Hand-scrawled signs warn would-be trespassers away from the abandoned gas station in east Oklahoma City. Surrounded by concrete cracked by overgrown weeds, the small building is slowly sloughing off into piles of brick and rubble. The last of the station’s customers left years ago, paying only $1.38 for a gallon of unleaded. Last summer, the […]
Joe Wertz
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State will begin issuing new license plates with bans intact
A unique combination of letters and numbers have been issued to more than three million cars and trucks legally registered in Oklahoma to operate on roadways. Most license plates bear a random state-issued cipher meaningless to motorists. Others are chosen to convey a message, impart passing wisdom or project the personality of the driver. In […]
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Bricktown building will host UCO’s Academy of Contemporary Music
Auditions are already being planned at a new Bricktown venue where hundreds of musicians will book gigs that could prove career- and life-changing. Renovations on the fourth floor of the Oklahoma Hardware Building, 25 E. California, are under way for the Academy of Contemporary Music ” a school organizers say will educate musicians and band, […]
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Wanda Jackson, the All-America Rejects makes halls of fame
Legendary vocalist Wanda Jackson was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week, along with eight other bands and performers, including pioneering Eighties rap act Run-DMC, English rock guitarist Jeff Beck, heavy metal’s Metallica and punk band The Stooges. The Oklahoma native dated Elvis Presley and is known as the “Queen of […]
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Neighborhood holds annual Mesta Festa event
Mesta Festa has become and end-of-the-summer staple for residents of one the metro’s oldest historical neighborhoods. Organizers expect this year’s festival, which starts 11 a.m. Saturday, to bring hundreds to Perle Mesta Park, nestled near the corner of N.W. 19th Street and N. Shartel Avenue. The festival has grown annually since it was founded 13 […]
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Oklahoma City band reforms into Fires of Atlas
The members of Oklahoma City rock band Luma ” an Oklahoma Gazette Woody Award winner in 2007 ” have reformed as Fires of Atlas, a 2005 side project that has stolen focus for each of the group’s four members. Fires of Atlas sounds decidedly more experimental than Luma ever was. Gone are the pop anthems […]
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Starlight Mints join Ghouls Gone Wild parade performers
Starlight Mints will join the staggering ranks of specters, spooks and spirits summoned for this year’s “Ghouls Gone Wild” Halloween parade, drummer Andy Nunez confirmed last week. The Norman band will join the parade as musical representatives of the Norman Music Festival, he said. The Mints, heralded for delivering indie pop songs that pulse with […]
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Metro OKC’s major universities offer wireless Internet to students
Lance Gill doesn’t describe himself as a heavy Internet user, but just the thought of an interrupted connection makes him anxious. “I have an iPhone, and if I can’t get the Web for even a day I feel like I’m going to die,” he said. WIRELESS WORLDVARYING TECHNOLOGIESPEER-TO-PEER SOFTWARE Gill, 19, and three other Oklahoma […]
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Filmmaker uses Oklahoma-Texas rivalry as backdrop for film
If there is a real lesson to be learned from watching “Little Miss Sunshine,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation” or “Weekend at Bernie’s,” it’s that corpses equal comedy gold. Cinematically, we also know stepmothers are always evil. So when Mark and Brian Stanton’s dad, a dedicated University of Oklahoma fan, dies, and his money-grubbing shrew of a […]
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Hinder drummer gets hot under the collar
Cody Hanson, in town on a tour break, wasn’t at all happy with the Aug. 6 Soundcheck, detailing the early radio and iTunes chart success of “Use Me,” the first single from Hinder’s sophomore “Take It to the Limit” album, due out on Election Day. Hanson and company — two management- or tour-related gentlemen whose […]