Captain America: Collector’s Edition
As you know by now, it didn’t. If you managed not to catch it in its long-delayed VHS debut in 1993 — or the burn-on-demand DVD released in 2011 just to piggyback off the big-budget, blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger — now you can see it the best it’s ever been and likely ever…
Dark Circles
Coming out under the After Dark Originals label, Soter’s Dark Circles warns viewers against having children and moving into a new home. When a jazz musician (Johnathon Schaech, Quarantine) and his wife (the luminous Pell James, The Lincoln Lawyer) do both, bad things happen. Things like:• seeing visions of an undead woman and her bloody…
Still stealing land
However, this expansion project symbolizes that we are at a standstill, stuck in our habits and ways. Regarding jobs, it is debatable whether the KXL Pipeline will create any lasting jobs. Cornell University has reported that it could destroy more jobs than it creates in the long-term. Regarding energy independence, this pipeline serves to export…
The last laugh
Suffice it say that I had a good laugh over that one. —Jon Parker, Oklahoma City
The reality behind ‘teen pregnancy’
In the case of the middle-schoolers the article discusses, fathers in births to girls age 15 and younger are far more likely to be over age 21 than under age 16. Several studies have found girls who had sex at 15 or younger were very likely to have been raped, usually by a substantially older…
Die! Die! My Darling!
Directed by Silvio Narizzano (Georgy Girl) from a clever script by the ever-reliable Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), Die! Die! My Darling! is now available on DVD through the manufactured-on-demand Sony Pictures Choice Collection. In her final feature role, the Lifeboat buoy Bankhead anchors the film as Mrs. Trefoil, whose son was engaged to married…
Parker
Based on Parker novel No. 19, Flashfire, the film puts Expendables team member Jason Statham in a role previously played by, among others, Mel Gibson in Payback, Robert Duvall in The Outfit and even Jim Brown in The Split. Parker is a criminal, but the “good” kind: He doesn’t steal from those who can’t afford…
OKG7 new places to pick
Packard’s New American201 N.W. 10thpackardsokc.com605-3771 Delicious food and a beautiful view are what you’ll experience at Packard’s. This new concept churns out down-home food with a gourmet twist. Tackle the rustic kale, a salad with roasted beets and lotus root; or the hand-cut pappardelle carbonara, prepared with its house-smoked bacon. Shawarma Vite1129 E. Elm, Normanshawarmavite.com569-0879…
Positively posh
By: Mark Hancock The first clue you’re entering a ritzy establishment is the high-dollar iron parked in Legend’s lot. Spotted when I went were a sleek Mercedes-Benz, new Cadillac and late-model Corvette. The tables in this iconic Norman restaurant are small and seating a tad cramped, but relatively comfortable overall. Fresh flowers graced a baby…
Get crafty
Some 50 brewers will pour samples of more than 200 beers Saturday at the third annual Oklahoma Craft Beer Festival. Sponsored by TapWerks and the Oklahoma Craft Brewers Guild, the outdoor event will be at TapWerks, 121 E. Sheridan, and feature food and live music. At least two Oklahoma breweries will offer new or limited-edition…
Get on the bus
Saturday’s Beautification Station 2013 is a chance to sit back and take a leisurely cruise through nine of Oklahoma City’s oldest and best-loved neighborhoods. “We have some beautiful neighborhoods we will be visiting,” said Jennifer Meckling, Neighborhood Alliance programs coordinator. “The tour will give attendees a chance to hear from residents in these areas about…
Explore the Mediterranean
Future site of Istanbul By: Mark Hancock Diners soon will have more metro Mediterranean options. Rashid Ayare and Mehmet Karyaldiz, owners of Couscous Cafe, 6165 N. May, will open Istanbul near the end of June. The Turkish-cuisine restaurant will be in the former Taste of Egypt location at 3604 N. May. Istanbul will fill a…
‘Great’ looks
Jenn ScottBy: Mark Hancock Directed by Moulin Rouge’s Baz Luhrmann, the brand-new film version of the literary classic has an all-star cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Isla Fisher. Its soundtrack boasts Jay- Z, Beyonce, Florence + the Machine and The xx. I have to say, I think Fitzgerald would be quite…
Brain gain
Jonathan Wren Rheal Towner, who oversees the MRI center, and Jonathan Wren, a computer scientist, have studied and tested genes that can serve as mapping tools to help doctors in the removal of brain tumors and, eventually, in sending drugs directly to the tumors. Towner and Wren, whose mother died of brain cancer when he…
LETTERS
Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@ okgazette.com or sent online at okgazette.com, but include a city of residence and contact…
Street smarts
Skyline Ink Organized as a way to inform, educate and clear up misconceptions about the MAPS 3-funded project, city officials and their paid consultants delivered a bevy of facts and figures that centered on previous studies, future construction and success stories from other cities. Mike McAnelly, senior planner and project manager for Jacobs Engineering Group,…
College shouldn’t be never-ending
Today, more and more kids think college should take five or six years. Why? If you plan it right, get the core courses out of the way in the first two years, identify a major so you know what you’ll need to graduate, it will take about the same number of classes and hours to…
LETTERS
Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@ okgazette.com or sent online at okgazette.com, but include a city of residence and contact…
Lofty goal
Carnegie Centre Credit: Mark Hancock Many years later, Hatfield is working to redevelop the old downtown Oklahoma City library, which was abandoned in favor of a newer model in 2004. Her project, which began five years ago, aims to transform the 59-year-old library into the Carnegie Centre, a collection of 19 upscale residential lofts. Oklahoma…
Childrens Hospital: The Complete Fourth Season
The good news is that it’s as hilarious as it’s ever been. The bad news is that its title still lacks the necessary apostrophe. (Perhaps that’s only bad news if you’re a writer/editor.) How does it stay fresh and funny? By not adhering to any pesky distractions like “story arcs” and “character development.” Each episode…
The Aquabats! Super Show! Season One! 2012
A surf-rock band I recall running across in the mid-1990s, The Aquabats have been reborn as superheroes in these utterly insane adventures, drawing more influence from ’70s-era Asian monster matinees à la Infra-Man than anything else. In each half-hour, our costumed quintet fights some rubber-suited creature (Manant and the Floating Eye of Death among them),…
The Bletchley Circle
When the meekest of them (Anna Maxwell Martin) notices a pattern in a string of Jack the Ripper-esque slayings plaguing back together, so to speak. London, she gets the band back together, so to speak. If they couldn’t tell anyone about their wartime efforts, they certainly can’t tell anyone now; after all, what could housewives…
Various artists — Never Give Up: Celebrating 10 Years of The Postal Service
With the 10th anniversary of Give Up — being celebrated with a re-release, festival headlining gigs and the first tour in nearly a decade, The Postal Service is right back at the forefront of indie music, so there’s no better time to pay tribute. Music blog Independent Clauses wrangled 22 different artists wanting to do…
Blancanieves
Once upon a time, the idea of a film being silent, foreign and — steee-rike three! — black and white equated to box-office poison. Then 2011’s The Artist won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture; earned $133 million worldwide; and lived happily ever after. Hoping for the same storybook ending is Spain’s Blancanieves. While every…
God bless metal
On Saturday, the Becoming the Archetype that steps onto The Conservatory stage on Saturday won’t resemble the one that first did so back in 1999. The last founding member left in 2011, making songwriter/guitarist/singer Seth Hecox the most tenured member, having joined in 2004. The Atlanta act looks to have eternal life, regardless. “Perseverance is…
Here for the party
A lot of singers are more than happy to release an album every two years, maybe once a year if they’re especially fastidious. But for Gretchen Wilson, that’s not good enough. This year alone, she’s releasing three (her latest, Right on Time, dropped April 2) while embarking on a tour. This, mind you, is all…
Bright stripes
The Grizzlies aren’t the only Memphians laying tracks in Oklahoma City this summer. Garage rock’s Tiger High — the name being a nod to the city’s university — brings Memphis along everywhere it goes, including Monday’s stop at Kamps 1310 Lounge. “[Memphis] is a huge influence on us,” said drummer Greg Roberson. “There have been…
Reverb brotherhood
The Fortune Tellers: Miho Kolliopoulos, Basile Kolliopoulos, Victor Goetz and Mike Newberry For many years, if you were to peruse Oklahoma Gazette’s event listings, chances are you’d see mention of at least one show that week in which Basile Kolliopoulos would be playing guitar, at now-closed metro venues like The Samurai, The Bowery and Liberty…
Attempting a reversal
Chad Smith, John Smith, Wayne Wells, Lee Roy Smith & Danny Hodge Credit: Mark Hancock While the U.S. has been at political odds with a number of these countries, wrestling has brought together representatives from across the world for a common goal: reinstating the sport as an Olympic event for the 2020 Summer Games.Two-time Olympic…
Running for Chris
See Spot Run He was an avid athlete who excelled at wrestling. In fact, nearly everything Chris Cowden did was fitness-related. He loved to lift weights, snowboard, run — anything that involved pushing himself to be his best. Chris was one of those rare, charismatic people who made everyone feel as if they were his…
Walk for Williams
Peyton Franklin The Oklahoma City chapter of the Williams Syndrome Association will hold a 5K run/walk Saturday to raise awareness and funds for people with the disorder. The event will be held at Stars and Stripes Park at Lake Hefner. A genetic condition that affects the heart, growth and learning abilities, Williams syndrome is present…
‘Poodle’ power
It prompted her to start thinking about ways to inspire good behavior. As a result, she looked to her real-life dog, Diana Rossi, for inspiration. “‘Let’s get her paw print of approval,’” Savage recalled telling the children. “I had a paw print [stamp in my desk] and stamped their little hands that night.” That evening,…
Life of Pie
Leslie Coale-Mossman By: Mark Hancock Owners Leslie Coale-Mossman and Darcy Schein were stay-at-home moms who met when their oldest kids were in a Mother’s Day Out together. Their husbands traveled frequently, so the two started sharing dinners. “At some point,” Coale-Mossman said, “I think we decided to see who had a better recipe for pie.”…
Puttin’ on the Ritts
Madonna — True Blue Profile (Hollywood, 1986) Photo: Herb Ritts Foundation Herb Ritts was a celebrity photographer in both senses of the term: a photographer of celebrities and, rarer still, a photographer who became a celebrity. His status was built upon his shots of fashion models and entertainment icons in stark black and white —…
That’s kick-bass!
Credit: Brad Gregg We speak of the Sooner State’s showing on Bassmaster magazine’s second annual ranking of the 100 Best Bass Lakes in America. The results were announced (with baited breath?) late last month. Landing at the top was some lake in Texas, but who cares, because this is Okie territory we’re talking about. Our…
Lips ‘lust’
Credit: Brad Gregg The very NSFW footage features two individuals — a man and a woman — naked in a sea of white, lying on the floor and strapped to these weird, electroshock gizmos. Meanwhile, three women (also nekkid) conduct experiments on the two as frogs and monkeys hop around the place. Much to the…
Zam-boneheaded
Credit: Brad Gregg Let’s be honest: After a few cocktails, the urge to drive that thing strikes deep. On May 4, that impulse might have just been too much for Spencer Holt. He was arrested and charged with destruction of property and public drunkenness after allegedly acting on an alcohol-induced itch. According to police, the…
Mucho Gusto
By: Mark Hancock I eat a lot of my meals alone. And, to make matters worse, I am self-aware enough to know why no one else wants to eat with me. It’s because when it comes to picking places to eat, I can be kind of a jerk. While most of my super-cool hipster pals…
Lovely bones
Or, rather, he sees a life that should be celebrated. The retail arm of Oklahoma City’s celebrated Museum of Osteology (the only skeleton museum in the nation, natch), Skulls Unlimited has tapped a new market: preserving the family pet by cleaning and posing its skeleton. Sound morbid? Villemarette believes it’s actually a touching tribute. “The…
Tardy justice
Credit: Brad Gregg Alas, it’s a civic duty, and one to be taken seriously. Just ask Oklahoma County District Judge Ray Elliott, who recently placed a juror in contempt after the man twice showed up late to court. The juror, Ricky Christopher, was tardy from his lunch break, prompting a warning from Elliott not to…
OkC pride Week!
A host of activities this week celebrate OKC’s annual Pride Week, including: —OKC Pride Block Party, from 7 to 11 p.m. Friday at the N.W. 39th Street Strip, featuring entertainment, music and a crawfish boil; —the family-friendly OKC Pride Festival, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at downtown’s Film Row, featuring entertainment, food and…
Exhaustive exams
In the wake of glitches with online standardized testing, some school districts and state lawmakers question the validity of the exams. BY PHIL BACHARACH Nothing gets people testy like test-taking, especially when accessing the test becomes a sort of test in itself. That was the case for 9,100 Oklahoma students in sixth through 12th grade…
Freshly brewed community
By: Mark Hancock Much of that revitalization can be credited to the voices of determined residents. Jennifer Hudgens and Dr. Eric Mix, managers of Beans & Leaves Community Coffee at 4015 N. Pennsylvania, have made it their personal mission to see the area around N.W. 39th and Pennsylvania transformed as well. They hope to help…
No comment
Chesapeake Energy campus Credit: Mark Hancock Despite being a vocal critic in 2005 of China’s efforts to buy the American oil company Unocal, he has declined comment regarding Chesapeake Energy’s recent $1.02 billion joint venture with a Chinese oil company for part of Chesapeake’s holdings in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas — acreage in the…
Getting testy
The Putnam City school board is expected to vote Monday on the drug-testing policy. Credit: Mark Hancock The issue has met some criticism from parents during a handful of recent community meetings at all three Putnam City high schools, but most feedback has been positive, said Rick Croslin, executive director of secondary education for the…
Upstream commerce
Chicken-Fried News once knew a guy who had a problem getting his young son to keep the stream of urine inside the toilet … until the enterprising dad threw a handful of Cheerios into the bowl and told his kid to “sink ’em.” Problem solved! That’s a much cheaper method than BowlsEye, Oklahoma City entrepreneur…
Ogling open government
They also respected the concept of representative government, which suggests that those elected by the people are empowered to do the people’s business. What emerged from those private discussions seems to have worked out pretty well, for 226 years so far. That’s why we should take a realistic view of the ongoing dust-up over who…
Touchdown
Credit: Brad Gregg “I am thrilled to be a part of NBC’s Sunday Night Football and am so honored they asked me,” Underwood said via news release. “I have always loved football season, and it is so exciting to now become part of it every Sunday night!” Underwood, a candidate for the gig back…
The Town That Dreaded Sundown
Like Boggy Creek, 1976’s Sundown states it is based on a true story. Unlike Boggy Creek, Sundown actually is. Better late than never, it makes a simultaneous DVD and Blu-ray release courtesy of Shout! Factory. Set in postwar Texarkana, the film depicts the fear that gripped that the heretofore optimistic town of 40,000 after a…
Mack the strife
The latest manifestation of the Emerald City’s green-eyed monster came today courtesy hip-hopper and Seattle native Macklemore, aka Ben Haggerty. On Twitter, he expressed displeasure that his latest hit song with Ryan Lewis, “Can’t Hold Us,” has been used to energize Oklahoma City Thunder fans at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. “OH HELL NO!” tweeted the…
Exhausted exams
Repeated server outages from online testing vendor CTB/McGraw-Hill resulted in disruptions of exams administered April 29-30. High school students had been taking high-stakes, taking end-of-instruction (EOI) exams required to earn a high school diploma. Tests taken by the middle schoolers are factored into the state Department of Education’s A-F grading of schools. In the wake…
The Arrested Development Documentary Project
Well, it left this fan with an unpleasant aftertaste. At first, I was uncertain who the doc was for. While it certainly is accessible enough for the uninitiated, those people aren’t likely to run across it or even be interested if they do. And since I didn’t learn anything from it, the already converted aren’t…
Mold!
Opening with President Reagan’s infamous crack speech, the 1984-set Mold! unfolds in a secret facility deep within the Arizona desert. Scientists there have spent two years of funding on developing a strain of mold (they call it “stacky mort” to shorten its long, boring name) as an ecological weapon to destroy the Colombians’ drug fields…
Who’s Minding the Mint?
It finally has made its DVD debut thanks to the Sony Pictures Choice Collection. Jim Hutton (TV’s Ellery Queen) is one huge reason. An unheralded Everyman of comedy (because he died too young to get the respect he deserves), he plays Harry Lucas, a U.S. Mint inspector whose boss suspects he’s on the take. He’s…
ID:A
The Danish thriller is worth watching for its twisty premise and the La Femme Nikita-level strong lead performance of Tuva Novotny (Eat Pray Love) as Ida, the amnesiac who, as she gradually emerges from her mental fog, comes to fear she may have been involved in the assassination of a politician. The truth is far…
H.P. Lovecraft’s Cool Air
They have something to do with a 5,000-year-old Egyptian relic called the Horns of Werethekau and one Dr. Torres who has the power to resurrect the dead, but you’re likely to have forgotten that when the opening credits finally finish up four minutes later. And you’re equally likely to forget the entire movie 82 minutes…
Police Story / Police Story 2
It’s the next one that does. Fast-forward at least a decade later. In college, a friend showed me a VHS tape of an episode of The Incredibly Strange Film Show, a British documentary miniseries. Chan was that ep’s subject, and clips from 1985’s Police Story — and maybe even 1988’s Police Story 2, if memory…
