Least Competent Persons
Ronald Stach, 41, climbed to the roof of the Canton Station bar in Baltimore on Dec. 11 and remained until Christmas Day, protesting the poor showing of the Baltimore Ravens football team. As such, Stach called attention not just to the Ravens, but also to himself, and thus inadvertently alerted his former wife as to…
Recurring Themes
The desire of some deaf parents to create deaf children (and deny them subsequent sound-creating implant surgery, to assure that their kids are raised with the benefits of the deaf lifestyle and support of the “deaf community”) made News of the Weird in 1995 and 2002. According to a December report in The Times of…
Cargill resigns as House speaker amid ethics allegations
In a surprise move, Lance Cargill stepped down as Oklahoma Speaker of the House this afternoon. House President Pro Tem Gus Blackwell will serve as interim speaker until a new speaker is chosen next week. Cargill read a statement to the press in the House lounge confirming his departure, but refused to take any…
Henry, dignitaries celebrate release of Oklahoma’s quarter
Gov. Brad Henry and Acting Director of the U.S. Mint Dan Shaver celebrated the release of the State of Oklahoma quarter release today at the Oklahoma History Center. Oklahoma’s coin was the 46th of the U.S. Mint’s 50 State Quarters program to be released. The coins have been released in the order the states…
People With Too Much Time on Their Hands
According to a report in Britain’s Bolton News in December, the House of Lords has recently been discussing the need to reduce the thickness of slices of bread, which Baroness Gardener of Parkes said would help alleviate Britons’ alarming levels of obesity. TV’s Weather Channel recently released a CD comprising 12 of what it called…
Jan. 26, 2008
The Great Meal-Ready-To-Eat; En route to Kuwait I’m not completely alone in this, but MREs — Meals Ready to Eat –are really not that bad. There are a variety of entrees available, giving the options of choosing one’s own poison, so-to-speak. Here at Camp McGregor, MREs are the required lunch. Well, that is, if one…
Mammoth
2006 Despite being made for the Sci Fi Channel, “Mammoth” is a better movie than you might think. Its plot is absolutely nothing special “? in fact, it’s ludicrous “? with a frozen woolly mammoth being thawed and freed from his ice cage when a meteor takes out his museum home. What keeps the film…
The Attic
2008 Mary Lambert made her name as a director with 1989’s “Pet Sematary.” Ever since, she’s seemed intent on destroying it with one below-average film after another, including “Urban Legends: Bloody Mary” and her latest, “The Attic.” People avoid attics because they’re dank and dusty “? a fact seemed lost on young Emma (Elisabeth Moss,…
Chutzpah!
Ingrates: “Get in here and do your (word omitted by the Allentown Morning Call) jobs, you dumb (omitted),” said Donald Reidnauer Sr., 56, after summoning police to investigate a BB pellet fired at his house in Richland Township, Pa., in November. “I pay taxes. I am your boss. Get in here and do your jobs…
Injudicious Judges
In Dhanbad, India, Judge Sunil Kumar Singh has been trying to settle a 20-year-old land dispute involving temples of the Hindu gods Ram and Hanuman and has become impatient, according to a December BBC News dispatch from Patna. One priest claims the land belongs to him, but most locals say the temples own it, and…
People With Issues
Serious Substance Abuse: Bill Long, a former member of the county council in Daytona Beach, Fla., was charged with DUI in December after he, allegedly speeding, hit another car. “When officers arrived at the scene,” reported WKMG-TV (Orlando), “(Long) was found drinking … suntan lotion.” Joseph Cardillo, reportedly a certified therapist in tantra, kundalini and…
Storm Warning
2007 From Australia comes “Storm Warning,” a tale of an adventurous couple’s not-so-g’day, mate. Nadia Far
Annual City Arts fund-raiser sports circus theme
Fire breathers, trapeze artists and dancers will transform the City Arts Center at Fair Park from gallery to big top for a one-night art spectacle in Oklahoma City. “Circus Maximus” is the theme for Friday’s Caf
Lake Texoma fishermen locate missing Hummer Limo
Every day, thousands upon thousands of times over, a line gets snagged on an underwater obstruction. It’s just not every day that the obstruction turns out to be a stretch limo. And a Hummer limo at that. That’s what happened to Bob Faulker at Lake Texoma recently, according to a report by area station…
Oklahoma’s Miss America competes on television game show
Taking a break from smiling, waving and luring Internet child predators to a dank cell, Oklahoma’s reigning Miss America Lauren Nelson just earned a loyal grade-school fan base by appearing on the Jan. 17 broadcast of Fox’s hit game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” Hosted by Jeff Foxworthy, the show usually…
Doodlebops coming to town for two shows
One day, I had this weird dream. I was watching television and accidentally flipped to the Disney Channel. A rock band was playing, singing a song about getting on the bus. These weren’t your average long-haired, ripped-shirt musicians, either, but people ” I presume they were people ” with strangely hued skin and hallucinogenic patterned…
Inaugural awards show to honor local hip-hop
Local hip-hop promoter Clarence Conway, aka DJ Chakalatecity, decided something had to be done about hip-hop’s perceived lack of respect in the metro. So he has put together the OKC Mixtape Awards, a show aimed to direct the spotlight to hip-hop culture statewide. “It’s a battle within our state. Our state doesn’t want to grasp…
Disconnect’ DJ series benefits local charities
Need a good reason to hit a bar on a Tuesday night? Well, the Sidecar Cocktail Lounge has you covered with its monthly “Disconnect,” an event that raises money for a changing list of metro charities. The Sidecar partners with DJ collective The Iconoclast Crew, hoping that dance music + alcohol = charitable goodwill. The…
The X-Files: Volume One
alt=x-filesvol1.jpg src=”/Images/Imported/Book%20review%20thumbnails/x-filesvol1.jpg” width=100 border=0> Checker Publishing With all nine seasons of “The X-Files” newly available in one DVD set, it’s easy to remember what a cultural powerhouse the series was in the Nineties. Proof of that lies in the extension of the brand to other media, including comics. For roughly 40 issues, the paranormal investigations…
Oklahoma Children’s Theatre seeks to educate and entertain audiences
After 20 years with Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, its executive director, Lyn Adams, still speaks passionately about teaching and drama. Involved in theater since her childhood, she first used creative dramatics to teach rural elementary students in her native Australia. After coming to America, she landed at the University of Oklahoma, where she earned a bachelor’s…
Chris Walla – Field Manual
s Walla has recorded his own songs for half a decade as Martin Youth Auxiliary, and although the project stirred critical fanfare, the music was never distributed in any earnest. “Field Manual,” set for a Tuesday release, is his first widely distributed solo release. And while pretty, haunting and immaculate, the album isn’t likely…
Control
urtis, is brilliantly acted, scripted and filmed, and “? like Joy Division “? hard-to-swallow but perfect. R “?Joe Wertz Trailer
Sunshine
2007 For one of last year’s most criminally overlooked films, look! Up in the sky! It’s Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine,” now rising on DVD. Its shiny title belies the darkness of this thinking man’s science-fiction thriller, injected with a third-act horror show. Cillian Murphy (“Red Eye,” “Batman Begins”) leads a melting-pot cast of astronauts…
Digital print exhibit finds color in the mundane
y. Ray Payn “? an Oklahoma City native, who fled to California to teach at Pepperdine University and the University of California, Los Angeles “? is back in the metro as the featured artist in the “Eclectic Potpourri” show, currently on display in the Lobby Gallery at the Midwest City Library. PROCESSPayn takes street-level digital…
Flight of the Conchords – The Distant Future
Sub Pop With the New Zealand duo’s eponymous HBO series currently between seasons and its first wide-release full-length album set for April, fans of Flight of the Conchords’ unique brand of comedy pop can get their hunger pains sated by “The Distant Future” EP. It’s only six tracks long, but what six tracks! …
Museum exhibit captures turn-of-century Paris
In 1900, “L’Art nouveau” “? a form and style hailed to be the next great art movement “? was unveiled at the Paris Universal Exposition. “There was excitement at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the beginning of a new era,” said Hardy George, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s chief curator. “They…
In winter, activity at Chesapeake Boathouse bustles indoors
With winter here, what could possibly be happening at the Chesapeake Boathouse, the local venue for sculling, crew, kayaking and dragon boating? Oddly enough, the two-year-old facility at 725 S. Lincoln is a hub of activity ” just not on the icy cold water that runs alongside it. “It’s a full, year-round operation here. The…
Rose State celebrates 20 years of poetry readings
For a meter dash where the only running is that of the mouth, head to Rose State College for the 20th annual “Poetry at Rose” reading. Scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday in the campus’s H.B. Atkinson Theatre, 6420 S.E. 15th in Midwest City, the event doubles as an anniversary celebration, with current and former Rose…
Why weight?
If you live in Oklahoma City, you owe Mick Cornett two pounds. This isn’t a new MAPS tax in British currency. It’s more like a voluntary “FATS tax,” on behalf of the mayor’s “This City Is Going on a Diet” program, announced at the beginning of the year to make weight loss a consideration…
Hornets could return to OKC, where they belong
The way things are shaping up, the New Orleans Hornets could very well be back to the Ford Center in the not-too-distant future. And this time, it would be on a permanent basis. All we have to do is patiently wait and see how it all unfolds. A few months ago, it looked as if…
Conservative churchgoers torn on presidential primary choices
Super Tuesday is less than two weeks away, but Oklahoma Republicans, reflecting a national trend, are still divided over GOP candidates Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Mitt Romney. The rift in the Republican Party is being felt by Oklahoma evangelicals ” a voting bloc that, since President Ronald Reagan, has been almost uniform in its…
OCU and ‘The Great Debaters’
The year was 1931, and Oklahoma City University was about to make history in a way long forgotten ” until now. Wiley College of Marshall, Texas, a small black liberal arts college established by the United Methodist Church, was on its way to winning the 1935 national debate championship ” against the long odds of…
Wewoka artist becomes first portrait photographer in Capitol gallery
Jacklyn Patterson describes herself as a late bloomer. The Wewoka portrait photographer has won some of the industry’s highest honors, including earning a fellowship with the American Society of Photography, but didn’t get her first camera until the age of 38. Now after three decades of photography, she is the first portrait photographer to be…
Porter, Hudson resign their positions
Former Superintendent John Q. Porter and Oklahoma City Public Schools board Chairman Cliff Hudson both resigned today as part of a settlement agreement approved during a 4 p.m. special meeting. As part of the agreement, Porter will: Receive his regular salary, plus health insurance premiums up to $408 monthly, through June 30. Receive a…
Oklahoma jail official allegedly commits crime in Okfuskee cell
According to a recent story in The Oklahoman, a female jailer just got nabbed for doin’ the “wild thing” with an inmate in her custody. The story states that a 20-year-old former Okfuskee County jailer, Billie Lee Pelley, faces a “forcible sodomy” charge after the county jail’s in-house security cam caught her performing oral…
Thunderbirds: 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition
bsp; Spread out over 12 discs, the cult classic follows erstwhile astronaut Jeff Tracy and various members of his family as they operate as International Rescue, a team charged with saving kidnapped scientists, innocent citizens and sometimes the world, often because of sabotage from the villainous hood. Sets are colorful; the stories are not.…
Oklahoma City neighborhood hosts Clinton campaign officials
A strange sight took place in the Crown Heights neighborhood during the morning hours on a recent Thursday. One of Crown Heights’ more prominent residents is Democratic Party activist Mike Turpen and his wife, Susan. Along with being a good Democrat, Mike Turpen served the state as attorney general in the Eighties and ran…
Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
Astralwerks Since 2006’s “The Warning,” electro pop-rockers Hot Chip have been a hit among Euro-savvy hipsters yearning for a synthesizer-infused tribute to Kraftwerk and club music from across the pond. The English band’s newest album, “Made in the Dark,” slated for a Feb. 5 release stateside, is thick with growling synths, disco dance…
Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Brigade heads to Baghdad
As advance elements of the Oklahoma National Guard land in Kuwait this week, their mission will be to hand off Baghdad’s International Zone to full Iraqi control, said Brig. Gen. Myles Deering, commander of the unit. Deering said the 45th, known as the “Thunderbirds” after the American Indian symbol that represents it, will have to…
27 Dresses
Reviewer’s grade: B A star is born as Katherine Heigl, who had a successful co-starring turn in 2007’s “Knocked Up,” demonstrates that not only can she carry a picture, but can do so with one hand. She plays Jane, a woman who thinks she’s happiest when she’s serving as a bridesmaid “? which…
Presidential candidates may be more interested in Oklahomans’ money than votes
In less than two weeks, Oklahomans head to the polls to help decide the presidential nominees. But campaigning in the Sooner State may have ended weeks ago, and Oklahoma may have already played its role in the election process. While nearly every candidate with even microscopic national recognition made stops in Oklahoma during 2007, as…
Mad Money
Reviewer’s grade: C Bridget Cardigan (Diane Keaton) is a Kansas City housewife whose husband (Ted Danson) has lost his corporate fat-cat status to the realities of the marketplace. When she finds they must sell their ginormous house and live like the other, lowly 99 percent of humanity, Bridget gets a job cleaning up at…
Inexplicable
Police in Mount Lebanon, Pa., said in December that no illegal acts were involved, but some parents still want to know why the nondenominational Christian Mount Lebanon Young Life club had staged a teenagers’ social event during which boys wore adult diapers, bibs and bonnets and sat in girls’ laps while being spoon-fed. Said youth…
Evangelicals spread good word of new album
“I was attacked by dogs, weirdos were coming around, crazy shit was always happening,” he said. “No Internet, no TV ” that place was pretty depressing.” Work on that new album, “The Evening Descends,” is complete and the band will debut the album Thursday night at the Meacham Auditorium on the University of Oklahoma campus…
Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life – Steve Martin
Scribner In the late Seventies and early Eighties, one man with white hair and matching double-breasted suit dominated American pop culture. With an arrow through his head and a banjo strapped to his shoulder, Steve Martin went from entertaining hecklers in bars to being the first comedian to perform in concert arenas. In his autobiography,…
Son wants mom’s estate, even though it consists of the money awarded to it because he killed her
Joshua Hoge, a schizophrenic confined to Washington’s Western State Hospital, is claiming at least part of his late mother’s estate even though he’s the one who killed her in 1999. Washington law prevents profiting from the “unlawful” and “willful” taking of another’s life, but Hoge was found “not guilty by reason of insanity,” and the…
The Universe: The Complete Season One
2007 Never before have I wanted an HDTV so bad. The four-disc set of The History Channel’s “The Universe” contains images so astounding, they make you gasp and “ahhh” like a 9-year-old at the planetarium. What makes it even better is, unlike a copy of “Into the Blue,” the eye candy in…
Can’t Possibly Be True
Mr. Coll Bell, a New Zealander who invented a composting toilet supposedly superior to a septic system and who wanted permission from the Auckland Regional Council to install one at a campground, said an ARC bureaucrat had queried him on whether the worms he uses would be traumatized by the volume of work required in…
Rep. Cole faces task of re-gaining Republican control of Congress
Tom Cole is in his sixth year as a U.S. House member, representing Oklahoma’s 4th District. The Moore Republican serves on several influential committees, but his most important work for his party will be as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. It is Cole’s duty to recruit and help elect more Republicans to the…
Jan. 22, 2008
Without a shot; Camp McGregor, NM The “cha-chink!” of a pistol bolt being drawn and released is distinctive. It’s often used with menace in many a scene of a movie thriller. The bad guy is about to plug the hero, or a helpless victim. He has that thousand-yard stare, and draws back the slide…
