The District of Calamity
(1) The Washington, D.C., Department of Corrections fired three jailers in August after finding that they had locked up Virginia Grace Soto, 47, in the men’s detention unit following her July arrest, despite her protests and despite a formal strip search and despite observing her in the shower. Their reasoning: A paperwork error listed Soto…
Smooth Reactions
Po Shiu-fong, 58, was sentenced in July to six months in jail in Hong Kong for stabbing her boyfriend, 49, in his eyes with a chopstick because she thought he was cheating on her. (At the hearing, Po admitted that she had already blinded him in the left eye six years earlier by poking him…
Obsessions
Australian Les Stewart holds what the Web site Oddee.com calls the “third most bizarre” of all Guinness Book world records: having typed out the written numbers “one” through “one million,” over a period of 16 years from 1983 to 1998, according to an August story in his local newspaper Sunshine Coast Daily. He said he…
Names in the News
Convicted of murder in a home invasion, Mr. Andrew S. “Junebug” Warrior (the “S” stands for Sweetie) (Tucson, Ariz., June). Discouraged by school officials from attending a Catholic school because of his name, the 5-year-old Max Hell (Melbourne, Australia, July). Arrested for stealing three rolls of toilet paper from a courthouse, Ms. Suzanne Marie Butts…
American Gangster
Reviewer’s grade: B+ Like the drug kingpin at the center of “American Gangster,” this crime thriller is tough, exciting and occasionally spellbinding – but what it really craves is respectability. Based on a New York magazine article by Mark Jacobson, it tells the true-life story of Frank Lucas, who rose to underworld prominence in…
Crises in Men’s Nipples
William R. Cohen filed a $1 million lawsuit in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in May against a family after their Jack Russell terrier bit his left nipple, causing him (according to the lawsuit) medical expenses, loss of income, pain, disfigurement and “loss of sexual comfort and desire.” In June, Ronald Barrett, 68, a longtime school administrator…
Proposal adds prison beds
To try and curb the overcrowding prison population in Oklahoma, a proposal has been put on the table to provide more bed space. State Sen. Richard Lerblance, D-Hartshorne, said he will introduce legislation which, if funded, would add more than 3,800 beds to the state’s prison system. “If we have laws which increase time…
Harding Fine Arts Center opens house
Harding Fine Arts Center, 3333 N. Shartel, will host an open house for prospective students 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6. The center will serve ninth-through 12th-graders next fall. Principal Sherry Rowan will discuss the school’s philosophy and faculty members will be introduced in the auditorium during the event. A tour of the facility will…
Dulce Flamenco keeps traditional Spanish dance on its toes
New Mexico-based dance troupe Dulce Flamenco Internacional will bring some of flamenco’s best dancers and musicians to Oklahoma on Friday to give a taste of “The Soul of Spain” on its eighth U.S. tour. “Flamenco came from Gypsies, and they have traditionally been poor and didn’t have the money for percussion, so they used their…
The Spirit: Book One – Darwyn Cooke
DC Comics It’s official: Anything Darwyn Cooke touches turns to gold. From “Catwoman’s Big Score” to “The New Frontier,” writer/illustrator Cooke revives established properties by bringing retro smarts. His latest effort is “The Spirit,” the Forties blue-masked detective created by the late Will Eisner. It’s a character that few would be able to handle without…
Fascinating ‘Jekyll’ more literary than scary
With its adaptation of “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Oklahoma City Theatre Company has returned to the source: Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella. This OCTC staging follows a contemporary trend toward theatrical minimalism in reworking famous pieces. The show is technically bare-bones, with only a scrim and quick lighting cues, although…
Four Sheets to the Wind
Reviewer’s grade: B On the day his father commits suicide, Cufe Smallhill’s familiar world starts to change. Cufe (Cody Lightning) leaves his mother’s house to visit his sister Miri (Tamara Podemski) in Tulsa, where she lives, works, steals, drinks and sleeps around. On his first day in town Cufe meets Francie (Laura Bailey), and…
University of Oklahoma suspend gun-toting spirit members
It’s hard to believe that some members of one of the great traditions of University of Oklahoma football will be a no-show for a while. According to reports, the university banned current members of the RUF/NEKS spirit group from official university events for ” this may come as a shock ” evidence of breaking alcohol…
Red Dot’ auctioning blank canvases ” art to be added later
to five pieces that have already been created and there will be one commission piece from each artist who wants to do it,” Stokes said. “In the past, we had this really crammed feeling to it, with pieces are stacked up on top of each other. This will be a little more elegant.” BIDDINGAll of…
Unclear on the Concept
Israeli police announced in September that they had arrested a gang of eight young Israeli neo-Nazis from the city of Petah Tikva (near Tel Aviv), who had been attacking and harassing religious Jews (and also gays and foreigners), beating them and videotaping the attacks. A police search turned up weapons and also Nazi materials such…
Can’t Possibly Be True
The city of Toronto is campaigning with posters and a Web page to urge citizens to vote a 1-cent set-aside tax for municipal services, but in October received a bill from Canada’s mint for about $47,000 in licensing fees. The mint cited the posters’ use of a photograph of a penny and the campaign’s use…
The art of the possible
It appears that narrow partisanship has trumped the national interest yet again. Reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program has been held up by a Democratic Congress too eager to emulate Canadian health care and a president who wields a veto pen without having any credibility on spending restraint. Oklahoma’s congressional delegation voted along…
The Darjeeling Limited
Reviewer’s grade: C- What was once clever “? slow-motion effects, retro-rock soundtrack, quirky conversation and Owen Wilson “? has become a predictable Wes Anderson mainstay. This story of three brothers (Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Wilson) who meet on an Indian train for a spiritual journey to find their estranged mother is clear indication…
Passing Gas and Getting Paid for It: The Musings of a Comic Anesthesiologist – Bart J. Borsky
Synergy Books Some authors knock you out with their exquisite prose. Others just knock you out, like Dr. Bart J. Borsky, an anesthesiologist at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. He fancies himself as a “funny” doctor, and thus, recounts his life as one in this anecdotal bio. His inoffensive operating room stories likely…
Varying musicians find common ground in Citizen 5
Sculpting crossover appeal isn’t an easy task, but Citizen 5 is doing just that under the leadership of keyboardist Ricardo Sasaki. He reached the mainstream in Latin America in the Nineties with the Bolivian band Octavia and since has established his own recording studio in Norman. Not wasting any time, Citizen 5 started recording almost…
The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming – Lemony Snicket
Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming,” Snicket tells a Christmas story about a Hanukkah staple: the potato pancake, or latke. He’s born when he hits the frying pan full of olive oil, and takes off through the town writhing in agony. Seriously, 14 of its mere 48 pages are devoted to him simply screaming “AAAHHHHHHHH!!!” in pain.…
Troubling female hormones
Junior New York City hedge fund trader Andrew Tong charged in October that his boss forced him to take female hormones to dampen his aggressiveness, which the supervisor said was leading him to make bad trades, according to a CNBC report. In his lawsuit against Mr. Ping Jiang (a big-time trader who reportedly earns $100…
Can’t touch that
Just when you think Oklahoma is truly on its way to becoming a more enlightened place, 17 lawmakers refuse to accept a copy of Quran. The best line belongs to Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, who said that he did not want to accept the holy book of Islam because it encourages Muslims to kill…
Street-naming ceremony turns OKC mayor red
Well, it’s official: The stretch of pavement running along the north side of Bricktown Ballpark is now adorned with a street sign proclaiming it Flaming Lips Alley “¦ and Mayor Mick Cornett turned so red he didn’t need to borrow any fake blood from Lips front man Wayne Coyne. At the Oct. 25 dedication…
Individuals, groups committed to neighborhood improvement recognized
At the Neighborhood Alliance of Central Oklahoma, Executive Director Georgie Rasco and her staff hear countless stories about the commitment of individuals and groups to improving the city from the neighborhood level up. To honor them, the alliance organized its first Good Neighbor Awards, held at the Oklahoma History Center on Oct. 22. “We get…
Blue October promises third OKC stop’s the charm
Last year, Blue October fans were let down when a dangerous ice storm canceled the concert. The year before that, they were deprived of the usual energy because the lead singer was confined to a stool with a leg injury. So this time around, Blue October said Oklahoma City better get ready, because it’s going…
Saw IV
Reviewer’s grade: D+ Yes, it’s another Halloween trip to Ginzu City as Tobin Bell, as the Jigsaw killer, masterminds a stroll through the killing fields in the fourth chapter of this lucrative horror franchise. Jigsaw is working overtime and from beyond the grave as he sends a SWAT cop (Lyriq Bent) along a blood…
Frankenstein’ updated for Yukon stage
Yukon’s The Stage Door has created a monster “? specifically, “Frankenstein 1930,” a play adapted from Mary Shelley’s classic novel of a madman, his monster and the mayhem that ensues when the former creates the latter. Written by Fred Carmichael, the play amplifies the horror and suspense of the “Frankenstein” book while adding in an…
American Indian tries to save dying language through music
Rock ‘n’ roll just might save a language that is in danger of dying out. The man that made this part of his mission is American Indian recording artist and Grammy winner Robert Mirabal. “In the Blood,” his 12th release, features songs in English as well as Tiwa, the indigenous language of Mirabal and his…
Year-old tattoo law allows artists to work in open
Nov. 6, 2006, was just another day for the tattoo artists at Oklahoma City’s Mystical Illusions. Five days after Senate Bill 806 made Oklahoma the final state in the country to legalize tattooing within its borders, Jody Benner and his team of tattooists prepared to open their doors as the first licensed tattoo studio in…
Myriad Gardens transformed into Hawaiian paradise
Discover a tropical paradise right here in Oklahoma City at the Myriad Botanical Gardens’ current exhibit, “Kilauea’s Coast,” open now through Dec. 1. The Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory, 301 W. Reno, is transformed into a Hawaii-like ecosystem with:” tumbling waterfalls, ” leafy jungles, ” black sand beaches and ” lava flows. Allan Storjohann, manager of…
Photography exhibit captures all 77 Oklahoma counties
The International Photography Hall of Fame & Museum’s “Celebrating Oklahoma!” exhibit features 47 images by Mike Klemme, each of which celebrates the strength and dignity that define the state. The exhibit hangs on the walls of IPHF’s main gallery at the Omniplex, 2100 N.E. 52nd. “‘Celebrating Oklahoma!’ is designed to celebrate the very best Oklahoma…
Local witches compare their beliefs to Christianity
Few words are as loaded with so many negative connotations as “witch,” yet there are Oklahomans people who proudly count themselves as one. Brooms, cauldrons, wands, cats and altars all play a part in witch rituals, yet they aren’t the creepy fetish objects as portrayed in movies and myths. Witches maintain their beliefs are no…
After years of frustration, Red Sox making up for lost time
DENVER ” I could get used to this World Series champions stuff. It’s seriously cool. Used to be, I began each spring with renewed optimism, maintained high hopes through the dog days of summer and eventually got some sort of reality check about mid-September. That’s usually about the time my Boston Red Sox went into…
Members of spiritualist church talk to dead
It is generally assumed that when you die, you not only become dead, you become scary. At the Central Spiritualist Church at 2348 N.W. 36th, the perspective is different. Spiritualists believe that communicating with the dead is completely natural, and not at all scary. “That’s the purpose of our church: to prove the continuity of…
Lars and the Real Girl
p; But Lars also happens to be loved by his community, and so they indulge his delusion, hoping that eventually he will emerge from his dream state. The movie is not seamless, but it’s heartbreaking, heartwarming and wryly funny. PG-13 “?Phil Bacharach Trailer
Investigators say ghosts, spirits haunt several Oklahoma locales
The Oklahoma Paranormal Union is an alliance of investigative teams that work together to document the unexplained. They love the thrill of experiencing the paranormal, and Oklahoma is their haunted playground. One team is the Oklahoma City Ghost Club, whose founder Logan Corelli has accumulated quite the list of spooky spots throughout Oklahoma. STONE LION…
Dan in Real Life
Reviewer’s grade: B Dan Burns (Steve Carell) is a widowed newspaper advice columnist, whose wife left him with three daughters, over whose safety and upbringing he obsesses. Naturally, they treat him like crap. During a family reunion, Dan meets Marie (Juliette Binoche), only to discover she’s his brother’s (comedian Dane Cook) new girlfriend.…
Rocketplane CEO says some previous XP parts scrapped
The truck en route to the Standard Iron & Metal Co. scrap yard on E. Reno Avenue in Oklahoma City Oct. 16 carried what is purported to be remnants of a Rocketplane design expected to fly from Oklahoma Spaceport to space. The wing-shaped object was painstakingly designed, with figures and numbers inscribed on it, tight…
Oklahoma town creates work-day excuse business
Excuses, excuses. Come get your excuses. It’s not every day that entrepreneurs come along with something that really, really works ” and this deal apparently works better than the Popeil Pocket Fisherman. According to a story by The Associated Press, out of the mighty metropolis of Thackerville comes the “Excused Absence Network” company,…
Hellraiser: 20th Anniversary Edition
1987/2007 Like many teenage Stephen King fans in 1987, I was among those lured to the theater for the opening weekend of “Hellraiser” by the former’s endorsement plastered all over the ad campaign: “I have seen the future of horror. His name is Clive Barker.” I recall being vaguely disappointed by the…
Nemesis’ revives old-time radio plays with outrageous humor
height=207 alt=nemesis.jpg hspace=10 src=”/Images/Imported/Performing%20Arts%20review%20thumbnails/nemesis.jpg” width=150 align=right vspace=10 border=0>”The Intergalactic Nemesis” is bringing back the lost art of the live radio show with “a mix of ‘Star Wars’ meets ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,'” complete with live sound effects and a studio audience. Its national tour stops at Oklahoma City Community College on Tuesday. It’s 1933…
Murder Party
2007 A lonely loser (Chris Sharp) is destined for another night of despair in his dingy apartment, sitting in front of his TV and eating candy corn, when he stumbles upon an invitation in the streets to a Halloween “murder party.” With a quick makeshift cardboard knight costume and a freshly baked loaf of pumpkin…
