Recurring Themes
Russia’s long-running Moscow Cat Circus/Theater, reported in News of the Weird in 1998, is still in service, astonishing all who ever tried to train a cat. In the United States, Samantha Martin runs her own similar show (at such venues as Chicago’s Gorilla Tango Theatre in March) featuring the Rock Cats trio on guitar, piano…
Undignified Deaths
Difficult Times for Funeral Eulogists: A 54-year-old man was found dead of a heart attack in a pornography video booth at the Beate Uhse sex shop in Cologne, Germany, in December. A 42-year-old comedian (and owner of a comedy club in Blackburn, England) was accidentally asphyxiated in April inhaling laughing gas while viewing computer pornography.
Least Competent Criminals
First-time bank robber (according to police) Jason Durant, 32, reported to the hospital in New Milford, Conn., shortly after knocking off the National Iron Bank in April. As he fled the crime scene, he accidentally tumbled down a steep hill behind the bank, losing control of his stash, and his gun, during the fall. He…
Things People Believe
Ms. Indra Ningsih, a 26-year-old maid, was detained by a court in Hong Kong in April after her employer accused her of spiking her vegetable soup with menstrual blood. According to a report of the case in Hong Kong’s The Standard, the maid was employing a belief in some Southeast Asian cultures that menstrual blood…
Leading Economic Indicators
In April, a manager at a Dean Health System clinic in Madison, Wis., received corporate instructions to “immediately” lay off 50 listed employees, and the manager (a 30-year nursing veteran) decided that that included pulling one RN out of a room in which she was assisting with surgery, leaving just a physician and lower-level staff…
Batman and Robin #1 – DC Comics
It’s nice to see Batman and Robin working together again, even if it’s not the same Batman and Robin we’re used to. See that “Reborn” banner on the cover? Yeah, they take that word seriously. Unless there’s some continuity thing I’m unaware of to contradict all that follows, this first issue finds billionaire Bruce Wayne…
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
“You may want to smash a painful emotion to bits, but you can’t blow it up with a nuclear bomb,” wrote Tsoknyi Rinpoche in his book Fearless Simplicity. What makes the situation even more poignant is that the painful emotion may be based on a wrong interpretation of experience. It may also be caused by…
Officials meet with Indian leaders to discuss achievements, problems
Oklahoma, home to 37 federally recognized American Indian tribes, is often close to the issues of Indian America that nurture a special brand of sovereignty, one with potential impact for all citizens. INFLUENTIAL ADVOCATES CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS WATER RIGHTS For that reason, the Oklahoma Supreme Court annually looks to the convergence of tribal and mainstream with…
Oklahoma City hosts children’s fishing classes
Oklahoma City’s free “Hooked on Fishing” children’s fishing classes are perfect bait to lure kids outdoors to enjoy nature. The classes, sponsored by the Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation Department, are geared toward children 5 to 15 years old. The first class is 8 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Metro Technology Center’s Springlake Campus, 1900…
Simon Says
r, so one guess as to if at least one of them is psychotic. They’ve rigged the woods with a litany of contraptions to hook, spike and slaughter horny and/or high youngsters you can’t wait to see offed. So what if they would require head-of-pin precision to actually hit their targets? They make for a…
In Your Eye Studio & Gallery features month-long ‘Home and Away’ exhibit
A month-long art exhibit of works created by local artists depicting scenes of life in Oklahoma will debut Friday at the Paseo’s In Your Eye Studio & Gallery. “Home and Away” is a collection of art in various media created by artists from the studio, said Gayle Curry, one of the exhibitors. She said each…
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Philosopher Buckminster Fuller said that although we are all born geniuses, the process of living tends to de-genius us. That’s the bad news. The good news is that 2009 is one of the best years ever for you to re-genius yourself, and the month of June is among the best times in 2009. So how…
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
Would you say you’re closer to the “happy wanderer” model of Sagittarian, or the “eternal fugitive” type? Does your motive power usually come from the desire to head in the general direction of some attractive destination, or else to flee from every situation you’re nervous about getting hemmed in by? Are you more inclined to…
Oklahoma River’s coliform level rose for race
Remember a few weeks ago when Chicken-Fried News, concerned only for the welfare of this fair city, reported on high fecal coliform levels in the Oklahoma River? Well, considering the reports of illness after the race, it now seems we’re poo prophets (see, Mom, told you we’d be special!). According to a story by The…
Oklahoma City Nationals return to Oklahoma River with new promoter, new location
Speeds of 250 miles per hour on the water. That’s what fans of drag boat racing might see this weekend on the Oklahoma River at the Oklahoma City Nationals, a race sanctioned by the Southern Drag Boat Association. Let’s repeat: 250 miles per hour. That is at the elite, top-fuel level where only four to…
Sooner State Games: amateur competition in its purest form
Warm-weather amateur sports enthusiasts are already counting down to the next Summer Olympic Games, which are set to get underway on 2012 in merry old London. Not the sunniest of climates, but that’s where the next Michael Phelps will makes his or her big splash. For local fans unwilling to wait until then to get…
Panhandle has share of festivals, stunning geography, unique history
The Oklahoma Panhandle is home to less than 1 percent of the state’s residents, and yet the odd outcropping of land that gives Oklahoma its unique shape is home to a fecundity of stories, sights and pieces of history. SLEEPY HAMLET CATTLE AND HORSE RANCH DRIED-UP CREEK BED The first stop on a tour of…
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Attention all aspiring lottery winners! If you will ever in your life win more than $10 in the lottery or similar game of chance, this would probably be the time. I’m not saying you definitely will. I’m simply suggesting that your odds are better than usual — certainly better than the chances that you’ll be…
Weird Science
Good to Know: A case report in a recent issue of the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia described the successful removal of a leech from an eyeball. A 66-year-old woman, gardening in her back yard in Sydney, had accidentally flicked some soil into her eye. By the time a surgeon could extract the leech, it had…
Group seeks to sway minds with science of paranormal investigation
Nothing ruins the afterglow of home ownership more than an unexpected haunting. Rebecca Luker moved from Santa Fe, N.M., to Guthrie in 1986 with the dream of converting a Land Run-era mansion into the state’s first bed and breakfast, called the Stone Lion Inn. Six months after sinking her family’s money into purchasing and renovating…
Single frontier women took part in Oklahoma 1893 land run
Bang! A woman wearing a long black dress dropped the gun she’d fired at the pesky reporter who’d ventured too close to her Cherokee Outlet claim. She and the other women watching ran for their tents. The anonymous writer, hoping for a scoop for his Kansas newspaper, pressed on, unscathed. STORY OF A STORY SINGLES…
Popular culture, fantasy authors, artists gather in OKC for Soonercon
s a comic-book resurgence, thanks to the mainstream successes of superhero movies like “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “The Dark Knight.” He’s also noticed a growth in the demand for unconventional crossovers, such as TV shows adapted into comic books, like “Chuck.” “What the public thought was the comic-book market was a really narrow demographic, but…
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
I suspect that this is a turning point in your relationship with your fantasies. It’s not enough merely to keep musing about them with wistful longing. You can’t afford to continue postponing their activation until some mythical future. If you want to keep them from receding into a hazy limbo, you will need to give…
Red state changing
What a difference a decade or so makes. Thirteen years ago, Kim and I left New Orleans for Norman. I wanted out of Tulane University. The University of Oklahoma offered me a chance to start over, and so we set off from one economically depressed capital of the oil patch to another. In the summer…
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
In astrology, the word “quincunx” refers to a relationship characterized by creative tension. Two planets that are in quincunx are like two people who have a certain odd affinity for each other but don’t speak the same language. Imagine an Italian woman and an American man meeting at a party and experiencing an immediate chemistry,…
Traindodge puts brakes on some of its indie angst in favor of family
In the age of overnight Internet fame, “legwork” is often a foreign concept to new bands. The ultimate lack of memorable identity and real working friendships can mean a rapid demise for those who have never seen the Facebook-less actuality of a music scene. RELEVANT CHANGING FACE Thankfully immune to this reality check, Oklahoma City’s…
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Seventeen-year-old Jay Greenberg is a music prodigy who has written numerous sonatas and symphonies. His first CD, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Julliard String Quartet, came out in 2006. It’s not exactly a struggle for him to create his compositions. He often completes them in less than a day. “The music comes fully…
National Small Business Person of the Year faced adversity, illness
There’s just not much that can get in Jeanna Sellmeyer’s way. She is the CEO of Asset Group Inc., a contracting company that provides construction and environmental remediation services. She recently was named the 2009 National Small Business Person of the Year. PRESIDENTIAL ENCOUNTER ASBESTOS COURSES MEDICAL CONSULTATIONS Her award came partly because of the…
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
The oracle you’re now reading normally has a retail value of $49.95. But because of your ongoing efforts to defeat your defeatist tendencies, and because of your dogged attempts to sabotage your sabotage mechanisms, and because of your heroic stabs at defending yourself against your defense mechanisms, you have earned the right to receive this…
Two of metro’s cultural institutions join to celebrate American Indian, Western heritage
Cowboys and Indians will again illustrate the local landscape as two of the city’s largest cultural events attract national audiences. THE REST OF THE WEST The Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival starts Friday and runs throughout the weekend, with the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Prix de West event following next week, opening…
The Entrepreneurial Spirit!
Physician Geoffrey Hart, working with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, recently developed the Pedi-Sedate headgear to trick waiting-room kids into inhaling nitrous oxide while playing video games, thus knocking themselves out and, according to Hart’s company, “dramatically improv(ing) the hospital or dental experience for the child, parents and healthcare providers.” The helmet…
Researchers seek Big Foot trail in Southeastern Oklahoma
That sexy beast known as Bigfoot has left another tantalizing clue in the forests of Southeastern Oklahoma. Don’t you just love it when he plays hard to get? The folks of the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center spent Memorial Day weekend combing the Kiamichi Mountains for evidence of the elusive guy, according to a story in…
El Reno hosts annual Route 66 event
Families can get their kicks on Route 66 in El Reno this weekend. The city’s 11th annual Small Town Weekend celebrates the road’s rich history with cars, food and entertainment Friday through Sunday. The El Reno Fire Department, the El Reno Police Department and the El Reno Cruisers, a group of classic-car enthusiasts, are sponsoring…
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
I’m betting that in a couple of months the fates will give you license to play with boisterous gambles and exhilarating risks. But at this particular moment I recommend that you confine yourself to tame gambles and sensible risks. I realize that may be a bit deflating to your rambunctious all-or-nothing spirit, but I think…
Actress trio in ‘Three Tall Women’ stand proud in Pulitzer-winning drama
In the semi-autobiographical fantasia “Three Tall Women,” Edward Albee has written what must be classified as a cubist drama. Albee scrutinizes his adoptive mother and his relationship with her, depicting the mother simultaneously at ages 92, 52 and 26, in three characters known only as A, B and C. Oklahoma City Theatre Company ends its…
Woman in an unhappy marriage finds life in ‘Everlasting Moments’
At first blush, “Everlasting Moments” might sound like a litany of art-house film clichés. Set in Sweden in the early 20th century, its saga of a quiet, strong-willed woman and her lout of a husband is pretentious enough to starch a collar, but the film transcends the sum of its well-worn plot. The great Swedish…
Drag Me to Hell
I’ve given this a lot of thought and here’s my theory: The worst thing that ever happened to the American horror film was Alfred Hitchcock telling an interviewer that “Psycho” is a comedy. Amateurs who wanted to make their own horror movies read that line and didn’t realize three things: Hitch liked to pull interviewers’…
Up
It’s nice to see a company maintain a certain level of quality. All too often, executives and marketing folks slowly erode companies by directing their resources away from quality entertainment and toward ubiquitous and sometimes inexplicable, marketing campaigns designed to bedazzle the greatest possible number of people into the theater on opening weekend. (Remember the…
Acclaimed ‘Biting the Apple’ exhibition matures for its 18th year
n’t as good as it should’ve been,” said Jeff Stokes, executive director for the Individual Artists of Oklahoma Gallery. “We felt like we really had to pump up the integrity.” Last year, 85 pieces were selected from 150 submissions, but only 45 pieces were chosen from 175 entries for this year, Stokes said. The smaller…
Pakistani sex-shop toys
In a nondescript building next to a mosque in downtown Karachi, Pakistan, the Qadeer brothers discreetly make and market a million dollars’ worth of fetish and bondage products a year for Americans and Europeans (through sales to stores and on eBay). In fact, if the radical Islamic office down the street knew about the Qadeers’…
Oklahoma native Reba McEntire sings praises of former classmate
It still pays to grow up in Southeastern Oklahoma. That little red-haired girl sitting next to you in grade school could someday grow up and help keep you out of jail, or at least shorten your criminal sentence. One of the biggest stars ever to sleep in Little Dixie came to the aid of a…
A Horse Called War have been corralled for heavy metal melee
The five members of A Horse Called War have been steadily gaining speed and steam since the Oklahoma City metal band broke through the stable in 2002. With a pair of EPs and a full-length already in the saddle, the Horse has dug its spurs deep, continuously coaxing faster guitar and bass riffing and ever-assailing…
Neighboring states hedge bets to offset lure of Oklahoma casinos
The explosion of tribal casinos is clearly aiding the state government’s bank account. According to figures from the Oklahoma Office of State Finance, the current fiscal year totals already surpassed the previous year’s record total gaming income with still one month to go. For fiscal year 2009, the state has raked in nearly $95.5 million…
Proposed passenger rail line between Midwest City, Bricktown gains steam
Passenger rail isn’t a new concept in the Oklahoma City metro area, but when President Barack Obama announced plans in April to spend $8 billion of the $787 billion federal stimulus money on high-speed rail, suddenly that old concept got a breath of new life. THE MIDWEST CITY LINE QUESTIONS, CONCERNS RUNNING THE NUMBERS The…
Filmed in Oklahoma movie features newly brunette Kate Hudson
So “The Killer Inside Me” is filming in Guthrie, starring Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson. And while CFN figured most people would be wondering how its director would be welcomed in the Bible Belt (Netflix his “9 Songs” for some unsimulated sex scenes), turns out all anyone wants to talk about is Hudson’s…
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Dear Rob: I’ve recently developed a propensity to talk to myself. This is pretty weird. All these years, I’ve barely uttered a few words to myself on special occasions. Now I’m having long, convoluted gab fests, as if the little voices in my head had busted out of their holding cells, run amuck, and decided…
Stardeath and White Dwarfs – The Birth
Present on every song, shaping keyboard and organ notes and blurring guitar and vocal tones, fuzz might as well join Dennis Coyne, Casey Joseph, Matt Duckworth and James Young as the fifth member of Stardeath and White Dwarfs. The Oklahoma City band’s latest, “The Birth,” was released on vinyl and as a digital download May…
Elsewhere
en in “Rocket Science” and “Twilight.” (We won’t hold that last one against her.) Otherwise, for entertainment options, take the title’s advice and look “Elsewhere.” Kendrick plays virginal high school student Sarah, whose best bud is a trailer-park skank named Jillian (Tania Raymonde, TV’s “Lost” and “Cold Case”). Jillian is so trashy that she puts…
Valkyrie
2008 “Valkyrie” is based on the true events of the last attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1944, when the German leadership had seen the writing on the wall and became desperate to avoid its total destruction at the hands of the advancing Allies. Maj. Gen. Henning von Tresckow (Kenneth Branagh) recruits Col. Claus von Stauffenberg…
Strike
2007 As far as sports comedies go, “Strike” is one of the worst I’ve seen. Actually, as far as comedies in general go, “Strike” is there, too. It wants to be another smart/stupid comedy like “Kingpin” or “Dodgeball,” yet instead looks, plays and feels like a lowbrow, raunchy sex comedy of the 1980s like “Hamburger:…
Land of the Lost: The Complete Series
1974-76 Anyone who complains that Will Ferrell’s “Land of the Lost” isn’t reverent enough to the 1970s TV series on which it’s based clearly hasn’t seen that show in a long, long time. A Saturday-morning staple of my youth, it features primitive effects, laughable scripts, amateurish acting and sometimes glacial pacing. And yet these are…
The Hunger: The Complete First Season
1997-98 Beyond a nails-on-a-chalkboard title sequence lies a minor gem of a forgotten TV series in “The Hunger: The Complete First Season.” Based in name only on Tony Scott’s 1983 vampire film, the anthology show isn’t quite pure horror or fantasy “? the best way to describe it is if Rod Serling were a staff…
