Men Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Police in Fort Myers, Fla., said Jonathon Guabello, 29, who was angry that his girlfriend had denied him sex when they came home from a bar in October, left the room, shot himself twice in the arm, fell, and hit his head on a kitchen appliance, knocking himself out. In Anderson Township, Ohio, in July,…
Carpenter Square stages Pulitzer Prize-winning drama ‘Doubt’
Carpenter Square Theatre has brought together the exactly right combination of script and cast in an excellent production of John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt: A Parable.” The script is almost foolproof, and one can see why the production won the 2005 Pulitzer prize for drama and best play Tony. “Doubt” is set in St. Nicholas, a…
Government in Action
Things Government Does When It’s Not Bailing Out the Economy: The municipal transit company in Austin, Texas, unveiled a rider-education campaign in August, giving step-by-step instructions in how to stand up on buses without falling over. When the bus is accelerating, “lean forward and put your weight on your front foot.” (The introductory frame on…
Police Blotter
Awesome: Police in Dortmund, Germany, arrested six Romanian men in June and charged them with stealing from trucks on the open highway. Allegedly, the thieves would drive their own truck carefully up behind a tractor-trailer at highway speed, and a man on the hood would reach out and open the back of the rig with…
Recurring Themes
Least Competent Criminals: A 30-year-old man appears to be the most recent person (according to the account of police in Woodland, Calif., in August) to attempt to throw burning fireworks at a target while traveling in a car, but having the toss fail to clear the window and thus explode inside the car. He was…
Various artists – The Best of Bond
Capitol With each new James Bond film, it seems as though another CD compilation of 007 music is released. With “Quantum of Solace” on the horizon, this season is no different “¦ except that “The Best of Bond “¦ James Bond” tacks on some bonuses that make it worth replacing the last disc you bought.…
The Bourne Trilogy
2008 Flashback to summer 2002: Hollywood was all a-flutter over Ben Affleck’s “The Sum of All Fears,” while buzz was bad over his BFF Matt Damon’s “The Bourne Identity.” What a difference DVD rentals makes! “Sum” stalled as a potential franchise, while “Bourne” grew both critically and commercially with 2004’s “The Bourne Supremacy” and 2007’s…
Norman gallery hosts exhibit featuring contemporary artists
“MARGIN: auto 0in”>Los Angeles-based sculptural artist XVALA’s series, “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” explores inner and outer beauty with pieces that juxtapose art and sex. “I discovered art in the same way I discovered sex,” the artist wrote on the gallery Web site. “Once I became interested, I began to see opportunity all around me. When…
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
No faking allowed, Aquarius. I mean it. You must do no pretending, tell no dirty lies, and never act as if you know things you don’t truly know. Instead, say exactly what you mean; be more real than you have ever dared to be; be nothing more and nothing less than who you actually are.…
World of Mirth’ details dark world of carnival
If you want to experience something like the nightmare that the scoundrels on Wall Street have been going through, go see Ghostlight Theatre Club’s production of Murphy Guyer’s “World of Mirth,” continuing Friday and Saturday at the Paseo’s a.k.a. gallery. The play takes place on the midway of Kaspar Kelly’s World of Mirth, a traveling…
Population, pollution, global concerns inspire large-scale university installation
style=”MARGIN: auto 0in”> 45-FOOT SCAFFOLDING University students worked with Hachiyanagi over a week in late September to construct the installation, which necessitated the use of 45-foot scaffolding to reach the highest points of the gallery. “Fundamentally, Rie is working both with and against the architecture, working with and against our expectations experiencing the space and…
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
“I cannot tell if the day is ending, or the world, or if the secret of secrets is inside me again.” So wrote Jane Kenyon, translating Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. At this juncture in history, that’s a feeling many of us have. Part of the time we’re on the verge of freaking out, half-expecting some…
Oklahoma City Public Schools aims to address urban dropout trend
Abigail Sweeney is determined to graduate. The 15-year-old freshman at U.S. Grant High School wants to stay in school, even though she said her school has a big problem with kids dropping out, even freshmen like herself. BLOCK-SCHEDULING FORMATSPECIALTY SCHOOLSINSIGHTFUL OPINIONS Sweeney’s three older siblings all dropped out of high school, her brother to support…
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
As the stock markets came crashing down, a different kind of global devastation received scant notice. The World Conservation Congress revealed that 25 percent of the planet’s mammal species and one out of eight birds are on close to extinction. We’re not just talking about exotic animals in remote hideaways, but rabbits and deer and…
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
What do you do when you’re squeezed between the demands of authority and the healthy need to rebel? How do you respond when the past and future are at odds? What resources do you draw on when the person you have always been starts to evolve into an interesting new form that you don’t recognize?…
Developing Democracies
Candidates for local office in Brazil can either register under their own names or make them up, and in the October election this year, three candidates chose “Barack Obama” (none won), and others registered under “Bill Clinton,” “Jorge Bushi” and “Chico Bin Laden,” but more than 200 offered themselves under the name of the country’s…
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
The days leading up to the national election feature a rare opposition between Saturn and Uranus. Since Saturn symbolizes the past and Uranus the future, we might expect there to be a showdown between what has been and what will be, not only on a collective level but also in our personal realms. In what…
Great Art!
Chilean-Danish artist Marco Evaristti is working with condemned Texas inmate Gene Hathorn, 47 (convicted killer of three in 1985), on an anti-capital-punishment exhibit to be staged after Hathorn’s execution. The murderer’s body would be frozen, then made into flakes that museum visitors could feed to goldfish. Evaristti is most noted for his 2000 exhibit in…
W.
enerates only uncertainty and a lack of resolution. While Stone might be making a slightly obvious artistic point by making the movie’s form a reflection of the man’s character, the result is depressing and a bit annoying. R “?Mike Robertson
Traveling exhibit examines work of Russian-American immigrants
0 students on campus, so I need to adapt my program to include something that might interest all of them,” Bendure said. CONTINUING SERIESThe university’s Russian art series will continue with “Reflections: Russian Contemporary Photography,” a photography series opening Nov. 8, and the documentary “The Battle of Chernobyl,” which will screen Nov. 17. “We’re really…
Oklahoma State trying to make believers out of Big 12 rivals
Oklahoma State’s football squad is on a mission this season. It’s central focus is gaining national respect. So far, so good. PILING UP ‘W’s’ SOURCE OF MUCH CONSTERNATION The Cowboys have opened up with seven straight victories, including a 28-23 upset of second-ranked Tigers in Columbia, Mo. During that stretch, OSU topped the 55-point mark…
Planned Edmond Jesus Christ statue faces controversy
Jesus was just all right with the Doobie Brothers, but the possible public funding of a Jesus Christ statue created some controversy for the conservative city of Edmond, according to The Associated Press. In the beginning (actually, in September), the Edmond Visual Arts Commission voted 6-2, with one abstention, to approve bringing the likeness of…
News That Sounds Like a Joke
Britain’s Bristol City Council warned residents in government housing in September to always leave their sheds unlocked. Otherwise, thieves would have to break the doors down to get inside, and taxpayers would be stuck with the repair bills. Atlanta Pentecostal preacher Thomas Meeks told the Journal-Constitution in October that he was “in talks” to create…
Paseo artists to help children construct Halloween costumes
Children bring their imaginations to life with characters created in the Paseo on Sunday. Local artists will help children construct Halloween costumes inside “playshops” set up inside Paseo galleries and businesses for the Magic Lantern Celebration. Glitter, paper, paint and other creative supplies will be provided to spark kid-crafted wearable art. “With artists to help…
Rely on new diabolical discs to get Halloween horror-flick fix
Typically, October sees a glut of horror films at the box office, but this year’s crop is surprisingly scant, limited to not more than “Saw V,” “Quarantine” and “High School Musical 3.” This Halloween, it’s up to you to provide your own fright-flick programming. Luckily, it can be done with a visit to your video…
Former Oklahoma governor wants Obama to come clean
One bright spot in the recent national campaign has been the return of an old Chicken-Fried News favorite for quote fodder ” our own former Gov. Frank Keating. As if life just couldn’t get any better for the CFN crew, Frankie recently took to the airwaves on the radio show of former “Saturday Night Live”…
Race for Oklahoma City Council seat takes interesting turn
It should be in the bag for Meg Salyer. Unless the 53-year-old knocks her head on a car door and loses her memory, she is a shoe-in to be the next Oklahoma City Council member. Salyer is brimming with confidence, but nonetheless cautious. “This is Oklahoma and stranger things have happened,” Salyer joked with a…
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
The planet Saturn symbolizes the preservative and conservative tendencies of evolution. It teaches us to learn from the past and keeps us from rushing into the frontier before we’re ready. Uranus, on the other hand, represents future shocks, both the disturbing and benevolent kinds. It disturbs our sleep in order to wake us up and…
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Write the number ten followed by eleven zeroes. Our Milky Way Galaxy has that many stars. Write a ten followed by twelve zeroes. That’s the size of America’s national debt in dollars. Now promise me that for the next month, you will avoid absorbing any scary, overwhelming data like the kind I just threw at…
Beacon of hope
No one would argue that homelessness is a problem, but can the problem be resolved? Jesus said, “the poor you will have with you always,” so there is the theological argument the problem will never cease to exist completely. But how many of us in Oklahoma City are willing to take the leap of faith…
Local career musicians plan benefit for drummer
Jerry Hamilton was playing an out of town gig with jazz/R&B band PowerHouz when he started feeling sick. The Edmond drummer soon found out he was suffering from liver failure. In an effort to help with Hamilton’s hospice bills, Steve Crossley and other local career musicians have rallied for a benefit show Sunday at the…
Area firefighters test mettle against best world offers
“Toughest two minutes in sports.” Type it into an online search engine and you might expect mixed martial arts, rugby, roller derby or even some crazy Japanese obstacle course. But instead, firefighters top the results. The videos that come up on the Web are of the Firefighter The Firefighter Combat Challenge, a grueling skills test…
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Our government spends an obscene fortune on its armed forces — almost as much as do all the other nations of the world combined. In fact, we are by far the most weaponized empire in the history of the world, with 761 military bases in over 100 countries. If our military costs were cut down…
The Order of Myths
Reviewer’s grade: B+ “The Order of Myths,” a compelling documentary that explores the tradition of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Ala., a town proud that its Carnival long predates the annual festival in New Orleans. Oh, one more thing about Mobile’s Mardi Gras: There are two of everything, from its ball and parade, to the coronation…
American Indian Cultural Center and Museum’s first building is complete
On a weekday last spring, the Oklahoma Legislature decided what would become of the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum. It authorized a $25 million bond package, ensuring the funding will not be relegated to the shards of Wall Street. Instead, the bonds will go “native,” to be marketed within the state and sold to…
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
The world is poised at the threshold of a great choice: Should we stick with what has worked for us, even though it’s not working any more? Or should we experiment with possibilities that may work for us in the future, even though they don’t have a track record? You, Sagittarius, can and should be…
Get in the scary spirit with terror tomes for all ages
Not all treats this Halloween have to rot your teeth. Some can even stimulate your mind instead of your salivary glands, so head to your nearest bookstore to prep for a proper Oct. 31 mood with any of these new titles. FOR LITTLE KIDSIf it were up to my 3-year-old son, this year’s Pulitzer Prize…
Good night, mudslingers
If the definition of political leadership in Oklahoma means doing things the same old crude, shallow, sickening way, then James Inhofe should get the Nobel Prize for Pathetic. His television ads against opponent Andrew Rice should render him unfit to represent Oklahoma any longer, regardless of what he thinks of global warming. Just when the…
County jail presents sticking point in sheriff race
The two men vying to be Oklahoma County sheriff have two different priorities when it comes to the job. “My number one issue is crime, keeping people safe,” said the man who currently holds the sheriff’s office, John Whetsel, D-Choctaw. “The jail would be my priority,” was the response from Whetsel’s opponent, Jim Heitmeyer, R-Del…
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
Uranus symbolizes your instinct for freedom, your drive to express your dormant genius, and your attunement with your intuition. Saturn represents structure and responsibility; when it’s prominent, it’s time to get back to basics and cut down on distractions and excesses. So what should you do when these two planets are in exact opposition, as…
The Toadies nearly croaked in 2001, but have returned with new album
As lead vocalist for the Toadies, Vaden Todd Lewis does a lot of singing ” and snarling, for that matter ” about rage, resentment and toxic relationships. His most famous song, “Possum Kingdom,” alludes to vampirism and, perhaps, murder. But Lewis insists his lyrical obsessions are not an admission of psychosis. SOPHOMORE EFFORTFRIDAY SHOW “I’m…
Grand Hall at Castle Falls hosts charity masquerade ball
Old-world charm and nostalgia set the mood for a masquerade ball on Friday. The Faith Hospice Charity fund-raiser dons the mask 7:30 p.m. inside the Grand Hall at Castle Falls, 820 N. MacArthur, for a dinner and wine ball. Head chef Jutta Scheider, a fourth-generation chef, will prepare and serve authentic European cuisine to masked…
Congress members took luxury trip, including Oklahoma representative
The Galapagos Islands are routinely defined by gorgeous geography and diversity of species. The collection of islands, now a province of Ecuador, are also famously known as the impetus of the evolution theory brought forth by Charles Darwin. This tranquil setting has brought on controversy for Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne. The long-term representative calls…
OCU offers high-pitched comedy with ‘Too Many Sopranos’
-spacerun: yes”>”?Eric Webb
State will begin issuing new license plates with bans intact
A unique combination of letters and numbers have been issued to more than three million cars and trucks legally registered in Oklahoma to operate on roadways. Most license plates bear a random state-issued cipher meaningless to motorists. Others are chosen to convey a message, impart passing wisdom or project the personality of the driver. In…
Some state officials have different view of child-abuse statistics
With child poverty rates above the national average, a high teen birth rate and other burgeoning factors bringing down Oklahoma’s child welfare statistics, state health officials acknowledge that child abuse death rates here are high. However, the numbers may be not as high in relation to other states as reported in federal statistics, some state…
