggin

Finalists: Tru Poet, Paula Martin, Drekkia Writes, R.J. Looney

ROCK BAND

Winner: Funkanites

Finalists: DeFrance, Colour Design, Illusionaut, Tranquilo

SPORTS BAR

Winner: Brewski’s Pub & Grub

Finalists: Legends Sports Bar at Saracen Casino (Pine Bluff), Bar Louie, Dave & Buster’s, Overtime Lounge (Maumelle)

LOCAL MEDIA BLOG

Winner: The Mighty Rib

Finalists: Arkansas Blog, Best of Arkansas Sports, Blue Hog Report, Tie Dye Travels

COLUMNIST/REPORTER

Winner: Rex Nelson

Finalists: Austin Bailey, John Brummett, Dwain Hebda (Ya!Mule Wordsmiths), Stephanie Smittle

MARKETING FIRM

Winner: CJRW

Finalists: Cranford Co., Eric Rob & Isaac, MHP/Team SI, Thoma Thoma

PODCAST

Winner: Arkansas Times: Week in Review

Finalists: Bear Grease, Put Your Books

Down, United States of Murder, Blackbelt Voices

RADIO PERSONALITY

Winner: Heather Brown (Alice 107.7)

Finalists: Shayne Gray (KABF 88.3) Tom Wood (Arkansas Rocks), Roger Scott (103.7 The Buzz)

RADIO STATION

Winner: 103.7 The Buzz

Finalists: KABF-FM 88.3, KUAR-FM 89.1/ KLRE-FM 90.5, KUAF-FM 91.3, KSSN-FM 96

TV PERSONALITY

Winner: Craig O’Neill (THV11)

Finalists: Elicia Dover (KATV), Laura Monteverdi (KARK), Donna Terrell (FOX16), DJ Williams (KARK)

TV SPORTSCASTER

Winner: Steve Sullivan (KATV)

Finalists: Hayden Balgavy (THV11), Tyler Cass (THV11), Wess Moore (FOX16), DJ Williams (KARK)

TV STATION

Winner: KTHV (THV11)

Finalists: KARK (Channel 4), KATV (Channel 7), Arkansas PBS, KLRT (FOX16)

WEBSITE

Winner: arktimes.com

Finalists: arkansasonline.com, encyclopediaofarkansas.net, bluehogreport.com, hawgbeat.com

PEOPLE AND POLITICS

ARKANSAN

Winner: Chris Jones

Finalists: Joyce Elliott, Tippi McCullough, Eric Musselman, Ryan Taneja

ATHLETE

Winner: Devo Davis

Finalists: John Daly, Bumper Pool, Bobby Portis, KJ Jefferson

CELEBRITY

Winner: Mary Steenburgen

Finalists: Bobby Bones, Billy Bob Thornton, Symone the Ebony Enchantress, Bonnie Montgomery

CHARITY EVENT

Winner: Soup Sunday (Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families)

Finalists: Cupcakes for Goodness Sake (CareLink), The Finest Gala (Cystic Fibrosis Foundation), Paws on the Runway (CARE for Animals), Taste of Little Rock (UA Little Rock)

CONSERVATIVE

Winner: Asa Hutchinson

Finalists: Jonathan Dismang, Jim Hendren, Julie Mayberry, Rex Nelson

LIBERAL Winner: Chris Jones

Finalists: Tippi McCullough, Grant Tennille, Clarke Tucker, Kathy Webb

LITTLE ROCK CITY DIRECTOR

Winner: Capi Peck

Finalists: Andrea Lewis, Virgil Miller, Ant wan Phillips, Kathy Webb

MISUSE OF TAXPAYER FUND/ PROPOSALS

Winner: Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Finalists: Arkansas LEARNS, 911 in Little Rock, 30 Crossing, hamburger tax

NONPROFIT

Winner: The Van (The One, Inc.)

Finalists: Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Our House, Pulaski County Imagination Library, Thea Foundation

PHILANTHROPIST

Winner: Bill and Hillary Clinton

Finalists: Johnelle Hunt, Kirk Bradshaw, Tiffany Robinson, Alice Walton

POLITICIAN

Winner: Chris Jones

Finalists: Nicole Clowney, Denise Ennett, Clarke Tucker, Kathy Webb

WORST ARKANSAN

Winner: Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Finalists: Tom Cotton, Jane English, Tim Griffin, David Ray

FOOD AND DRINK

ARKANSAS-BREWED BEER

Winner: Lost Forty Brewing

Finalists: Burks Brothers Brewing (Bryant), Flyway Brewing, Ozark Beer Co. (Rogers), Stone’s Throw Brewing

BAKED GOODS

Winner: Community Bakery

Finalists: Boulevard Bread Co., Dempsey Bakery, Flake Baby Pastry, Wild Sweet Williams (Searcy)

BIRTHDAY OR SPECIAL OCCASION CAKE

Winner: Blue Cake Co.

Finalists: Community Bakery, Flake Baby Pastry, Loblolly Creamery, Mickey’s Cakes & Sweets

BREAD

Winner: Boulevard Bread Co.

Finalists: Community Bakery, Old Mill

Bread, Serenity Farm Bread (Leslie), Wild Sweet Williams (Searcy)

COCKTAIL

Winner: Rocktown Distillery

Finalists: Brood & Barley, Kemuri, The Pan try, Raduno Brick Oven & Barroom

COMFORT FOOD

Winner: K. Hall & Sons Produce

Finalists: David’s Family Kitchen, Homer’s Kitchen & Table, Rosie’s Pot & Kettle, Utopia Deli

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best of Arkansas 2023

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best Of Arkansas 2022

CURBSIDE RESTAURANT SERVICE

Winner:

Finalists: Buffalo Grill, The Fold Botanas & Bar, Gadwall’s Grill, Utopia Deli

FOOD FESTIVAL

Winner: Main Street Food Truck Festival

Finalists: International Greek Food Festival, Arkansas Cornbread Festival, World Cheese Dip Festival, UA Little Rock’s Taste of Little Rock

HANGOVER FOOD

Winner: The Root Cafe

Finalists: Big Bad Breakfast, Fassler Hall, Four Quarter Bar, Overtime Lounge

LIQUOR STORE

Winner: Colonial Wines & Spirits

Finalists: Ace Liquor Center (Cabot), Legacy Wine & Spirits, 107 Liquor, O’Looney’s Wine & Liquor

MILKSHAKE

Winner: Purple Cow

Finalists: Big Orange, Loblolly Creamery, Hill Station, Shake’s Frozen Custard

MOST CREATIVE MENU

Winner: Brood & Barley

Finalists: Ciao Baci, Flora Jean’s, Four Quarter Bar, Table 28

MUNCHIES FOOD

Winner: Four Quarter Bar

Finalists: Cheba Hut, Overtime Lounge, Tamalcalli: The Tamale House, Wild Sweet Williams (Searcy)

ONION RINGS

Winner: Buffalo Grill

Finalists: Big Whiskey’s, Black Angus, Purple Cow, Town Pump

PLACE FOR A GUY’S NIGHT OUT

Winner: Fassler Hall

Finalists: Brewski’s Pub & Grub, Cherokee Hotel & Casino West Siloam Springs, Dickey-Stephens Park, Rock Town Distillery

PLACE FOR A GIRL’S NIGHT OUT

Winner: Ciao Baci

Finalists: Cypress Social, Agasi 7: Rooftop Bar + Kitchen, Loony Bin Comedy Club, Petit & Keet

PLACE TO EAT ON A SUNDAY

Winner: Raduno Brick Oven & Barroom

Finalist: The Croissanterie, Flora Jean’s, The Root Cafe, Star of India

RESTAURANT FOR A FIRST DATE

Finalists: Brood & Barley, Ciao Baci,

RIBS

Winner: Whole Hog Cafe (North Little Rock)

Finalists: Count Porkula, Sims Bar-b-que, Stubby’s BBQ, Knightfire BBQ (Searcy)

WINGS

Winner: Four Quarter Bar

Finalists: Certified Pies, Dem Dam Wingz, Mockingbird Bar & Tacos, Waldo’s Chicken & Beer

SHOPPING ANTIQUES

Winner: Midtown Vintage Market

Finalists: Fabulous Finds, Rose Antique Mall & Flea Market (Rogers) Sweet Home/Clement, Twin City Antique Mall

ART GALLERY

Winner: M2 Gallery

Finalists: Cantrell Art Gallery, Boswell Mourot Fine Art, Gallery 26

AUTO DEALER

Winner: Mark McLarty Toyota (North Little Rock)

Finalists: Parker Lexus, Gwatney Chevrolet Company (Jacksonville), Puckett Auto Group (Conway), Steve Landers Auto Group

BICYCLE SHOP

Winner: Angry Dave’s Bicycles (North Little Rock)

Finalists: Shift Modern Cyclery, Spokes Little Rock, Trek Bicycle Little Rock, The Woodsman Company (Rogers)

BOOKSTORE

Winner: WordsWorth Books

Finalists: Bookish (Fort Smith), Dickson Street Bookshop (Fayetteville), Dog Ear Books (Russellville), Paper Hearts Bookstore

BRIDAL STORE

Winner: Low’s Bridal (Brinkley)

Finalists: The Bridal Cottage (North Little Rock), Danielle’s Bridal & Special Occasions (Clarksville), David’s Bridal, Unveiled Bridal Collection

CBD STORE

Winner: Good Earth Organics

Finalists: Healing Hemp of Arkansas, Suite 443, Your CBD Store

Buren), Clara Jane & Jax (Batesville)

FABRICS AND DRAPERY

Winner: Cynthia East Fabrics

Finalists: JOANN Fabrics, Marshall Dry Goods Company (Batesville), The Quilt House (Clarksville), Stitchin Post

FARMERS MARKET

Winner: Me and McGee Market (North Little Rock)

Finalists: Bernice Garden Farmers Market, Hillcrest Farmers Market, Little Rock Farmers Market, The Bramble Market

FLOORING STORE

Winner: Akels Carpet One Floor & Home

Finalists: Cantrell Furniture Design Center, Carpet Barn (North Little Rock), LL Flooring, McElroy Tops & Floors (Benton)

FLORIST

Winner: Petal to the Metal Floristry

Finalists: Cabbage Rose Florist, Curly Willow Designs (Cabot), The Empty Vase, Frances Flower Shop

FURNITURE

Winner: Midtown Vintage Market

Finalists: Arkansas Furniture (Hot Springs), Cantrell Furniture Design Center, Lux Haus (Fort Smith), HOWSE

GARDEN STORE

Winner: The Good Earth Garden Center

Finalists: Botanica Gardens, Cantrell Gardens Nursery, Hocott’s Garden Center, Plantopia

GIFT SHOP

Winner: Bang-Up Betty (North Little Rock)

Finalists: Bella Vita Jewelry, Box Turtle, Domestic Domestic, Moxy Modern Mercantile

GROCERY STORE

Winner: Trader Joe’s

Finalists: Bob’s Food City (Mt. Ida), Edwards Food Giant, The Fresh Market, Natural Grocers, Whole Foods Market

HARDWARE/HOME IMPROVEMENT

Winner: Fuller & Sons Hardware

Finalists: Ace Hardware, Kraftco Hardware, McCoy’s Lumber & Hardware (Searcy), Walrod’s Hardware (Fort Smith)

Little Rock • Hot Springs • Dallas/Forth Worth Tyler Longview Lufkin El Dorado Texarkana

HIP CLOTHING

Winner: Crying Weasel Vintage

Finalists: Anthropologie, AR-T’s, Box Turtle, Fringe Clothing, E. Leigh’s Contemporary Boutique

HOBBY SHOP

Winner: Argenta Bead Company

Finalists: ART Outfitters, The Coin & Stamp Shop, The Geeky Oasis (Sherwood), HobbyTown (North Little Rock), Yarn Kandy

JEWELER

Winner: Bang-Up Betty

Finalists: Bella Vita Jewelry, Cecil’s Jewelry, Sissy’s Log Cabin

LINGERIE STORE

Winner: Cupids

Finalists: Aphrodite’s Love Boutique (Rogers), Seductions, Angie Davis (Conway)

MEN’S CLOTHING

Winner: Baumans Fine Men’s Clothing

Finalists: AR-T’s Custom Tees, Father & Sons Clothier (Pine Bluff), Mr. Wicks, The Woodsman Company (Fort Smith)

MOBILE PHONE PROVIDER

Winner: AT&T

Finalists: Straight Talk Wireless, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless

MOTORCYCLE DEALER

Winner: Rock City Harley-Davidson

Finalists: Mike Johnson’s Powersports (Russellville), Rodney’s Cycle Shop, Sunrise Yamaha Motorsports (Searcy)

OUTDOOR STORE

Winner: Ozark Outdoor Supply

Finalists: Bass Pro Shop, Domestic Domestic, Fort Thompson, The Woodsman Company (Fort Smith)

PAWN SHOP

Winner: Braswell & Son Pawn Brokers

Finalists: Big Daddy’s Pawn Shop, National Pawn Shop (North Little Rock), Pawnderosa Pawn, Randy’s Pawn Shop Inc. (Fort Smith)

RV/CAMPER DEALER

Winner: Moix RV Supercenter (Conway)

Finalists: Crain RV (Benton), Gander RV & Outdoors (North Little Rock), Goss Camper Sales, Kiko’s Kountry RV (North Little Rock)

SHOES

Winner: Dillard’s

Finalists: Rock City Kicks, Rock City Running, True Grit Running Co. (Fort Smith), Shoe Carnival

SPORTING GOODS

Winner: Academy Sports + Outdoors

Finalists: Dick’s Sporting Goods (North Little Rock), Gene Lockwood’s, Rock City Running, The Woodsman Co. (Fort Smith)

TOY STORE

Winner:

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best of Arkansas 2023

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best Of Arkansas 2022

Finalists: Box Turtle, The Geeky Oasis (Sherwood), Kindness & Joy Toys (Fay etteville), Knowledge Tree

VAPE SHOP

Winner: Abby Road

Finalists: Emerald’s Triangle (Jonesboro), Rogue Vapers, Toddy Tobacco & Vape Shop

VINTAGE CLOTHING

Winner: Crying Weasel Vintage

Finalists: America Jane Vintage (Conway), Oak Forest Vintage, The Retro Fit (Hot Springs), Thriftpologie

WOMEN’S CLOTHING

Winner: Crying Weasel Vintage

Finalists: Anthropologie, BEIGE, J. McLaughlin, Thriftpologie

EDUCATION

PRE-K OR PRESCHOOL

Winner: Little Rock School District

Finalists: Little Rock Christian Academy, Child Development Center, Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church Early Learning Center, Langston Aerospace and Environmental Magnet School

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Winner: UA Pulaski Tech (North Little Rock)

Finalists: Southeast Arkansas College/ SEARK (Pine Bluff), National Park College (Hot Springs), University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton

FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY

Winner: University of Arkansas (Fayetteville)

Finalists: Arkansas State University (Jonesboro), Hendrix College (Conway), University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Central Arkansas (Conway), Lyon College

PRIVATE SCHOOL

Winner: Episcopal Collegiate School

Finalists: The Anthony School, Pulaski Academy, Little Rock Christian Academy, Christ Lutheran

PUBLIC SCHOOL

Winner: Little Rock Central High School

Finalists: Forest Heights S.T.E.M. Academy, Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts (Hot Springs), North Little Rock High School, Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School

Finalists: J.R. Barney Accounting PLLC, BKD Wealth Advisors LLC, Ferguson Cobb, Landmark

APARTMENT COMPLEX

Winner: Argenta Flats Apartments

Finalists: Fountaine Bleau Maumelle, The Pointe Brodie Creek, The Pointe North Hills

ARCHITECT

Winner: Herron Horton Architects

Finalists: Benchmark Group, Cromwell Architects Engineers, Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, Taggart Architects

ARKANSAS-BASED COMPANY

Winner: Tacos 4 Life

Finalists: Benchmark Group, Rock City Kicks, First Orion, Stephens Inc., Onyx Coffee Lab

ARTISAN

Winner: Bang-Up Betty (Stacey Bowers)

Finalists: Broken Vessels Pottery Studio, Gina Rose Gallina, Crystal C. Mercer, Bella Vita Jewelry (Brandy McNair)

AUTO SERVICE

Winner: Discount Tire & Brake

Finalists: Cantrell Service Center, Brown’s Auto Clinic, Austin Brothers Tire Service, Kittle’s Garage

AUTOGLASS REPAIR

Winner: Discount Auto Glass

Finalists: Binswanger, Linn’s Auto Glass, Dr. B’s Windshield Repair Co., Mobile Glass Pros

BANK

Winner: Arvest

Finalists: Bank of Little Rock, Centennial Bank, Encore Bank, Simmons Bank

COMMERCIAL INSURANCE AGENCY

Winner: State Farm

Finalists: USAA, Shelter Insurance, NRG, Hines

COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE AGENCY

Winner: KW Commercial/Keller Williams

Realty

Finalists: iRealty Commercial Arkansas, Crye-Leike Real Estate, Flake and Company

COMPANY TO WORK FOR

Winner: UAMS

Finalists: Cherokee Casino & Hotel (West Siloam Springs), Charlotte Potts State Farm Insurance, Benchmark Group, Apptegy

DESIGNER/DECORATOR

Winner: Kelley Kolettis Designs

Finalists: Debi Davis Interior Design, Brittany Nixon Creative, Johnna Novak (Novak Design), Garry Mertins (mertinsdykehome)

EVENT VENUE

Winner: The Hall

Finalists: Cherokee Hotel & Casino (West Siloam Springs), Wildwood Park for the Arts, Grandview Acres Lodge and Bunkhouse, The Baker House

FUNERAL HOME

Winner: Smith North Little Rock Funeral Home

Finalists: Ruebel Funeral Home, Griffin Leggett Healey & Roth Funeral Home, Nelson Funeral Home

HANDYMAN

Winner: Kenny Burroughs

Finalists: Coleman Faust, Harrell May, FixIt Quick, Mr. Fix-It Inc.

HOME BUILDER

Winner: Mike Orndorff Construction

Finalists: Graham Smith Construction, Hines Homes, Kerr Building Services, Markus Homes

HOME INSPECTION

Winner: Blackbird Inspections (Eric Young)

Finalists: Joe Cummins, GQ Inspection Services (Dennis Evans), Pillar to Post Home Inspectors (The Paulson Team), Reliable Choice Home Inspections

HOME, LIFE, CAR INSURANCE

Winner: State Farm

Finalists: Arkansas Farm Bureau, Citizens Fidelity Insurance Company, The Jenkins Agency, USAA

HOTEL

Winner: Capital Hotel

Finalists: Cherokee Hotel & Casino (West Siloam Springs), AC Hotel by Marriott Little Rock, Wyndham Fort Smith City Center, Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort (Hot Springs)

HVAC REPAIR

Winner: Bob & Ed’s Heating and Air Conditioning

Finalists: Dewees HVAC, Kirby’s Heating and Air Conditioning, Smart Comfort Inc., Yates Maintenance Heating & Air

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER

Winner: AT&T U-verse

Finalists: ARNETEX, Xfinity, Comcast, Hyperleap

LANDSCAPER/LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Winner: The Good Earth Garden Center

Finalists: Moon Custom Landscapes, Green Clues Lawn and Landscaping LLC, Botanica Gardens, Plantopia, River Valley Horticulture Products

LAW FIRM

Winner: Wright Lindsey Jennings

Finalists: Dodds, Kidd, Ryan & Rowan; Rainwater Holt & Sexton; Taylor King Law; Lassiter & Cassinelli

LAWYER

Winner: Dave Parker

Finalists: Taylor King, Austin King, Michael Kaiser, Charsie Gordon

MOVER

Winner: Two Men and a Truck (North Little Rock)

Finalists: Errand Runners of Arkansas, Brandon Moving & Storage (North Little Rock), Elite Movers, Mustard Seed Moving of Arkansas

MUSIC EQUIPMENT

Winner: Guitar Center (Little Rock)

Finalists: Fry Guitars, Palmer Music Co. (Conway), Renown Music (North Little Rock), Shuffield Music Company (Arkadelphia)

PEST CONTROL

Winner: Adams Pest Control

Finalists: Arkansas Pest Control (North Little Rock), Clark Exterminating, Curry’s Termite, Elkins Pest Control (Maumelle), Legacy Termite and Pest Control

PET GROOMERS

Winner: Hounds Lounge Pet Resort and Spa

Finalists: Gio’s Paw Spa, Dat Pooch, Barkansas Pet Grooming, Shay’s Love Affur Grooming, Howlz Mobile Grooming

PLUMBER

Winner: Ray Lusk Plumbing

Finalists: Aaron Houff, Matlock Rooter Services, Platinum Plumbing, Razorback Plumbing Co.

REALTOR

Winner: Debbie Teague (The Janet Jones Company)

Finalists: Shannon Treece (The Janet Jones Company), Stacy Hamilton (Coldwell Banker RPM), Donna Dailey (The Janet Jones Company), Allison Pickell (Coldwell Banker RPM Group)

Photo courtesy of NRHA

midtown@arkansasdermatology.com

SIDING, WINDOWS AND ROOFING

Winner: Garcia & Sons Roofing

Finalists: Accountable Roofing, Arkansas Roofing Kompany (Conway), Riley Hayes, Gabe Jones

SOLAR COMPANY

Winner: Seal Solar (North Little Rock)

Finalists: AEV Solar, Peak Power Solar, Sunpro Solar, Chreyton Electric Inc.

TATTOOS

Winner: 7th Street Tattoo

Finalists: Black Cobra Tattoos (Sherwood), Love Spell Tattoo, Lucky Bella Tattoos (North Little Rock), Smoky Row Tattoo (Russellville)

TRAVEL AGENCY

Winner: Poe Travel

Finalists: Friends Tours & Travel, West Rock Travel, Sue Smith Vacations (North Little Rock)

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Winner: Merrill Lynch

Finalists: John D. Curreri (Edward Jones), Raymond James, Hatcher, Crews & Associates Inc.

WEB DESIGN

Winner: Rock City Digital

Finalists: Taneja Marketing Group, Elevate Creative, Rebel Design Group, American Business Engine, Kreative Dimensions

WINDOW TINTING

Winner: D&D Sun Control (North Little Rock)

Finalists: 007 Window Tinting (Benton), Arkansas RockStar Window Tinting, Jay’s Window Tinting (Sherwood), SunStop Window Tinting (North Little Rock)

MEDICAL AND PERSONAL CARE

ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY

Winner: Fox Ridge Luxury Senior Living

Finalists: Chenal Pines Retirement Resort, The Manor Senior Living Community, Memory Care of Little Rock at Good Shepherd, Woodland Heights

BARBERSHOP

Winner: Dogtown Barber Lounge (North Little Rock)

Finalists: Blade and Barrel (Jacksonville), Handle Barbershop, Jerry’s Barbershop, Park Hill Barbershop

BUDTENDER

Jared Curtis (Berner’s by Good

Finalists: Jennifer Burr (Natural Relief Dispensary), Jocelin Fuller-Brooks (Green light), Christey Noble (The Treatment, Pine Bluff), Darius White (Natural Relief, Sherwood)

CHIROPRACTOR

Winner: Brady DeClerk (Omnis Rehab: Joint and Performance Center)

Finalists: Dr. Brad Chambers (Chenal Urgent Chiropractic), Dr. Beverly Foster (Chiropractic Health & Rehabilitation), Lee Hodge (Abundant Health Chiropractic & Therapeutic Massage), Dylan Machycek (Elite Spine & Joint)

COSMETIC DENTIST

Winner: Dr. DJ Dailey (Smile Dailey General and Cosmetic Dentistry)

Finalists: Dr. Stephen Deal (Deal Family Dentistry, Greenbrier), Dr. Ethan Erwin (Smile, Hot Springs), Dr. Montgomery Heathman (Heathman Family and Cosmetic Dentistry), Dr. Sam Strong (Dentalways)

COSMETIC SURGEON

Winner: Dr. Suzanne Yee (Cosmetic & Laser Surgery Center)

Finalists: Dr. Rhys Branman (Cosmetic Surgery Center), Dr. Melanie Prince (Melanie Prince, MD Plastic Surgery), Dr. Kris Shewmake (Shewmake Plastic Surgery), Dr. Zachary Young

COUNSELOR/THERAPIST

Winner: Argenta Counseling

Finalists: Cardinal Counseling (North Little Rock), Stacy Kinzler, Rachel Pinto, Dr. Kathleen Wong (Bridges 2 Wellbeing, Fayetteville)

DERMATOLOGIST

Winner: Arkansas Dermatology

Finalists: Franks Dermatology, Dr. Jay Flaming, Dr. Ray Parker (Dermatology Group of Arkansas), Pinnacle Dermatology

DIET/WEIGHT LOSS CENTER

Winner: Baptist Health Weight & Nutrition Center

Finalists: Arkansas Heart BMI Institute, Arkansas Health & Nutrition, Encore Medical Center, Natural State Health Center

EYEWEAR

Winner: Kavanaugh Eye Care

Finalists: Burrow’s and Mr. Franks Optical, Gulley Vision Clinic, James Eyecare & Optics Gallery, UAMS Health Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute Optical Shop

BEST

When you have the opportunity to help a neighbor, that’s exactly what you do. And that’s exactly what we did. This local family-run company in Sherwood, Arkansas is setting out to assist our neighbors in finding the comfort and relief they need. Our focus is not only on the product, but the experience. The warm and inviting environment allows a person to feel at ease. The friendly and professional team members allow you to connect. The quality of our product allows you to care for your needs at the highest standards.

Have an Impact… That’s what we’re setting out to do.

FAMILY DENTIST

Winner:

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best of Arkansas 2023

Proud sponsor of the Arkansas Times Best Of Arkansas 2022

Finalists: Austin Family Dentistry, Down town Dental Care, Jolly Family Dental, UAMS Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation Oral Health Clinic

FAMILY PHYSICIAN

Winner: Dr. Alison Richardson (Arkansas Family Medicine)

Finalists: Dr. Kent Covert (Little Rock Family Practice), Dr. Kevin Hiegel (Little Rock Family Practice), Kevin Roberts (Little Rock Family Practice), Dr. Daniel Watson (Autumn Road Family Practice)

HAIR SALON

Winner: Red Beauty Lounge

Finalists: Carter | Miller Hillcrest, Salon Joseph, Tease Salon, Heather Young Salon

HOSPITAL

Winner: Arkansas Children’s

Finalists: Arkansas Heart Hospital, Baptist Health, CHI St. Vincent, UAMS

IN-HOME CARE

Winner: Baptist Health Hospice

Finalists: CareLink (North Little Rock), Conway Regional Home Care Services, Home Instead, Superior Senior Care (Conway)

MASSAGE THERAPIST

Winner: Ava Bella Day Spa

Finalists: Abundant Health Chiropractic and Therapeutic Massage (Conway), Arkansas Healing Arts Massage & Wellness, Massage Arkansas, Zach Turner at Little Rock Massage and Wellness (North Little Rock)

MED SPA

Winner: Rejuvenation Clinic and Day Spa

Finalists: Ava Bella Day Spa, Doctors

MedSpa, Radiant Wellness by S & S, Skin Fix Med Spa

MENTAL HEALTH FACILITY

Winner: UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute

Finalists: The BridgeWay (North Little Rock), Methodist Family Health, Pinnacle Pointe, Rivendell Behavioral Health Services of Arkansas

NAIL SALON

Winner: Best Nails

Finalists: Cherish Nails & Spa, City Nails (North Little Rock), Ethereal Nail Spa, Fashion Nails, Glitz & Glamour Hair & Nail

Briarwood Nursing and Rehabili

Finalists: Andover Place, Chenal Reha bilitation and Healthcare Center, Encore West Little Rock, Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at Good Shepherd

OPHTHALMOLOGIST

Winner: Dr. Katherine Baltz (Central Arkansas Ophthalmology)

Finalists: Dr. Laurie Barber (Little Rock Eye Clinic), Dr. Joseph Chacko (Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute Clinic, UAMS), Dr. Romona Davis (Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute Clinic, UAMS), Dr. Lydia Lane (Little Rock Eye Clinic)

OPTOMETRIST

Winner: Dr. Julie Dolven (James Eye Care)

Finalists: Dr. Kathryn Brown (UAMS Health-Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Clinic), Dr. Brian Guice (Kavanaugh Eye Care), Dr. Derek Scott Long (Maumelle), McFarland Eye Care

ORTHODONTIST

Winner: Wardlaw Orthodontics

Finalists: Daniel & Jones Orthodontics, Hodge Orthodontics, Phelan Orthodontics, Vondran Orthodontics

ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON

Winner: Dr. C. Lowry Barnes (UAMS)

Finalists: Dr. Jesse Burks (Bowen Hefley Orthopedics), Dr. William Hefley Jr. (Bowen Hefley Orthopedics and Arkansas Surgical Hospital), Dr. P. Allan Smith (OrthoArkansas), Dr. Jonathan D. Wyatt (OrthoArkansas)

PEDIATRICIAN

Winner: Dr. Leah Youngblood (Little Rock Children’s Clinic)

Finalists: Dr. Dawn Martin (All for Kids Pediatric Clinic), Dr. Liza Murray (UAMS), Dr. Josh O’Neill (Little Rock Pediatric Clinic), Dr. Aaron Strong (Little Rock Pediatric Clinic)

PERSONAL TRAINER

Winner: Lee Ann Jolly (Jolly Bodies)

Finalists: Anna Bolte (Bolte Fitness), TJ Brown (Westside MMA), Tina Glass (Results Studio LR), Brooke Walker (365 Fitness)

PHARMACY

Winner: Cornerstone Pharmacy

Finalists: Kavanaugh Pharmacy, The Pharmacy at Wellington, Park West Pharmacy, Rhea Drug Store

wood), Omnis Rehab: Joint and Performance Center, Physical Therapy Institute

PROSTHETICS

Winner: Snell Prosthetics & Orthotics

Finalists: Arkansas Prosthetics and Pedorthics (Benton), Horton’s Orthotics & Prosthetics, New Hope Prosthetics & Orthotics (North Little Rock)

RETIREMENT COMMUNITY

Winner: Fox Ridge

Finalists: Andover Place, Chenal Pines Retirement Resort, Good Shepherd Community, Superior Senior Care

SPA

Winner: Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa (Hot Springs)

Finalists: Ava Bella Day Spa, Doctors Med Spa, Quapaw Baths and Spa, Rejuvenation Clinic & Day Spa

VETERINARIAN

Winner: Hillcrest Animal Hospital

Finalists: Allpets Animal Hospital, Bowman Road Animal Clinic, Pinnacle Valley Animal Hospital, Pleasant Valley Veterinary Clinic

YOGA STUDIO

Winner: Barefoot Studio

Finalists: Arkansas Yoga Collective, Big Rock Yoga, Blue Yoga Nyla (North Little Rock), Eden Salt Studio

EXPL or E THE o UT door S THIS SUMME r

Explore 10,000 acres of the Ozark Mountains this summer at Dogwood Canyon. Experience nature in bloom with countless outdoor activities including horseback riding, fishing, kayaking, wildlife tram tours, hiking and biking.

dogwoodcanyon . org

FROM STRESS TO SUCCESS PRACTICAL TIPS FOR REDUCING

As summer winds down and a new school year approaches, it’s common for children and teenagers to experience some degree of anxiety. It’s also completely natural for kids to feel a mix of excitement and nervousness about going to a new school, being in an unfamiliar classroom or having a new teacher. The good news is that with some thoughtful preparation and planning, parents and caregivers can alleviate backto-school anxiety and help set students up for success.

Andreka Clary, a licensed master social worker specializing in infant, child and adolescent behavioral health at Little Rock-based health provider The Centers, says parents play an important role in helping kids understand and manage anxiety. “Parents have a big influence on their children’s emotional well-being,” Clary said. “So it’s important they create a supportive home environment that includes open communication, active listening and consistent routines and structure.”

BACK-TO-SCHOOL ANXIETY IN CHILDREN.

BY TRICIA LARSON

Clary believes establishing a positive mindset is key and tells parents they should highlight the fun and exciting aspects of returning to school, such as reuniting with friends, taking part in classroom and extracurricular activities and learning new subjects. “This is a great time to remind them about their strengths and showcase the opportunities for growth and achievement in the upcoming year.”

Carol Ballard, an elementary school teacher with 15 years of experience, notes that students are often anxious about starting a new year with an unfamiliar teacher. She has found that “building a relationship with a different teacher is stress-inducing” for some kids, but parents can help mitigate that stress by learning about a teacher’s classroom philosophy and how they build rapport with students. For Ballard’s students, it’s all about family. Ballard emphasizes the importance of creating a “family” classroom, starting from the first day of school, to establish a sense of belonging and support throughout the year.

To further reduce anxiety, parents and children can visit and explore the school together, either in person or virtually. Finding classrooms and the cafeteria, and seeing where they will be dropped off and picked up, can help alleviate anxiety about the unknown.

Vikki Hudgens, mother to daughters Shelby and Taylor, says her family makes it a point to attend school orientation nights, especially when transitioning from one school to another. This helps her girls know what to expect and calms first-day jitters.

In addition to meeting teachers and touring schools, Clary suggests trying additional strategies to reduce anxiety and help kids thrive.

She says parents should involve kids in backto-school preparations. Shopping for school supplies, picking out backpacks and lunchboxes and organizing school materials can help children feel empowered and give them a sense of ownership and excitement about the upcoming year.

For Hudgens’ daughters, picking out their

NEW SCHOOL YEAR: Establishing a sense of belonging and support, experts say, is the key to warding off back-to-school anxiety.

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TRANSITIONS: Vikki Hudgens, mother to daughters Shelby and Taylor, says attending school orientation nights helps her girls know what to expect and calms first-day jitters.

own backpacks and lunchboxes was especially important. Since the two attended schools that mandated uniforms, these items were one way they could express their interests and personalities. “Starting in July, I would tell the girls to start looking on the internet or in stores at all the options,” Hudgens shared. Shopping for supplies early was a way to make sure the girls could get the styles they wanted and address anxiety about having the necessary supplies. “With the girls involved in the process, they could see that we were checking off all the items on the list,” Hudgens said. “They knew they were prepared.”

Clary says while parents are tempted to stretch summer vacation to its very end, establishing routines and structure before school’s start ensures a less volatile and stressful transition. “Parents should aim to wrap up vacations at least one week before classes begin,” Clary advises. “School-year bedtimes, wake-up times and meal schedules should all be instituted prior to the first day.” She says that routines provide a sense of stability and predictability, which can reduce anxiety.

Ballard agrees. “Parents can help children prepare for a successful year by setting routines prior to the first day of school. Established home routines will help every child in a classroom.” She says this is especially important for children who are prone to anxiety. “If a child knows what to expect each day, he or she has less anxiety because he or she will not have to worry about what happens next.”

Clary says parents can also reduce stress by planning meals and allocating specific time for activities like studying, playing and relaxation.

Creating dedicated spaces for children’s school items and sports equipment can also make finding things easier and mornings and evenings less stressful.

Brooke Buckley, who parented a blended family of six children, stresses the importance of creating space for each child to store their

BRIAN CHILSON

ACTIVE LISTENING: Andreka Clary, a licensed master social worker specializing in infant, child and adolescent behavioral health at Little Rock-based health provider The Centers, says parents play an important role in helping kids understand and manage anxiety.

belongings and study. “Each child has different needs,” she said. “Some may be able to study in their room, some need to be sitting at a desk and some might need to sit at the kitchen table for accountability. Creating that space and keeping it consistent was important in our house.”

Buckley also taught her children to make their own lunches the night before to make mornings easier and eliminate lunchtime surprises. Her kids were allowed to make a sandwich of their choosing and then choose snacks from pre-portioned and assembled bags. “Each kid had their own Ziploc bag with their name on it with five fruit roll-ups, five bags of chips, five Capri Suns,” she said. “They could pack whatever they wanted but had to remember to ration out their snack items.”

Clary says back-to-school conversations, planning and preparation help children start thinking about the new school year, provide an opportunity for them to share any concerns or fears they may have, and empower them by making them active participants. Clary encourages parents to “listen actively, validate their child’s emotions, and provide reassurance.”

It’s important to remember each child is unique, so it’s essential to be patient and understanding while finding the strategies that work best for your child. If your child’s anxiety persists and significantly affects their well-being and daily functioning, consider seeking professional help. A therapist or counselor experienced in working with children can provide guidance and support.

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LITTLE ROCK SINCE 1922 • 2801 KAVANAUGH LITTLE ROCK 501.663.4131

STAGECOACH MEXICANO

AN ODE TO THE (NOT SO) ORDINARY.

BY GUY LANCASTER PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN CHILSON

I’ve been eyeing the profusion of Mexican restaurants down Stagecoach Road just west of Interstate 430 for a long time, but until recently I had yet to stop at any of them. I have family in the Bryant area, and when I’m going to visit them, it’s usually for dinner, so all I could do was cast my gaze upon these various establishments longingly while slogging through end-of-day traffic, westbound and down.

During a recent week away from the day job to catch up on work around the house, though, the wife and I decided it might be fun to gaze less and explore a little.

La Villa 12325 Stagecoach Road

This bright yellow building at the corner of

Stagecoach and North Alexander Road — right on the county line and the city limit — previously housed an Italian restaurant called D'Carlo, but the current incarnation seems more popular with locals. It comes complete with an eastern-facing outdoor patio that rests comfortably in the building's shadow as the sun sets in the evening.

Inside, the wife ordered a special plate of enchiladas, each doused with a different sauce so that the array resembled the Mexican flag, and complemented with the obligatory rice and beans, while I had a Razorback Burrito, a large tortilla stuffed with carnitas, chorizo, cheese and onions and topped with chipotle sauce. Imagine “The Hog” from Damgoode Pies transformed from a pizza into a burrito, and you can approximate the experience.

RAZORBACK BURRITO AT LA VILLA: Like “The Hog” from Damgoode Pies, in burrito form.

Cantina Cinco de Mayo

10900 Stagecoach Road

If not for the restaurant’s front-facing patio, Cantina Cinco de Mayo might escape notice entirely. Here, the wife ordered a plate of taquitos, not having previously had them in the wild (that is, not from the frozen food section of the local grocery store), while I scanned the specialties page for something unique. I eventually ordered an item called Molcajete Jalisco, a kind of fajita mix with chicken and beef alongside nearly caramelized yellow onion, grilled green onions, jalapeno and poblano peppers, a slab of grilled cactus, and a side of beans and rice, with tortillas. The mixture comes served in a large stone mortar containing enough for two people. (A friend later informed me that a molcajete is a type of Mexican stone mortar, but my lack of Spanish steers me helpfully toward the more novel corners of a Mexican restaurant’s menu.)

The cantina has a nice margarita list, too, with sizes ranging from 12 ounces to 60. I tried the Cazadores Margarita, which blends Cazadores tequila with a house mix, while the wife tried their Green Iguana, which features a generous splash of Midori melon liqueur to give the thing an impressive shade of green. Both were top notch.

Las Palmas

10402 Stagecoach Road

Las Palmas occupies the corner of a shopping center back a ways from the main drag, not very visible from the road. This is the Little Rock outlet of a small Arkansas chain with other restaurants in North Little Rock, Russellville and Conway. In the back is a cozy bar area with televisions tuned, on the rainy day we visited, to Spanish-language channels broadcasting soccer matches.

I ordered the chicken chimichanga lunch special, while the wife snagged herself a beef tostada. Both orders came out hot before I had even downed a third of my beer. My chimichanga had a crispy shell, tender shredded chicken and the basic accompaniments of rice, beans, guacamole and salad, all of it improved a notch by a liberal dose of El Yucateco habanero sauce.

It was a fairly ordinary meal, the standard fare of storefront Mexican restaurants, but it was just what I wanted. As a professor of mine once said, “The word ordinary shares the same root as do the words order and ordain. The or-

dinary is that by which we set our stars. To be ordinary is to constitute the standard for everything to come.” Plus, the tab for our respective lunch specials, my giant beer, and the wife’s orange Fanta came out to $25 before tip, making for a very affordable outing. ***

That first day of our expedition of Mexican restaurants on Stagecoach Road, sitting there at La Villa and sipping margaritas, the wife said to me, “You should make this piece you’re doing an ode to your basic-but-good Mexican restaurant. The sort of place where Little League teams have a celebratory dinner after the game, or where longtime friends have a girls’ night out. These aren’t places where foodies congregate and oooh and aaaah over some ‘authentic’ menu item.” But places like this offer food and comfort to a broad cross-section of America. “And that’s something special.”

In each place, there were one or two people sitting quietly at the bar while some large family gathering was hooting at the other end of the restaurant and a couple in the corner was making eyes at each other. Sitting there with a large margarita, tortillas and a plate of sizzling meat and vegetables, a palate that pulls from across broad latitudes, reminds you that the name “America” designates this whole damn hemisphere from top to bottom.

ALONG STAGECOACH ROAD: At top left, the Molcajete Jalisco from Cantina Cinco de Mayo. At center right, the chicken chimichanga lunch special at Las Palmas.

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DRINK UP

ARE CANNABIS BEVERAGES THE NEXT BIG THING?

BY GRIFFIN COOP

The folks behind one of Arkansas’s newest medical marijuana processors are preparing for what they think could be the next big thing in cannabis: drinks. Former Mountain Valley Spring Water executive Breck Speed and Ouachita Farms owner David Owen are behind High Speed Extracts, a cannabis processor near Hot Springs Village that began operation in June.

Speed and Owen are no strangers to the cannabis beverage industry. They developed a beverage line called Lark, which uses hemp-derived THC and is sold in close to 400 locations across Arkansas, as well as spots in Texas and Georgia.

These drinks contain THC that is extracted from the hemp plant, which can now be legally cultivated due to changes made by Congress in the 2018 Farm Bill. Since then, hemp-derived THC has fallen into a regulatory gray area in which it is not regulated by state agencies and does not fall under the purview of the state

medical marijuana framework.

Earlier this year, the Arkansas legislature passed a bill to ban some hemp-derived products but hemp proponents believe Delta-9 THC, which is specifically mentioned in the Farm Bill, will continue to be allowed.

Speed, a veteran of the bottled water industry, has teamed up with Louisiana-based beverage professional Cameron Meshell, who has developed a way to make cannabis water-soluble so it mixes easily in water without taste or smell.

Speed and Owen are bullish on the future of cannabis beverages. They’ll be making medical marijuana beverages at their Arkansas facility later this year and will continue to produce the hemp-derived Lark drinks in Texas.

The cannabis beverage market brings in more than $1.2 billion a year, but market watchers expect it to grow to more than $5.8 billion a year in the next 10 years.

Speed said he believes cannabis will eventu-

WET WEED: There are a few cannabis drinks on the market in Arkansas, including hemp-based Lark and Better Than Booze as well as Wynk drinks.

ally become federally legal and cannabis beverages will become a large part of the market — possibly the largest part of it.

Major alcohol producers Anheuser-Busch InBev and Molson Coors even dipped a toe into the market with CBD drinks, although they’ve since gotten out. Their distributors continue to stock cannabis beverages, though, Owen said. There’s also a line of Pabst Blue Ribbon THC seltzers in five fruity flavors, though the products are made by former Pabst employees in California and not by the Milwaukee brewery.

Owen said Minnesota’s hemp-derived THC market might be a “peek into the future.” The Minnesota legislature passed a bill to legalize hemp-derived THC and set limits on serving sizes. Afterward, many breweries began making THC seltzers. One distributor told Owen a local bar was selling more of the fruity low-THC Trail Magic drinks than Bud Light. (And that was before conservatives started smashing Bud Light

BRIAN CHILSON

CRAFT MEDICAL CANNABIS AT ITS FINEST

cans in righteous indignation.)

In Arkansas, Owen’s Lark drinks are carried by Moon Distributors and Central Distributors, traditional alcohol distributors who delivered the drinks to nearly 400 locations, including bars, convenience stores and restaurants. They aren’t sold in the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries.

Drinks from Lark, as well as Tennessee-based Better Than Booze, have been spotted at El Sur, a popular Honduran restaurant in Little Rock’s South Main neighborhood, and Sullivant’s Liquor on Cantrell Road. Lark can also be found in CBD stores like Heights Apothecary and Hemp and some upscale dining establishments like Ciao Baci and Petit & Keet, according to Keith Lacewell, Lark’s vice president of global sales.

Lark and Better Than Booze drinks are made using hemp-derived Delta-9 THC. Owen previously used Delta-8 THC in his drinks but the substance has come under greater legal scrutiny lately and was banned during the state legislature’s 2023 session, along with some other hemp-derived products. Owen said he believes his drinks, made with natural Delta-9 THC, will still be allowed when the restrictions take effect on Aug. 1.

Speed said he’s only interested in working with customers who are playing “strictly by the letter of the law” and he believes the drinks he’s developed will continue to be legal in Arkansas.

“We don’t use chemically altered or manufactured products,” Speed said. “We use just what’s naturally available in the plant. Delta-8 is not Delta-9 and Delta-9 is what is allowed in the farm bill.” Speed said he’s fine with the Arkansas bill that banned Delta-8 and referred to Delta-9 as a “safe harbor,” since it is specifically mentioned in the federal farm bill.

The Lark drinks have 5 milligrams of natural hemp-derived THC and 5 milligrams each of CBD, CBG and CBC. The drinks have low doses of THC, similar to Cann, a leading cannabis beverage nationally that markets itself as a “social tonic.” Low-dose THC drinks haven’t taken hold in dispensaries where higher-dose drinks make up most of the market, Owen said. In other locations, like bars and restaurants, lower-dose social beverages have been successful. “[Cann’s] idea is to be a light uplift social tonic,” Speed said. “I think that’s brilliant positioning where people can always go and have a good experience.”

Speed has been in the beverage industry since 1988 when he started Clear Mountain Spring Water Company. In 2004, along with prominent Arkansas businessman J.B. Hunt, he bought Mountain Valley Spring Water and operated that until he sold it to a private equity firm in 2014. Since then, Speed has continued to work in the beverage industry in Louisiana.

In addition to Lark, Owen has produced a

seltzer called Ave (pronounced ah-vay) that includes 5 milligrams of Delta-9 THC and 5 milligrams of CBD. Owen even sipped on one during his interview with the Arkansas Times. Matt Foster, who founded North Little Rock’s Flyway Brewing, helped develop Ave, although the beverage is not associated with the brewery. The drinks haven’t made it to the shelf yet due to the regulatory confusion over hemp-derived beverages, but Foster sees a bright future for that segment of the market. “We’re on the leading edge of a very large wave,” he said. “We’re still trying to figure things out. We definitely want this product to be regulated so it can safely and responsibly be distributed, sold and consumed. Until that happens, we’re in limbo.”

Owen has also produced a non-THC beverage called Night Lark that uses nonpsychoactive cannabinoids CBD and CBN. Owen hopes getting Night Lark into distribution will help him create good relationships with distributors if they ever decide to carry THC beverages.

The only cannabis-infused beverages sold in Arkansas dispensaries are under the Wynk brand, produced by BOLD Team in Cotton Plant, although there are some drink mixes and elixirs produced by other Arkansas cultivators. BOLD introduced the drinks last year and they are now in nearly all of the state’s dispensaries. The Wynk drinks have 5 milligrams of THC and 5 milligrams of CBD, which BOLD Senior Director of Operations Annie Iselin described as a “microdose.” Eight months after Wynk drinks debuted, BOLD rolled out Countdown, another Wynk beverage, with 25 milligrams of THC.

Iselin said she believes the cannabis beverage market is niche. She said flower is “the king” followed by vape cartridges, concentrates and edibles. She said she doesn’t believe beverages will ever make up a large percentage of business for cultivators or dispensaries but said dispensaries do order some of her drinks regularly.

“It’s great for the patients that it works for,” she said.

Gates McKnight, general manager of dispensary operations at Purspirit Cannabis in Fayetteville, agreed that beverages are unlikely to make up a large percentage of the cannabis market. Patients who drink the beverages like them, McKnight said, and they’re a discrete alternative for patients who don’t want to smoke.

Speed and Owen, however, are full speed ahead, planning to produce canned drinks in a year or so, and with the aim of partnering with some national cannabis beverage companies interested in the Arkansas market.

The keys to beverage development, Speed said, are precise dosing and relatively rapid onset.

“If they enjoy that experience, then they will make that a part of their lifestyle like wine and spirits,” he said.

Marijuana is for use by qualified patients only. Keep out of reach of children. Marijuana use during pregnancy or breastfeeding poses potential harms. Marijuana is not approved by the FDA to treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of marijuana.

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WAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

The Observer knew for weeks that there was some kind of malfunction happening in his right ear. An occasional ringing sound made me fear that I’d done permanent damage sitting in front of amps at band rehearsals and attending countless Little Rock shows in my teens and 20s. Perhaps the toilet tissue I stuffed in my ears for years wasn’t as effective as the punk rockers I idolized made it out to be. Or perhaps it was a sign of a degenerative disease already at play.

One day, when I pressed my tragus (that tough piece of outer ear cartilage) against my ear and it became stuck in place, it became apparent I was suffering from a good old classic case of “Dude, you got ear wax!” Although it never happened, I could hear my elementary school classmates roasting me from a faraway timeline: “Observer's nasty!”

I tried flushing my ear out with water in the shower, which proved to be a mistake because later that evening I could barely hear out of it while watching my stories. Desperation kicked in and after spending an hour researching DIY ear cleaning tutorials on TikTok, I decided I was too incompetent to buy a kit and perform ear wax surgery. So my plan was to leave my house first thing in the morning in search of a doctor.

The ENT office I called could not fit me in, so I phoned urgent care. “Yes, hello, do y’all do ear wax removal? I’m calling for a friend.”

“We do.”

About an hour later I was admitted from the parking lot by phone call. I was thrilled that their policy of checking in from your vehicle meant I could avoid a germy waiting room.

As I was ushered back to the ear wax removal room, I waved

at the front desk crew and then immediately panicked that all of them were putting a face to my condition.

“Ear wax guy,” I imagined one of them saying.

“Obviously.”

After a doctor looked in my ear and confirmed that I indeed had a problem — and it was nothing to be ashamed of — a nurse entered the room with a squeeze bottle contraption and started blasting my auditory canal with a rough stream of cold water and hydrogen peroxide. It was not pleasant. And it took repeated squirts. A steady stream of water dripped down my cheek, saturating the towel wrapped around my neck and my shirt underneath it. It felt like she was making direct contact with my ear drum. But eventually, I felt the impaction break loose, and instant relief washed over me. What she pulled out of my ear was the size of a foam ear plug.

“Oh my God,” I said. I asked if I could take a picture, but I really wanted to take the specimen with me as a souvenir.

When I walked out of the room, I felt the front desk staff looking at me. I was certain they’d already been informed I had an absurd amount of wax in my ear, perhaps the worst buildup that any urgent care facility, anywhere, had ever seen.

The ride home was alarming because the wind hitting the car sounded violently loud and exaggerated. My windows were up, but to my right ear they were very much down. Throughout the day I felt off-balance, having one ear with normal function and one with superhuman hearing. The internet tells me that ear wax is healthy and we need it. Like a bad haircut, I worried the nurse had taken off too much. But it’ll grow back, I figured. I’m good for it. Just ask my elementary school classmates.