The Green Woman
Superstar horror author Peter Straub hasn’t released a book of significance in years “? perhaps more than a decade “? so I hoped that the conciseness of “The Green Woman,” a 152-page graphic novel co-written by Michael Easton, might shore up his often messy style of narrative. No such luck: This effort may even be…
Four Boxes
Purposely and effectively lo-fi, “Four Boxes” is one of the most clever thrillers you’re apt to see this year. And do see it “? make the effort to seek this theater-skipper out. Trevor (Justin Kirk) and Rob (Sam Rosen) are estate liquidators who sell the goods of the recently departed on eBay. It’s a meager…
The Rig
Remember the frustration you and the rest of America felt this summer when BP was unable to plug its Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico? Viewers will feel equally as restless at the sci-fi thriller “The Rig.” Too soon? More like too late, as “The Rig” is yet another copy of the 1979…
Shoot the Hero!
Going out on a limb, I’d guess “Shoot the Hero!” writer/director/producer Christian Sesma has seen “Smokin’ Aces” a dozen times. Maybe more. Not to slight Joe Carnahan’s action-comedy, as I like it, too. But I’d leave the Carnahan to Carnahan. This way-low-budget effort to ape those overblown, over-the-top theatrics plays as leaden as all the…
Ellery Queen Mysteries
<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=B003RHZ6CK&fc1=000000&IS2=1 I think I’m addicted to “Ellery Queen Mysteries.” Too bad I’ve now exhausted all there is to see. The series ran briefly “? inexplicably “? for one season on NBC in 1975. Being 3 years old then, I wasn’t a viewer, but it certainly was something into…
Modern Family: The Complete First Season
e likely to see more than a little of your own fam in any given half-hour “? sometimes more than you’d like to admit. What’s good is that the humor isn’t born from a dark heart; it’s good-natured, yet still biting, thanks to some super-sharp writing. Across the board, this cast has to be the…
Win or lose at OU/Texas, your taste buds will know victory at these Dallas eateries
While you’re in Dallas this weekend for the OU/Texas game, yes, you could stop in at Chili’s and/or Taco Bell to eat, but why? Being the ninth largest city in the country, Dallas has roughly 1.3 million mouths to feed “¦ and about 8,000 restaurants to do just that. Try out these city spots for…
Thunder announces TV schedule for upcoming season
Can’t make it to the Ford Center? NBA fans can follow the Oklahoma City Thunder’s third season on television, as the team has announced the schedule for its 2010-11 games, which begin at home Oct. 27 against the Chicago Bulls. FOX Sports Oklahoma will broadcast 77 games total ” including one preseason match-up with the…
The Dandy Warhols’ The Capitol Years 1995-2007
One of the last great alt-rock acts to make any kind of mainstream waves before Internet killed the CD star, The Dandy Warhols are back’ well, sort of’ in the label retrospective, “The Capitol Years: 1995-2007.” The 15-track collection rounds up the finest of their tenure with Capitol Records. Hot diggity dog! Perhaps not coincidentally,…
NFL legend Emmitt Smith to speak at Champions of Health awards
Former Dallas Cowboys running back and National Football League Hall of Fame inductee Emmitt Smith will serve as keynote speaker of the 2010 Champions of Health awards 6 p.m., Oct. 18, at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The awards honor individuals and organizations making a difference in the health of Oklahomans. Five winners…
Sherlock Holmes: 1964-1965
<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=B003NF97NA&fc1=000000&IS2=1 Who cares if BBC’s two-disc “Sherlock Holmes” set comes late to the release party spurred by last Christmas’ Robert Downey Jr. blockbuster reboot? At least it’s here, and I thought it was lost forever. To be specific, this “Sherlock” is the short-lived 1964-65 BBC series starring Douglas…
Stuart McLamb reinterprets Love Language with more musicians and maintains his melancholy pop momentum
Love Language with Local Natives and The Union Line 8 p.m. Tuesday ACM@UCO Performance Lab 323 E. Sheridan www.acm-uco.com 974-4700 $15 You can’t recreate the past. No matter how beautiful a moment is, attempts to recapture time are doomed to fail. This was the lesson for Stuart McLamb, whose act’s eponymous 2009 debut sparked significant…
The Blue Devils are one Oklahoma City act you might not know, but there’s no escaping their importance and influence
The sound of East Oklahoma City was inescapable in the 1920s. For a time, Second Street ” an area dubbed “Deep Deuce” and “Deep Second” by locals and those in the know ” was held in the same regard as New Orleans’s Bourbon Street and Central Avenue in Los Angeles. “Music was everywhere on the…
Peacemaking efforts defended
In his letter to Oklahoma Gazette (“Peace activist should apologize,” Sept. 22), K.A. Straughn challenged my assertion that anti-Muslim and anti-Obama emotions are fomented on Fox Radio by Glenn Beck and others. Well, they are. And if the origin of the ridiculous beliefs that President Obama is a foreign-born socialist Muslim cannot be pinned on…
Two Oklahoma brothers set out from London in a tiny car for charity with one goal in mind: reach Mongolia
Oklahomans Andrew and Cody Bass crossed the finish line in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on a flatbed truck. Travel on the mind The Mongol Rally It wasn’t the way they’d envisioned completing the seventh annual Mongol Rally when they’d set off from London in a 1-liter Nissan Micra more than a month earlier, but it was still…
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 Norman getting a one-of-a-kind bus stop: “”Everyone needs to note that this was a competition-winning design intended for Oklahoma City, but since OKC couldn’t get it together it…
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
According to anthropologist Robin Dunbar, it’s impossible for any of us to have more than 150 friends. The human brain literally can’t process the intimate information required to sustain more than that. But if there were super-freaks who could crack that limit, it would be members of the Gemini tribe, especially during the coming weeks.…
PR BS
Lots of press releases related to the Sooner State cross our desk. This week, these titles least screamed “Stop the presses!” “”Ben DuBose Speaks at Perrin Asbestos Litigation Conference” “”Susser Holdings to Present at Wells Fargo Securities Consumer Conference September 29” “”J.D. Power and Associates Reports: Overall Satisfaction with Gas Utility Companies Increases among Residential…
Oklahoma City Theatre Company says ‘hello’ to Berlin with ‘Cabaret,’ a scaled-down musical
Cabaret 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday Oklahoma City Theatre Company Civic Center Music Hall 201 N. Walker $22 www.okctheatrecompany.org 297-2264 Oklahoma City Theatre Company has opened its ambitious season with “Cabaret” in CitySpace at the Civic Center Music Hall, which could very well resemble in size and claustrophobia whatever dives sparked Christopher Isherwood’s novel…
All aboard for a trolley tour of Guthrie’s historic downtown
Time travel may be the stuff of Hollywood, but one gets pretty darn close to the real thing by visiting Guthrie, Oklahoma’s first state capital. The Guthrie Historic District was named a National Historic Landmark in 1999 due to the astonishing number of well-preserved commercial and residential architecture of the late 19th and early 20th…
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
You are ever so close to coming all the way home. For months you have been edging toward this welcoming source, and now you’re almost there. I’m not sure about the specific details. Maybe it means you’ll soon be in the place where your potentials will finally ripen. Perhaps you’re ready to make peace with…
The Boom Bang — Bummer Camp 7″
Oklahoma City’s noisiest quartet will release its full-length debut sometime next year, but it sounds like The Boom Bang just can’t wait that long. On Sept. 17, the band teamed up with Guestroom Records to put out a 7-inch that, hopefully, is an early indication of what we can expect in 2011. At four songs,…
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Everything is dreamed first, wrote French poet Gilbert Trolliet. French philosopher Gaston Bachelard agreed, adding, “Creative reverie animates the nerves of the future.” Your task in the coming weeks, Libra, is to act on those clues: Conjure up pictures in your mind that foreshadow the life you want to be living next year. Proceed on…
Jailhouse blues
Spend any time around Oklahoma County politics, and Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel can make a clear case on why a new county jail is needed. The jail, according to Whetsel, is the state’s largest mental health facility, the state’s largest restaurant and the largest hotel (in a matter of speaking). However, two central questions…
Don’t mess with mama
A man allegedly tried to rob a woman outside an Arby’s early in the morning Sept. 23, but this wasn’t any woman. This was a pregnant woman. And we here at Chicken-Fried News know you never ” seriously, never ” mess with a pregnant woman. According to a report on News9.com, 34-year-old Donald Bilby had…
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
I have good intuition about fate’s general trends, but I don’t think of myself as psychic when it comes to foreseeing specific events. I’ve never been able to predict winning lottery numbers, for example. But lately I’m wondering if that’s changing. I seem to be developing a knack for prognosticating certain sports events. For example,…
Mao’s Last Dancer
Back in the ’80s, communism was the enemy, and almost any movie that had to do with the Soviet Union portrayed communist governments as brutal, collectivist regimes that were the evil antithesis to the freedom-loving, individualist United States. Movies like “Moscow on the Hudson,” “White Nights” and “Red Heat” benefited from exaggerating the ideological culture…
Part Deux
“I am not afraid of us looking like Las Vegas. I am afraid of us looking like Oklahoma City. We have a higher standard. “¦ We spend a lot on landscaping. We put a lot into the aesthetics in Edmond.” “former Edmond Mayor Saundra Naifeh, quoted Sept. 21 in The Oklahoman
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
When I urge you to salvage and re-use old stuff, I’m not really suggesting that you find a purpose for the elastic from worn-out underwear or empty prescription bottles. That would be fine, but I’m thinking primarily of less literal, more poetic reclamation projects. Like dusting off faded dreams and refitting them with futuristic replacement…
From spotted dogs to big trucks, the Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum has a lot of history for metro kids
Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum 2716 N.E. 50th Adults $5, seniors $4, children 6-12 $2, firefighters and their families free 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 1-4:30 p.m. Sunday. 424-3440, www.osfa.info/museum Centuries ago, Europeans bred Dalmatians to protect their horses from thieves. In America, early fire trucks were not the big red vehicles seen…
The Edmond branch of an organization that helps orphans worldwide focuses its attention on a boys’ home in Uganda
A contribution of $50 for utilities, or $25 for art supplies could help a former street child for a month in Uganda. Through The HALO (Helping Art Liberate Orphans) Foundation, homeless youth have shelter, food and water in Kenya, India, Mexico, Nicaragua and the U.S. They are also provided clothing, education, art therapy and mentors.…
The former Color Me Badd members have never told their whole story in one place, until now
The MTV cartoon character was commenting on Color Me Badd, a band from Oklahoma City’s Northwest Classen High School hitting it big with “I Wanna Sex You Up” in 1991. Wearing brightly colored suits and gyrating to rehearsed choreography, the pop supernova exploded with two follow-up No. 1 singles, a triple-platinum debut album and nine…
Oklahoma could become the latest state that proclaims English as its official language
Okie accent notwithstanding, English will be the official language of Oklahoma if voters approve one state question in the Nov. 2 general election. The passage of State Question 751 would amend the Oklahoma Constitution to require that official actions of the state ” including the printing of driver’s licenses and government documents ” be done…
An ‘unfair practice’
This opinion concerns the ever-growing tactic of introducing bills, some times in the wee hours of the morning, with a vote scheduled the next several days, if not sooner. Since many of these bills may be hundreds or even thousands of pages long, and written in legalese, there is no way the average congressperson or…
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
During the opening scenes of “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” Oliver Stone’s stand-alone sequel to his 1987 hit “Wall Street,” you may have the feeling you’re not to going to understand a word of it. That’s because the characters combine the jargon of Wall Street with the rat-a-tat speech patterns of native New Yorkers. But…
Despite choppy waters, the state sees an increased interest in teaching
In the current economic climate, even the most challenging and poorly compensated jobs are piquing interest. Couple the stagnant job market with the fact that applicants for teacher certification can expect to shell out hundreds of dollars in a lengthy bureaucratic process, one might expect the teaching profession to receive only tepid interest from jobseekers.…
Fans fill the seats, the team hits the court, and DJ Boom brings the noise
l out all the stuff they have to interact with: the clap-your-hands and stomp-your-feet stuff. You try to keep that energy as high as you can,” he said. After than first basket, the crowd settles down a bit and Huckabee concentrates on reading the rhythm of NBA basketball. Huckabee, 33, is a Detroit native who’s…
Democrat Dana Orwig will face incumbent Republican Jason Nelson for the metro’s House District 87 seat
Democrat challenger Dana Orwig will face Republican incumbent Jason Nelson in the November elections for a chance to represent District 87 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. District 87 encompasses part of the western quadrant of Oklahoma City, from east of May Avenue west to Meridian Avenue, and from N.W. 16th Street north to Northwest…
Hundreds of stout, snorty and curly-tailed pugs will gather at Saturday’s Puggerfest fundraiser
Puggerfest Stars and Stripes Park 7398 N. Portland 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday $5, Kids under 12 $2, pugs admitted free 706-1492, www.homewardboundpugs.com Wagging tails, stout midsections and large, expressive eyes are the trademarks of pugs. About 400 of these amicable canines will strut these and all of their other features at Puggerfest, 10…
Closet case
A woman woke up early Friday morning to quite the surprise: A man standing over her wearing a white lace top, pantyhose and high heels. (White? After Labor Day?) But that’s not the most frightening part of it. Charlotte Palmer, 49, said she suspects the man had been trying on her clothes before she awoke.…
A new adaptation of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ fixes some history, but good acting is stifled by awkward accents and noises
The Diary of Anne Frank Poteet Theatre 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday St. Luke’s United Methodist Church 222 N.W. 15th www.poteettheatre.com 609-1023 $12 For more than 60 years, “The Diary of Anne Frank” has been one of the most widely read accounts of Jews trying to escape the Holocaust during World War II, making…
Adoption is on the rise in Oklahoma
A piece of paper does not a mother make, but for Shawn McGriff, the feeling of motherhood wasn’t complete until she held her son’s birth certificate in her hand. “It said, ‘Mother, Shawn McGriff,’ and it said, ‘Father, “¦ Craig McGriff,'” she said. “Even though they tell you that, you just comprehend that they really…
Christian singer/songwriter Charlie Hall mixes styles and pairs personal experiences with a direct, lyrical relationship with God
Charlie Hall is about to enter his 20th year in the music business. The Putnam City North and University of Central Oklahoma graduate has been involved with some of the best-selling Christian worship albums of all time. Along the way, he helped launch the contemporary praise act Passion and has maintained a solo career in…
Bicyclists vs. everyone else
Along the scenic trails around Lake Hefner, one would think an atmosphere of harmony and politeness prevails. However, lately there have been a number of negative experiences between the avid bicyclists and everyone else. I have recently witnessed an increase in rude cyclists taking over roads and riding aggressively on trails. I’ll admit I have…
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
During one phase of my life, I walked a mile five days a week to get to a bus stop. On the last stretch of the journey, I had to pass a shabby house next to a vacant lot. On the porch was a German shepherd, always unchained and in a state of irritation. After…
Four local artists join for exhibit guided by nature and its intricacies
“Beneath the Surface” In Your Eye Studio & Gallery 3005 Paseo 6-10 p.m. reception Friday through Oct. 30 Four local artists have joined for an artistic journey guided by nature and its intricacies. In Your Eye Studio & Gallery owner Gayle Curry has put together a collaborative art exhibit with Janice Mathews-Gordon, Natalie Friedman and…
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
You know me: I hate to sound sensationalistic. But in honor of this dramatic moment in your story, I’ll risk it. So be alert! Heads up! Get real! A pivotal moment is upon you! What you do in the coming dayss will ultimately determine how you will interpret the entire past year, shaping the contours…
‘Doonesbury’ disbelief
No more “Doonesbury” (“Regarding ‘Doonesbury,’ Sept. 22, Gazette)? You’re kidding, right? Not relevant to Oklahoma City local news? You’re still kidding, right? “Doonesbury” fits all communities like “Dilbert” fits all offices. It’s timely and cutting-edge, and just because people don’t gripe about it on the editorial page doesn’t mean that we’re not reading it and…
The Social Network
As the boy wonder who invented Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is, at age 26, the world’s youngest-ever billionaire. He is also, at least according to the film “The Social Network,” an exposed nerve of insecurities and resentments —? a bona fide genius whose brilliance is matched only by his cruelty. To put it in Facebook terms,…
McD’s match-up
Look, we love the Sausage McMuffin at McDonald’s just as much as the next guy, but even we think this is a little much. From the Stillwater News Press comes this tale of a drive-through run gone wrong. Two vehicles pulled up to the dual drive-through at a Stillwater McDonald’s ” you know the kind,…
CFN Quote of the Week
“The results of my comments have been 2 TV interviews, a lengthy article in the Oklahoman, a hit from a Christian critic on the editorial page of the Oklahoman, comments in the chicken fried news section of the Oklahoma Gazette (pronounce it the Gay – Zette) as well as numerous conversations around the water cooler…
Paul’s rule’
Fellow Gazettite Paul Wesselhöft proposes that he is allowed to disgorge bigoted, demonizing, islamophobic hatred (Letters, “A call for nonviolent civil disobedience,” Aug. 25), but we are not allowed to observe that he is doing so. Mr. Wesselhöft’s screed could serve as a Mad Lib exercise for hate-speechifying. “Wesselhöft” sounds like a German surname. Are…
Taking cues from Nashville and Stoney LaRue, Dallas roots-rock quartet Somebody’s Darling gets ready for a bluesy life on the road
Somebody’s Darling 9 p.m. Friday Brewhouse 110 W. Main, Norman www.brewhousemusic.com 321-2739 Like a relationship that just feels right, Somebody’s Darling came together quickly and hit it off well. The quartet hit the ground running, playing its first show during its first month together. Within a year, the Dallas act won 2008’s Shiner Rising Star…
30 Rock: Season 4
amp;linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002N5N5KW”>30 Rock” is as strong as ever. Although still too witty for most of the room “? the room being America “? that’s exactly what makes it so special. As always, the 22 episodes here continue focusing on the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of “The Girlie Show with Tracy Jordan,” an “SNL”-esque sketch-comedy series, mostly through the…
The Killer Inside Me
to hear him anymore. One day, Ford is sent by the sheriff to a small house out by an oil field. His assignment is to run out of town the hooker who lives and works there, Joyce Lakeland (a sadly miscast Jessica Alba), who has made a play for and landed Conway’s big dope of…
