News That Sounds Like a Joke
Bernard Fincher Jr., 25, was arrested in Buffalo, N.Y., in March for possession of cocaine when police found a stash of the drug that Fincher had allegedly tried to hide in a doughnut box. Cody Young, 13, complained in January that when he parked his expensive BMX bicycle inside the front door of a Goodwill…
Recurring Themes
Earnest residents continue to accidentally destroy their homes: A house in Galveston, Texas, had the roof blown off on Jan. 21 when the resident set out six bug foggers but neglected to turn off the gas stove’s pilot light; A Jacksonville, Fla., woman who smelled something unusual in her home on Nov. 15 decided to…
Least Competent Criminals
In three incidents in March and April, robbers were arrested in the act after police were tipped off in advance. The source of the tip each time was a store employee who had been brazenly notified by the perp to expect a robbery soon. Daniel Glen, 40, was arrested in Windsor, Ontario, having called ahead…
Iron Man
Reviewer’s Grade: A- As films like “In the Valley of Elah” and “Stop-Loss” have proven, anti-war movies are the kiss of death at the box office. But not when they’re disguised as a superhero action-adventure, as the exciting “Iron Man” is. Born in 1963 on the pages of Marvel Comics’ “Tales of Suspense,” the metal-clad…
What Goes Around, Comes Around
Thirty years ago, before Wal-Mart became an international giant, a small video company made a “handshake” deal to shoot promotional footage of the firm’s executives and was given free rein within the company. It made 15,000 tapes, including many, inevitably, showing Wal-Mart leaders in awkward situations. In 2006, an incoming Wal-Mart executive decided to end…
Police Blotter
Latest Police Chases: In Ocala, Fla., in March, Bret Wass, 28, scrambling from police investigating a sexual battery, commandeered a tow truck and drove away, even though the truck had a car hooked onto it; during the chase, he hit the patrol car and was captured on foot nearby. Police in Osaka, Japan, mobilized in…
People Different From Us
Even though 20 states outlaw keeping monkeys as pets, the Humane Society of the U.S. estimates that there are 15,000 privately owned primates, with at least 200 Floridians licensed for pet capuchins, according to an April Orlando Sentinel report. Since experts warn that the animals are biters and scratchers and are very aggressive when agitated,…
CJ7
Reviewer’s grade: B+ Stephen Chow, the man Quentin Tarantino calls the best actor in Hong Kong and star/director of “Kung Fu Hustle” and “Shaolin Soccer,” this time brings us the story of a young boy, played with star-making appeal by the female Jiao Xu. Dicky lives with his construction worker dad (Chow) in what we’d…
Edmond’s Tway vital part of OSU’s links success
Kevin Tway couldn’t close the deal on Sunday. The best he could do was second. Then again, a runner-up finish in the Big 12 Conference Men’s Golf Championships isn’t exactly a forgettable performance, especially considering Tway is only a freshman at Oklahoma State University. And while his final-round 73 left him looking up at OSU…
Oklahomans reportedly receive energy from Russian drink
According to a story from News9.com’s “INsite Team,” some Oklahomans are getting energized from a mysterious drink tied to Russia. Labeled “Tunguska Blast,” the beverage is being credited for helping one man lose 35 pounds and quit smoking. “I personally take 2 ounces in the morning and 2 ounces in the evening and I have…
My Kid Could Paint That
2007 “My Kid Could Paint That” is among those most revelatory of documentaries: one that manages to tell a single story that, in turn, involves a myriad of other issues. Documentarian Amir Bar-Lev set out to make a film about Marla Olmstead, a cute-as-a-button 4-year-old whose Jackson Pollock-styled paintings had set the art world aflutter.…
Who speaks for them?
I heard a lot last month about the presidential candidates. I heard a lot about Rep. Sally Kern. I heard a lot about SuperSonics basketball. These news stories flooded the papers, TV news reports and radio airwaves “¦ not to mention YouTube. And I overheard once, tangentially, at a meeting on some work-related topic, that…
Update
Experimental “natural orifice” surgery might be health care’s next big thing following its U.S. introduction last year at Columbia University (as reported also in “News of the Weird”), where doctors removed a woman’s diseased gall bladder not by an abdominal incision but through her vagina. In March, doctors at UC-San Diego Medical Center removed a…
Portishead – Third
Island It’s been a decade since English electronic trio Portishead have released a proper album, but the trip-hop silence has been broken with “Third”‘ a terrific collection of songs that would make any fan further lament the group’s years of stillness. “Machine Gun” is familiar, but strikes a new tone: more visceral and industrial with…
Basketball, city execs praise SuperSonics deal
Jim Couch was exhausted. The Oklahoma City manager had just culminated weeks of intense negotiating, ending with rapid sessions of late-night deal making, to bring professional basketball to the city. During a telephone interview with Oklahoma Gazette, the exhaustion and stress of the moment finally got to Couch when asked how he would fight off…
Rock of Love with Bret Michaels: The Complete First Season
2007 Want a glimpse backstage at VH1’s epic skank-a-thon? Well, no need to pull up that tube top, because the first season of “Rock of Love with Bret Michaels” has been released on DVD “? and we’re all VIPs. All 13 hour-long episodes are included in the three-disc set, which also includes some hilarious extra…
State winemakers closer to wrangling distribution rights
Oklahoma winemakers are tantalizingly close to bringing the fruits of their labor to market. The tiny state wine industry has been struggling for years for the right to ship wine directly to:” retailers, ” restaurants, ” bars and ” individual consumers. “We’re still working on it,” said Rep. Danny Morgan, D-Prague. “We’re as close (to…
May Fair Arts Festival opening in Norman
>” beading and ” tie-dying. Only artists and quality crafters who hand-make their work are selected for the festival, Saliba said. Additionally, a featured artist, chosen each year by May Fair organizers, is invited to create a “signature” piece to represent the festival; landscape artist Linda Tuma Robertson is this year’s honoree. More than 80…
The Naked Brothers Band – I Don’t Want to Go to School
in about 14 minutes, and if your household contains young kids or a macaw’ be warned’ you will hear “Mystery Girl,” “Body I Occupy” and “I Don’t Want to Go to School.” In fact, the latter could easily become this generation’s sweetly melodic version of Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” The songs are,…
New law requires trans-vaginal ultrasound before abortion, even for rape, incest cases
Beginning in November, any female who seeks an abortion in Oklahoma will likely be required by law to have an electric wand inserted into her vagina before the doctor is allowed to perform the operation, according to opponents. The trans-vaginal ultrasound is the most common method used to view a pregnancy in the first trimester,…
Holocaust survivor to speak at public remembrance
Eliezer Ayalon is the only member of his family to have survived the Holocaust. Because he had a work permit when the Nazis liquidated the Radom, Poland, ghetto in 1942, he was not sent to die in Treblinka with his family. Instead, Ayalon survived five different concentration camps in Poland and Austria before his last…
Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights – Robert Schnakenberg
Quirk Because H.G. Wells, William Shakespeare and the Bront
Great Art!
Graduate art student Matthew Keeney’s latest piece of performance art, in February, called “The Waiting Project,” had him standing on streets in Syracuse, N.Y., waiting for someone to ask him what “The Waiting Project” is. In previous pieces, Keeney had held a “Super Bowl party for one” on a park bench, had earnestly watched ice…
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Reviewer’s grade: D The 2004 comedy “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” was an obviously stupid, largely pointless movie about two stoners, Harold Lee (John Cho, “American Dreamz,” “In Good Company”) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn, “Epic Movie,” “The Namesake”), and their pot-fueled quest for hamburgers, drugs and trim. Unfortunately, the sequel, “Harold &…
The Surely Method
Metro pop-rock five-piece The Surely Method recently released “Old Love,” an emotionally charged collection of songs about friendship, love and growing up. The band formed in Mustang in 2006, and recorded the debut album with Dave Copenhaver at Studio Seven, laying down 14 generally well-written songs that show potential, but struggle to snare a signature…
Overholser Mansion hosts tea
Mothers and daughters unite for an afternoon of dessert, fashion and good ol’ girl talk at the Overholser Tea, from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday. Held at the historic Overholser Mansion, 405 N.W. 15th, the tea will allow attendees to travel back in time with the charm and enchantment of the three-story, French chateau-style home,…
Arrest foils former University of Oklahoma student’s birthday plans
Breathe a sigh of relief, University of Oklahoma grads, et al. The Norman U still exists. But for a while, said school’s officials seemed to be in doubt, after a slew of disconcerting messages in chalk and on fliers blanketed the campus. “On April 21, all operations at OU Norman will cease,” fliers reportedly distributed…
Paranormal State: The Complete Season One
portedly haunted by ghosts, poltergeists and demons. (It’s this latter category Buell has most interest in, having been plagued by one since his childhood.) No overwhelming evidence is found, or conveniently happens off-camera. Strange sounds abound, but sometimes are just an errant cell phone or alarm clock. “Paranormal State” goes out of its way to…
JRB shines spotlight on contemporary crafts
Contemporary crafts are the focus of May’s exhibit at JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N. Walker, beginning with a 6 p.m. reception Friday and ending May 31. According the show organizers, contemporary crafts utilize traditional techniques “? wood, glass, clay, metal and textiles among them “? to serve a function, but yet double as…
Baby Mama
Reviewer’s grade: D Written and directed by former “SNL” and “Austin Powers” scribe Michael McCullers, “Baby Mama” is the story of a perpetually single businesswoman named Kate Holbrook (Tina Fey, TV’s “30 Rock” and “SNL”), a career-minded gal who has quickly moved up the ranks of an organic grocery chain. Kate also has baby fever,…
Brad Henry blues
To: The media and whining Democratic delegates From: A cranky independent Re: “Superdelegates” Having watched with dispassionate disinterest the battle for the Democratic Party nomination, I want to tell one thing to all of the people who are upset about the lengthy primary calendar, the fact that superdelegates will pick the nominee, and the failure…
The Myriad – With Arrows, With Poise
style=”MARGIN: auto 0in”>If you want to simulate the feeling of listening to this album, just jam a Flickerstick CD into your stereo and play it while simultaneously listening to a Keane song on your iPod and reading a blog on a Coldplay fan site. The album’s single, “A Clean Shot,” is clean indeed, with no…
Oklahoma legislature decides to make skirt shots illegal
As if state government didn’t already have too much of a hand in lady business, Tulsa County has made it even easier to invade a female stranger’s privacy, dismissing a felony charge against a man who, according to a Tulsa World report, snapped a photograph under a woman’s dress with his cell phone. Darwin D.…
Screwdriver-yielding Oklahoma 95-year-old assaults alleged intruder
So, a 46-year-old intruder is trying to enter the home of a 95-year-old, wheelchair-bound woman. How does this scenario play out? Well, this time, at least, it ends with the cops finding the guy lying on her front porch in a pool of his own blood, stabbed several times with a screwdriver, according to a…
Government in Action!
A Maryland governmental fund created to assist “innocent” victims of violent crime has paid out nearly $1.8 million since 2003 to injured (or deceased) “drug dealers, violent offenders and other criminals,” according to an investigation by the Baltimore Sun published in March. Burial expenses were awarded for a carjacker, a victim of an inter-gang killing…
Experimental Norman rock act The Neighborhood makes indie sounds accessible
Rather than blend in with an increasingly homogenized community of so-called indie acts that rely on quirks and gimmicks, The Neighborhood is an amiable group of genuine musicians who exude the kind of unique talent and camaraderie that makes one wish the members lived next door and always played their music way too loud. Already…
Jewel Box puts on ‘loverly’ production of ‘My Fair Lady’
George Bernard Shaw, inspired by one of Ovid’s ancient tales, explored the alchemy between the Victorian-era sexes in his play “Pygmalion.” From the start, it seemed like the kind of story that wanted music as accompaniment. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe did just that in 1956 with the musical “My Fair Lady,” featuring now-famous…
Married Life
Reviewer’s grade: C+ Chris Cooper (“American Beauty”) stars as Harry Allen, a happily married, middle-aged stockbroker who seeks the affections of a younger woman for obscure reasons. His wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson, “Lars and the Real Girl”) is too nice to be simply cast aside, so Harry decides the kindest thing he can do is…
Deception
n re “Deception” is in the marketing campaign. They actually tried to sell this tepid and insipid thing as a thriller. Hugh Jackman (“X-Men 1-3”) is a hot shot lawyer who initiates timid accountant Ewan McGregor (“Star Wars 1-3”) into a sex club so he can be set up to do something it would be…
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
2007 In Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric, “Munich,”) recounts his life following a 1995 stroke that left him with “locked-in syndrome,” a polite medical euphemism meaning “entirely paralyzed except for your left eye.” Bauby, only 43 at the time, was editor-in-chief of Elle France. It’s impossible to truly…
