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 ceremony, Cornett buried his head in his hands onstage as Coyne stood in front of him and told the assembled crowd and television cameras that it was "pretty fucking cool" for his band to merit an alley, rather than any old street. (Oh, Mick! Dooooo yooooou realiiiiiize it's only rock 'n' roll?)

 

Wrapping up his acceptance speech, Coyne dropped another F-bomb, saying he thought Oklahoma City was on its way to become "the coolest fucking city" in all the land.

 

Bank of Oklahoma Vice Chairman Burns Hargis then took to the mic and jokingly blamed the profanity on feedback.

 

"He didn't really say that," Hargis said.

 

It was just another surreal moment in a ceremony full of them, packed with the usual Lips spectacle "¦ only minus a music performance. Before the Lips " sans drummer Steven Drozd, reportedly in Texas dealing with a family issue "  emerged onstage, they were preceded by a parade of people in Santa Claus and Martian alien costumes.

 

Confetti cannon explosions and big balloons filled the air above, while a giant inflatable butterfly/worm creature and a sun shuffled on ground level. And then there was the matter of state Treasurer Scott Meacham reading Gov. Brad Henry's proclamation with the phrase "moving tool." Were it not chilly outside, we at Chicken-Fried News would've thought we were having heat-stroke-induced hallucinations.

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