Super Saturdays
With blue skin, elfin ears and a tail, Kurt Wagner stands out in a crowd. He would probably frighten most children (and adults) if they ever were to set their sights upon him. That wasn’t the case, however, during the last Saturday session at Superhero School, held at New World Comics, 6219 N. Meridian. At…
From runway to OK!
While OFW is still on a smaller scale than New York, Paris or London fashion weeks, this year’s gathering was bigger and included more events than ever before. In fact, it marked the first in which designers came in from cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and Chicago. The opportunity for Oklahomans to…
OKG7 buffets to grub on
Cajun King5816 N.W. 63rdcajunkingokc.com603-3714 Even if you pay for the buffet and only wind up eating the catfish and beignets that are brought to the table, it’s worth it. For the actual smorgasbord of Creole delight, however, don’t pass up the crawfish étouffée and au gratin potatoes. New Orleans was never so close. Golden Palace1500…
Modern Italiano
When a menu gets fancy, it can throw a guy. I’ll be the first to admit that my experience with Italian food as a kid was pretty much jarred marinara sauce, ground beef and noodles. Even now, when somebody says Italian food, I get a clear image of spaghetti and meatballs. So when somebody mentions…
Ever so Humble
Edmond’s favorite pizzerias. For one thing, when you talk to Matt and Joy Heard, owners of the restaurant, they’re absolutely humbled by their success. Matt is a tinker and a mad scientist in the kitchen, and the menu at Humble Pie is a mix of traditional favorites and his out-there culinary creations. But here’s the…
Cruise the Mediterranean
No, that’s a sea. You can’t eat like a sea. But the Mediterranean diet — with lots of olive oil, nuts, beans, fruits, vegetables and fish — has been shown in medical studies to seriously reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other nasty ways to go. You know, heart disease? That thing that…
Crossing Obamacare
The Christian faith of Hobby Lobby’s sole owners, the Green family, is as ubiquitous as the Christian pop songs on the chain’s satellite radio station. All stores close on Sundays, and full-page newspaper ads quoting scripture have become a tradition on Christian holidays. Mardel, a smaller chain under the same ownership, specializes in Christian merchandise.…
Prettyboy — Dejvická
Abello long has been one of the most talented pure vocalists the state has to offer, but after dabbling in indie folk for a few years (and Christian music in his teens), he’s fully embraced what is an obvious penchant for ’80s-soaked pop tunes. It suits him well. Recorded in the Czech Republic, the two-track…
Demonizing rich people
Last November, every financial trend pointed to high unemployment and low GDP. Add to these realities the imminent explosion of health care costs, widespread inflation, inevitable tax increases and unsustainable deficits. In 1992, lesser economic factors became a mandate to fire George Bush. How does a president taking extravagant vacation getaways while people lose their…
Leftist Hollywood
First, he accurately captured the misgivings many of us here in flyover country have with the movies’ leftist politics. But I thank you even more for your positive mention of Jackie Evancho. This is an aspect of this movie that almost all reviewers have completely ignored. Many in Middle America, like me, are worried about…
Kind of a jerk
I watched in stunned amazement a video clip of you using the phrase “Jew me down” while publicly speaking in your official capacity. As an American Jew, I can’t decide which was more offensive, the use of that phrase — oh, you mean they bargained you down, like a Jew? — or your tasteless and…
Get off of coal
In addition to the many immediate public health risks associated with coal-fired energy plants, the immense scale of environmental damage caused by modern mining practices should be regarded in sheer horror. For the workers, exposure to coal dust and other hazards is the cause of numerous life-threatening and long-term health problems. The high volume of…
Bashing coal
Colorado Springs, Colo., is a beautiful city. It has been declared one of the top 20 cleanest cities in the U.S. by various organizations, not the least of which is the American Lung Association. A city that is more susceptible/sensitive to said pollutants of coal because of its altitude burns coal for power. Wait ……
Sustainable learning
They do not lack for ambition, aiming to transform SixTwelve an oasis for creativity and sustainability. “Our areas of focus will be art, music, film, cooking, gardening and sustainable living practices,” said Young. “We’ll have a preschool during the day, after-school programs for kids and classes for adults.” She and Varnum said they have…
Breezy Burnz — Product of My Enlightenment
While he recalls Odd Future and Childish Gambino (“Beautiful,” “Rappin’ Ass”) in some moments, and Drake and Kendrick Lamar (the remarkably produced “Everything I Want,” “Ask Me If I …”), Burnz is very much his own rapper. He’s a lewd and crude dude — cheeky at moments, more thoughtful in others — but seemingly most…
MilitantxMindz — #RIOT
It’s times like this we need those enlightened messages more than ever, and yet, they’re exceedingly harder to find. Enter MilitantxMindz, a collective of “artists, freedom fighters and poets” who are starting a revolution right here in Oklahoma. And the revolution sounds pretty damn good. “Rebel Life” is right on par with the most choice…
Dewey decimate
Aka Jesse McDermott, Binns was born in New Mexico, but ended up in Lawton via a baseball scholarship to Cameron University. Although he still lives in Lawton, Oklahoma City is his musical home. “I kind of think of Dewey Binns as kind of a character I’ve created,” he said. “It’s definitely Oklahoma City-based, as far…
aDD it up
“I try to balance drawing, graphic design and music. I use each to feed my creativity,” he said. “My first love was art. I’ve been drawing practically my whole life. That turned into a passion for graphic design. I really enjoy being able to express myself through art; it may be through words, pictures or…
Cinemix
While it’s more fun to watch a movie with other people than by yourself, heavier cinematic fare doesn’t always work so well in a group where most of the viewers are more blockbuster-minded. What’s a serious film buff to do? This dilemma prompted Alex Palmer to create the OKC Film Club, which holds its second…
Thunder crazy
Haviland is hardly the only Thunder fanatic who dresses in bizarre outfits, paints his body and shouts himself silly. Actually, the faithful fan base includes a group of self-described superheroes who will do and say almost anything to help the home team win. They usually sit together and can be seen behind the basket at…
Art de Aguilar
Deep in the valleys of southern Mexico lives a ceramic artist whose whimsical personality and artwork touch everyone within contact. Guillermina Aguilar Alcantara is a master of Mexican popular art, and the eldest of Ocotlán, Oaxaca’s Aguilar sisters, world-famous for their artwork. She has made the journey to Oklahoma City to create, display and sell…
How the West was 10
Over the past decade, Adelante! Gallery has built a reputation — in its Paseo Arts District home and beyond — for fine Southwest, Western and contemporary art. For its 10th-anniversary exhibit, gallery owner Cynthia Daniel Wolf said she is excited to continue that tradition with Art of the West, which opens with free receptions Friday and…
New life
At an April 24 ceremony, the mall was officially renamed Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads. Developer Jose Legaspi said it is a reference to the main square in Mexico City. Twenty new tenants already have signed contracts, and developers are in talks with others. The new businesses include clothing, jewelry and shoe stores, two restaurants…
Living with Alzheimer’s
Increasingly, the solution may come in the form of facilities dedicated to serving those with memory impairment. Edmond already has one such center, Touchmark at Coffee Creek, but soon the city will have an $8.8 million facility to meet a growing demand. Autumn Leaves of Edmond, the first stand-alone memory-care facility in the state, is…
Millennial mecca
Young adults, rejoice! According to a recent study by The Business Journals, you are good at picking a place to live. The study — which ranked all 102 major U.S. markets according to private-sector employment growth, cost of living and other economic factors — determined that Oklahoma City is the seventh best place for the…
School daze
The annual report measures schools by several factors, including college readiness, algebra proficiency, English proficiency and student/teacher ratio. On a state level, Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa was rated No. 1, ranking 325th nationally. Most of the state’s top 10 were in the metro. Classen School of Advanced Studies nabbed the second spot…
Cherryh picked
The on-screen franchise will be called The Gates of Morgaine and tell the tale of a disgraced warrior who becomes indebted to a time-traveling heroine. Considering the fact that Cherryh is a beloved author who’s been producing works since the ’70s, you’d think Hollywood would’ve come knocking sooner. Maybe it’s because badass female protagonists are…
Skating Polly — Lost Wonderfuls
But it’s not that these girls are so young, or even that they’re so good at such a young age. Rather, what makes Skating Polly — and its sophomore LP, Lost Wonderfuls — such an anomaly is how brazenly Mayo and Bighorse embrace their youth, weaving a playful, seemingly innocuous sense of melody through unabashedly…
Reject to wed
“I’ve found my bride at last,” he tweeted Apr. 4. “Thanks for all of your congratulations, my friends — it means the world that you all are so kind-hearted. My face hurts from this glued smile!” Satine recently entered the spotlight for her performance as a call girl in Starz’s original series Magic City. While…
Burn
Detroit is burning, and the city’s fire commissioner has decided to let it burn. Thanks to a withering automotive industry and violent racial tensions that have rocked the city, Detroit’s population has diminished by half, resulting in 80,000 abandoned buildings. So many fires ravage these vacant structures that some officials have decided that if a…
Dead or alive
Although House leadership this session quashed bills that sought to outlaw texting while driving, proponents of the legislation tried again last week. No go. An amendment that would have limited the ban to school zones, work zones and intersections failed, too. Faring better was a plan to let teachers and other school personnel arm themselves…
Speak for the trees
Organizers from the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, Oklahoma Conference of Churches and the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma’s Whole Creation Community ministry have planned three prayer services to take place in the next few months. “We really need an opportunity to be alert to the fact that water conservation, stewardship of water resources, is absolutely…
The Place Beyond the Pines
The opening minutes serve as a nifty precursor for the action, both physical and psychological, to follow. Stunt motorcycle driver Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling, Gangster Squad) emerges from a darkened trailer and into a traveling carnival. As the camera trails him over his shoulder, Luke gets on his cycle, enters the caged globe of death…
Lil’ Wayne wants back in the ‘Peake
The oft-troubled rapper announced a slew of dates that includes an August 21 stint in Oklahoma City – a place in which he claimed he felt “unwelcome” and “unwanted.” In case you forgot, here’s a refresher: Wayne had requested courtside seats to an OKC Thunder-San Antonio Spurs playoff game last year but was denied entry…
The Bowery Boys: Volume Two
For this four-disc follow-up to 2012’s set, Warner Archive again mined its vaults for 12 of the Boys’ Poverty Row features. The best way to describe their style is that it comes from the “why I oughta!” school of comedy. I’m unsure if it ever graduated, given exchanges like “How can you read in the…
Revenge for Jolly!
I’ve never heard of writer/producer/star Brian Petsos, but he must have friends in high places to get such a project off the ground. He plays Harry, a self-described good guy who’s done some bad things, for which his murdered pup, Jolly, has paid the ultimate price. With no job, Harry has nothing better to do…
Dragon
The reason? Science! As a friend put it, Dragon plays like CSI: Kung Fu. I’d add a dash of Rashomon. Set in 1917, it opens with kindly papermaker/family man (Donnie Yen, Ip Man) reluctantly thwarting the robbery of a general store, leaving the two criminals dead. But how, wonders the investigating detective (Takeshi Kaneshiro, Red…
Kevin Durant reacts to Jason Collins’ coming out: ‘It’s cool with me’
Add Thunder superstar Kevin Durant to that chorus of voices. “If he’s happy, that’s cool. Nobody has the right to judge,” Durant said earlier today in Houston, where the Thunder is preparing for tonight’s Game 4 first-round playoff game against the Rockets. “He’s his own man. He makes his own decisions. As NBA players, it’s…
Fast Company / Fast and Loose / Fast and Furious
For the record, the titles in question on this single-disc set from Warner Archive are Fast Company, Fast and Loose and Fast and Furious. Don’t let that third title make you believe they’re about racing cars; they’re not. They are about finding books. And that may be why neither you nor I have heard of…
Norman Music Festival 6: Day 2
Most Relentless Barrage of Rock Music: White Mystery If you were in need of a swift kick to the genitalia Friday night, Chicago brother-sister duo White Mystery handed them out in scores. Armed with some imposing instrumental chops (and equally imposing red hair), Miss Alex White and Francis Scott Key White (America!) plowed through a…
Norman Music Festival 6: Day 1
Best Case for a Main Stage Spot at Norman Music Festival 7:Horse Thief Sometimes you hear bands in a small room and know they won’t be playing there much longer. You definitely got that feeling watching Oklahoma City’s Horse Thief at Opolis Thursday night. The outfit didn’t rely on crowd favorites off Grow Deep, Grow…
It’s a blessing
“What we are doing is blessing a commitment, not conferring legal or civil rights,” he said. “This is not a wedding.” The publication of the documents follows a nine-month study by a committee Konieczny had formed to respond to Resolution A049. At the 2012 general convention, the Episcopal Church USA, or ECUSA, approved the resolution…
The Wicked
As soon as its wonderful animated opening credits finish, however, The Wicked reveals its true nature as your below-average, everyday, unimaginative horror movie. It’s wicked, all right — just not in the word’s positive connotation. Although not to be confused with the Broadway smash Wicked, this flick also is about a witch (Cassie Keller, Hostel: Part…
Left field
Instead of the traditional red, yellow and green lights, the traffic controls now have red, solid yellow arrow, flashing yellow arrow and green. The new generation of traffic lights will allow protected and permissive left turns from dedicated left-turn lanes. The flashing yellow arrow indicates to drivers that they can make a left turn if…
Birdemic 2: The Resurrection
You asked for it, you got it. And you have no one to blame but yourself. Birdemic 2 is every bit as incompetent as its big bro, and then some: blurred images, sound dropouts, repeated establishing shots, public high-fives and leaden dialogue (“I don’t know about the movie business, but I know how to read”).…
Bad taste
As I read, however, I was distracted by two pictures: one of a young girl dressed provocatively with her face cropped out, and another being a cartoon of a girl upside-down, poledancing. The images belonged to the Coyote Ugly Saloon and Miss Pole Dance Oklahoma 2013 ads adjacent to the article. Variety Care is fighting…
Crossing a line
Now, you are letting advertisers get away with it. The Ruff Life ad recently read, “When life gives you titties, milk them for all they’re worth.” If this is appropriate for a rag that has a wide readership and is easily picked up by children, then why do you have editors? I used to advertise…
Teeing off about trivia
Now you did say “arguably,” so here is the argument: TLO has around 10 to 15 teams per night per venue. TLO has two shows a week, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. Challenge Entertainment has several shows Monday through Thursday and multiple venues. On Wednesday, while TLO is running 10 to 15 teams…
Rich folks pay plenty
Something seems to be mistakenly, if not conveniently, missed in Tiffee’s logic. “The poor paying more?” I don’t think so. The following are pretty close estimates of the bottom of the 20 percent bottoms and the bottom of the top 1 percent’s respective annual gross income levels, those being $25,000 for the “poor” and $250,000…
Accord struck
Fallin joined House Speaker T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton, and Senate President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, yesterday afternoon to announce an agreement on those measures, which still must receive approval from the full House and Senate. “We’ve been working on common goals to create a more vibrant environment for our citizens and businesses,” Fallin said at…
Gangster Squad
Like that 1997 film, Gangster Squad shares a real-life character in mob king Mickey Cohen. While briefly in the former, he’s the gangster (played by Sean Penn, The Tree of Life) around whom the squad circles. (He’s also explored at length in a William Devane-hosted documentary on the Blu-ray.) That squad is fronted by war…
