Fundraiser to help local children with disabilities
The nonprofit helps kids ages 3 to 16 with physical and mental disabilities — including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and spina bifida — improve their conditions. “Sunset Stampede” will be held from 7 to 11 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Express Event Center, 8512 N.W. Expressway. The event will include a barbecue dinner from…
OCU to host sustainability conference
This is the second year the college has held the conference. While “Caring for Our Home” will focus on ecological sustainability, last year’s conference centered on a broader idea of sustainability in looking at peace, poverty and the earth. “Sustaining the planet in such a way that future generations of persons will have similar amounts…
Kern’s ‘huge book of quotes’
Mr. Grow referred to “quote mining” by creationists as if they are looking for snippets to prove their arguments against evolution theory. Sir, not only do I have a huge book of quotes, I have books written to explain what the snippets mean and why they are important in understanding the evolution vs. creation debate.…
Not dead yet
I hope you were not suggesting that all these wonderful human beings are “zealots” who simply do not know the “truth.” I am sorry, sir, but you cannot speak for everyone. Unless you have had a class in which you sat down and were taught the scientific evidence that not only proves evolution to be…
Westerns’ union
It’s been a busy year for Smith Westerns. Luckily, with their respective ages barely reaching into the 20s, they group’s members had plenty of energy to meet all the opportunities that have presented themselves since the release of their critically acclaimed sophomore effort, “Dye It Blonde.” The Chicago-based, indie-rock band has made the most of…
‘Toy’ time
From Thursday through Tuesday, Woody, Buzz Lightyear and friends will host 10 performances of Disney on Ice’s “Toy Story 3” at the Oklahoma State Fair, 3001 General Pershing. The skate show includes characters and moments from all three films. “We are looking forward to ‘Toy Story 3’ at the 2011 Oklahoma State Fair,” said Scott…
Higher Ground
Nor is it “The Passion of the Christ,” but it’s an honest study about one person’s lifelong, in-andout struggle with issues of her faith, from die-hard believer to doubting Thomas. The indie drama opens soon at AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, 2501 W. Memorial. Based on a true story, the film finds Farmiga playing the…
Sprawled out
Around 675 people showed up, according to event organizers, filling the Grand Ballroom of the Oklahoma City Marriott Hotel. Speakers included city officials — Shadid, City Manager Jim Couch, Police Chief Bill Citty, Fire Chief Keith Bryant, Planning Director Russell Claus, Public Works Director Eric Wenger, Public Transportation and Parking Director Rick Cain and Utilities…
Life, Above All
Opening soon exclusively at AMC Quail Springs Mall 24, the South African film is a mostly unflinching look at the enormous and devastating social consequences the disease still exerts in a part of the world where nearly 12 percent of the population has it. The story, while harrowing, sidesteps becoming advocacy cinema by casting itself…
Drive
From the pink, cursive typeface and pulsing, instrumental music of the opening credits, audience members will feel as if something is out of place, as if the movie is just a bit “off.” That’s because director Nicolas Winding Refn (“Bronson”) has immersed this tale in the style of Michael Mann’s “Thief,” rather than today’s “Transporter”…
Soundcheck: Junebug Spade — Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Things crackle to life on this short disc, goofily titled “Extra Virgin Olive Oil,” by layering Peter Seay’s great, big, grinning voice over his vintage, red dirt-crunching guitars (reinforced by fellow riffing ace AJ Sadeghi), which lick their way across the opening track, “Aborigine.” “EVOO” makes for a fun, heavily stoned 18 minutes of music,…
The Trip
Like the food its stars sample, “The Trip” isn’t for everyone’s tastes. Those who appreciate a subtle brand of humor that’s all about the details — in other words, British — should try it, when it screens Friday and Saturday at Oklahoma City Museum of Art, as part of the four-day, three-flick Foodie Film FEASTival.…
Alley oops
What? All over the city, we have inventions called traffic control systems and sidewalks to help her. If people are dumb enough to purchase those overpriced, poorly located tiny boxes that pass for housing near Bricktown, just so they can walk to the park, then they need to question their own desire to walk. They…
On the Fringe
Because there is strength in numbers, the group Fringe has formed to give professional female artists a way to network, brainstorm, boost visibility and provide peer support. “Fringe is important because feminine art in Oklahoma City is vastly overlooked,” said Amanda Bradway. “Also, community is important, so getting a bunch of people together, whether male…
Feeling the heat
The hot, dry weather, with temperatures often reaching triple digits, brought a severe drought to Oklahoma, causing an estimated $2 billion in farming losses, according to Oklahoma Agricultural Commissioner Jim Reese. The weather helped spark wildfires, here in Oklahoma City and elsewhere in the state, which have destroyed and damaged homes, other buildings and vehicles,…
Where the bison roam
The Nature Conservancy reintroduces bison and fire to re-create the functioning ecosystem. Grazing by bison plays an instrumental role, nurturing around 750 species of plant life, birds and wildlife. And don’t call them buffalo. “Technically, they are bison,” said Steve McGuffin, director of philanthropy at The Nature Conservancy. “Real buffalo have wide, curved horns and…
Eateries attacked
These lawsuits, filed in Canadian County, have cast restaurants that serve mixed beverages in a very unfair light, and have created unnecessary uncertainty among these restaurants’ customers. The allegations made in these lawsuits are unfounded and without merit. It is unfortunate that these restaurant owners, who have always collected and remitted the taxes to the…
Bite Size: 9-14-11
TASTE OF OKC FOR NWCA benefit for Northwest Classen High School is scheduled from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday. The event, put on by the Friends of Northwest Classen High School Foundation, will be held at River Oaks Golf Club, 10909 Clubhouse Road in Edmond. The event features music, an auction and food from several…
Lyrical leprosy
What happens when your marginally successful punk-revivalist group winds down? If you are Steve E. Nix (!), you just start another one. Nix’s original group, The Briefs, lost steam when members lusted for lives not dictated by tour schedules. With the few still interested in the road, he formed The Cute Lepers, which functions quite…
Entertainment review
I miss your TV reviews with Dean Robbins, and I really enjoyed your DVD reviews. Why do you give so many pages to the local music scene? Your food section is perfect. I look forward to it every week. I love the Gazette, and I hope we can see more on the entertainment side. —Jeremiah…
Application denied
The planned towers, which would have been for the AT&T network and ranged in height from 75 to 125 feet, were met with protests from nearby residents, and the proposals faced harsh criticism from the commissioners. The applications were for an 80-foot tower on top of the Mayfair Center building at 3212 N.W. 48th St.,…
Don’t discriminate
People ask how they can help. Here are few ways to create changes and a positive impact for this movement: for the communities to work together to educate people on this movement is one, but to also educate people who have never really talked about or been educated on homosexuality. There are a lot of…
‘Mistaken environmentalists’
He belittles religion for explaining climatology, yet endorses the greenieweenie acceptance of pseudo-science to state that climate change is largely due to man. Since the earth’s atmosphere is comprised of 95 percent water vapor, it stands to reason that the moist air will retain much of the heat generated by our sun. Carbon dioxide comprises…
Jake brake
Since the Stillwater-based musician first started taking guitar lessons in middle school, music has been the love of Jake Moffat’s life. But that love got lost somewhere along the way of his long battle with drugs. For some time, it looked like the last note had rung. “There’s a few years when I was down-and-out,…
Superior sequel
It’s been a long ride for Oklahoma City indie-rock act Student Film. The band is fast approaching a full decade, much of it full of laborious promotion, touring and recording. Although the group never expected to necessarily hit it big, frustration with expectations — both their own and others — and the Oklahoma music scene…
Raising the barre
With this concept in mind, many local studios ask fitness aficionados and beginners alike to step up to the barre. Barre is the latest fitness trend sweeping the nation. It combines the ballet barre, Pilates and yoga into one core-conquering workout, proving that being a ballerina isn’t a requirement when obtaining a dancer’s body. Barre3,…
Time to make the ‘Donuts’
Carpenter Square Theatre has come within one block of full circle. Its new, storefront theater on W. Main Street is one block south of the old Carpenter Paper Company warehouse, CST’s first home in 1985. But let’s not wax nostalgic. CST opens its season with Tracy Letts’ “Superior Donuts.” This play was highly anticipated when…
‘Circle’ of life
As a part of an art exchange program, the University of Oklahoma School of Art and Art History presents an exhibit of work by 15 Kansas State University graduate students. The exhibit is on display now through Sept. 23 in the Lightwell Gallery of Fred Jones Art Center, 520 Parrington Oval in Norman. In return,…
Biking for a cause!
The Oklahoma Earthbike Fellowship will kick off a fundraiser Saturday to raise money to maintain Oklahoma’s walking and biking trails. The event will begin at 8 a.m. at the Bluff Creek Trail — one of the trails the group maintains — on the northwest corner of Hefner Road and Meridian Avenue. Food from Deep Fork…
War games
“Yeah, those little BBs can really hurt,” Marine Corps veteran Carl Lostracco said as he watched the teenager wipe the blood away. Seconds later, Lostracco caught a small, plastic BB in the cheek and winced back into cover as his men continued to defend their position during an AirWolf E.A.S. simulation mission. The teams used…
Float on
Scruggs has been on the river in every season and at every height of water, from raging torrents to slow and low through the Ozark mountains. “I always tell people they are missing out not floating in fall and winter,” Scruggs said. “Those bluffs, they get 20- to 25-foot icicles hanging off of them after…
Festi-full
Iconic detective Dick Tracy has spent eight decades on the comics page since Chester Gould invented the character in 1931. Although the story reflected the era’s Chicago gangland, Darrell Gambill wants the world to know it all started in Pawnee, now home to the Dick Tracy Headquarters. “Gould was one-of-a-kind; he was the first to…
Cool shoes
A friend is committed to laughing at me whenever I do, since she insists they are ridiculous, but like a forbidden boyfriend, her scorn has only deepened our love. It’s true that Oxford flats can be tricky and can look a bit orthopedic if you don’t pair them with the right clothes, but I don’t…
Something for everyone
Blackbird Gastropub575 S. University, Norman 928-5555 One brand-new item that Blackbird recently added to its menu is a “smears” plate. A smear is something that is a little thicker than a dip. This will get you a roasted red pepper and walnut smear, a pimento cheese or its prize, the roasted garlic smoked Gouda and…
Harvest beer
Oklahoma brewers have introduced several to satiate the season’s shifting palates. Mustang Brewing Company’s wonderfully balanced Harvest Lager won the silver medal at the 2010 World Beer Championships. Rich with malts, the lager still maintains a slightly lighter body, creating a perfectly approachable tailgating beer for those tired of ubiquitous domestics. It is a Märzen,…
Back canvas
For those who thought KD was running out of tattoo-ready real estate on his upper body, No. 35 recently proved you all wrong. Very, very wrong. “Ouchhh,” @KDTrey5 rightfully tweeted on Sept. 5, before retweeting Atlanta-based Tattoos By Randy, who tweeted “@rmbwilliams & @kdtrey5 stopped by the Shop checkout KD new Ink,” along with a…
Where all roads lead
Let’s start south in Pauls Valley. Temptation is strong at Bob’s Pig Shop, 829 N. Ash. Around since 1933, it features hamburgers, sliced brisket and a pulled pork sandwich that is “to die for.” Bob’s also satisfies with some Mexican offerings, and those cooks behind the counter pamper people with homemade salsa. right Aubrey McClendon…
CFN Headline of the Week
“Olivia Munn’s Bikini Will Heal The Children” —from TheSuperficial.com, Sept. 6
Chance encounter with the tube
Edmond pop moppet Greyson Chance — one year ago, just another kid on the playground — is making a move from the music world into the acting one. He’ll guest star on the season premiere of Fox’s Emmy-nommed sitcom “Raising Hope.” One guess as to what he’ll be doing on the show. Will it be:…
Grab ‘n’ go
Wait. Yes, we can. A couple of weeks ago, two lovely ladies (and we’re using that term loosely) pulled a pickup truck outside a Del City plumbing business, according to a report from KFOR-TV. One of the lasses pulled down her sizable drawers, plopped onto the curb and let it flow. No. 1, that is.…
Bangkok by way of Roma
The tiny bistro is set inconspicuously in the center of Robinson Crossing at Interstate 35 and Robinson, a strip mall anchored by Starplex Cinemas and a Braum’s Ice Cream & Dairy. Jana’s is open for lunch and dinner daily, except Sunday, when it’s closed entirely. The dining room is small and pleasantly tranquil. Like the…
Power of the purse
The descendants of freedmen of the Cherokee Nation, who are mostly black, recently were declared to be ineligible for tribal membership following a years-long court fight. A separate case is currently going on in federal court and has yet to be decided. These freedmen are the descendants of former slaves owned by the tribes, and…
Big ideas
The Big Ten Conference has a dozen members after the Nebraska Cornhuskers recently joined the 11-member league. The Big 12, which used to be the Big Eight (after it was the Big Seven and Big Six, mind you), officially has 10 members, although Texas A&M is trying like hell to join the Southeastern Conference. If…
PR BS
—“Byline for your use: Gum Disease, The Silent Killer” —“JOJO JOINS JOE JONAS AND JAY SEAN ON NORTH AMERICAN TOUR” —“Big Hooters Auction September 7th” —“FLO RIDA HAS A ‘GOOD FEELING’” —“Yoko Ono Heats Up Dancefloors Once Again With Her Latest Summer Smash ‘Talking to the Universe’” —“How Do You ’Getti Your Spaghetti?” —“DENNY’S TELL’S…
Chicken fight
The FWS might list the lesser prairie chicken as an endangered species and is currently in the process of studying potential threats. The plains bird, which dwells in western Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, has been a candidate for listing for about a dozen years. The International Union for Conservation of Nature listed…
‘Batchelder logic’
Some facts intervene with this illogic. We added roughly $607 billion per year to the debt under the Bush administration … a shabby record no doubt, and one I deplore. But the first three years of the Obama administration have added an average of $1.116 trillion annually to the deficit. At that rate, four years…
Master of the World
It’s now available at ClassicMoviesNow.com through MGM’s made-on-demand program, with no frills attached, but the important thing is that it’s out at all … assuming you’re a Price checker. If you liked his AIP vehicles adapting Edgar Allan Poe, you’ll probably feel the same about this AIP vehicle adapting Jules Verne — two novels, to…
WU LYF – Go Tell Fire to the Mountain
Those two distinct features are the mixture of organ with soft guitar notes and the guttural, unnatural vocal grunts that they’re set behind. With the album’s well-timed pacing and all the shout-along choruses, “Go Tell Fire To The Mountain” is easily one of the best, most cathartic surprises in indie rock this year. Not a…
X-Men: First Class
And it’s even a prequel, for chrissake. As creatively bankrupt as its immediate predecessor, 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” was, this one is a refreshing hit of the reset button. Just when you thought it might be time for the mutants to take a hiatus, this chapter reinvigorates ’em. Cannily set in the Camelot era of…
True Legend
To HK aficionados, this will come as no shock, as the film bears the directorial credit of Yuen Woo Ping. Although known to American audiences as the guy behind the wire-fu choreography of “The Matrix,” “Kill Bill” and “Charlie’s Angels,” he’s responsible for the whole of some kick-ass projects in his homeland, including Chan in…
Hesher / Just Peck
In the infancy of “Saturday Night Live,” John Belushi starred in a sketch about an obnoxious party guest, “The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave.” That’s the character of Hesher in a nutshell, minus the cultural impact. As played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Inception”), he’s an aimless, homeless, near-worthless stoner metalhead who essentially enters the house of grieving…
Henry’s Crime
Bored out of his mind in a mindless, night-shift job; married to a nurse (Judy Greer, “Love and Other Drugs”) he likely no longer loves; rich in stay-the-same, Henry is in desperate need of change. Perhaps that’s why when he’s totally tricked by a friend into being the getaway driver for a bank robbery and…
Dexter: The Fifth Season
Now that season five is out on Blu-ray and DVD, those of us without Showtime finally have our answer: They couldn’t. They didn’t. Still, that’s not a knock against what remains one of television’s half-dozen-or-so greatest shows. When people today say that TV is better is most movies, they mean “Dexter.” Picking up literally moments…
Camelot: The Complete First Season
As one would expect, it’s a “reimagining” of the Camelot mythology from the ground up, starting with ushering in Arthur as king and ending with the Knights of the Round Table being assembled — well, at least partially. I assume if the series had gone on for a couple of more seasons, the plan would…
Bikini Girls on Ice
Those seven minutes are the best thing about it; the other 75 are really terrible, as if different filmmakers took over, going from sufficient to sucks. The story centers on a way-out-of-the-way, abandoned service station, where everybody with car troubles seems to stop for help, only to be viciously lube-jobbed by the crazed and feral…
Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know
So much of the 21-year-old’s third LP, “A Creature I Don’t Know,” comes in styles more nuanced and technically difficult to perform than pure, simple folk, while it simultaneously avoids lazily dipping into other stylistic offshoots for guidance or song structure. Stories are told here in country, British folk, American folk and plenty of other…
The Venetian Affair
“Venetian” opens with a bang — an explosion at the table of a nuclear disarmament summit, and the person to blame is one of the men sitting there: the diplomat repping the United States. Fenner, now replete with sobriety issues, is called back into action in a plot that involves peeping telescopes, fatal gunshots, secret…
Straw Dogs
Dustin Hoffman is American mathematician David Sumner, with his English wife, Amy (Susan George, “Dirty Mary Crazy Larry”), at his side in their rural home in her native Cornwall. He’s working on a big, taxing project; she doesn’t have anything to do but flirt with the men working on their roof (one of whom is…
Skateland
Visually reminiscent of “Dazed and Confused,” virgin director Anthony Burns’ only lightly comedic coming-of-age drama ambles its way through all the subgenre’s touchstones: the questionable fashions, the wall-to-wall Billboard hits, the hook-ups, the hang-outs, the mall jobs, the intoxicants. Weaving through it all is the misery of wannabe writer Ritchie Wheeler (Shiloh Fernandez) trying to…
The Silent House
The Uruguay no-budgeter quite audaciously is presented in one continuous take — or at least claims to be; like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope,” there are several obvious opportunities in place to “cheat.” It also claims to be based on true events. The plot, what little there is, finds the aforementioned Laura (newcomer Florencia Colucci) helping her…
Set Up
That path, however, isn’t one of originality, intelligence or viewer investment. The bullet doesn’t kill Sonny (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, “Righteous Kill”) because the cross around his neck deflects it (symbolism!), leaving him alive, well and ready to exact revenge. His hunt involves him with a mob boss (Bruce Willis, but why?!?), the mob muscle…
Dressed to Kill
The 1980 film is pure De Palma. It’s not a remake, based on an existing property or penned by another person. It’s all him. Oh, yes, it’s heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, but that’s all embedded in his DNA. So are the split screens, the multiple POVs, the long tracking shots, the voyeurism, the twisted…
Norwegian Ninja
Based on a true story, to use “based” very loosely, writer/director Thomas Cappelin Malling’s debut fictionalizes the Cold War missions of Cmdr. Arne Treholt, who was convicted of treason and imprisoned for spying. Malling’s genius? Turning the serious case of espionage into an action-packed ninja comedy. Smartly, it’s played straight by Mads Ousdal (as Treholt)…
Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2
Hope you’ve seen the first one, because this assumes you have. Hell, I’ve seen the original, and even I was lost for a while. Then again, this is a movie about a hulking bald guy (Nick Principe, “Sands of Oblivion”) in a metal skeleton mask who likes to videotape himself killing pretty young women —…
