Friends with Kids
Although long a screenwriter (Kissing Jessica Stein) and an actress (TV’s Notes from the Underbelly and 24), Westfeldt makes her directorial debut with this romantic comedy that co-stars four members of the Bridesmaids cast and opens Friday. She stars as Julie, best buds to Jason (Adam Scott, TV’s Parks and Recreation). Their relationship is pure…
Remembering an Oklahoma civil libertarian
Working side by side with him for 17 years, I often said I spent more time with him than I spent with my family. As the “other half of my brain,” we worked daily to meet the challenges of civil liberty violations in Oklahoma. We were a true team with a common cause, and we…
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…
Saii Asian Bistro
There’s an abundance of sushi restaurants in Oklahoma City, but there aren’t many that can stand up to Saii Asian Bistro. Saii has built a pretty solid reputation since Finn Pramoj opened it about five years ago. Considering all the good things we’d heard about the restaurant, a friend and I decided to check it…
Home sweet ’homa
Nora Guthrie believes the spirit of her father, Woody Guthrie, sometimes lets his presence be known. Her proof is in the multiple times electricity has failed or lights have flickered when she’s attending events honoring him. A few years ago, she attended a Bruce Springsteen show in Germany. Just as The Boss was set to…
Walk this way
That’s where the Neighborhood Alliance of Central Oklahoma comes in. The organization has an online survey inviting people to help prioritize how the MAPS 3 Trails and Sidewalks Subcommittee should allocate $10 million for the construction of sidewalks along major streets. Neighborhood Alliance Executive Director Georgie Rasco said sidewalks are important for beautification, safety and…
Creative dissent
The Norman resident wanted to increase awareness of the bill, which passed the state Senate last month, so she invited friends to participate in a photography sitting to combine art and activism. The resulting photographs are part of a larger artistic reaction borne of anger and resistance to the legislation.“I feel deeply fortunate to have…
Dogged park
Bicentennial Park, located between City Hall and the Civic Center Music Hall, is home to a number of historical monuments and sculptures. Its renovation is part of Project 180, the massive downtown green space and streetscape redesign funded by the tax increment finance district surrounding Devon tower. But renovation plans for Bicentennial Park hit a…
Spirited reformation
When a joint task force considering changes to Oklahoma laws to allow wine and strong beer in grocery stores disbanded last year with no recommendation, the likelihood of seeing a legislative proposal became bleak. And so a group of Oklahomans did what Rep. Ron Peters, R-Tulsa, predicted would happen in the aftermath of the task…
Fade out
Senate Bill 1623 has made it past the state Senate Finance Committee and is awaiting further action in the Senate. Authored by Sen. Mike Mazzei, R-Tulsa, it would eliminate a number of special tax credits and subsidies in order to compensate for revenue lost by reducing the state’s top marginal income tax rate from 5.25…
Alcohol: A to Z in OKC
B is for Bloody Mary. Some believe this vodka and tomato elixir helps conquer hangovers. Some just believe in its deliciousness. If you’re in the mood, head to S & B’s new location on Ninth Street, just off Broadway. The Bloody Mary bar will provide all that you need. Try the Bloody Jerk. (It’s garnished…
Buffa-loaded
Since 2009, the Oklahoma Film & Music Office (OF&MO) has been our agent down south, working with local creatives, media and sponsors to turn that nice thought into a reality. What began as a modest, one-day showcase of Okie talent (that drew some 700 attendees) has grown into a multiday experience branded as the Buffalo…
The Viral Factor
Directed by Dante Lam (The Stool Pigeon), the action-thriller revolves around the world’s last two surviving samples of the smallpox virus, one of which is an arm’s length away from being used to develop a biological weapon to unleash of five of the world’s seven continents. Best known on our shores as Kato to The…
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…
Stunning discrepancy
Amnesty issued a Feb. 15 news release to bring attention to the national death toll from Tasers hitting the 500 mark. It indicated OKCPD as being responsible for seven deaths by Taser over the last decade. However, OKCPD Capt. Dexter Nelson said that since 2003 there have been six recorded deaths that occurred after a…
Zaat
About all it takes is a big ol’ syringe full of Re-Animator fluid, a dunk tank with electric cables, and a room full of primitive equipment resembling the games no one plays at Chuck E. Cheese. Ladies and gentleman, welcome to Zaat, a 1971 regional Z movie that no one was calling to be restored…
Immortals
Set in 1200-something-rather BC, it comes helmed with the same acuity of visuals Tarsem Singh brought to The Cell and The Fall, where every pixel appears to have art-directed to a near death. One may wonder why some characters look raring to go for a parade of nightmares, but one cannot deny how stunning it…
Rampart
As one character states boldly to his face, “You’re a classic racist. A bigot. A sexist. A womanizer. A chauvinist. A misanthrope. Homophobic, clearly, or maybe you just don’t like yourself.” Mind you, this is just from his daughter, so imagine what those with no emotional investment to cop David Brown would think. Or just…
Archie’s Weird Mysteries: The Complete Series / Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century: The Complete Series
New to DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment’s Cookie Jar line are two DIC series that debuted in the late ’90s, Archie’s Weird Mysteries and Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, both collected in their entirety, at 40 episodes on four discs and 26 on three, respectively. Although not that old, they already look incredibly dated,…
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…
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…
Monkees leader Davy Jones dead at 66
It appears that Jones’ final public concert was staged in Oklahoma. A Feb. 19 date with Thackerville’s WinStar World Casino is the most recent show listed on the late singer’s website. It’s not yet confirmed that Jones played another public concert between the show at WinStar and his passing. “Davy Jones provided our patrons with…
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…
Justice League: Doom
It’s the latest of DC Universe’s 13 animated features for the PG-13 crowd, following the recent “Batman: Year One,” more-than-decent “Green Lantern: Emerald Knights” and dull “All-Star Superman.” A chalice-carrying lunatic appropriately named Vandal Savage (voiced by Phil Morris) offers members of the Legion of Doom (including Cheetah, Mirror Master and — timely! — Bane)…
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Writer/director Sean Durkin’s unsettling “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” now available on Blu-ray and DVD, explores the dark side of that need for human connection: the giving up of identity and individual will to be included. Those offering that extreme Faustian bargain are most often men, and quite often power-hungry to the point of psychosis: Jim…
Kill the Reflection — Together … Apart …
Unlike Depth & Current’s last-sane-man-on-Earth narrators, however, the characters residing in Kill the Reflection’s second full-length, “Together … Apart … ,” are just as fractured and disjointed as their environments. With “No Love at All,” we have such a song that opens with a bit of dour note-picking straight out of the Nirvana textbook. Singer…
