(2013) Dean Koontz’s series of Odd Thomas novels now numbers six. I stopped reading after book four because an initially good concept had grown patently awful, succumbing to the law of diminishing returns. By contrast, Stephen Sommers’ film adaptation, a would-be franchise-starter itself, never gets the chance to devolve into tedium; it is that from […]
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Posted inArts & Culture
Killer Holiday / Murder University
Killer Holiday is so named because the killer’s name is Holiday (ha-ha?) and because for the aggravating eight college students passing for protagonists, it’s spring break, dude! So your Overweight Douche, your Frat Douche, your Party Girl, your Smart Girl and so on pile into an RV to get their kicks on Route 66, because […]
Posted inNews
MAPS threat lingers
Kenneth Jordan Since Slane questioned the validity of the MAPS 3 election two weeks ago, OKC’s lead municipal counselor, Kenneth Jordan, delivered a letter Sept. 3 citing a 2011 state Supreme Court case, Thomas vs. Henry, that he claims validates the ballot language and election results. In the letter to Oklahoma Gazette, Jordan said the […]
Posted inMusic
Iron Aidan
Aidan Carroll Photo: Ryan John Lee Aidan Carroll was not like most kids. Although the 2002 Classen School of Advanced Studies graduate played in a rock band or two, his real love was jazz. He became obsessed with it while fellow students consumed Top 40 hits. “I loved the challenge that jazz gave me,” the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
‘Land’ ho!
Rick Sinnett Photo: Shannon Cornman Unless you’re up close and in person with Sinnett, you won’t see the globs of light blue paint in his hair and flecks covering his clothes and sunglasses, but you will see that same color covering the exterior of the onetime grain silo at 200 S.E. Fourth. Aqua is the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Heroic hangover
Brian Winkeler, a writer, and Robert Wilson IV, an artist, were patrons of New World Comics, 6219 N. Meridian. Store owner Brian Berlin thought the two should meet. Soon after a fateful lunch outing, the plot and characters for Knuckleheads, a quirky series of their own, was born. Winkeler said they loosely adapted the concept […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Master
Up for three Academy Awards on Sunday, all for its main performances, the inspired-by-Scientology-but-not-really drama follows Navy vet Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line) as he returns home post-WWII to find he never really had a home to begin with. He doesn’t “fit” anywhere; his string of tenuous relationships — with women, with jobs […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Through the grapevine
Photo: Shannon Cornman Michael David’s Zinfandels, especially 7 Deadly Zins, are well-established in the state, but now the California winery’s higher-tier wines are finally available. In keeping with the deadly sins theme, the upper-tier Zinfandels are named Lust, Gluttony and Sloth. Not the jammy, soft David wines we’ve seen thus far, these bigger and brawnier […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Rudyard Kipling’s Mark of the Beast
Not only is the title superimposed over an image from the indie effort, but two clickable options, two URLs and four review blurbs, as if to convince you upfront that you are about to witness brilliance. To further complicate the eyesore, the blurbs are not presented in consistent typeface, color or size. In other words, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Confessions of an Opium Eater / The Face of Fu Manchu / The Vengeance of Fu Manchu
Based on the novel by early 19th-century journalist Thomas De Quincy (whom Price plays), the film from notorious schlock director Albert Zugsmith (Sex Kittens Go to College) is, to put it bluntly, nonsense. Should you choose to embrace that nonsense, you’ll be greeted with lots of falling bodies (including a bird), Asian women as slaves, […]