Voters need to know
The Citizens United earthquake caused a tsunami which took three months to hit Oklahoma City. The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber and International Association of Fire Fighters Local 157 did everything they could legally do to influence the City Council election. Many shocked and angry voters and politicians bemoaned the court’s decision, holding the U.S. Supreme…
Period of Adjustment / Tall Story
She plays Isabel, a nurse from Sweetwater, Texas, who impulsively quits her job because she’s just as impulsively married one of her patients, George (Jim Hutton), a Korean War vet with a serious case of the shakes. Their union is off to a less-than-stellar start; Isabel erupts in tears leaving the church because he’s driving…
Cult of personality
Bangstyle.com (note: not a website for comparing “Kama Sutra” techniques, as CFN was hoping) reported that Nick Logie and his cohorts in the Los Angeles band Telegram recently drove some 22 hours to deliver Coyne a birthday present direct to his Oklahoma City home. We’ll let Bangstyle (tee-hee) take over from here: “Instead of rejecting…
Smag 7: Super Bowl snacks
Dan McGuiness1003 S.W. 19th, Moore 703-3367 Satisfy everyone in the watch party with menu items from boiled shrimp to sausage and cheese trays. You can’t go wrong with the blackened chicken fingers with an extra crispy crust, which are dusted with a Cajun spice just before being cooked. Get $10 beer buckets while you enjoy…
Steady as he goes
It’s hard work writing songs with characters vivid enough to fit a movie script or a novel. Bespectacled rocker Craig Finn’s been doing it for a little less than a decade as the front man for The Hold Steady, Brooklyn’s beloved bar band. Although he’s recently taken a brief detour as a solo artist to…
Hooked on ’phonic
The Polyphonic Spree has always been ambitious. While the Dallas-based symphonic rock band isn’t as fond of the eccentricities and gimmicks of someone like our own Flaming Lips, more than a few similarities exist — most notably a total disregard for convention. Tim DeLaughter formed the group on the heels of the demise of Tripping…
Music Made Me: Nicholas Ley
The Zombies — “Odessey and Oracle” (1968)I remember the night my best friend and lifelong band member, Colin Fleishacker, brought me this record. I was at a party and he burst in, dragged me out to his car and made me listen to the first four or five tracks. We were recording vocal tracks at…
Shortt stuff
When he was a child, Carl Shortt Jr. remembers taking long trips with his family. His father would hand the camera off to him and his siblings, Mark and Linda, giving each a roll of film. Ever since, he has made it a point to snag photographs while traveling. “There’s always something to take a…
Va-va-voom
This is now a typical night in Bricktown, thanks to Dollhouse Lounge & Burlesque, 210 E. Sheridan. “The downtown area is the most thriving and growing area of Oklahoma City. It is a location convenient for tourists and locals,” said Marilyn Artus, Dollhouse public relations consultant, about choosing a Bricktown site for the nonsmoking club.…
On-pointe provisions
Performing arts and culinary creations come together Friday evening in a collaboration between Oklahoma City Ballet and Ludivine, a farm-to-table restaurant. Diners will have a chance to enjoy specially created fare, as well as talk to some of Oklahoma City Ballet’s dancers about their upcoming performance of “Firebird,” debuting Feb. 11. In an effort to…
Super party
Every kind of person is needed for this big ol’ world to go ’round. Whether that’s yelling at the TV because of pass interference or refilling the carefully selected party bowl with chips, every gathering has its setup. So, if you’re the party planner, where should you go to get sporty accouterment? Party Galaxy, if…
Bite Size: 2-1-12
House of fine diningThis Friday, enjoy Speakeasy 2012, the 39th annual Symphony Show House preview party, which offers a peek prior to the redesign by Central Oklahoma’s top designers. The 10,000-square-foot mansion is at 440 N.W. 15th, and will be stuffed full of live music and food from the city’s top chefs. Your $40 ticket…
Oscar-worthy wines
This year, “Top Chef” alumnus Marcel Vigneron partnered with Johndrow Vineyards, owned by Oklahoma City residents David and Maryann Johndrow, to provide food and wine for cast parties at Sundance. Vigneron — whose brand of molecular gastronomy has been featured on “Top Chef,” “Top Chef All-Stars” and “Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen” — used Johndrow Cabernet to…
Zorba’s Mediterranean Cuisine
What works: The food is back to pre-move quality. What needs work: Fitting me and three friends in a booth. I’m fat. Deal with it. Tips: Paella is only available on the weekends. But gyros, like diamonds, are forever. It’s time to forgive and forget, Oklahoma City. We were all angry with Zorba’s when they…
Restaurant, sweet restaurant
What is your OKC restaurant home? If you don’t have one, here are a few that won’t mind being considered for the honors. Junior’s 2601 Northwest Expressway 848-5597 Owner Jim Shumsky gets a daily adrenaline rush from his Junior’s that began in 1973. Some of the major oil deals were made at Junior’s in the…
Two Suns — Dream Familiar
While it might be tempting to write this enterprise off as another of many Radiohead tributes, the album’s far too nuanced and interesting to squarely categorize. After “Not the End”’s shoegazey, textured drumming and “Nostalgia”’s chiming Americana, “Dirty Industry” slurps and sizzles with guttural, low-end bass and synths that approach learned dubstep. Davidson’s songwriting isn’t…
Foreign fare
Make the Far East your first stop at Fung’s Kitchen, 3231 N. Classen Blvd., which serves seven days a week everything Chinese. Named for the Chinese city of Fung, this is a chance to try authentic items cooked fresh to order (note: no buffet here). They offer two menus: One caters more to typical American…
Alternate route
The MAPS 3 Citizens Advisory Board voted Jan. 26 to recommend the City Council approve purchase of the Santa Fe Train Depot to serve as a convergence for several modes of transportation in the city, including car, rail, bicycle and possibly bus. The city already set aside $10 million of the $127 million in MAPS…
CFN headline of the week
Olivia Munn Got Naked For PETA Again —Thesuperficial.com, Jan. 13
CFN Quote of the week
“They put on some kind of edgy movies on the public dime. I think they showed ‘Lolita’ a while back and ‘Annie Hall’ and some things that are certainly part of the cultural milieu over the last several generations, but things that, you know, if you actually tune in and watch them, some of the…
The way the cookie crumbles
As part of the effort, a contest offers $1,529 in a college savings account for the top-hawking scout. Competition should be pretty stiff; who can refuse a Girl Scout pedaling Samoas? Just think: Your stockpile of cookies could get a Brownie to Rice. The partnership also includes an online contest at ok4saving.org for folks to…
Ride ’em, cowboy
Tell it to Dr. Thomas Lyle Wilson, a veterinarian in Pennsylvania. On Jan. 19, he was in Tulsa entering a plea of “neigh” — er, make that “not guilty” — for allegedly having sex with a horse on Sept. 14, 2009, when he was a student at Oklahoma State University. He graduated with a doctorate…
CFN headline of the week
Olivia Munn Got Naked For PETA Again —Thesuperficial.com, Jan. 13
CFN Quote of the week
“They put on some kind of edgy movies on the public dime. I think they showed ‘Lolita’ a while back and ‘Annie Hall’ and some things that are certainly part of the cultural milieu over the last several generations, but things that, you know, if you actually tune in and watch them, some of the…
Full court press
In announcing his selection, Obama called Robert Bacharach, a U.S. magistrate judge in the Western District of Oklahoma, an “outstanding candidate” who will “serve the American people with integrity and distinction.” The 52-year-old Bacharach unanimously received a “well qualified” rating from the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, that panel’s highest ranking.…
Please don’t eat the babies
The modest proposal by state Sen. Ralph Shortey has predictably attracted national headlines from media outlets who haven’t been this eager to cover Oklahoma since voters here outlawed cockfighting. From the Washington Post to Howard Stern, folks have dusted off their “Soylent Green” references to ponder — and not without merit — just what prompted…
Help wanted
Angie Gaines, marketing director for the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, said the nonprofit sees as much as a 60 percent drop after the holidays. “During the holidays, people think of giving,” she said. “After the holidays are over, volunteers and volunteer hours drop.” Gaines said volunteers are critical to the work of the nonprofit,…
Fetal food
I had no idea! Aborted fetuses are being served to Oklahomans and all you are going to do about it, Mr. Shortey, is write a bill? As a concerned citizen, I call on the offices of Gov. Mary Fallin and Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb to immediately shut down all restaurants and grocery stores hawking food…
Counterpoint: Scrapping tax won’t help economy
In the last few months several legislators joined with the Governor’s Task Force on Economic Development to urge Oklahoma to gradually eliminate the state’s personal income tax over the next 10 years. Consequently, it would not be a surprise if legislators will be asked to vote on the idea. Unfortunately, the evidence indicates that eliminating…
School days
District 4 is located primarily in the inner north-central section of OKC, but stretches as far south as Capitol Hill Elementary School. The seat is being vacated by board member Steve Shafer. A second school board election in school OKCPS District 3, with incumbent Phil Horning running for re-election, is uncontested. Both elections are scheduled…
Point: Phase out state personal income tax
On Nov. 29, 2011, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and Dr. Art Laffer, an economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan, released the findings of a new research study. If Oklahoma were to phase out its income tax over a 10-year period without raising any other tax rates or burdens, Oklahoma would have the lowest…
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
Being Swedish, director Göran Olsson inherently carries an advantage over most American historians when it comes to documenting domestic cultural phenomena, such as the Black Power movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. Because who’s more objective than a foreign visitor? Olsson makes this point early on in “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975” when Swedish…
Craig Finn — Clear Heart Full Eyes
“Clear Heart Full Eyes” (yes, the title’s a play on the catchphrase from “Friday Night Lights,” of which Finn is admittedly an enormous fan) really seems to follow the groping, narcotized and promiscuous teenagers that characterize The Hold Steady’s discography, as it moves away, discovers integrity, grows up, and/or finds Jesus. It follows pretty logically…
Trust House Cheese
Throughout most of the 1970s and ’80s, Jim and Gloria Berkey, who owned the now-defunct store at the corner of N. May Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, sponsored movies on TV with “Trust House Theatre” every Sunday night. The husband-wife team appeared during commercial breaks to trumpet — in their decidedly enthusiasm-challenged tones — sparkly for-sale…
First Squad: The Moment of Truth
The alt-history animation centers on Division Six, a do-gooder group of mentally linked youths who use the gifts of astrology, clairvoyance and hypnosis against legendary sorcerer/black-arts practitioner Baron von Wolff and his wizard warriors. After having bloodily slaughtered a Russian village to smithereens, the Baron — aka the Angel of Death — is pursued by…
