City public school district given extra $1M gift
The Oklahoma City Public School District has received more than $1 million from the state Commissioners of the Land Office. The office distributed more than $24 million to Oklahoma school districts and higher-education institutions as a result of House Bill 3026, which allows the commissioners to distribute lease bonus money to school districts and colleges…
The Good, the Bad, the Weird
There’s truth in advertising, as the 2008 South Korean epic “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” is exactly that, in roughly equal measure. Written and directed by Ji-woon Kim (“A Tale of Two Sisters”), the ’40s-era Western begins aboard a train, where not one, not two, but three “? count ’em, three “? different factions…
Piranha / Humanoids from the Deep
<iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" style="width: 120px; height: 240px;" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=oklahgazet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B00317LM8S&fc1=000000&IS2=1 Although released separately, the two latest releases in the “Roger Corman’s Cult Classics” line make a great double feature: 1978’s “Piranha” and 1980’s “Humanoids from the Deep.” Both involve killer creatures in the water; both harken to the days of using rubber props and creative ingenuity to…
After.Life
As noted on its cover, suspense film “After.Life” asks, “How can you save yourself if you’re already dead?” It’s a good question, but the answer is less than electrifying, at least as presented by director/co-writer Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo. Grade school teacher Anna (Christina Ricci) doesn’t have the healthiest of relationships; she’s estranged from her crazy mother,…
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell Volume 3
Love him or hate him (I’m in the former camp), Will Ferrell is one of the all-time MVPs of NBC’s long-running comedy institution we lovingly abbreviate as “SNL.” Universal’s third “? count ’em, three! “? collection of the funny man’s skits come culled not just from his days as a cast member, but as a…
Ip Man
g Wing Chun to prominence (that’s the style of fighting preferred by Jet Li) and serving as a mentor/teacher to none other than Bruce Lee. Ip died in 1979. Director Yip Wai-Shun’s loosely based 2008 biopic portrays Ip’s role in the 1930s-era clash between Ip’s beloved China and the tyrannical armies of Japan. Donnie Yen…
Max Headroom: The Complete Series
Max Headroom the character was an icon of the 1980s, but “Max Headroom” the TV show was ahead of its time. Thematically, it still is, although it’s quite dated in terms of look and production value, as Shout! Factory’s complete series set reveals. Forever set “20 minutes into the future,” the show imagines a not-so-friendly…
Winter’s Bone
Despair and misery hang over every frame of “Winter’s Bone,” like the dried, twisted branches of the trees hovering o’er the Ozarks, where this unflinching drama is set. It’s perhaps the most frightening locale in recent cinematic memory. With all the overgrown foliage, yard junk and plucked banjos present from the first shot, you spend…
Midtown Renaissance to give away a year’s lease in competition
Midtown Renaissance will give away one year’s rent-free use of a 1,501-square-foot property at the Plaza Court Building, N.W. 10th Street and Walker Avenue. The competition is open to operating and proposed locally owned and operated businesses, and is designed to enhance the creative energy of the district. The free year is the first of…
Hot Tub Time Machine
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‘The Killer Inside Me’ returns to Oklahoma as an on-demand movie carried by an effectively sadistic Casey Affleck
In John Carpenter’s short film “Cigarette Burns,” a movie critic points out that we have an implied agreement with filmmakers: We will sit in the dark under their control, and they will remember that and not go too far. Director Michael Winterbottom (“A Mighty Heart”) has been accused of deal-breaking in “The Killer Inside Me”…
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work’ is an extraordinary, bittersweet documentary about comedy, career and insecurity
It would have been easy for the makers of “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” to take a by-the-numbers approach to their subject. Among the pioneers of edgy stand-up comedy ” she joked about “putting out” and abortions long before such topics became fodder for female comedians ” Rivers was instrumental in paving the way…
A standard story questioning the root of passions within a wealthy family is upgraded with quiet execution in ‘I Am Love’
As humans, we’re wired for order and chaos, discipline and disorder, reason and passion. This fundamental dichotomy is a major source of conflict in our lives and in the fictions we create. One permutation of this theme ” the individual caught between duty and desire ” has been retold a thousand times in a thousand…
FreeTulsa! takes spotlight from on-hiatus DFest
FreeTulsa! around Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main, Tulsa Two-day passes are $15 in advance, $20 door www.freetulsa.com With a national spotlight shining on the state ” thanks to performers like Cake, The Black Crowes and The Roots ” and a homegrown love born from tens of thousands of fans and hundreds of local musicians, Dfest…
Danny Trashville emerges from Pink to pawn his soul and pen a grim ode to outlaws and auto racing
Danny Trashville 9 p.m. Friday Charley’s Last Stand 4415 S.W. Third 946-4110 www.dannytrashville.com Free With a coarse growl and catalog chock-full of outlaw country that touches on hard-living, heavy-drinking, dangerous women and auto racing, Danny Trashville is emerging from Pottawatomie County’s small pond of Pink to make a splash in deeper waters across the region.…
South metro weirdos Psychotic Reaction break from reality to offer a ferocious, manic album for loyal fans of the odd-rock underground
Psychotic Reaction with The Kansas City Faggots 9 p.m. Friday Opolis 113 N. Crawford, Norman www.opolis.org 447-3417 $6 door, $8 under 21 What brought on the Psychotic Reaction? Was it a virus germinated in dank basements, dusty garages and dirty barns? A side effect of living among fanatical music-loving outcasts? Or perhaps a hereditary psychedelic…
On the road and “always free,” rock band Blacklist Royals mixes influences and makes friends
Blacklist Royals with Nothington 10 p.m. Monday The Hi-Lo Club 1221 N.W. 50th www.myspace.com/hiloclub 843-1722 $4 This time last year, Blacklist Royals found itself in the midst of turmoil within the ranks and without a keyboardist and guitarist. These days, the act is touting a completed lineup, promoting a new album and making a tour…
Metro folk-rock duo The Shining Lights stage a show at the UCO Jazz Lab, a creative hub of education
The Shining Lights with Matt Stansberry 8 p.m. Thursday UCO Jazz Lab 100 E. Fifth, Edmond www.ucojazzlab.com 359-7989 $7 Thursday will be a sort of homecoming for The Shining Lights, celebrating the release of their eight-song EP, “Taking the Hill,” at Edmond’s University of Central Oklahoma Jazz Lab. The album’s an adventurous blend of rock,…
The campaign reports for the four major gubernatorial candidates list both the big and the little buys by each
If you think advertising is all a candidate’s campaign piggy bank is used for, then you don’t know anything about campaigning. Being seen on television is certainly important, but if money is short for bumper stickers or the cell phone bill, a candidate might as well drop out of the race. Campaigning for governor is…
Thousands of documents are headed to the Vatican in an attempt to make the Rev. Stanley Rother Oklahoma’s first saint
As hymns resonated last week inside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City, Father Don Wolf of Shawnee kept thinking about the Rev. Stanley Rother’s funeral nearly three decades before. Wolf, Rother’s second cousin, said he experienced a resurgence of feelings that reinforced the slain priest’s ultimate sacrifice while attending a…
A national report on childhood well-being does not paint a favorable portrait of Oklahoma
Oklahoma ranks 44th in the nation in child well-being, according to a report. Since 1990, The Annie E. Casey Foundation has released its annual “Kids Count Data Book,” which tracks 10 measures of childhood well-being, and the newest results aren’t rosy for the Sooner State. In fact, Oklahoma comes in 40th or worse in five…
The 40-Year-Old Coffee Virgin
Until recently, in my almost four decades of existence, the only bean to pass these lips was jellied. The only joe in my life was the guy who works across the hall. The only jitters I got were if my basement office was too cold in the dead of winter. No lie! I am That…
Kids mingle with elves, fairies, and animated flowers at Fairy Ball
Fairy Ball 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday N. Dewey Avenue and N.W. 28th Street 525-2688, www.thepaseo.com Enchanted garden creatures, including elves, fairies and animated bugs and flowers, will mingle and make-believe this weekend in the Paseo. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, the annual Fairy Ball is a dress-up and art event for kids that…
The rise of the reasonable majority
For 30 years, Americans have watched ” or supported ” a march toward larger military budgets, deregulation of banking and finance, support for global trade and the exodus of tens of millions of American jobs to poor countries, relaxing of corporate responsibility to the environment and workers, tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts…
The Boathouse District along the Oklahoma River continues to develop
Life happens quickly on the Oklahoma River. With about three months until the completion of the Devon Boathouse in October, the Boathouse District got vertical last week as the first pieces of Chesapeake’s Finish Line Tower went skyward. The tower, which was designed by Elliott + Associates Architects, was built in honor of Chesapeake Energy’s…
An Edmond-based religious nonprofit caught the attention of a national organization for the separation of church and state
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has formally requested that the Internal Revenue Service investigate the Edmond-based Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ. According to AU spokesperson Rob Boston, Reclaiming Oklahoma, a nonprofit organization based at Fairview Baptist Church, violated federal law when it promoted a rally for Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, on June…
U.S. at a crossroads
It seems that the United States is at a crossroads of history. Spineless men and women prefer “O’ma ma” care these days, as they can’t, or won’t, stand on their own two feet and take responsibility for themselves. Instead, they want to hide under “O’ma ma’s” skirts. They prefer “womb to tomb” care, but will…
‘Do us the favor’
In his letter (“Propping up a weak argument,” July 21, Oklahoma Gazette), Richard Hicks plays with math for three-fourths of his essay to paint Kurt Hochenauer’s desire for increased education funding (Commentary “At what price?” July 7) as silly. He then pines for rational and informed public discourse. In the rational and informed final fourth…
Under-outer wear
Don’t have a spare ski mask or nylons hanging around when you’ve got a little late-night burgling on your mind? Why not try undies? Yes, that’s Chicken Fried News’ tip of the day: Always wear clean underwear in case you end up burglarizing a fast-food restaurant. That’s what an intrepid suspect did when she allegedly…
Get through sultry summer days with these recommended reads
Oklahomans thirsty for entertainment this summer are diving into hot reads from the metro’s indie booksellers. The hottest? At Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, and Best of Books, 1313 E. Danforth in Edmond, the most requested read of the summer is reads, plural: Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy.” According to Dana Meister, event coordinator at…
The state Capitol, more than just the Legislature’s home, is a dynamic museum of architecture and art
You don’t have to like politics to appreciate the art and architecture that graces our state Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln. Completed in 1917 at a cost of about $1.5 million, the stately limestone and granite statehouse was designed by principal architect Solomon Layton. Materials from each of Oklahoma’s 77 counties were used in constructing the…
The thrills and spills of rodeo photography are on display at Western Heritage Museum
“Flying High and Crash Landing: Bull Wrecks in Rodeo” National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 1700 N.E. 63rd Through Jan. 10, 2011 $12.50 for adults, $9.75 for seniors and students, $5.75 for children ages 4 to 12, free for children 3 and under 478-2250, www.nationalcowboymuseum.org When it happens, it’s nearly impossible to look away. Whether…
Commentary: Share the road
Most readers know that I’ve been fairly insistent in recent commentaries that Oklahoma City continue our upward momentum by investing in quality of life infrastructure. That insistence has now turned to advocacy following the recent deaths of two Oklahoma City bicyclists on metro streets. Alan Spencer and Clyde Riggs were struck and killed by motorists…
Stand-up dandy Paul F. Tompkins headlines City Arts Center with a slick, sophisticated set
Paul F. Tompkins with Spencer Hicks 7 p.m. Saturday City Arts Center 3000 General Pershing www.okccomedy.com 866-966-1777 $22 advance, $25 door With a thick coif of hair and a gap-toothed grin, stand-up Paul F. Tompkins stands out from the rest of the comedy crowd. His formal attire only helps. “I came up with the idea…
Elusive reform
What will it take to change the prevailing political mentality in Oklahoma when it comes to prison incarceration? In a recent media report, Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones called the current prison situation a “crisis” because of the disparity between the high number of inmates and low number of corrections staff, which has…
In your Face
You talk, we listen! Here’s what readers said on some of last week’s Oklahoma Gazette stories, via unedited comments left on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/okgazette: On the campaign contribution reports filed by gubernatorial nominees: “”Oh wow, an article from the Gazette that wouldn’t fail a 4th grade English class. Did you decide that after…
Interstate high-speed rail a favorable option
I thought that Gov. Brad Henry’s call to look at nuclear power again was great (Carol Cole-Frowe, “Mixed green,” Gazette, July 14). There seems to be a favorable reception to that model of interstate high-speed rail operation which I call ICEPack. The marketing director for a major prime contractor was very favorable and suggested that…
Norman mayor and professor present talk on book chronicling House Speaker Pelosi’s ascent
Norman Mayor Cindy Rosenthal and Professor Ron Peters “Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American Politics” 2 p.m. Sunday Norman Public Library, 225 N. Webster 701-2679, www.pioneer.lib.ok.us/norman House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is known for her liberal politics on legislative items like health care reform (and her rapid eye-blinking). On Sunday, two University of Oklahoma…
Spellbound
You may have had your favorite primary choice for Oklahoma’s next governor, but the “Check Spelling” feature on layout software Adobe InDesign didn’t like any of them. Here now, some unfortunate replacement words it suggested for the last names of the top contenders from both parties: “Jari Askins: Stains, Sickens and Skims “Randy Brogdon: Brooding,…
Young Producers sing, dance, act and direct their way through Sooner Theatre’s ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie,’ a thoroughly technical, Tony Award-winning musical
Thoroughly Modern Millie 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Friday-Sunday Sooner Theatre 101 E. Main, Norman www.soonertheatre.org 321-9600 $10 adults, $5 kids 12 and under A lot of work goes into staging a musical. Over the last month, the cast and crew of “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” all ages 13-18, have been getting hands-on experience in that…
‘Social discourse’
On the July 13 episode of the “Oklahoma News Report,” the president of Sooner Tea Party, Al Gerhart, when responding to the NAACP’s charges of racism asked the question “Whatever happened to social discourse?” Here’s what has happened to our discourse: Let’s put aside the racism that is obvious from not only the “fringe participants”…
‘A real blow’
Last week, Judge Noma Gurich issued a temporary injunction blocking the enforcement of House Bill 2780, which would force a vaginal ultrasound on most women seeking abortion services so that they can be better educated and make a more informed decision. This is a real blow for Oklahoma women. We should embrace this new…
Historical perspective
I read Adam Kemp’s article (“Crime time”) in the June 9 Gazette on the Oklahoma Outlaws Lawmen History Association Rendezvous and Herman Kirkwood and really appreciated seeing it. Keep up the good work and thanks for running the feature. I would like to see more historical material on Oklahoma outlaws and lawmen. “Al Ritter Ponca…
PR BS
Lots of press releases related to the Sooner State cross our desk. This week, these titles least screamed “Stop the presses!” “”Inflammation is Essential to Your Body’s Immune System” “”Penn Square Mall Announces New Director of Security” “”You…Only Butter! Midwest Dairy Association Brings a Popular State Fair Tradition to You Online” “”TMK IPSCO Announces the…
Buggin’
From CFN’s “ewwww, icky!” files comes this super-hygienic story courtesy of Tulsa’s NewsOn6.com: Health officials in Oklahoma reported a rise in the incidents of motel and hotel bedbug infestations. Ewwww, icky! The head-scratching, body-itching problem apparently comes from those dirty coasters who unknowingly bring their buggy friends when they visit the Sooner State. “The transfer…
The Girl by the Lake
If only you try, there are a number of solid, recent crime films from foreign countries waiting to be discovered and devoured, from Sweden’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and its sequels to Australia’s “Beautiful” and “The Square.” Add Italy’s “The Girl By the Lake” to that list. Based on a Karin Fossum novel,…
