People With Issues
Army drill sergeant Edmundo Estrada, 35, was arraigned in January in Hampton, Va., on charges of indecent assault, on a complaint by a young subordinate who said Estrada prescribed a confidence-building regimen in which the two men role-played from a pornographic movie, with the trainee dressing as a Superman character and Estrada performing sexual acts…
McCarty submits additional DNA sample
At an afternoon hearing in Judge Twyla Mason Gray’s courtroom (pictured), Curtis McCarty submitted an additional DNA sample for testing in the Pamela Kaye Willis murder case. McCarty’s new sample will be tested against fingernail evidence Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater’s office discovered in February. Results from the previous DNA sample indicated…
Least Competent Restaurant Management
Finally, after four weeks of one customer’s walking out on a dinner check, the staff of an O’Charley’s restaurant in Bloomington, Ind., caught him. The diner had appeared on four consecutive Wednesdays nights, ordered two gin and tonics each time, then eaten a rib-eye steak each time, then asked to use the rest room each…
No Longer Weird
Adding to the list of stories that were formerly weird but which now occur with such frequency that they must be retired from circulation: (81) Preschoolers and first-graders who happen to find their parents’ drug stashes and innocently bring them to school, sometimes even for show-and-tell-type sessions, as happened in March in Shreveport, La., when…
Vikings select Oklahoma’s Peterson
Warning to Oklahoma’s sporting goods store merchants: Order many Viking products for those whose fandom follows Sooner superstar running back Adrian Peterson to the Minnesota National Football League franchise. Peterson, flanked by his parents and other family members, wore a flashy diamond watch along with a sedate gray suit and blue tie. Unfortunately, none of…
Gov. Henry vetoes lawsuit “reform” bill
Gov. Brad Henry vetoed Senate Bill 507 today but claimed to continue working on a compromise lawsuit “reform” package to fix some flaws in certain provisions in the proposed legislation. Today was the last day Henry could act on the so-called tort reform measure, SB 507, approved earlier this month by the Oklahoma Legislature. Henry…
Key evidence in McCarty case does not match defendant
Oklahoma Gazette has confirmed a key piece of evidence in a 25-year-old murder case does not match the defendant. Twice convicted and sentenced to death three times for the crime, Curtis Edward McCarty awaits trial for the 1982 killing of Pamela Kaye Willis. Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told Gazette a footprint…
Oklahoma County judge’s hands tied by “absurd law”
Oklahoma County District Judge Ray Elliot said his hands were tied by an “absurd law” and will consider modifying conditions for nursing home care for a man who was charged with murder. Man facing murder charge is in nursing facility At a court hearing Friday morning, Elliot denied turning Earl Bradford Postelle over to the…
OKC to host men’s national gymnastics competition
Mayor Mick Cornett and Olympic champion Bart Conner announced today Oklahoma City will host the 2007 USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic Men’s National Championships May 9 through 13. Contested at the CoxConvention Center, more than 800 gymnasts will participate in the eight-session competition. Cornett and Conner made the announcement from The International Gymnastics Hall…
Tornado activity slowing down in Oklahoma, stats show
Recent data show the number of tornadoes in Oklahoma for the past five years is significantly down from the average, as are the number of violent tornadoes ” something Oklahoma is more known for than any other state. Has “tornado alley” moved out of Oklahoma? “People have certainly noticed,” said Rick Smith, warning coordination meteorologist…
Country’s Wade Bowen emerges from tough recording process
Wade Bowen’s latest record didn’t come easily for the Texas country music artist. He felt lost during the songwriting and recording process. “I went through a lot of stuff, recording this record and writing it,” he said. “I was going through a lot of different emotions and stuff. I think the overall theme is being…
Hot Fuzz
Reviewers’ grade: A The team that kidded zombie horror in “Shaun of the Dead” returns to take on the cop/action movie and, as they did last time, manage the tricky feat of making a picture that stands as an example of the very thing they’re parodying. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost return, this time…
Masters of Horror: Family
lues Brothers,” “Animal House”) directs his second episode of the Showtime anthology series with more verve than anything he’s done in the past 20 years. “Family” finds a game George Wendt (“Cheers”) delighted to see he has new neighbors moving in: a cute married couple played by Meredith Monroe (“Dawson’s Creek”) and Matt Keeslar…
Neil Young – Live at Massey Hall 1971
Reprise In recent months, Neil Young fans have had much reason to rejoice. In November, Young began releasing albums from what is reportedly a vast vault of archives. The first was a ripping good show from Neil with Crazy Horse in 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York City. This, the second in…
The Pharmacy joins forces with Norman indie band
Seattle punk band The Pharmacy is in the midst of a sprawling tour that will hit around 70 venues coast to coast. They are stopping at the Opolis on the way through, in part to pick up a tourmate, Mickey Reece, the lone gunman of Norman’s El Paso Hot Button. “We met him in Ft. Worth…
Twin Peaks: The Second Season
1990-91/2007 Almost six years after the first season came out on shiny platters, the second/last season of David Lynch’s revolutionary television series “Twin Peaks” finally hits DVD. The half-decade wait was worth it “? not just because Paramount has done a fine job in the audio/video department, but because the late, lamented show is a…
The Lives of Others
Reviewers’ grade: A- This year’s Oscar winner for best foreign-language film, “The Lives of Others” is chiefly about totalitarianism, depicting an East Germany terrorized by the Stasi, that former country’s secret police. But this film probes deeper, using its tale of spying to explore notions about voyeurism, empathy and even the experience of moviegoing. …
In with the old
Oklahoma Republicans were disappointed when presidential candidate Mitt Romney canceled plans to be keynote speaker at the Republican Convention April 14, but the events of the convention itself more than compensated the delegates to the state GOP. Gary Jones, who stepped down as party chairman a year ago to run unsuccessfully against the embattled…
Science on the Cutting Edge
American researchers in West Africa believe they’ve found the first instance of an animal (other than humans) building a multi-step weapon, after observing wild chimpanzees grab sticks from 1 to 4 feet long, sharpen the ends with their teeth, and murderously jab them into deep tree hollows where delicious bush babies may be nesting. Writing…
Re-Animator
Stuart Gordon’s 1985 cult smash “Re-Animator” has been released several times before on DVD, but I doubt it could get more definitive than this new two-disc set. Even after two decades, the film’s groundbreaking mix of horror and humor still plays outlandish. Jeffrey Combs triumphs — and typecasts himself —? as Dr. Herbert West,…
Fracture
Reviewers’ grade: C A suspense-thriller does not need big plot twists to work its nail-biting magic; half the fun can be watching the inevitable unfold. Still, predictability isn’t much of a selling point, and chances are you’ll figure out the central mystery of “Fracture” long before its midway point. Anthony Hopkins does a variation…
Umbrella causes University of Oklahoma lockdown
Given last week’s tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, Chicken-Fried News understands that college campuses nationwide have every reason to be on edge and hyperalert. But that shouldn’t affect one’s ability to recognize common household objects. On the morning of April 17, one day after a student killed 33 people, including himself, at Virginia Tech,…
Oklahoma student plays hooky thanks to father’s surprise visit
Hopefully Zac Roberts will not get an unexcused absence for skipping out of class one day last week. The second-grader at PleasantValeElementary School in Enid received one heck of a surprise birthday present when his father walked into the classroom. Army Reservist Sgt. Ray Roberts had been stationed in Afghanistan and just arrived back…
University of Oklahoma students prepare Bethany Route 66 project
University of Oklahoma Division of Landscape Architecture graduate students and Oklahoma Scenic Byways are partnering to give the city of Bethany new ideas on improving the section of town Route 66 runs through. The students divided Bethany into three areas:” retail, ” parks and recreation, and ” residential. The students then studied the areas and…
Despite injuries, Oklahoma’s Peterson too good to pass up in NFL draft
If one believes the so-called experts, University of Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson is the third-best prospect available heading into Saturday’s 2007 National Football League draft. The reason Peterson is not the top prospect centers around his well-documented history of injuries, including this past season with the Sooners when he missed seven games with a…
Norman roofer moonlights in Hispanic music scene
For many local musicians, it’s hard to keep a roof overhead. For Juan Santana, it’s no problem. When he’s not singing with the Mexican folk group Mariachi Orgullo de America or performing his own songs as a solo artist, he’s actually roofing houses. “He’s an amazing guy. He’s done a lot to grow Hispanic music…
Gov. Henry veto on abortion bill stands
The state Senate failed this morning to override Gov. Brad Henry’s veto of an abortion bill by one vote. Senate Bill 714 would have banned the use of state facilities or employees to perform abortions. The vote was 31 in favor of the override, with 17 opposed. The bill first passed out of…
College student bares breasts to make cancer-fighting art
Andrea Jones makes molds of her breasts, paints them and sells them on eBay to raise money to fight cancer. Although the process was awkward in the beginning, the end result was something she could be proud of. “It opened my eyes to fresh possibilities,” Jones said. “And when my mold actually sold, I thought,…
The Fratellis – Costello Music
Interscope We can assume there’s no one in the Fratellis named Fratelli. It’s better to think of the trio as a musical gang, kind of like the Ramones, but smarter … and Scottish. In this 12-track debut, the guitars stay up past 11, the tempos start and stop on a dime, and the tunes…
Oklahoma legislators try to declare watermelon as vegetable
Welcome to Oklahoma, where our chickens aren’t animals, our beer is nonintoxicating, our watermelons are vegetables, and our doo-doo don’t stink. The efforts of RushSprings’ favorite son, state Rep. Joe Dorman, finally bore fruit. Oops. Make that vegetable. The rural Okie Democrat moved heaven, Earth and apparently genome to get the state vegetable…
One place where “separate but equal” lives on (for potty users, anyway)
Afghan nationals who work at NATO’s Kandahar Airfield must use their own “separate but equal” toilet facilities, according to a March dispatch in Toronto’s Globe & Mail. The American officer in charge of administrative contracts said the policy was based on hygiene, in that some locals customarily stand on toilet seats and then squat down,…
Philosophy of ‘The Secret’ nothing new, says OKC minister
Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret” has become one of the fastest-selling books of all time with 3.75 million copies in print, saying thinking good thoughts brings about good and thinking bad thoughts brings about bad. The book is an extended discussion on how this power can be harnessed in a person’s life. Shelley Heller, the senior…
Jarvis Cocker – Jarvis
no finally breaks in at the 29-minute mark. The track seems unnecessarily buried, though perhaps Cocker might be giving authority the finger when he thinks they’re not paying attention anymore. “?Charles Martin
Tulsa author documents life of Billy the Kid
Tulsa-based author and three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Michael Wallis has written what may be the definitive biography of a famed American outlaw in “Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride.” “God knows there have been literally hundreds and hundreds of books on the Kid “¦ but hardly anything deals with his entire life,” Wallis said. “I…
Animal Awesomeness
In April, two Labrador retrievers (Lucky and Flo) sniffed out another shipment of pirated DVDs (worth about $435,000) in a building in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. It was at least the second such bust since mid-March, when the U.S. Motion Picture Association of America loaned the dogs to Malaysian authorities because they can detect the polycarbonate…
Double your pleasure, double your guns’
As the nation grieves the worst single act of gun violence in our history, there is one topic that the corporate media will not let us discuss rationally: gun control. Less than 24 hours after the carnage, before a single funeral, as the bodies were being tagged in the morgue, FOX News already was…
Oklahoma principal not supportive of breast-cancer statement
When is addressing breast cancer a bit too risqué? Apparently for administrators at Oklahoma Union High School ” according to a mom-daughter duo ” in school. Samantha Kuehn, a senior at the rural school near Bartlesville, got sent home to change recently after she sported what the principal termed an “inappropriate” article of clothing:…
Vacancy
Reviewers’ grade: B+ Though the plot is weak and the writing is horror-movie clich
In the Land of Women
Reviewers’ grade: D+ With a title like that, this could only be a horror movie, right? If only. No, it’s a touchy-feely series of anecdotes about a writer of soft-core porn who is dumped by his movie-star girlfriend and soon after moves to Michigan to care for his loony grandmother and write a great novel.…
Flickerstick’s live act proves VH1 victory was well-deserved
Texas rock act Flickerstick won VH1’s reality show “Bands on the Run,” getting a deal with Epic Records. But with newfound stardom came a stigma: being scoffed at for getting signed without putting in the hard work most musicians have to in order to get discovered. The truth is, the members made a name for themselves all…
