Nobody Gets Out Alive
Good movies, regardless of classification, are going to come from those are filmmakers vs. fans. The current wave from the latter leaves a lot to be desired, as they approach projects from a narrow-focus angle that eschews objectivity and regurgitates a mishmash of titles they’ve seen without adding anything new. Recent offenders include Mimesis and…
The Factory
Skipping theaters and debuting on DVD free of digital bells and whistles, the Dark Castle Entertainment thriller exactly lacking in famous faces, with John Cusack and Jennifer Carpenter in the leads as partnering police detectives in snowy Buffalo, N.Y. Mike Fletcher (Cusack, The Raven) is an 18-year veteran of the force obsessed with a longtime…
Not amused
I don’t know Walt Strony, but I’m sure his talent does not deserve to be trivialized in some lame and juvenile attempt to be funny. Clearly, you have no respect for quality in either music, humor, or journalism. At the very least, you owe Mr. Strony an apology for your tastelessness. —Rosemary Brown, Oklahoma City
A tax cut to die for
Fallin claims income tax cuts will make us more “competitive,” but our economy (fueled by federal spending and high oil and agriculture prices) grew at the third-highest rate nationally in the past decade. Betting our future on continued high oil prices is the definition of insanity. Texas is ranked No. 1 nationally as a business-friendly…
Pizza panache
In the recent past, my wife and I were callously poisoned by a local distribution center for a nationwide pizza chain. Surely, this was our comeuppance. We chose convenience over quality and paid a heavy, weekend-ruining toll. And we deserved this stern reprimand from the universe because it’s not like you can’t get good pizza…
Loving Candy
Photo: Playboy Although born in Kansas in 1956, she moved to Oklahoma at age 3. After graduating from Ponca City High School, she pursued a journalism degree at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. And it was there, at the urging of her then-husband, that Candy Loving became a sex symbol. From class to centerfold…
Clean dirt
Robert and Barbara Stelle Credit: Shannon Cornman Certified organic farmer Robert Stelle is always amused when attendees of his seminars on organic gardening think the practice is something new. “Our ancestors used to grow things that way,” said Stelle, who, with his wife, Barbara, owns the 10-acre Sunrise Acres farm and greenhouse north of Blanchard.…
Rubber revelry
Credit: Brad Gregg “It is a terrific opportunity to educate people about the importance of prevention and responsible condom use,” said Terry Dennison, director of education for the organization. “We want people to feel that it’s OK to talk about condoms and that condom use can be the norm rather than the exception.” He’s…
The marrying kind
Credit: Brad Gregg Brecheen apparently has had it up to here with couples in Oklahoma — which the U.S. Census Bureau reports has the country’s highest divorce rate — not taking marriage seriously. “Love is a choice,” he said. (It’s also patient, kind and not jealous, we hear.) “You don’t fall in and out of…
OKG7 sushi stops
The Sushi Bar1201 N.W. 178th, Edmond285-8484 For dinner, start with the crab cakes, served with sesame dressing and avocado relish. As for the rolls, try the Old Fashioned: tempura sweet potatoes with avocados and a sour cream and onion sauce. Another must-try is the OMG — tempura shrimp, salmon, crab, avocado, cucumber and fried stuffed…
Saddle up
The newest and second beer in the Oklahoma City-based Mustang Brewing Company’s Saddlebag series: Imperial Court Stout. Brewmaster Gary Shellman said the beers hearken back to Russian imperial stouts. “The beers have traditionally been rich with dark chocolate and caramel flavors,” he said. “The Imperial Court Stout has all those qualities, and the raspberries add…
Box it up
“Most people who have worked downtown remember The Lunch Box,” Elder said. “When I heard it was closed, I asked Ed Strawn, the owner and chef, to come help us out.” Strawn has taken over managing the back of house operations, including cooking. Elder said the experience Strawn brings already has brought additional quality and…
Hungry heart
Forward Foods in Norman Credit: Mark Hancock You can be an uncaring jerk 364 days of the year, but for at least one day, it’s forcibly required to show undying love for one through the purchase of flowers, teddy bears or barbershop quartets to serenade your significant other at his or her workplace. Forgetting Valentine’s…
Is that a chart in your pocket?
Credit: Brad Gregg On Jan. 30, The Hill reported that Coburn had to get unanimous consent from the Senate to bring in some oversized charts. While it is customary for U.S. senators to use charts during presentations on the Senate floor, Senate rules prohibit sizes in excess of 36 inches by 48 inches. Any larger…
Sam I am
Photo: Keisha Register They say home is where the heart is. For musicians, however, the grind of touring often can be a blessing — an escape from personal demons or the perils of comfort and complacency. But if you’re anything like Samantha Crain, life on the road is just a desire coming to fruition. Crain…
Card sharks
Credit: Brad Gregg In other words, no namby-pamby e-cards. Although we understand that those, too, can get you crazy laid. True! According to a survey by SOASTA — a cloud and mobile testing firm not to be confused with Shasta, which makes an awesome grapefruit soda — more than one-third of Americans will send an…
CFN Quote of the week
“Guthrie, specifically, is a town that lots of musicians rave about. They’re like, ‘It’s fucking awesome; it’s mental.’” —Mumford & Sons guitarist Winston Marshall, telling Oklahoma Gazette why the Logan County town was chosen as one of only three U.S. locations for a music festival in September
Dry ideas
Lake Hefner Credit: Shannon Cornman At the end of January, the city requested the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers release water from Lake Canton, to which the city has water rights, to replenish Lake Hefner, a municipal water reservoir that’s down 18 feet below normal. A state wildlife official said that action is likely to…
Tobacco road
Credit: Mark Hancock Currently, Oklahoma and Tennessee are the only states that fully bar local governments from ordinances that restrict tobacco. And therein lies the rub. State Health Commissioner Terry Cline is on the side of local control. “We expect big opposition from this multibillion[-dollar] industry,” he said. “There are plenty of paid tobacco lobbyists…
Oh, baby
Credit: Brad Gregg So why all the party poopers? Some suspect the group’s evident openness to sexual fetishes had something to do with it, since the party invite encouraged guests who enjoy “age play” to arrive costumed as babies, toddlers or juveniles. Pioneer spokesman Gary Kramer made it clear that, while anyone can reserve a…
Green power
Credit: Brad Gregg “Purchasing green power helps our organization become more sustainable, while also sending a message to others across the U.S. that supporting clean sources of electricity is a sound business decision and an important choice in reducing climate risk,” said OSU President Burns Hargis. Of the power that OSU purchases from Oklahoma Gas…
LETTERS
Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@okgazette. com or sent online at okgazette.com, but include a city of residence and contact…
LETTERS
Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@okgazette. com or sent online at okgazette.com, but include a city of residence and contact…
Cave dwellers
In Defending the Caveman, now being presented by Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre in Civic Center Music Hall’s Freede Little Theatre, playwright Rob Becker says civilization is divided into two genders: women and assholes. It stars the affable, but bland John Venable. He hits his marks, speaks his lines and leaves little lasting impression. One could…
Treat yo’self!
Hair & Nail Salon Credit: Mark Hancock The meme originated when Tom and one of his co-workers discussed a day once a year in which they indulge themselves. The comical back-and-forth produced suggested treats like “fine leather goods, fragrances, mimosas and massages.” Every person’s idea of a treat is different. Me, I love nothing more…
Eat your heart out
Credit: Brad Gregg Coyne and a Dallas chocolatier have collaborated to create these lip-smacking organs. Inside each 2-pound confection is a USB stick containing a digital mix of love songs. And while you can’t really put a price on love, you can put a price on this oddity: $60. You can find ’em at Dwelling…
Lotus flowers
Photo: Tobin Voggesser American music’s evolving scope hasn’t played into the hands of many bands as well as it has for instrumental act Lotus. The collective of Deadheads with penchants for Aphex Twin and The Orb has ridden the rise of electronic dance music to sold-out tours and high-profile festival slots. “When we first started…
Amanda Earhart — Tell Me What You Want
Her debut EP, Tell Me What You Want, is characterized by funky, bright instrumentation with a mellow groove that harkens back to an age before Auto-Tune. Born and raised in Oklahoma City, Earhart shows off an impressive vocal range throughout the six songs. Whether she’s singing low and level, like in “Tell Me What You…
Be cautious with a dopey idea
California’s experience is instructive. With the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, that state authorized patients with doctor-issued identification cards to grow or possess specific amounts of marijuana for medical use. Sadly, that system has been widely abused. Storefront pot dispensaries with names like OMG Collective or Happy Meds resemble hippie crash pads more than…
Zoning out
Residents of the targeted 20-block area had fought the rezoning application until the city’s turnabout late last week. Still, many residents in the predominantly African-American neighborhood believe the city will try again. J.J. Chambless, head of the city’s development services department, told Oklahoma Gazette that the rezoning application officially will be withdrawn when the Oklahoma…
Beauty Day
It debuts on demand Feb. 12 from FilmBuff. As Beauty Day informs us, Zavadil was a man before his time as cable-TV personality Cap’n Video, a David Lee Roth-looking, Jackass-style camcorder prankster who was doing his thing in the mid-1990s, before Johnny Knoxville and the gang even dreamt of getting paid to puke. Director Jay…
Lake Placid: The Final Chapter
I’m so kidding. However, it appears to pick up from where LP3 left off — I haven’t seen it — with crocodile hunter Reba (Yancy Butler, Shark Week) surviving a tussle with a giant croc … only to have it not be as dead as she first thought. “You again? You really wanna do this?”…
Kill for Me
For Hailey, it’s her dad (Donal Logue, Silent Night). For Amanda, it’s a stalkery ex-boyfriend. But problems can solved and, you know, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. In other words, Kill for Me, I kill for you. Director Michael Greenspan’s follow-up to the disastrous Wrecked is a marked improvement. It’s like a gender-swapped…
One Sweet sell-out
Guess whose 15 minutes aren’t quite up yet? Oklahoma City’s Sweet Brown, whose apartment-fire interview with KFOR Channel 4 made her an Internet superstar overnight. Not just anyone can parlay a life-threatening incident into an appearance on Comedy Central’s hit Tosh.0. Chicken-Fried News wasn’t bowled over by Brown’s spokesperson ad last year selling homes, but…
Celeste & Jesse Forever
The daughter of musician Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton has proven herself a fine comic actress in film (I Love You, Man) and television (Parks and Recreation), and now a surprisingly sharp screenwriter in Celeste & Jesse Forever — not only the smartest and funniest romantic comedy you’re likely to rent all season, but…
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
That’s what makes The Perks of Being a Wallflower so impressive. New to Blu-ray and DVD, it understands the excess of feeling that characterizes being a teenager, and it doesn’t prettify or minimize the trials faced by the shy and socially awkward kid sitting alone in the school cafeteria. Written and directed by Stephen Chbosky,…
