Undignified Deaths
A 54-year-old man was killed while running to catch his bus in Greater Manchester, England, in May; he accidentally ran smack into a lamppost and fell into the street, where the bus ran over him. Police in Los Angeles said in May that they believe a 21-year-old man deliberately parked his car on railroad tracks,…
Update
The escalating value of the late Italian artist Piero Manzoni’s canned feces was chronicled in News of the Weird in 1993, 1998, 2002 and 2004, but now in June 2007 his former colleague Agostino Bonalumi told a reporter that the project had been a hoax and that Manzoni had merely filled the cans with plaster.…
Fetishes on Parade
Police in Guelph, Ontario, were on the lookout in May for the man they thought responsible for three incidents in which someone approached a woman and asked that she kick him in the groin. A police spokesman said no crime had been committed, but that they are “concerned.” In New York City in June, Frank…
Least Competent Criminals
In May, the inept Christopher Emmorey, 23, was sentenced to two years in prison for robbing a Peterborough, Ontario, bank, from which he had intended to take $2,000. However, the teller said she could only give him $200 and also must take out a $5 fee because Emmorey is not a regular customer. Emmorey stood…
Latest Religious Messages
In May, “more than 300 people” in Augusta, Ga. (according to the Augusta Chronicle), assembled at the Municipal Building explicitly to pray for the city, following weeks-long controversies on the city commission. In June, “more than 300 people” in Destin, Fla. (according to the Northwest Florida Daily News), assembled at the Destin Worship Center and…
Henry requests flood assistance
Gov. Brad Henry announced today he has requested federal disaster assistance for 17 counties including Oklahoma County. The financial assistance would help state and local governments pay for flood-damaged roads, bridges and other infrastructure. Henry is asking the federal government to declare disaster areas for 17 counties: Bryan Comanche Cotton Custer Hughes Jefferson Kiowa…
Fine Points of the Law
Thomas Wimberly, 74, was arrested in July 2006 for stealing two hot dogs (value: $2.11, including tax) from a Quik Trip convenience store in Wichita, Kan. (though he said he had merely forgotten to pay). Because it was Wimberly’s third misdemeanor theft charge, Kansas law required that the count be upgraded to a felony. Wimberly…
Crime Waves
In May, a woman in Jacksonville, Ill., reported the theft of a bong from her house; she told police that she valued it because it belonged to her son, who is in prison, and it is all she had to remember him by. The sheriff’s office in Clyman, Wis., reported that a man called 911…
Governor names State Poet Laureate
A Pulitzer Prize winner and Lawton native was named Oklahoma Centennial State Poet Laureate today. Celebrated author, playwright and artist N. Scott Momaday, 73, who earned the Pulitzer in 1969 for his first novel “The House Made Of Dawn,” was appointed by Gov. Brad Henry at a state Capitol ceremony. “In this year…
Boren: OU will begin appeals process
Within hours of the National Collegiate Athletic Association teleconference regarding the University of Oklahoma football teams’ penalties, OU President David L. Boren and football coach Bob Stoops released a statement indicating OU would appeal part of the decision. The NCAA announced earlier in the day the OU football team would vacate eight wins during…
The Chemical Brothers – We Are the Night
eets-“Miami Vice” background synthesizers layered behind piercing keyboard sweeps. Like a swarm of digital bees, “We Are the Night” scurries into your speakers and fades into a house party already in session. The single “Do It Again,” which already has a video making the rounds, is the second most fun song on the CD,…
Arlo Guthrie recalls growing up as Woody’s son
Arlo Guthrie, son of legendary Oklahoman folksinger and songwriter Woody Guthrie, will take the stage Saturday at the 10th annual Woody Guthrie Festival in Okemah, his father’s hometown. Dozens of singers, songwriters and performers are scheduled to play the event, which starts Wednesday and ends Sunday. “He wrote about 3,500 songs that we have,” Guthrie…
Color war!
Issues of affirmative action and racial integration are again in the public eye. The recent Supreme Court decision in Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education and also a Seattle case are lauded as progress toward a race-neutral society and decried as overturning Brown v. the Board of Education. Closer to home, in Oklahoma, expect…
Bridge to Terabithia
2007 So much for truth in advertising. When Disney released “Bridge to Terabithia” in theaters earlier this year, its marketing campaign made the flick look like a “Narnia”-styled fantasy. The initiated knew better. Based on the 1977 young adult novel by Katherine Paterson, “Bridge to Terabithia” is only partially about fantasy. The story follows…
OKC Zoo bowling fund-raiser to aid rhinos
Even gutter balls score this weekend with the Oklahoma City Zoo at the 14th annual Bowling for Rhinos fund-raiser. Whether pro or amateur, bowlers young and old can have a blast while helping to save endangered rhinos. Teams can play at 2 or 7 p.m. Saturday at Heritage Lanes Bowling Alley, 11917 N. Penn. At…
Various artists – Anchored in Love: A Tribute to June Carter Cash
target=’_blank’>best takes on the record, as is, surprisingly, actor Billy Bob Thornton’s rendition of “Road to Kaintuck” with The Peasall Sisters. This is an honest and sometimes funny take on a country music songwriting phenomenon. “?Joe Wertz
Mixed-media exhibit makes its way back to IAO
The Individual Artists of Oklahoma’s “IAO 24 Works on Paper” has traveled across the state showing contemporary pieces in a variety of media, and now is back home for its final exhibition, showing through July 27. Twenty-four pieces by 16 Oklahoma artists were juried for the show, exhibiting a range of subject matter in paintings,…
Sound the Alarm – Stay Inside
Geffen According to the band’s official Web site biography, Sound the Alarm formed when the members were only 12 years old, which was only a year ago, by the looks of the photo on the back of the band’s release. The band was discovered by Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson, who was responsible partially…
Cyrano’ marks departure for Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park
In the late 19th century, when Edmond Rostand penned “Cyrano de Bergerac,” France was looking back with longing to a golden age it felt was lost. The 1600s had been a time of genteel ladies and loyal musketeers who could wield a sword and poetic words with equal panache. That romantic era produces Cyrano, a…
Suspense: The Lost Episodes
1949-1953 / 2007 Cue the spooky organ music! Infinity Entertainment is releasing a four-disc, 20-episode set of “Suspense,” a live CBS television show that’s all but forgotten today, despite running for several years in the Forties and Fifties. Having originated from the radio show of the same name, “Suspense” presented a new half-hour mystery…
Old Douglass High site may undergo historical preservation
Today, the former Frederick Douglass High School building is overgrown with wildflowers, weeds and scrubby trees. A jumble of broken concrete marks the front entrance. But, having served as the segregated high school for the city’s black students from 1934 to 1955, the site was a “hub” of education and culture for the black community,…
Great Art!
University of Western Australia artists Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr blend art with science, extracting living cells from animals and growing them on top of biodegradable scaffolds so that when the scaffolds disappear, a living entity remains, in the shape of the scaffold. At the Israeli Center for Digital Art in Holon, Israel, in April,…
Government in Action!
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network activists told reporters in June that at least 59 U.S.-trained Arabic speakers have been ejected from the military because they’re gay (and in each case despite being a native English-speaker who completed intense, expensive military language school). But a month before that, as symbolic of the government’s shortage of Arabic speakers,…
AOL and states settle
Oklahoma and 47 other states reached an agreement with Internet provider AOL concerning canceled paid subscriptions, according to a statement from the Oklahoma attorney general’s office released Wednesday. The states’ attorneys general alleged AOL was intentionally making it difficult for customers to cancel their service by requiring all cancellations be made by phone. The…
Sicko
Reviewer’s grade: A Dat ol’ devil Michael Moore is back with another quasi-documentary about what he sees as in ill in American society: our health-care system. Is it broken? He makes a good case for a “yes” answer, but as always with Moore, the movie is more propaganda than objective. But so what? You…
Poison always has good time in OKC, says Bret Michaels
If you want to chat with Poison front man Bret Michaels before Saturday’s show at the Zoo Amphitheatre, you are gonna have to catch him. Whenever the band comes to Oklahoma City to play, Michaels likes to spend time before the show unwinding by riding his mountain bike from the venue to Remington Park. “Sometimes…
Drag boats to compete at Bricktown Nationals
Friday through Sunday at the Oklahoma River in Bricktown, for the 2007 Ozarka Bricktown Nationals drag boat racing competition will feature boats from all across the United States and Canada in 11 different classes, from personal watercraft to 250-mph top-fuel hydroplanes. “It’s probably the largest motor sports event in the state of Oklahoma,” said Glenn…
Herd is the word
Edmond says it has an underage drinking problem, and so does Yukon and Enid. Soon we will be told we have a problem throughout the state and folks will be asking our legislators to write a statewide social host law ” a law that will punish anyone older than 21 who permits younger folks to…
License to Wed
watching “License to Wed” is that director Ken Kwapis has significant television credits “? “The Office,” “The Bernie Mac Show,” “Malcolm in the Middle” “? and only minimal film experience “? “The Beautician and the Beast” and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” are best-known. Bringing the worst of both sitcoms and bad films to…
Democracy!
In May, a jury in Weld County, Colo., declined to hold Kathleen Ensz accountable for leaving a flier containing her dog’s droppings on the doorstep of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, apparently agreeing with Ensz that she was merely exercising free speech. Jenny Bailey was elected mayor in Cambridge, England, in May, and her companion-partner Jennifer…
Karaoke king doesn’t let being bipolar keep him from performing
Many people only know it as a title to a Nirvana song, but lithium is a hell of a drug, usually used to treat mental disorders. Matt Jones, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, said although he’s no longer on the prescription, he doesn’t let bipolar get in the way of his art. In…
Transformers
Reviewer’s grade: B- Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is an awkward, unpopular teenager. However, after buying an old Chevrolet Camaro that can turn into a robot several times larger than a car, Sam’s fortunes experience a dramatic reversal as he is forced to save the world from a power-hungry robot named Megatron. In the process,…
Masters of Horror: The Black Cat
2007 With director Stuart Gordon, writer Dennis Paoli, star Jeffrey Combs and a heapin’ helping of gore all present and accounted for, “The Black Cat” serves as a “Re-Animator” reunion. Like that film, which found life in the work of H.P. Lovecraft, this second-season episode of “Masters of Horror” also is based on a…
Lost live Woody Guthrie recording unearthed
A previously unheard live recording of folk legend and Oklahoma native Woody Guthrie will be released this fall, according to The Woody Guthrie Foundation’s Web site. The 1949 concert was recorded at Fuld Hall in Newark, N.J., and will be released on Sept. 6 with a 72-page accompanying booklet. The 75-minute concert features Guthrie and his…
Oklahoma veteran recalls his World War I service
At 106, Frank Buckles is the youngest of three known survivors left of the 4.7 million who enlisted in the Great War ” World War I ” to make the world “safe for democracy,” according to The Associated Press. And he might not have made it in if it weren’t for a not-too-choosy recruiter…
DJs celebrate Friday the 13th with records, blood
Friday’s third annual Disco Bloodbath at The Conservatory is not your parents’ shindig from the Seventies, but a costume party with several different DJs providing tunes to a crowd displaying fake blood on their clothing and skin. Austin Greene, promoter for J.A.R. Productions, said the idea for the first Disco Bloodbath came when he and…
Minnesota couple takes legal action against Tulsa DirecTV call center
Either the DirecTV call center in Tulsa needs better telephone lines, or the intensive customer service training at the center is getting too intense. According to a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a husband and wife in Savage, Minn., are suing after an incident last fall when having satellite television installed in their…
NY writer enjoys Oklahoma City’s Vietnamese cuisine
New York Times travel section contributor Matt Gross’ description of country café veggies (“iceberg salads with toupees of flavorless yellow cheese” ” oh, yum!) might be what the rest of the world considers typical Okie options of the vegetable variety, but Gross dug deeper: In his July 4 “Frugal Traveler” NYT column, he road tripped…
Softball world cup comes to Oklahoma City
On the eve of the 2007 World Cup, which runs Thursday to Monday at the Don E. Porter ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, Team USA enters the competition as the team to beat. More than 26,000 fans attended the 2006 World Cup, which helped bring an estimated $1.2 million into the Oklahoma City economy. ESPN…
New state higher ed chancellor wants to ensure collegians succeed
As the recently appointed chief executive officer for the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education, Chancellor Glen D. Johnson believes his past has prepared him for his new position. Previously, he served as:” president of Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant,” director of public policy and professor at the University of Oklahoma’s College of Law,…
NCAA: OU guilty of failure to monitor football players
The National Collegiate Athletic Association announced during an afternoon teleconference that it found the University of Oklahoma football team guilty of both charges related to the Rhett Bomar-J.D. Quinn case. The first charge was that three student athletes, two of whom were scholarship recipients (Bomar and Quinn), received payment for work not performed at…
