Stories by Philip Martin

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: The fire next time "If you fail to do your duty, you will leave We the People no choice but to walk in the founders [sic] footsteps by declaring the regime illegitimate, incapable of representing us, destructive of... June 6, 2023

Nothing fake about these standout books — cut or uncut There was a story in this newspaper by The New York Times' Anna Kodé recently about how interior decorators use fake books to dress up spaces and make their clients look erudite. This pract... June 4, 2023

The greatest generation? He never hit my mamaBut hit that beach at OmahaHe lived, not to tellAbout a g****** thing he saw-- Paul Westerberg, "Pine Box"I never bought into the idea of The Greatest Generation.While th... June 4, 2023

‘21 Grams’ highest form of collaboration "I make films not for the most stupid people in the world."-- Alejandro González Iñárritu to Karen Martin, September 2003When Karen finds something she likes, she holds ... June 2, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: More for power than puppies An odd thing happened around 5 p.m. last Thursday.Karen got an email informing us the Iris DeMent concert scheduled for that evening at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts--a show we'd been looking f... May 30, 2023

Paul Simon waxes spiritual on “Seven Psalms” It is discomfiting, almost painful, to look back over something someone else created and realize that someone else was you.-- Paul SimonIt's better to burn out than fade away.-- Neil YoungThere ar... May 28, 2023

The dead beat What will time take from me? Has it taken anything from me already? How will I know?-- Martin Amis, "Inside Story"The thing I don't want to do as a columnist is take over the dead people... May 28, 2023

Reconsidering 2003 film ‘Masked and Anonymous’ When it came out 20 years ago, the Bob Dylan movie "Masked and Anonymous" was considered an embarrassment, a superstar's vanity project that flopped at the box office (it barely cleared ... May 26, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: The limits of AI I am teaching myself to play bass.Well, that's not quite true. I am learning how to construct rudimentary bass lines for the songs I write and record. I can do this with an electric six-string bas... May 23, 2023

Tulsa adds an unlikely attraction: The Bob Dylan Center TULSA -- A casual fan might wonder why the Bob Dylan Center is in Oklahoma, rather than in, say, Hibbing, Minn., or Manhattan's Greenwich Village or Malibu, where the peripatetic singer-songwriter... May 21, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: A long goodbye Close readers of this column will remember that the older of my two little sisters is dying.I have alluded to that fact a few times over the past three years. She was diagnosed with Stage 3C ovarian c... May 21, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: The Discovery by the river I get annoyed too easily.About 200 yards ahead of us on the River Trail in North Little Rock there's an SUV. Karen and I and the dogs can easily walk around it, but it shouldn't be there. The ... May 16, 2023

Spitzer’s “Cryptozarkia” examines legendary Ozarks creatures via ‘investigative poetry’ We always lie to strangersbut we never usedto play such foolsthe butt of our own pranksdishonoring our inheritedhills.-- Rufus Grey, "Hainted," as quoted by Mark Spitzer in "Cryptozarki... May 14, 2023

All about my mother I'm taking a break this week so I can visit my mother. I wrote this column in 2018, after a similar visit.BOSSIER CITY, La. -- I don't want to know how my mom gets comp rooms at the Horseshoe ... May 14, 2023

The summer movie season is here — with the good and the bad Summer's here and the time is right for ....a) Racing in the streetb) Dancing in the streetc) Hot fun in the summertimed) Rest, water and shadee) Slumping mindlessly into a deluxe recliner at the ... May 12, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: Got to give it up TULSA -- I'm here on an errand and have an afternoon to myself. It's the first time since the lockdown I've been on my own in someone else's city and am not quite sure what to do with ... May 9, 2023

Candace “Candy” Montgomery case latest in murder as “entertainment” When I was a kid, it seemed murder was all around us.There were the alphabet soup assassinations -- JFK got done just as I was beginning to pull a wider world into focus. My father cried when RFK was ... May 7, 2023

The grande dame and the punk We calculate Paris is now 15 years old.We don't know her exact birth date, but we adopted her when she was a couple of months old, and dogs don't attend to calendars. We thought we were going ... May 7, 2023

Jodie Foster: A lifetime of excellent acting Last month HBO released a trailer for the fourth season of anthological crime drama "True Detective." We can expect that, later this year, "True Detective: Night Country" will be a... May 5, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: Are you not entertained? I'll admit I'm a snob.I don't watch television newscasts. It's been a couple of decades since I last watched CNN. I see Fox News sometimes at the gym, but I've always got my headph... May 2, 2023

Ed Madden tells his story through poetry in “A pooka in Arkansas” Sometimes when it's cold out,I pull on my father's old denimshirt, warm, worn, the pasta thin jacket, what I have left.-- Ed Madden,from "A pooka in Arkansas"What have we to do with ... April 30, 2023

Lucinda tells her secrets It was almost 30 years ago that I asked Lucinda Williams when she was going to write a book.She told me she didn't think she ever would, that she was not that kind of writer. I remember mildly arg... April 30, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: Garrets and cathedrals We didn't go in on opening day, but have walked our dogs around the campus of the new Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts a few times in recent weeks. The first time, I half-expected to be shooed off the... April 25, 2023

Pop perfection of Marshall Crenshaw still speaks to that old boy who was never quite a punk My friends and I were never really punks.We were born at the right time, but in the '70s it took some time for trends to get to us in the middle of the country. In the middle years of that decade,... April 23, 2023

Komarov’s fall I didn't bother to watch the SpaceX launch last week, the expensive firework that exploded about four minutes after take-off and was immediately declared a success by Elon Musk. This wasn't un... April 23, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: The content of character Had it not been for Anita Hill's reluctant testimony in 1991, we might never have scanned Clarence Thomas' character for moral fissures.But Hill did come forward because, she said, she felt an... April 18, 2023

SPIRITS: Mr. Drinkies reviews the sodden history of drinking games There was no game that night, so the Brazilian catcher and the Guatemalan second baseman decided to take their gringo teammates bowling in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro.The bowling alley in Barra da Tiju... April 16, 2023

Taxes and death Before we moved, Karen used to spend an inordinate amount of time in the fall raking leaves.We had a big yard. We had several 100-year-old oaks. She did a little every afternoon. I helped a little on ... April 16, 2023

HBO’s ‘Succession’ on grief, futility If you haven't seen the third episode of the fourth (and final) season of HBO's "Succession," you might want to stop reading right now.Because we're going to talk about that epis... April 14, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: Scenes from a marriage "I heard someone say just last night that the very lack of problems could cause strife. We're well aware of the hazards of a life like ours."-- Marian (Liv Ullmann) in Ingmar Bergman&#39... April 11, 2023

ON BOOKS: Cranor’s ‘Ozark Dogs’ — No slump with No. 2 One of the conventional ways to approach an author's second novel is with banked expectations.The reasoning is that the first novel was probably the culmination of decades of consideration and pla... April 9, 2023

Under the gun Last Sunday's column about the lack of gun legislation got a lot of response. I've read everything, but I'm a slow correspondent who is gainfully employed. Giving every one of those messag... April 9, 2023

First film: Spielberg’s ‘Sugarland’ among his best "I've discovered I've got this preoccupation with ordinary people pursued by large forces. A personal movie for me is one about people with obsessions."-- Steven SpielbergI was among... April 7, 2023

Five Questions with “Ozark Dogs” author Eli Cranor Arkansas Democrat-Gazette “Where I’m Writing From” columnist Eli Cranor released his second novel last week — his violent and propulsive “Ozark Dogs” is the follow-... April 5, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: Reaping the whirlwind It missed us.I mean me. My family. My immediate neighbors. My neighborhood.A mile or two down the road they weren’t so lucky. You’ve seen the photos and the video. They—maybe you&mda... April 4, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: Suck it up "We're not gonna fix it."— Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.)No one is coming to save us.They aren't going to do anything. They have told us as much. Have some thoughts and prayers, t... April 2, 2023

OPINION | OnFilm: A.O. Scott: Another man done gone "There's something that happens when you see a movie, when you go to a movie, and you walk out of the darkness from what is always a twilight world in the movie theater, and you walk out, and... March 31, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: More unpopular opinions If the competition is genuine and fair, losing is almost always more instructive than winning. Failure is rarely fatal, and winning breeds complacency. The winner celebrates and moves on; the loser ha... March 28, 2023

CRITICAL MASS: There should be a celebration for ‘Charles Portis: Collected Works’ You put things off and then one morning you wake up and say — today I will change the oil in my truck.— Charles Portis, "Gringos"Newspaper writing teaches humility. "It ain&... March 26, 2023

Free stuff I got an email the other day from a watch company--not a Swiss watch company, but an American up-and-comer you've probably never heard of--inviting me to become one of their brand "creators.&... March 26, 2023

OPINION | ON FILM: Missing link: Why we are missing ‘A Good Person’ I was kind of looking forward to seeing Zach Braff's "A Good Person."Unfortunately, the screening link never arrived, which doesn't mean the publicist/studio didn't send it, only... March 24, 2023

Five Questions With Jay Jennings On April 4, the Library of America will publish “Charles Portis: Collected Works”— composed of contains all five of the Arkansas writer’s published novels — “Norwoo... March 22, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: An (ex) fan’s notes My bracket is not quite busted.That's not to say that I have any hope of winning a big prize, even if the Gonzaga Bulldogs end up cutting down the nets on April 3, but all my final four teams (Mar... March 21, 2023

CRITICAL MASS: Art for the people — ‘Diego Rivera’s America’ exhibit at Crystal Bridges shows him as complicated artist BENTONVILLE — It speaks to the reduced reputation of Mexican artist Diego Rivera in the 21st century that "Diego Rivera's America" is the first major exhibition focused on the arti... March 19, 2023

Five questions with artist Catherine Rodgers Catherine Rodgers loves color. And resin. And Plexiglas.Born and raised in Little Rock, she's been a full-time artist for more than 20 years, and her works are in hundreds of private and corporate... March 19, 2023

Artists, punks and suits I don't understand having strong feelings about who wins what award or how a halftime show goes down.Most of us figure out pretty early that different people like different things, and while I bel... March 19, 2023

OPINION | PHILIP MARTIN: Confessions of a no-talker I've been talking a lot lately.I don't mind it too much. I can stand up in front of a classroom or in front of my colleagues in a conference room. I can be on the radio or on TV. It's in m... March 14, 2023

Five questions with artist Catherine Rodgers Catherine Rodgers loves color. And resin. And Plexiglas.Born and raised in Little Rock, she’s been a full-time artist for more than 20 years, and her works are in hundreds of private and corpora... March 13, 2023

Everything everywhere all at once: ‘Diego Rivera’s America’ opens at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art BENTONVILLE — It speaks to the reduced reputation of Mexican artist Diego Rivera in the 21st century that “Diego Rivera’s America” is the first major exhibition focused on the ... March 13, 2023

OPINION | CRITICAL MASS: The Academy Awards are not really about what is best, but we watch them anyway Movies don't have the cultural currency they once had.But the Academy Awards show is tonight, and a lot of us are going to watch it, even if we haven't gotten around to "Triangle of Sadne... March 12, 2023