BY DEAN ROBBINS This year’s Kennedy Center Honors (8 p.m. Sunday, CBS) celebrates jazz innovator Herbie Hancock, guitarist Carlos Santana, movie star Shirley MacLaine, opera singer Martina Arroyo and pianist Billy Joel for their contributions to American culture. I was going to maintain a discreet silence about the choice of honorees, having tired of making […]
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Posted inNews
God makes us good?
In the Aug. 6 cover story “Atheist” (News, Carmel Perez Snyder, Aug. 12, Oklahoma Gazette), Ms. Rebecca Vitsmun said, “I still believe that as long as people believe goodness is the thing they are striving for, then we are on the same page.” As a Christian, I believe we may be “in the same ball […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sunday fun day
The most burning question that visitors to the Plaza District had before April was, “What about brunch?” according to Cayla Lewis, district communications coordinator. After a meeting of the district’s organizers and stakeholders, an answer emerged: Plaza Sunday. Launched in the spring, the event takes place the first Sunday of each month to give families […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Monk
Oh, well. Seeing the new film adaptation makes me feel as if I have. Obviously, I can’t speak to how closely it may or may not adhere to the book, but director Dominik Moll’s The Monk definitely is rich in its Gothic trappings. To me, that alone is a huge plus. In 16th-century Madrid, […]
Posted inMusic
Once you go Black …
Joe Lewis couldn’t have known that picking up a guitar to kill some time during a particularly boring shift at a pawn shop would make his life calling clear. In retrospect, however, it feels like fate. “It was just being bored. You start messing around with stuff, and it was pure chance,” he said. “I […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis
While undeniably watchable, the project is a pure puff piece. After all, it counts Lewis among its producers, so no way he’s getting treated with anything with less than kid gloves. Anything in his life that might be considered a boat rocker is absent: divorce, bankruptcy, Hardly Working, The Day the Clown Cried, etc. I […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lincoln
As if the subject alone isn’t worthy of adulation, it comes with a towering pedigree: Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan), Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) and a script by Pulitzer-winning playwright Tony Kushner. To its credit, Lincoln has lengthy stretches in which it’s as absorbing as it wants to be. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Spooky scribes
If Alice thought Wonderland was bad, then Zombieland would have had her begging to be hassled by a disgruntled patch of daisies again. Author Gena Showalter’s new series, The White Rabbit Chronicles, begins with Alice in Zombieland, a novel based on Lewis Carroll’s adventurous heroine. Showalter, an Oklahoma City native, is the best-selling author of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The wizard of gore
And a bathing beauty losing her legs to said serial killer. Not to mention the scalping of a sandy beach babe. For damn good reason did its trailer’s titles cry, “NOTHING SO APPALLING IN THE ANNALS OF HORROR!” The film was “Blood Feast,” now considered the birth of the “splatter” subgenre. Made for a paltry […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A poet’s passion
Lewis, a tall, stocky man, has been writing poetry since high school. This interest has spanned across his days as an athlete, and even his time in the military. His life, which had its beginnings in what he described as the rough streets of Cincinnati, has been far from easy. He’s endured losing close family […]