The West Coast is audible in the characters’ accents, making the Bard’s vernacular sound 21st-century. Well-tailored suits and smartphones replace hosiery and swords, and the noble men returning from war are now WASPs, ostensibly government dignitaries. Following two couples’ parallel romantic ordeals, Whedon draws out the rom-com elements inherent in the original play, not straying […]
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Dark Skies
The first sci-fi-heavy effort from Blumhouse Productions, that mighty machine of menace that brought you the Paranormal Activity pictures, the film focuses on the Barrett family. Lacy (Keri Russell, TV’s The Americans) is a Realtor; Daniel (Josh Hamilton, J. Edgar) is an architect, but currently unemployed in the midst of the Great Recession. Because of […]
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Norman Music Festival 6: Day 3
Best Time Warp: JD McPherson For about an hour, Norman wasn’t in the year 2013, but instead 1953. Broken Arrow native JD McPherson has turned the success of his debut, Signs & Signifiers, into spots on Conan and more, and Norman got a chance to see just what it is NPR and the like have […]
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Dewey decimate
Aka Jesse McDermott, Binns was born in New Mexico, but ended up in Lawton via a baseball scholarship to Cameron University. Although he still lives in Lawton, Oklahoma City is his musical home. “I kind of think of Dewey Binns as kind of a character I’ve created,” he said. “It’s definitely Oklahoma City-based, as far […]
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Gangster Squad
Like that 1997 film, Gangster Squad shares a real-life character in mob king Mickey Cohen. While briefly in the former, he’s the gangster (played by Sean Penn, The Tree of Life) around whom the squad circles. (He’s also explored at length in a William Devane-hosted documentary on the Blu-ray.) That squad is fronted by war […]
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Trading places
Between being a band, helping manage a record label/recording studio and maintaining a full-time day job, time management is crucial. Maybe that’s why Josh Griffin and Jonathan Eldridge — the two-man crew behind Oklahoma City blues-rock outfit The Trading Co. — have taken to writing songs and playing shows at the same time. “We’ve done […]
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The Collection
Those who haven’t seen the original film are urged to do so before diving into this sequel. It begins where its predecessor ended, and try as the opening credits might, they fail to adequately acclimate any newcomers, who may be lost. Not that the new film is deep or complex. It does, however, work best […]
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SXSW 2013: Guardant / The Del Toros / The Kamals / Josh Sallee
It only took Guardant 30 seconds to win me completely over to its team. The quintet’s hyperactive, quirky dance pop is simply irresistible. The group head-bobbed, shared microphones, switched instruments, clapped for each other, clapped in songs, and generally had as much fun as possible. Its incredibly peppy sound was anchored by herky-jerky keyboards, speedy […]
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One in Three
center Nathan Mickle “My parents always had a bunch of Frank Sinatra records lying around, along with Tony Bennett and Harry Connick Jr. … all of those guys I would sing along to,” Mickle said. “The records actually taught me how to sing before I even really got into it professionally.” A music career almost […]
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Swine breeds success
In 1986, Edmond Memorial High School’s principal kissed a pig after the students raised an unprecedented amount of money for a good cause. Since that infamous smooch, the school’s students have raised more than $3.5 million for various charities, during the annual, appropriately named Swine Week. “They are truly passionate about Swine Week, and it’s […]