The Jesus World Tour
Recent Play-Dates: · Conneaut, Ohio, March (image of Jesus on a pancake); · Glasgow, Scotland, March (image of Jesus in a woman’s ultrasound scan); · Kamloops, British Columbia, March (image of Jesus on a baking sheet); · Sacramento, Calif., March (image of Jesus on burned wallpaper); · Houston, Texas, February (image of Jesus in a…
Chesapeake opposes proposed coal plant
The CEO of one of the U.S.’ largest energy producers made a rare public appearance Monday before the State Corporation Commission in opposition to a proposed billion-dollar coal-fired power plant. OG&E Electric Services announced earlier this year they signed an agreement with Red Rock Power Partners to build the plant pending regulatory approval. Others…
Affordable housing efforts recognized
Two efforts to provide affordable housing in northeast Oklahoma City garnered recognition recently from the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency, the state’s largest affordable housing provider. Receiving Apex Awards from the agency in July were: ” TempleGardens Senior Apartments, 1515 N.E. 48th, and ” the Urban League of Greater Oklahoma City’s home construction in the…
BMW test-drives raise money for breast cancer research
On Saturday, you can test-drive a BMW without intention to take one home with absolutely no injury to the conscience, because for every mile you drive, $1 is donated to breast cancer research. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the 11th Annual BMW Ultimate Drive will hand over the keys to one of 19 titanium…
Penn Square Bank’s unexpected legacy
A quarter-century ago, Penn Square Bank failed spectacularly in Oklahoma City, ushering in the untimely end of a previous oil boom, indelibly changing the landscape of banking throughout the state and hastening the emergence of national mega-banks. And yet, after a generation of national consolidation in the banking industry, we enjoy one of the…
Actress-turned-folkster Amy Speace turning heads
A native of Baltimore, Amy Speace has a background in acting, and even once studied voice in hopes of an operatic future. She not only has performed Shakespeare, but also taught it. But she chucked it all for a $50 guitar from a pawnshop and a late start as a singer/songwriter. Speace’s first solo disc,…
Painter exhibits work depicting Plains Indian life
Brent Learned’s “Moments in Time on the Plains” exhibit colorfully depicts Plains Indian life, and is on display at the Gold Dome, 1112 N.W. 23rd. An Oklahoma native, Learned will be in attendance between 6 and 8 p.m. Friday. “I like his work because the colors are very strong, but yet they blend in well,”…
Pro golfers descend on Tulsa for PGA tourney
Fifteen days and counting to when the world’s best golfers will tee up at Tulsa’s Southern Hills Country Club for the 89th PGA Championship. Fortunately for Oklahoma golfing enthusiasts, tickets still are available for the prestigious event, which traditionally features a more diverse field and more world-ranked players than any other PGA tournament. PLAYERS Tiger…
Buzz
Caroline Bingham, Ben Morgan and Matthew RobertsonDK Finally, a bug book with buzz “? literally. DK’s impressive, rectangle-shaped hardback “Buzz” sports a colorful cover of various “creepy-crawlies,” with three of them “? a bee, a mosquito and a cricket “? equipped with built-in sound chips that, when pressed, duplicate their annoying noises. If you can…
Poteet’s tech-savvy take on ‘Birdie’ proves winning
The musical “Bye Bye Birdie” may be nearly 50 years old, but the fresh approach in the Poteet Little Theatre’s summer production pulls it so much into today’s technology that its age only shows in the content, not in the staging. Upon entering the intimate theater, the audience is greeted with three big projection screens,…
Bears surprised their hooks liked by many listeners
As a melodic indie-pop band, Bears is a perfect example of music made without any preconceived notions of attention or recognition. Bears has a refreshing and earnest quality to its music that truly shows that an album can be a work of art. “We really didn’t have high expectations,” front man Charlie McArthur said. “I…
Recurring Themes
One of the standard “panic” rumors that throw some African villages into turmoil is the report that a couple (usually unmarried and therefore deserving of bad fortune) has become stuck together during sex and cannot be unstuck without medical attention. A reporter for Kenya’s East African Standard happened to be in the middle of a…
Overholser Mansion hosts kids’ ‘storytime’
Spread out a blanket and pick a spot on the lawn to read about Oklahoma animals at the historic Overholser Mansion with your kids this weekend. “Storytime Under the Elms” starts at 9 a.m. Saturday. Children from pre-kindergarten to fourth grade are invited to listen to readings of children’s books “Wild Buffalo Roam” and “Grady’s…
Mentally ill at risk of homelessness if untreated
For Billy Semler, a self-described quiet man who spent 26 years as a respiratory therapist, the “hellishness” began four years ago. The one-time junior college football player and aerospace worker was in his 50s. “I had a business that was struggling,” he said. “I had a second wife and she had a little girl, and,…
Quilts cover Oklahoma history
Quilters of all ages will participate in the Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild’s “Centennial Celebration of Quilts 2007” Thursday through Saturday at the Cox Convention Center, 1 Myriad Gardens. In the centennial year, quilt blocks with names like “Road to Oklahoma,” “Oklahoma Twister,” “Oklahoma Dogwood” and “Oil Fields of Oklahoma” are only the most obvious…
Love means never having to say you make license plates
A Midwest City woman details life as the wife of a convicted murderer in the August 2007 issue of Redbook magazine. Justeen Cosar met her hubby, Aaron, while accompanying a friend whose spouse was in the clink. “I told Aaron that I worked as a court reporter and was a single mother of three…
Stacked Decks: The Art and History of Erotic Playing Cards
Mark RotenbergQuirk Books True to its title, “Stacked Decks” is a coffee-table book depicting the history and evolution of playing cards adorned with photographs of nude women. However, if kids are in the house, rethink the coffee table. Arranged chronologically, the book begins with cards so chaste, one wonders how they ever were considered erotic.…
People Different From Us
Pablo Castro, 26, was sent to the hospital twice in Decatur, Ala., on June 24, once after being stabbed in an argument and, after his release later that day, being stabbed again while arguing with a different person. And Tony Hicks was hospitalized in Knoxville, Tenn., for separate wounds on July 1, 2 and 3;…
Roving Mars
2006/2007 When NASA sent two robotic rovers to the red planet in 2004, it made headlines, and little more. Had the general public known how difficult the feat was “? like throwing a basketball from Los Angeles and having it go through a hoop in New York without touching the rim, one scientist says “?…
Though a dying breed, drive-ins live off memories
Bob Eurfinger has worked in the movie theater business for 30 years and now helps manage the Winchester Drive-In Theatre at 6930 S. Western, which has been open since 1965 and is Oklahoma City’s last remaining drive-in. “We have lots of people that are second- and third-generation who come in,” he said. “What’s surprising is…
Bridges to our wallets
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens would love to be an Oklahoman right now. With the massive rainfall we have experienced over the last few weeks, our roads and bridges have suffered more abuse than Cindy Sheehan at a Sean Hannity so-called Freedom Rally. And we all know Stevens has a penchant for funding bridges and…
Hairspray
rder=”0″ /> Reviewer’s grade: A- Watching John Travolta dance in a fat suit and muumuu may not sound like a good time, but it has its charms, as does the movie he does it in. He stars as the mother of a Baltimore high school student in 1962 whose great ambition is to dance on…
The Film Crew: Killers from Space
2007 For their second go-round of B-movie skewering, the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” alum comprising The Film Crew tackle 1954’s science-fiction cheapie “Killers from Space.” After a host opening that’s funnier than their initial one (on “Hollywood After Dark”), the boys don headphones and mics to provide hilarious commentary to this awful, awful, awful…
Resurrected comic series will take place in Oklahoma
Perhaps attracted by our state’s cheap real estate, Thor is relocating to Oklahoma, where he will battle evildoers. That’s right. Marvel Comics recently announced the resurrection of the comic series started in 1962 by Spider-Man creator Stan Lee, and will locate the hero in Oklahoma, according to a release from the company. Disguised…
Zodiac
ix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /?> What makes the unjustly ignored film special is how little we see of the killer. The story is driven by the investigation “? by cop Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo, great as ever), by San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr., also great as ever) and…
Tulsa’s Dfest ups the ante with more acts, bigger names
With a beefed-up list of more than 150 acts and a move to a bigger venue, the two-day festival and music conference known as Dfest will celebrate the state’s centennial in style, Friday and Saturday in Tulsa’s Blue Dome District. Now in its sixth year, the festival also is breaking with tradition to bring in…
Merle Haggard – The Bluegrass Sessions
wonderful sorrowful harmonies. Despite studio heavyweights like Charlie Cushman on the banjo and mandolin player (and star in his own right) Marty Stuart, this is not an album with heaving picking and twanging, which at times is a little disappointing. “?Joe Wertz
Accordion man’ shows are full of fun
Singer, songwriter, troubadour, shaman, thespian, prankster, accordion man ” whatever name you give him, Jason Webley knows how to move an audience. His eclectic tour comes to The Red Cup, 3122 N. Classen, at 8 p.m. Thursday. Webley’s show promises more than music ” often, a performance is filled with theatrics, stories and sing-alongs that…
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
-teams with Adam Sandler in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” to create another infantile film aimed at the mentally and emotionally underdeveloped. Big talent like Dan Aykroyd, Ving Rhames and Steve Buscemi “? as well as lesser lights like Rob Corddry, David Spade and Rob Schneider “? join Sandler, Kevin James and Jessica…
Symbol of Vietnamese ‘boat people’ stopping into town
Ba Luong hopes that Oklahoma City’s Vietnamese community will remember their heritage when the Vietnamese Freedom Boat, a traveling display of a boat used by South Vietnamese refugees to flee after the takeover of their country by Communists in the Seventies, makes its stop here Saturday and Sunday at Luong’s Super Cao Nguyen grocery. Luong’s…
Oklahoma’s U.S. Senator worries about cost of mascots
In an effort to stop wasteful spending ” after all, the government needs $135 billion for the war in Iraq ” Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn is going to go for the real big spenders: government mascots, according to The Associated Press. According to the AP, Coburn thinks that the federal government is spending way…
Least Competent Person
On May 31, veteran big-rig operator Gilberto Cantu drove his 18-wheeler all the way through the Lincoln Tunnel (1.5 miles, from Weehawken, N.J., to New York City) even though the load was 6 inches too high for the tunnel, so that the truck’s roof continuously ripped and peeled off, slowing the truck and making a…
Guthrie saloon owner fights to retain spirit of former brothel
A Guthrie bar owner recently tried to set up a strip club, city officials said. Vivian Jones, who has owned the Blue Belle Saloon for three years, said she never wanted such a club, and simply was trying to start a “variety show” with burlesque dancers, comedians and music. City officials say otherwise. “Vivian indicated…
Wicked: The Grimmerie
David CoteHyperion$40ISBN: 1401308201 Missed “Wicked”‘s sold-out sweep of Oklahoma City last month? For the cost of a back-row ticket to the touring production, “Wicked: The Grimmerie” gives perusers a front-row seat backstage. Think of it as the program from the musical — expanded into a production as thoroughly designed as the main course itself, from…
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Merge Indie rock’s Spoon sounds like most too-cool scenester bands rising out of Austin, Texas, these days, but it’s fair to assume that most of those bands are trying to sound like Spoon did in the late Nineties. Spoon’s new album, “GaGaGaGa Ga,” combines amateur basement studio charm with a hip veneer of…
The Continuing Crisis
In June, for the fourth year, professor Paul Worsey of the University of Missouri-Rolla conducted his Summer Explosives Camp, with 20 high-school-age kids learning the techniques of blowing things up (e.g., a tree stump, a watermelon, a dead chicken). Said one camper, “Some people like baseball (but) I just like to set off bombs.” Worsey’s…
