Based on factual events, it unfolds during World War II in the Polish town of Lvov, now part of Ukraine. Mass executions in the Warsaw Ghetto have driven about a dozen Jewish Poles to escape the Nazis by fleeing into the sewer system. They hide in the dank, dark confines of the underground, sharing their […]
Phil Bacharach
Posted inArts & Culture
The Salt of Life
What a drag it is getting old. Mick Jagger surely didn’t realize his own prescience when he wrote those words back in his 20s. In The Salt of Life, aging is certainly a drag for Gianni, a 60-year-old Italian forced into early retirement and who now spends his days walking his dog and watching helplessly […]
Posted inNews
Pigging out
Mercy for Animals, a national nonprofit dedicated to preventing cruelty to farm animals, has taken issue with how the swine are housed in Oklahoma pig farms. “The pork industry’s secret ingredient is egregious animal abuse,” said Phil Letten, national campaign coordinator for the Los Angeles-based Mercy for Animals. He said pigs are kept in “filthy, […]
Posted inNews
Testing, testing
Critics say the requirement, part of the Achieving Classroom Excellence initiative, places too much importance on the tests. Among them is state Rep. Fred Jordan, co-author of legislation to eliminate the graduation requirement. He said the requirement fails to account for some students’ extenuating circumstances. “We’re talking about kids who have zero support from their […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fact and fiction
Tracy Daugherty considered himself a fiction writer with no ambition of writing anything else, but the Oklahoma City federal building bombing changed all that. Although he lived in Oregon, he had spent much of his childhood visiting his grandparents in southwestern Oklahoma, and he felt a strong need to come to Oklahoma City in the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Travelin’ man
Don’t let Rick Steves fool you. The man whose name is nearly synonymous with travel might have an amiable demeanor familiar to anyone who knows his PBS series or many guidebooks, but beneath that slightly nerdy exterior beats the fiery heart of a provocateur traveler. And he has a message: Travel isn’t just about collecting […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Annie Hall
But is its recent Blu-Ray release a worthwhile buy for fans of the Woodman? Well, if you haven’t seen the 1977 Academy Award winner enough times to quote it verbatim, or if you have but don’t own it, sure, it’s definitely worth a purchase. But Allen movies are notoriously no-frills on DVD and Blu-Ray, and […]
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Honoring Shadid
The Beirut bureau chief for The New York Times, Shadid was 43 when he died of a severe asthma attack. Robert Ford, the U.S. Ambassador to Syria, will conduct the service, which will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday at Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker. Shadid earned two Pulitzers for his coverage of the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Separation
Some of the most exciting and challenging films in the world these days are coming from Iran, so it’s no surprise that A Separation, a tense and absorbing domestic drama packed with the suspense of a Hitchcock flick, recently earned the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Opening Friday at AMC Quail Springs Mall […]
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R.I.P. Dan Slocum
UPDATE: Although initial reports were that he had died of a heart attack, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer indicates that the medical examiner has ruled the death a suicide. Slocum co-anchored KFOR’s nightly news with Linda Cavanaugh from 1982 to 1990, at which point he left for Seattle to work as a news anchor for KOMO, the […]