Least Competent Criminals
Too Late: According to police in Honolulu in January, it was Ellis Cleveland who robbed four banks within a five-day span, and that’s what an officer said to him as they arrested him. Responded Cleveland, “Four. I didn’t do four. I only robbed three banks. But it doesn’t matter because I’m not talking to you…
Update
News of the Weird has mentioned several times (last in 2001) the federal court order requiring the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to rectify decades’ worth of negligence in administering the Indian Trust Fund, which might involve as much as $2.5 billion. Included in a 2001 court order was a prohibition against BIA’s maintaining a…
The Jesus World Tour (all new!)
Recent Playdates: Marion County, Fla., January (image of Jesus on a slice of raw potato); Tampa, Fla., January (image of Jesus on a slab of granite); Houston, January (image of Jesus on another slice of raw potato); Meadow Lake, N.M., December (image of Jesus on a sprayed-on wall covering); Homestead, Fla., December (image of Jesus…
Police Blotter
The Austin (Texas) Police Department announced in January that it had suspended Officer Scott Lando, 45, based on preliminary indications that he had been hiring a prostitute while on duty. According to a search warrant affidavit (disclosed in the Austin American-Statesman), Lando had paid for the woman’s services in part by giving her free rein…
Turning Their Lives Over to Sat-Nav
Satellite-navigation is undoubtedly a boon to drivers, but reports are accumulating of incidents in which drivers turned over too much discretion to the technology. For example, in January in Bedford Hills, N.Y., a visiting Silicon Valley computer technician absentmindedly obeyed his car’s global positioning system and wound up, stalled, on railroad tracks, where a passing…
Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland
Reviewer’s grade: C Did you hear the one about the Hollywood heavyweight who piled four unknown stand-up comedians into a bus and toured America, playing 30 cities in 30 days? You will once you’ve seen the documentary on the 2005 experiment. (Its Oklahoma City gig comprises all of 20 seconds in the finished film.)…
Medical Personnel With Issues
In October, Syracuse, N.Y., dentist George Trusty was sued in federal court after a drill bit snapped off and lodged near a patient’s eye, allegedly because Trusty was dancing to the song “Car Wash” on the radio while tending to the patient. In January, former Skokie, Ill., eye doctor’s assistant Joseph Vernell Jr. was sued…
Hinder hits sales milestone
As they prepare to record a sophomore album, Oklahoma City party-rock band Hinder has reached a new album sales milestone and broken a mobile music format record, according to the band’s publicist. Hinder’s debut album, “Extreme Behavior,” released in September 2005, was certified triple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on Jan. 24, due…
Get back as Beatles tribute act performs three shows at OU
The act 1964 “¦ The Tribute began 24 years ago when Mark Benson and Gary Grimes decided to intertwine their musical talent and love for the Beatles. “We thought this would just be something fun to do every once in a while,” Benson said. “We had no idea this would turn into a full-time job.…
Oklahoma’s female soldiers face restrictive world in Iraq
CAMP BUEHRING, KUWAIT ” When University of Oklahoma architecture student Jennifer Arends hits the ground imminently in Iraq, her 5-foot-4-inch frame will bear the uniform of a U.S. Army solider, trussed with a 40-pound bulletproof vest. Her sandy blond hair will be covered with a Kevlar helmet, she will view the world through darkened ballistic-lens…
Government in Action!
Among the accusations that emerged from an FBI investigation of the U.S. government’s beleaguered Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (according to a December Washington Post report) is that the deputy director of that office, Ginger Cruz, a self-described Wiccan, had been threatening to place hexes on employees if they co-operated with outsiders’ evaluations of…
Strange Wilderness
MsoNormal style=”MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt”>Reviewer’s Grade: C- Peter Gaulke (Steve Zahn, “Rescue Dawn”) is the host of a wilderness adventure-type TV show. He drives around in his ancient bus with a pack of stoner buddies (including Jonah Hill from “Superbad” and Justin Long from “Live Free or Die Hard”), getting high, destroying property and…
Annual ‘Chocolate Decadence’ benefits downtown
Pegged as one of Oklahoma City’s most anticipated annual events, the Valentine’s tradition “Chocolate Decadence 2008” will be held 5:30-8 p.m. Thursday at the Hudson-Essex Loft Office at 825 N. Broadway. “Chocolate Decadence has evolved every year to sold-out capacity as a result of the unique and wonderful offerings by the finest chocolatiers in Oklahoma…
Local amateurs to duke it out at Toughman Contest
Toughman Contests fall into the everyman wing of combat sports ” a tradition in pugilism where fighters converge to wail on each other to see who is the baddest amateur fighter in town. The metro will get to find out who’s top dog Friday and Saturday at the Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market. “Toughman is…
Channeling ‘Supernanny’
She arrives in her smart blue dress with sensible shoes, her face adorned with glasses created to provide an increased sense of credibility. Her British accent is disarming at first, but when she rolls up her sleeves and presents her “techniques” for child-rearing, it becomes painfully apparent that she has an agenda: to manage and…
Great Art!
Samina Malik, 23, was convicted in a British court in December and given a suspended nine-month sentence for having amassed a large collection of how-to books on terrorism. She came to authorities’ attention as the self-described “lyrical terrorist” who writes poetry glorifying the Islamic mujahadeen fighters who specialize in beheadings. (From her “How to Behead”:…
Politico warns Rice to expect negative campaign from Inhofe
Sen. Jim Inhofe is better-funded than at any other point in his political career with $1.8 million net contributions, six times more than his opponent, state Sen. Andrew Rice, has raised, according to Federal Election Commission reports filed in October. Inhofe still draws on the loyal Republican base he has cultivated over the last 30…
The Equalizer: Season One
1985-1986 About all I remembered of CBS’ mid-Eighties series “The Equalizer” was its synth-tastic theme song by Steward Copeland of The Police. What I didn’t realize then “? and couldn’t have “? is how much the lead character is like a retirement-age version of Jack Bauer from “24.” See for yourself on “The…
Print artist goes ‘Metaphorical’ at Los Milagros
Los Milagros Print Studio and Gallery, 2433 N.W. 16th in the Paseo district, will host an exhibit opening Friday for artist Stacey D. Miller’s “Metaphorical Illusions.” Showing in the gallery through March 13, the exhibit is a vibrant series of monotype prints focused on figures and body language Miller has been studying for the last…
Goetz paints landscapes of local, national landmarks
d. “You get an integration of the suburban look along with the buildings.” COMMUNITYThe arts community in Oklahoma City has grown considerably since her parents had their studio near the state Capitol, and she is thrilled to see her hometown evolve into an arts center. “It’s mind-blowing, it’s amazing,” she said. “The whole cultural scene…
Persepolis
Reviewer’s Grade: A+ Based on the graphic novel of the same name, “Persepolis” is an animated, autobiographical account of author Marjane Satrapi’s formative years in Iran and Austria. Starting with the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution and creation of an Islamic republic in that country, the story follows Marji to school in Vienna, where people treat…
Just the good ol’ boys
Oklahoma’s reputation as a state dominated by good ol’ boy politics and corruption lives on in the 21st century. This reputation is rooted in the state’s historical legacy of corruption. This politics-as-usual in Oklahoma can seem highly entertaining as absurdist theater or deeply depressing depending on one’s particular cynicism level on any given day,…
Oklahoma City mayor waxes lyrically
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett was feeling quite lyrical delivering his State of the City address Jan. 31 before bigwigs at the Cox Business Services Convention Center. Cornett delivered a speech that covered four main topics: education, health, the future Core to Shore project and the proposed Ford Center upgrade. That heavy subject matter…
Tulsa City Council aims to prohibit false statements
Members of the Tulsa City Council seem to believe they have come up with a way to avoid being embarrassed when the people who voted for them get up and scold them to their faces. According to a story in the Tulsa World, the City Council wants to prohibit citizens from knowingly making false statements…
Fresh from a farmhouse, Dead Meadow brings lush sound to Norman
Los Angeles-based psychedelic group Dead Meadow is set to play Norman’s Opolis Tuesday night, where it will showcase songs from its new album, “Old Growth,” which was recorded on an Indiana farm. “When you’re recording, it’s nice to get away from everything so you can’t get distracted by friends,” bassist Steve Kille said. “You’re out…
Oklahoma couple’s motorcycle store’s name chaps locals
A married biker couple in Medicine Park (near the Wichita Mountains, dear geographically challenged) are seeing success with their motorcycle shop despite gripes from local churchgoers, according to an article published in The Oklahoman. After briefly considering opening a coffee shop/law office (a hybrid business popular in nearby cosmopolitan cities like Lawton, Fletcher and…
Over Her Dead Body
Reviewer’s Grade: C- Eva Longoria Parker of TV’s “Desperate Housewives” stars as Kate, a type-A woman crushed by an ice angel on her wedding day, who returns from the afterlife to keep her husband-to-be from romancing the psychic (Lake Bell, TV’s “Surface”) who is trying to contact her. Seems that the man’s sister Chloe…
The purloined pooch, the small-town mayor, and now, the indictment!
Mayor Grace Saenz-Lopez (Alice, Texas, pop. 19,000) and her twin sister were indicted in January for hiding evidence in a dognapping case. Saenz-Lopez had agreed to baby-sit a shih tzu but, alarmed by the dog’s sickliness, she kept it and lied to the owners that it had died. When it was spotted at a local…
Former Westminster teacher aiding education of West African village
Alice Azumi Iddi-Gubbels ” a native of northeastern Ghana, but more recently a teacher at Westminster School in Oklahoma City ” has established Pambe Ghana, a new nonprofit charged with changing education in her native northeastern Ghana. Today, a half-century after British rule ended in the West African country, the effects of colonialism are still…
The Eye
Reviewer’s Grade: C- Here’s something quaint: an American remake of an Asian horror movie. Oh, it’s been done? Then let’s make it different from the original by taking everything that was scary “? you know, the stuff that makes it worthy of being remade “? and throw it all out, substituting a feel-good ending…
Oklahoma congressional representative turns into autograph hound
According to Robert G. Kaiser, associate editor at The Washington Post, the president routinely signs autographs as he’s leaving the Chamber of the United States House of Representatives after his State of the Union address. That doesn’t mean it looks subtle when these signature shenanigans are shown on national television. Oklahoma’s own U.S. Rep.…
City denies it violated rights of former death-row inmate
Another round in the battle between former death-row inmate Curtis Edward McCarty and Oklahoma City has been waged. McCarty, 45, is suing the city for wrongful imprisonment, claiming officials violated his constitutional rights to due process. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in December, targets: ” the city,” former forensic chemist Joyce Gilchrist and ”…
Humor blooms in Pollard’s ‘Send Me No Flowers’
The Pollard Theatre’s current offering is the stage version of one of that screen duo’s string of hits from the Sixties: “Send Me No Flowers.” While one could easily argue that these formula comedies are museum pieces of the past, their enduring popularity suggests otherwise. Director Robert Matson is something of a specialist with the…
Science Museum combats childhood obesity through fun, games
Help kids take a bite out of obesity with a permanent exhibit at Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 N.E. 52nd. Sponsored by Integris Health, “SmartMouth” is an informative, hands-on program focused on educating children and their parents about the dangers of obesity and the positive reinforcements of healthy eating, in an entertaining way. GAMESThrough a series…
I’m Not There
y Christian Bale. The egotistical divorc
College football recruiting fraught with drama
All of that commotion you hear outside your window today is the celebrating, lamenting and absolute craziness known throughout the sporting world as national signing day. After months of courting, coddling and concocting, college football coaches everywhere finally get the official word on who is becoming a part of their respective programs. Those who keep…
Oklahoma charted as Red ‘Coke’ state
While scientists work toward finding a cure for cancer and other horrible diseases, one-time California Institute of Technology student Alan McConchie’s Internet presence continues conducting research that affects us all: the pop vs. soda debate. Via his Web site at www.popvssoda.com, McConchie has aimed to “plot the regional variations in the use of the…
State senate passes bill to mark Black History Month
The Oklahoma State Senate unanimously passed a concurrent resolution today to help mark Black History Month as well as denounce the state’s racial segregation past. In the state house, Senate Concurrent Resolution 49 — authored by Senator Earl Garrison, D-Muskogee, and Rep. Wade Rousselot, D-Okay — denounces Oklahoma’s Jim Crow laws which began with…
