Give ‘Em Hell Malone
amazon.com/e/ir?t=oklahgazet-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001AV3BYK” alt=”” style=”border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;” width=”1″ border=”0″ height=”1″ />”) has ever made. In other words, it’s entertaining “? just on the light side. “?Rod Lott
Fireball
Story is secondary in the 2009 Thai actioner “Fireball,” which begins with a big blast of exposition to get “plot” right out of the way. Misunderstood thug Tai (Preeti Barameeanat) is told about his brother, Tan, being beaten within an inch of his life, landing him comatose in the hospital. Tai tracks his brother’s doings…
Gamer
Ken Castle (Michael C. Hall), who has hits with the “Sims”-esque “Society” and the bloody “Slayers.” The latter uses hardened criminals as first-person shooters, engaged in an all-out war, in which there are no extra lives. When the game is over, it’s over “? generally with a splattered head. Not so for Kable (Gerard Butler),…
Human Target: Chance Meetings – Peter Milligan, Edvin Biukovic and Javier Pulido
With Fox hoping for a midseason hit in “Human Target,” Vertigo unleashes a volume of comics on which the TV show is based, in “Human Target: Chance Meetings.” The trade paperback collects the four-issue 1999 miniseries and its 2002 graphic novel follow-up, “Final Cut.” We all know the sex and violence will be toned down…
New ordinance could dramatically alter use of electronic signs
The Oklahoma City Council is expected to take up a new ordinance that could dramatically affect the use of signs throughout the city at its Tuesday regular meeting. A proposal has been put forth that would place new guidelines concerning the size, scope and operation of advertising and business signs. The focus of the proposal…
Haiti relief prompts Canterbury Choral Society concert
Canterbury Choral Society will raise money for Haiti earthquake relief efforts when it performs 4 p.m. Sunday, January 24, at Oklahoma City University’s Bishop W. Angie Smith Chapel, 2501 N Blackwelder. The dramatic effects of the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, shook Judith Willoughby, artistic director of Canterbury Youth Choruses, into action. “I can’t imagine how…
Chesapeake executive responds to letter
The Dec. 16, 2009, letter in the Gazette headlined “Gas problems” by Jay Hanas requires a response since it contained either inadvertently or intentionally misleading information about the natural gas well-completion process called “hydraulic fracturing,” which has enabled companies like Chesapeake to safely and successfully explore and extract clean-burning natural gas from deep below the…
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self-complacent is erroneous, wrote W. Somerset Maugham. “On the contrary, it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind.” I think the trajectory of your journey during the last 12 months tends to confirm his theory, Taurus. According to my…
Multi-room ‘Function and Design’ exhibit highlights innovative interior art
Function and DesignOpening reception 5 p.m. FridayOn display through March 27[Artspace] at Untitled1 N.E. Thirdwww.artspaceatuntitled.org815-9995 Statement-making homeowners willing to pay more to ensure their decor does more than fill space have an opportunity to see innovative, unique creations from local artists who collaborated for “Function and Design,” opening Friday at [Artspace] at Untitled. Unlike 2009’s…
People With Issues
Kevin Derks, 53, of Kenosha, Wis., swears that he has never touched an underage girl, even though he admitted to an all-consuming fixation on their “innocence” and beauty. Derks’ apartment, according to a detective, appears to be a “shrine” to little girls, with walls covered with posters and photos, including snapshots of celebrity kids and…
Before Hitler was even a fetus’
I’m writing today because I am curious. Was Greg Horton’s article titled “Okies and Odinism,” page 11 in your Dec. 23, 2009, edition, supposed to be a research news article or an editorial? I ask because either way, it is confusing. On one hand, there is obviously a fair amount of research that went into…
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
One of my readers, Judd, shared his vision of how to cope with the blahs of January. Given your astrological omens, I’d say his strategy perfectly embodies the approach you should take right now. Please study his testimony below, and come up with your own ingenious variation. “On the coldest of days, my friends and…
Lead Story
Natives of the Erromango section of the Pacific island Vanuatu recently held a formal “conciliation” with the great-great-grandson of the British missionary whom the islanders’ ancestors ate when he came ashore in 1839. Charles Milner-Williams’ forebear, Rev. John Williams, was regarded as the most famous Christian missionary of the era. Vanuatan legislator Ralph Regenvanu told…
Queen of Monroe ditches old moniker and set list of covers to focus on new material
Queen of MonroeCD Release of “Blood, Batteries, and Turntables”Saturday, January 16Opolis, 113 N. Crawford, Norman$5 or Free Entry with $10 CD purchase Stowing a lengthy set list of covers is an unnerving move for a band wanting to transition its fan base to all-original shows. But the members behind Queen of Monroe decided that with…
Unclear on the Concept
Michael Yavorski, 52, who drew a three-month sentence in October for having twice fondled a 12-year-old girl and given her a beer, complained through his lawyer that the sentence was too long. “The collateral consequences for Mr. Yavorski here are tremendous,” said the lawyer, in that the negative publicity about the case might force Yavorski…
Take Oklahoma quiz, win free food!
With another year down, we look back at the year that was 2009 in our great state, via this 50-question, multiple-choice quiz. Use your noodle to see how much you recall, for a chance to win a $100 gift card to any eatery in the Hal Smith Restaurant Group, which includes Boomerang Grille, Charleston’s, Lakeside…
Can’t Possibly Be True
In November, a Chicago judge ruled that former firefighter Jeffrey Boyle is entitled to his $50,000 annual pension even though he had pleaded guilty in 2006 to eight counts of arson (and allegedly confessed to 12 more). Boyle is known locally as “Matches” Boyle to distinguish him from his brother, John “Quarters” Boyle, who is…
Oklahoma City Council squabbles, insults each other over MAPS 3
It didn’t take long for arguments to flare up within the Oklahoma City Council over the recent MAPS 3 initiative. At its Jan. 5 meeting, just a month after passage of MAPS 3 by city voters, council members starting quibbling over a little ol’ thing like a promise. Councilman Pete White wanted to know why…
It’s Good to Be a British Criminal (actually, “United Kingdom Criminal”)
After pleading guilty in Cardiff Crown Court to forging an uncle’s checks worth 41,000 pounds ($65,000), Hayley Price, 42, was fined 5 pounds ($8), given a suspended sentence and ordered to do community service. The judge reasoned that Price was broke, having already spent the 41,000 pounds. Brian Wallace was the victim of a severe…
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
The Onion, which describes itself as “America’s Finest News Source,” ran a feature on the inventor Thomas Edison. He “changed the face of modern life in 1879,” said the report, “when he devised the groundbreaking new process of taking ideas pioneered by other scientists and marketing them as his own.” The tone was mocking, of…
Dangerous underpants result in full-body airport scanners
First we had to take out shoes off, then we weren’t permitted liquids, now we have to play doctor.Following the attempted Christmas Day underpants bombing, airports around the world are stepping up security with full body scanners. We bet they don’t even buy you flowers first or tell you you’re special. Nope, without so much…
Parole reform overdue
The state’s current severe budget crisis could finally force legislators and other public officials this year to address Oklahoma’s burgeoning correctional system. Oklahoma is the only state in the country that still involves the governor in every parole recommendation. The main problem with the current system is that any Oklahoma governor runs great political risk…
Oklahoma man shatters ex-girlfriend’s television with rear
Chad Anthony Logan, a 25-year-old Midwest City man, was arrested early on New Year’s Day after paying a visit to his ex-girlfriend, according to The Oklahoman. According to the report, Logan rang in the new decade by kicking in his ex’s door and getting into a tussle with her current boyfriend. Then he apparently spotted…
Space Hike gets kids outside, into the solar system
Space HikeMartin Park Nature Center5000 W. MemorialSaturday, $2 per participant 755-0676 to register Kids can join a guided tour through the stars and solar system at Martin Park Nature Center, 5000 W. Memorial. The Martin Park Space Hike features a miniature array of papier-mché planets built to scale on the site’s trails. On Saturday, park…
’35 Shots of Rum’ curiously lighthearted despite the brooding
“35 Shots of Rum,”Thursday-Sunday, Jan 14-17 Oklahoma City Museum of Art415 Couch Drive236-3100 In “35 Shots of Rum,” Joséphine and her father, Lionel, seem to need little more than each other. Employed by the metro train system, Lionel (Alex Descas), a widowed African immigrant, is able to afford a humble-but-cozy apartment in a housing project…
William Rader transforms his passion for magic into the seemingly impossible: a full-time job
having fun.” He said audience reactions to his act serve to remind him of how different people are, and he has experienced quite a range of response over the years. “One time, I had just come to the climax of a sponge ball routine at T.G.I. Friday’s, and everyone was in the moment. And one…
Local farmers work on improving the North Canadian watershed upstream from the Oklahoma River
Agricultural producers upstream from the Oklahoma River are working to improve the North Canadian watershed, even as local and state health and agricultural officials continue to monitor the river that made about four dozen triathletes sick after swimming in it in May 2009. The Oklahoma River is the renamed seven-mile portion of the North Canadian…
Brother Gruesome – Brother Gruesome
It’s important for musicians to know their target demographic, and Brother Gruesome’s Todd Jackson and Levi Watson have narrowed focus on the thousands of drivers stuck on America’s highways with busted CD players, but perfectly working tape decks. So when the Oklahoma City duo’s self-titled EP surfaces Friday, it’ll be in cassette form and only…
Alcohol Was Involved
In November, the Seattle Police Department, investigating a complaint about a beating, interviewed a 25-year-old man hospitalized after being found screaming in pain impaled on a metal fence. He said he had run away from a barroom fight and momentarily thought he was a “ninja warrior” capable of leaping the fence. Sean McDowell, 24, was…
Oklahoma City Home & Garden Show to host celebrities
More than 400 exhibitors, vendors and experts come together this weekend for the Oklahoma City Home & Garden Show, a three-day showcase of products and services for local homeowners, remodelers and renovators. From Friday to Sunday, the event will fill five buildings at State Fair Park, 333 Gordon Cooper, said spokeswoman Kinsey Crocker. A rotating…
Judy Wesselhoft’s letter refreshing
What a breath of fresh air ushered in when I read Judy Wesselhoft’s Gazette letter (“Kids deserve better,” Dec. 16, 2009) concerning the biggest scientific hoax concerning global warming and Darwin’s theory of evolution. I wonder if those Darwinian professors at the University of Oklahoma can explain these facts: The slant of the earth is…
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
In the first half of 2010, your calling will be calling to you more loudly and insistently than it has in years. It will whisper to you seductively while you’re falling asleep. It will clang like a salvation bell during your mid-morning breaks. It will soothe you with its serpentine tones and it will agitate…
James T. Fisher gets a third shot at a fair trial for a 1982 murder
A man convicted and sentenced to death twice for a 1982 murder will get a third try to prove his innocence. A judge set an Oct. 18 trial date for James T. Fisher Jr. Fisher was first convicted and given a sentence of death in 1983 for killing Terry Gene Neal at a northwest Oklahoma…
Bold and beautiful
They are good enough, they are smart enough, and gosh-darn it “¦ people like them!It’s the new breed, the new face of my beloved Republican Party, and they are ready to lead us into battle against the evil hordes of those “doggone Democrats” who are bound and determined to turn us into a socialist country.…
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
The world’s tallest waterfall is Angel Falls in Venezuela. It was named after Jimmie Angel, an American who was the first person to fly a plane over it in 1933. Recently, Venezuela’s president suggested that this place should be officially renamed Kerepakupai Meru, which is what the indigenous Pemon Indians have always called it. The…
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
tor’s mirror, which contains a fantasy world where they are given a choice between the hard, narrow path to righteousness and the easy, broad road to damnation. Despite the doc’s best efforts, in this day and age, it’s difficult to find individuals both willing and capable of reaching enlightenment. Then Mr. Nick (always-welcome singer Tom…
Inexplicable
It is the Christian commandment to love your enemies and to do good to them. I did that, explained Dan Ross, 61, a retiree in Lehigh Acres, Fla., who in November wired a dozen yellow roses to Maj. Nidal Hasan, the accused Fort Hood spree killer. “Whereas the ministers out there in Fort Hood are…
Function of MAPS 3 citizen advisory board yet to be determined
, different council, city staff now has 16 years under their belt and really quite a bit of credibility and expertise,” he said. “As they get ready to structure this, it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with.” He did, however, caution against making the board too weak to accomplish the goals the…
The Non gets comfortable with new album and shows
In more ways than one, ambient, instrumental rock band The Non is home. Literally, the musicians are local. Bassist Tom Bishop, drummer Mack Hawkins and guitarists Wil Norton and Zach Zeller are all Oklahoma City-area students and residents. Figuratively, and as the English translation of their sophomore album, “Tadaima,” implies, the four-year-old group has reached…
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
You can have it all, says fashion designer Luella Bartley. “It’s just really hard work.” That’s my oracle for you, Sagittarius — not just for this week, but for the next three months as well. According to my reading of the astrological omens, the cosmos will indeed permit you to have your cake and eat…
Record label freedom and mystic poetry inform Ray Wylie Hubbard’s latest album
Ray Wylie Hubbard with John Fullbright and Terry “Buffalo” Ware7 p.m. Sundaythe Blue Door2805 N. McKinleywww.bluedoorokc.com524-0738$20 advance, $25 door After nearly 40 years in the music business, legendary Texas-based singer/songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard said the decision to form his own record label had everything to do with the freedom to plot his own course as…
Two months after opening, Laredo’s Mexican Restaurant came up against a trademark lawsuit
Julian Gonzales turned to the most famous English playwright in explaining why he is comfortable changing the name of his well-known restaurant. “As Shakespeare said, ‘A rose by any name still smells sweet.” Obviously, there is a backstory. Gonzales is the owner of Casa de los Milagros Mexican Restaurant, 5111 N. Classen, which opened last…
After three decades of international news, Oklahoman Mike Boettcher returns to teach
On June 1, 1980, an Oklahoman appeared on the first live shot of CNN, or “chicken noodle news” network, as it was called back then. Mike Boettcher, a graduate from the University of Oklahoma and a Ponca City native, took a chance on the network, which in its first stages was often ridiculed. Little did…
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
The Earth’s north magnetic pole is not the same as the geographic North Pole. If you take out a compass to orient yourself toward due north, the compass arrow will actually point toward a spot in the frigid wilds of Canada. But what’s really odd is that the north magnetic pole has been on the…
We Have Rules
Shawnee Mission Northwest outscored the competition at the Kansas Girls State Gymnastics Championship in November, but finished in third place because of a one-point penalty for a rule violation. The school’s coach had inquired about a balance-beam score outside the five-minute “window” for inquiries. The two schools that were tied for second place were declared…
CFN Quote of the Week
“Seattle may be a good city, but there’s one thing that they don’t have, and that’s a basketball team.”“David Thompson, GreaterOklahoma City Chamber chairman and president of the OPUBCO Communications Group, speaking at the chamber’s annual meeting Jan. 7 at the Cox Business Services Convention Center
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
The number of bacteria per square inch on a toilet seat averages about 50. Meanwhile, your telephone harbors over 25,000 germs per square inch and the top of your desk has about 21,000. I’d like you to use this as a metaphor that you can apply more universally. According to my analysis, you see, you…
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
It’s graduation time. Not in any officially recognized sense, maybe, but still: You have completed your study of a certain subject in the school of life. At a later date, maybe you will resume studying this subject on a higher level, but for now you’ve absorbed all you can. I suggest you give yourself a…
Legally Blonde’ jumps from movies to the stage, still goes for laughs
ny and represents an important turning point in their relationship,” he said. “The notion of him transforming physically mirrors Emmett’s internal transformation.” Bonds said the “Blonde” tour has given the actors a wide, varying audience and a chance to see how jokes play in different parts of the country. “The response has been pretty great…
Local hockey fans may have something to cheer about soon
Barely two weeks into January, a quick check of the Oklahoma City Blazers’ Web site is all one needs as a reminder to the long, cold, lonely winter local hockey fans find themselves suffering through these days. The site is blank, other than a brief note from DeBray Ayala, the defunct team’s former general manager,…
French film director’s autobiographical documentary “The Beaches of Agnes” succeeds
The Beaches of Agnes”Friday-Saturday, Jan 15-16Oklahoma City Museum of Art415 Couch Drive 236-3100 A whimsical, self-guided journey back through the peaks and valleys of her life, “The Beaches of Agnès” is an autobiographical documentary that serves as a playful highlight reel for French film director Agnès Varda (“Vagabond”). Quirky without being pretentious or preening, “Beaches”…
Oklahoma City Fire Department releases “helpful” winter tips
Brrr, is it ever cold out! But, why? Winter? What is this “winter” of which you speak?Lucky for us, this mystery is cleared up by the Oklahoma City Fire Department, which faxed a three-page tip sheet to aid those of us experiencing such an alien concept for the first time.Among its many revelations: “”Dress warm…
Modern dance, jazz, dinner raise money for Artspace at Untitled
Design and dinner dance together Thursday night at a fund-raising event downtown. The Untitled Gala is an annual fund-raiser for [Artspace] at Untitled, a nonprofit arts organization. The evening begins with a 6 p.m. cocktail reception at the gallery, 1 N.E. Third, which offers attendees an early preview of “Function and Design,” an exhibition of…
Get off your soapbox and do something
In response to Robin Leake’s letter (“MAPS 3 needs a spanking”) that made it into the Gazette’s Dec. 30 issue, all I have to say is she is complaining about MAPS 3 and yet she admits to not even voting on the issue? What the heck is that? If you did not agree with the…
Mayor, chamber outline city’s next challenges in annual address
In his annual State of the City speech today, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett harked on the recent past with last month’s passage of the MAPS 3 initiative, but addressed what the city needs to accomplish in the coming years. “The last 10 years of this city have been incredible, but it won’t compare to…
Ragging on Reynolds
I was glad to see public credit being given to some of Oklahoma’s social and political activists in Scott Cooper’s “Ax grinders” cover story in the Jan. 6 Oklahoma Gazette. I wonder about the characterization of their collective motives of the ax-grinding variety. Correcting social injustice has nothing to do with vindictiveness or evening out…
Daybreakers
kCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001KZIRM2″>Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”), who despises her dad for what he’s become, although one senses he wasn’t too human even when he was one; and Edward’s brother, Frankie (New Zealand actor Michael Dorman), who likes being a vamp and who is asked by Bromley to turn Alison for him. The picture was written and…
