The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 6 No. 3

OKLAHOMA

REMEMBERING

WILDFIRES

STEVE RIPLEY

P16

P40 JAN. 16 – FEB. 5, 2019

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VOL. 6 NO. 3

YOU R PERFOR M I NG A RTS GU I DE P 21

Paradise never sounded So Good.

Tickets On Sale Now

Boyz ii men jan 19 toni braxton jan 25 styx feb 14 michael bolton feb 21 charlie wilson feb 22

Live Music

Friday & Saturday Nights Starting at 9PM in 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar and at 10 PM in Margaritaville!

Visit margaritavilletulsa.com for a complete schedule.

81ST & RIVERSIDE 888-748-3731 RIVERSPIRITTULSA.COM

2 // CONTENTS

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

INTRODUCING

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CONTENTS // 3

4 // CONTENTS

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // Vol. 6, No. 3 ©2018. All rights reserved.

SLOW BURN

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon EDITOR Jezy J. Gray ASSISTANT EDITOR Blayklee Freed DIGITAL EDITOR John Langdon

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BY FRASER KASTNER

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Madeline Crawford GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Georgia Brooks, Morgan Welch PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Bollinger

Budget cuts and climate change spell trouble for rural Oklahoma

AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf CONTRIBUTORS Alicia Chesser Atkin, Jake Cornwell, Jim Edwards, Charles Elmore, Barry Friedman, Greg Horton, Eric Howerton, Jeff Huston, Fraser Kastner, Gary Mason, Mary Noble, Nick Oxford, Zack Reeves, Damion Shade, John Tranchina, Valerie Wei-Haas, Brady Whisenhunt The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

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BY TTV STAFF

Your performing arts guide for winter and spring 2019

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1603 S. Boulder Ave. Tulsa, OK 74119 P: 918.585.9924 F: 918.585.9926 PUBLISHER Jim Langdon PRESIDENT Juley Roffers VP COMMUNICATIONS Susie Miller CONTROLLER Mary McKisick DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Amanda Hall RECEPTION Gloria Brooks

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD Send all letters, complaints, compliments & haikus to: voices@langdonpublishing.com FOLLOW US @THETULSAVOICE ON:

Oklahoma Forestry Service fire management chief Andy James leads a wildfire training session with students from the OSU forestry program in Stillwater.

NICK OXFORD

NEWS & COMMENTARY 7

GET FREE

How to fix Oklahoma’s broken parole system

8

THE ROOSTERS OF MALLORCA

A slow death in Spain

BY DAMION SHADE

BY BARRY FRIEDMAN

10 LIKE A FLOWER

BY ZACK REEVES Brady Heights home aspires to rigorous sustainability certification

OKLAHOMA

REMEMBERING

WILDFIRES

STEVE RIPLEY

P16

P40 JAN. 16 – FEB. 5, 2019

//

VOL. 6 NO. 3

FOOD & DRINK 12 FRIED RESOLUTIONS

B Y ERIC HOWERTON

Fresh and crispy Umami Fries won’t let you down in 2019

13 CUISINE FOR A CAUSE

B Y BLAYKLEE FREED YOU R PERFOR M I NG A RTS GU I DE P 21

ON THE COVER Your Performing Arts Guide including Tulsa Ballet, Tulsa Symphony, Chamber Music Tulsa, Tulsa Opera, and Broken Arrow Community Playhouse.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MORGAN WELCH

Best of Brunch benefits area families affected by domestic violence

14 THE VERMOUTH HOUR

B Y GREG HORTON

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

De-mystifying a drinkable aperitif

MUSIC

ARTS & CULTURE 28 SAFE SPACE

B Y MARY NOBLE Theatre North’s ‘Green Book’ offers a lesson in humanity

30 SATURDAY MORNING SUPERHERO

B Y BRADY WHISENHUNT ‘ Yellow Submarine’ animator’s classic cartoon art show comes to Tulsa

31 MAKE YOUR OWN MEGAPHONE

B Y ALICIA CHESSER ATKIN

Whitty Books celebrates the zine scene

32 ARTISTS IN THEIR SPACES

B Y VALERIE WEI-HAAS Contact sheet

34 ‘ DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK’ Y JOHN TRANCHINA B Oilers celebrate a rich and turbulent 90-year history

38 SOUNDS OF THE BLACK WEST

B Y JAKE CORNWELL

A conversation with Dom Flemons

40 SO LONG, STEVE RIPLEY

B Y JIM EDWARDS Remembering Tulsa’s renowned musician and producer

TV & FILM 44 TREAD LIGHTLY

B Y CHARLES ELMORE Henry Dunham’s taut debut puts a right-wing militia on trial

45 THE FAINT GATSBY

B Y JEFF HUSTON

‘ Burning’ is a labored generational critique that tries your patience

ETC. 6 EDITOR’SLETTER 36 THEHAPS 42 MUSICLISTINGS 45 FULLCIRCLE 47 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD

CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

L

ast month, nearly 150 protestors were arrested outside the D.C. offices of Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) This was the country’s first introduction to the Sunrise Movement, a broad coalition of young people calling for a Green New Deal in response to the looming planetary crisis. The activists were animated in part by the latest grim UN climate report predicting “a world of worsening food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040 — a period well within the lifetime of much of the global population.”

The same day, newly-minted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) launched a resolution to form a congressional committee on a Green New Deal. The leftist firebrand from the Bronx, whose

longshot campaign was inspired by water protectors at Standing Rock, transformed the demands of a coalition into a serious policy proposal overnight. The next morning, “Green New Deal” was trending on Twitter and national news networks.

Ideas can spread like wildfire— the subject of this issue’s feature story by Fraser Kastner (pg. 16).

He tagged along with Oklahoma Forestry Service fire management chief Andy James during a training session with students from the OSU forestry program in Stillwater, and talked to the chief of the Seiling Fire Department in Dewey County about the massive fires that ravaged western Oklahoma last spring and what can be done to manage the next round.

There will be a next round.

And as global temperatures con-

tinue to rise, it will get worse. We can expect more drought, more fires, more flooding, and more conflict. Climate scientists overwhelmingly agree that the crisis is here. There is no ambiguity. No room for opinion. We’re at the point of no return, and we have to do something about it right now.

As of the time of this writing, the government has been shut down for 25 days as the president flirts with the idea of declaring a “national emergency” to build a $5.7-billion dollar wall on the U.S. southern border. He delivered a prime-time televised address, belching fake outrage over a fake crisis in order to score points in his demented quest to shake up the worst in ourselves for his own political gain. The bogus distraction is as depressing as it is predictable.

RECYCLE THIS Aluminum and Steel Cans

Of course, people like the president, corporate lawmakers, and fossil fuel industry CEOs fighting meaningful action on climate change don’t actually care what happens to the planet. They won’t be here, or else they’ll be too rich to feel the heat from the flames. For the rest of us, we need a real response to a real emergency. We need serious action from serious leaders. We need a Green New Deal.

For more information, visit sunrisemovement.org/gnd. a

JEZY J. GRAY EDITOR

NOT THAT Aluminum Foil

Throw foil away in the gray trash cart.

Aluminum and steel cans are perfect for recycling, but aluminum foil is NOT acceptable for the blue recycling cart.

6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

LEARN MORE AT

TulsaRecycles.com January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

okpolicy

I

How to fix Oklahoma’s broken parole system

by DAMION SHADE for OKPOLICY.ORG

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

ncarceration is expensive in Oklahoma. The cost of our overcrowded prisons is projected to skyrocket in the next decade. The Department of Corrections requested $1.5 billion next year to address long-neglected repairs and to build a new prison to keep up with the current rate of inmate growth.

Typically, states mitigate the cost of prison with parole, allowing offenders to serve the last part of their sentence under community supervision if the offender is no longer a threat to public safety. Parole should have two goals: incentivizing good behavior for those currently and formerly incarcerated while easing their re-entry into communities and saving taxpayer money.

Unfortunately, Oklahoma’s parole system is broken. The number of inmates granted parole decreased 77 percent from 2008 to 2017. Even worse, policies in Oklahoma encourage many inmates to forgo parole and leave them without the support structure available in other states.

Every month, about 600 inmates become parole eligible, but only about 200 apply for it, passing up an opportunity for early release. This is in part because parole in Oklahoma comes with fees that can add up quickly. Unless a parolee’s fees are waived for hardship, anyone on parole in this state must pay $40 per month for DOC supervision in addition to court fi nes and fees, as well as some additional amount of fi nancial restitution depending on the offense.

In addition, a parolee may have to pay for up to two years of drug tests, a GPS ankle bracelet, a breathalyzer for their vehicle, and any cognitive behavioral therapy or classes which the parole board deems necessary for their release.

These fi nancial obstacles are often compounded by the fact that many of those on parole have suspended drivers’ licenses, making attending required meetings and maintaining employment remarkably diffi cult.

To help more offenders access parole, lawmakers should eliminate the supervision fee and provide more hardship waivers for other costs to those who are unable to pay. Some parole conditions are both necessary and reasonable, but if conditions make employment and paying bills more diffi cult, it’s hard to see how they promote public safety.

Exacerbating the situation is that many prisoners in Oklahoma view parole as a trap because its terms are so strict. Failing to meet the conditions of probation or parole was among the most common reasons Oklahomans went to prison in 2018. In 2015, roughly a quarter of prison admissions in this state were for technical violations of probation or parole conditions.

“Oklahoma parole is just a gotcha game” for many offenders, according to Kris Steele, Parole Board member and executive director of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform. “Because they’ve seen how many inmates get parole only to end up back in prison.”

A landmark parole reform bill, HB 2286, did pass the state Legislature last year. The law creates a new system of release for non-violent offenders called administrative parole, an automatic parole process for certain inmates which should have a huge impact on the prison population in the next several years, though legal questions about the implementation timeline may delay the impact of the law.

HB 2286 also increases the availability of graduated sanctions, so that sending someone back to prison is not the fi rst response to a parole violation.

It’s a much-needed step toward a parole system that does what it’s meant to do: equip people coming out of prison with the resources to successfully rejoin the community. a

Damion Shade is the criminal justice policy analyst for Oklahoma Policy Institute (okpolicy.org).

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

The roosters of Mallorca A slow death in Spain

by BARRY FRIEDMAN ¡Quiquiriquí!

The roosters in Mallorca yawp at a sun that is nowhere on the horizon. It is still a deep, dark night in the Mediterranean, and the girl in the mansion—down a thousand stone steps from Iglesia parroquial de la Transfi guración del Señor, a church that sits high atop the city of Artà—is in bed and having trouble breathing.

Claudia, my former lover from decades ago, is dying. ¡Quiquiriquí!

I have come to Spain this New Year’s week to say goodbye.

I have also come to say hello.

I haven’t seen her in 22 years.

Twenty-fi ve years ago, outside a comedy club in The Bahamas, Claudi—I always dropped the a when speaking of her—stood looking at my publicity photo on the window. I watched her from inside the club. I was 37. She was 22.

She was smoking.

She was always smoking.

In 25 years, we only saw each other for 12 weeks—12 weeks.

This will be the last one.

She is still always smoking.

Everyone at the house at the moment has a cigarette lit. We are at breakfast around the table and Klaus and Julia, her friends from Germany who are visiting; Sebastian, the gardener, who picked me up at the airport; Bodi, the guy who renovated the house; and Paddy, the bodyguard of the European cyclist, Jan Ullrich, are all encased in smoke.

“Lance Armstrong is an asshole,” Claudi says when I ask if she knows him.

It is a statement as funny in German as it is in English.

There are jams, breakfast meats, bacon and eggs, breads 8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Claudia, smoking—of course, she’s smoking—has plans for the roses. | BARRY FRIEDMAN

and croissants, salmon, pastries, cheeses, coffee, espresso, Diet Cokes, and bottles of water with and without carbonation. In the competing words and hands slicing the air, the wafting of the smoke, and the sound of lighters being tossed and retrieved from the table, Claudi smiles.

This is how she wants it.

My mind wanders. I look at these Germans and Spaniards and think, inexplicably, of the energy of post-war Europe and the Marshall Plan, of divorced American Jews and young German girls fi nding each other in the Caribbean, and of Prosciutto and

Capicola. This is all a testament to Liberal Democracy. Autocracies didn’t do this.

Why in God’s name am I thinking of this?

Because the good guys won.

It reminds me of something Claudi said when she came once to Las Vegas to visit me. We rented a red Miata and drove to see a matinee of “Schindler’s List.”

As we walked to the car, after the movie, she draped her arm around my shoulder and said, “I think it was a good war for you to win.”

Claudi wears hair extensions now to make herself feel more, as she told me, “like a girl again.”

She wears hats, too, because she’s cold. And self-conscious. The extensions are blonde; her hair is brown. Her body is covered in tattoos. There is a globe above her wrist and a poem on her upper back. Her kids’ names are on her fi ngers. There are others, too, including a wolf (or maybe it’s a gargoyle) on her shoulder.

She’s 5-feet-7-inches and less than 100 pounds. In places on her body, her skin is tight and resolute against her bones; in other spots, it is saggy and resigned. Flesh without adhesion.

Her veins no longer give blood easily. The cancer is now in her lungs, stomach, lymph nodes, and kidneys. Only one kidney, though, she reminded me.

“That’s why they give you two.

One always works.”

“You look good,” I say.

She smiles.

“No. I have no ass.”

She gets up to get a coffee.

Her pants won’t stay up.

One of her four dogs, Amigo, has peed in the living room. Two of the guests walk into town for bread and, of course, more cigarettes. This, too, is how she wants it to be. She wants a house full of people. She wants to laugh and be followed around by dogs and hungry friends. She wants a house full of candles. She doesn’t mind the dark. She will not lie in bed, nauseous with nose bleeds, shivering under a blanket.

Her fi rst lover (I was her second) keeps sending fl owers.

He tells her he is leaving his wife to marry her, though she hasn’t seen him in years. Every morning since I’ve been here, and this is the third, he sends another dozen red roses. She called and told him to stop; still, he keeps sending

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

them, sometimes twice a day.

Finally, she dumped the roses on the fl oor and sent him a picture with her heel on them.

That morning—the fi rst one after she came to the comedy club in 1994—I was in bed in her condo, looking at the harbor between Paradise Island and the main island of New Providence, listening to a 10,000 Maniacs CD and eating Macadamia nuts. I heard her singing in the shower.

You can endow a moment like that and replay it forever, if you want, which I did, which I am doing now.

Maybe if we had stayed in the Bahamas—that was the line.

What would she do in America, though? What would I do in Germany? Of course it didn’t last. Of course we didn’t stay together. The years passed, the decades passed.

I got married and divorced. A friend of hers called to tell me in broken English, “You know she got a baby.” Then she got another one. Her parents died. My mother and son died. I got married and divorced.

We didn’t talk. We didn’t write.

Then, weeks ago, a message: “Would you come?”

“Why?” She was dying.

How do you say No? How do you say Yes? “You need to decide, Ba. The doctors say there’s … hope,” she said through a crackling connection.

“What?” I asked.

Did she say there was hope or was not?

She said it again, but again the connection was bad. She was crying. How many times can you ask someone to tell you she’s dying? And how do you tell the people in your life, the people you love—the people you love now— the people to whom you want to return and resume your life that you need to go see someone you used to love but barely know?

We are back on an island.

“You put the Nutella in the refrigerator?”

“No good?” I asked.

“Very bad. Go get wood from the garage. The fi re is almost out.”

“Stop being so demanding.”

“I am German, remember?”

“I don’t know anything about chimneys.”

“Ach, you Americans!”

“We won the war, okay? We don’t have to know anything about chimneys if we don’t want to.”

The same joke for a quarter century.

I got the wood. I made a mess of the fi replace. The fi re went out and the candle wax ruined the table.

I would be in Mallorca for fi ve days. She would then go to a clinic in Frankfurt.

“How long will you be in the hospital there?” I asked.

“Four months, if I live.”

There is music in the kitchen—it is loud and obnoxious. She lost much of her hearing when her Tinnitus wasn’t treated in time. She listens to Eminem, tortured European vocalists, and a satellite radio station that only plays cover bands.

She speaks good English and she invites you up into her room, And you’re so kind and careful not to go to her too soon I remember her body fi rm and alive, tan and wet, on a beach in the Bahamas—and I remembered it as I helped her put a pain patch on her lower back one morning here. If you put your head to her chest, you hear the missing breaths.

When she tries to fi nd a comfortable position, which she can’t (for there is a tumor protruding from her stomach) you hear the grinding of breath and bone and sinews.

Her body seizes up and she winces.

Just hold on to me, she seems to be saying, it will soon be over. I do.

I try to mirror her breathing, as if that would help.

“Exhaling hurts more than inhaling,” she says, as the pain subsides.

We took a walk my last night.

The stars, made of hydrogen and helium and conjecture, made her smile. She knew constellations and saw astrological beacons, which she pointed out to me.

“See?” I looked. I didn’t see what she saw.

“I want to fi ght,” she said.

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

“I also want to close my eyes sometimes and not wake up again.”

“Are you scared?”

“Yes.” “Now?” “No. I was in a coma once.

I knew I was. Was OK. I heard people around me crying. I wanted to say, ‘No, no, don’t.’ Then I felt myself coming back and I said, ‘Well, okay. For them, for my children, I come back. But I didn’t have to. I’ll be up there and it’ll be OK,” she repeated. “And then I’ll send thunder bolts down to burn your ass.”

“Nice.”

We went back inside. I had to leave for the airport at 3 a.m., so we stayed up and sat near the fi re she had ultimately decided I would not be in charge of. She talked of her son and daughter, who will be with their father, a man she never married; talked of her parents, refugees who came to Germany in the early 60s after fl eeing communists and fascists, and how they started a business making valves and seals for ships broken down at The Port of Hamburg. Her family moved from great poverty to even greater wealth; and she talked of how she moved from Ireland to Brazil to Austria to the Caribbean and the friends she left along the way.

“It was easy for me to give up connections,” she said. “I had to.

I always had to.”

Her fi re was perfect.

“Their bodies,” she said of her dead parents, “went through too much.”

And then I had to pack.

“Did you steal my Johnny Cash T-shirt?” I asked.

“Maybe yes.”

The taxi came too early. There was no choreography for this anyway.

“No words, okay?”

“Too many.”

I can’t remember who said what at the door.

On the way to the airport, through the night and the stars and the roundabouts on an island without traffi c lights, I heard the roosters again. ¡Quiquiriquí … Quiquiriquí …

Quiquiriquí!

The day was out there somewhere. a

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Rachel Caldwell JANUARY 16

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Dara Tucker JANUARY 18

Dean DeMerritt’s Jazz Tribe JANUARY 19

Drew Thomas Quintet JANUARY 23

Kenari Quartet JANUARY 24

Bishop Marsh Quartet JANUARY 25

Rachel Bachman JANUARY 30

Pete Lee - Comedy JANUARY 31

DuetJazz.com

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

community

Contractor Daryl Nieto, homeowner Nathan Pickard and architect Molly Jones | GREG BOLLINGER

Like a flower

Brady Heights home aspires to rigorous sustainability certification

by ZACK REEVES

I

n Brady Heights, there’s a hole in the ground. With any luck, it’ll soon be the most sustainable house in Oklahoma.

Nathan and Kristin Pickard call it “The Joinery,” this not-yetbuilt single-family home on North Denver Avenue. It’s a competitor in the global Living Building Challenge, a strenuous, long-term sustainability initiative that provides a framework for self-sustainable buildings. Not only must these buildings meet several criterion around environmentally-friendly building methods, materials, and design; they must also produce more energy than they use.

The hole is The Joinery’s basement—or, at least, it will be soon.

“We’re open to it taking a long time if it has to,” Nathan said.

“I think our hope is to have the outside of the building done by the end of June … [but] it might be more like the end of the year.”

Wood for the basement? It has to be Forest Stewardship Council certifi ed. Where could they fi nd that? Somewhere in Minnesota.

Energy for the house? It has to be renewable: solar and wind (or in some cases, hydropower and

10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

geothermal). No combustion. Easy, right? Not exactly. Senate Bill 1456 allows customers who use solar to be charged extra for putting excess energy back into the grid.

“You would think in a state like Oklahoma that supposedly hates regulations, that it’d be easy to just do whatever you want,” Nathan said. “But it’s not easy to do the right thing.”

If the Pickards succeed and complete the Living Building Challenge, they’ll be the fi rst in Oklahoma to do so, and one of fewer than two dozen on Earth.

“They need people to put that fi ght up,” Kristin said. “They’re saying, if you’re going to be certifi ed, you’re going to have to jump through all these hoops so that people can follow you and do it more easily after you. Someone has to do that.”

The Pickards seem at ease being the fi rst in Oklahoma to attempt this experiment, even while raising three kids (one a newborn), managing the Tisdale Food Forest along the L.L. Tisdale Parkway and a 20-acre garden at Emerson Elementary, Kristin’s job as a physician assistant, and

Nathan’s data analytics fi rm.

“We don’t watch much TV,” Kristin said.

Part of the couple’s drive comes from their commitment to community. In addition to serving as a single-family home, The Joinery will act as a catch-all community space for the neighborhood. The Pickards envision yoga classes in the morning, a remote working space during the day, and a teaching kitchen in the evening. Maybe even movie nights. (The Pickards will live in a mother-in-law suite on the north side.)

Another part might be nostalgia for the past: Nathan was born in Oregon, and spoke of his grandmother, “a ‘grow-everything-in-our-backyard’ kind of person. She had a full vegetable garden, but also she had raspberry bushes that were just incredible.

We would go back and just eat raspberries for forever.”

Sadly, he said, raspberries don’t grow well in Oklahoma. Either way, he’s trying to create more projects in Tulsa that work as well as that backyard garden he remembers.

When asked how realistic it is that a building can self-sustain and produce more energy than it uses, the Pickards were optimistic.

“We’ll fi nd out,” Nathan said.

The toilet will fl ush to a “biodigester” in the basement, which will compost the waste. Energy banks will hold the solar electricity. Water use will have to be kept low: no long showers. No PVC pipes, only metal.

“No one’s called us crazy to our faces,” Kristin said. “Most people seem really supportive.”

And, she says, people don’t need to embark on the Living Building Challenge to embrace sustainability.

“There are obviously thousands of ways you can change your lifestyle, from riding your bike or walking, to driving less, to eating local food—which requires less diesel fuel to transport.”

Nathan, by his own admission, is a little more extreme. His vision is of a home that has a positive impact on the environment— something that leaves our planet better off than if it didn’t exist.

Like a fl ower, he said, time will tell if the soil conditions are right. a

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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Let us help you plan for life’s moments.

Financial Insights and Guidance Mortgage and Lending | Retirement www.bankofoklahoma.com

© 2018. Bank of Oklahoma, a division of BOKF, NA. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

citybites

I

t’s the time of year again when people make, and subsequently abandon, earnest resolutions that suddenly seem to require ungodly determination.

If you’re like most of us and already regretting making restrictive resolutions (like reducing your carb intake) instead of permissive ones (like making 2019 the year of trying new things), maybe you’re looking to make a switch.

If so, Umami Fries at Mother Road Market might be the encouragement you need to set more delicious goals for yourself.

Another entry in a growing number of pop-fusion concepts, Umami Fries—brought to you by the same folks behind Gogi Gui Korean Grill—marries the spicy, rich, fermented fl avors of Korean meats with a medley of starches. Bulgogi beef, curried chicken, gochujang pork, wasabi chicken, and more are served over your choice of delightfully crispy French fries or puffy fl our tortillas.

Many of the fry plates range from $11–$12 each and come with an over-easy egg as well as an assortment of condiments like cheeses, slaw, bacon, kimchi, and jalapenos. The taco plates all feature three well-stuffed fl avor packages for $10–$11.

The gogi beef fries—their signature dish—comes topped with tender chunks of trimmed bulgogi beef, shredded cheese, a fried egg, diced kimchi, house sauce, and sesame seeds. The beef was nicely rendered and free from intrusive globs of fat or errant sinew. The shredded cheese (used sparingly) allowed the bulgogi to shine through what otherwise could have easily been a battleground of toppings.

Umami Fries’ main strength lies in the restaurant’s tendency to not overindulge what’s already an indulgence. Topped fries—nacho fries, chili cheese fries, carne asada fries, and the like—too often become puddles of excess drowning limp, bloated carb noodles.

Thankfully, Umami Fries lets the protein speak for itself, under-

12 // FOOD & DRINK

Thai tacos (left) and wasabi fries from Umami Fries at Mother Road Market | GREG BOLLINGER

FRIED RESOLUTIONS Fresh and crispy Umami Fries won’t let you down in 2019

by ERIC HOWERTON standing that cheese, queso, and kimchi should accent the meal, not suffocate it.

To fairly assess the quality of Umami Fries’ foundation—the fries themselves—we ordered an additional plate from another establishment at Mother Road Market.

The fries from both places, while equally delicious, were worlds apart. Umami uses a thinner cut, similar to McDonald’s fries but without the quick-wilting quality. This cut produces a perfectly crispy, rigid fry without any drooping. The inside is more airy than soft, and the entire fry is skinless. The table also greatly enjoyed the other joint’s fries, which were thicker cut, moder-

ately crispy, fl ecked with skin, and plump with pillowy insides.

It became obvious through comparison that the thinner cut fry was exactly the right choice for the Umami Fries concept. By increasing surface crisp and decreasing the starchy volume of the fry’s interior, the fountain of toppings and sauces have less of an opportunity to saturate the fries or create a boggy mass of potato mess.

The table split on whether the taco or fry preparations were preferred but agreed that the bulgogi was true to its namesake. The gochujang pork pleasantly married queso with fermented peppers and garlic, and the chicken dishes were nicely tender. The satay chicken curry tacos highlighted classic

curry powder profi les, and the wasabi fries—topped with shitake mushrooms, tofu, pickled ginger, chicken, and wasabi sauce—tasted like a deconstructed sushi roll in the best possible way.

A kick of wasabi delivered by a fry covered in runny egg yolk is something I resolve to eat more often in 2019. The only knock against the dish was that the tofu and the chicken seemed a little redundant. The two proteins served a similar purpose in terms of bite size, texture, and depth of fl avor.

Overall impressions of Umami Fries’ offerings were favorable— and the fries even stood up to oven-reheating without losing their crispy appeal. If the table had any grievances, it was that all our dishes ate rather sweet, which seemed unfortunate given that rich, earthy fl avors the name implied were present, but too easily washed away by sugary sauces.

While Bulgolgi beef requires a certain amount of sugar to glaze properly, the gochujang sauce cradling the pork and the wasabi honey drizzle glazing the chicken fries edged sweeter than necessary.

To see if our sugary perceptions were just a consequence of menu selection, we ordered three additional toppings: creamy coconut sauce (tops the Thai Fries; strong, authentic tom ka soup fl avor), special Chinese mustard (tops fries of the same name; has more kick than spicy mustard), and spicy strawberry sauce (tops the Ichigo Fries; tastes like high quality jam). All were overwhelmingly sweet—fl avorful, no doubt—but very sweet.

But if you’re cracking under the stress of your resolutions, maybe what you need is something sweet to help you remember why you keep on keepin’ on.

Maybe you need some fries with a little bulgogi on top. Fries that stay crispy and won’t let you down the way 2018 did. Fries that are ready to take on 2019 and all its boggy messes. Maybe it’s time to go get some resolution fries. Your future self will thank you for it. a

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

foodfile

I

t started out as a one-time work project. Now, fi ve years later, interior designer Melissa Perry is organizing her third Best of Brunch fundraiser for Domestic Violence Intervention Services (DVIS).

“KKT Architects [was] hired to do the architecture and design of their shelter and transitional housing facility, as well as their new offi ce building that just opened about a year ago,” said Perry, co-chair of the event. “I was one of the designers that worked with them. Learning what they do, seeing their staff, hearing what they’re passionate about … once the project was over, I didn’t want to just leave.”

DVIS provides help to individuals and families in need who have been affected by domestic violence. The Best of Brunch event raises money for the DVIS legal department, which provides information and representation in civil cases.

Currently DVIS’ legal team has 170 active cases, according to Chief Communications Offi cer Carissa Hon. In 2018 there were 440 applications for legal representation. Proceeds from the $100 brunch tickets will help DVIS maintain and expand the families they serve.

For the brunch, Hon said they are expecting around 400 people and so far have 19 restaurants participating, including Bramble Breakfast & Bar, All Things Cake, In the Raw, and more.

Guests are asked to vote for their favorite dishes.

Bin 35 Bistro in Brookside has taken home three trophies in three years—they’re on display above the bar. Owner Annie Tow is eyeing a fourth. This year is a little different, because there are two awards: best sweet and best savory dish. But to her, that’s just twice the chance to win.

Every year, Tow brings baconjam deviled eggs, which is on the menu at Bin 35. The eggs won the Best of Brunch contest the fi rst year, and for good reason.

The bacon jam atop the egg is

Bin 35 Bistro owner Annie Tow | GREG BOLLINGER

CUISINE FOR A CAUSE Best of Brunch benefits area families affected by domestic violence

by BLAYKLEE FREED sweet and salty—and the dish explodes with fl avor that leaves you wanting more. Tow said the bacon-jam eggs are popular at Best of Brunch, as well as other events they work. “People put like fi ve and six on their plate,” she said.

“I’m all about comfort foods.

The deviled egg that we’ve done, the Monte Cristo—just comfort food,” Tow said. The Monte Cristo is a fried ham-andcheese sandwich slathered in strawberry jam; it took last year’s prize. Just a few months after the 2018 Best of Brunch, Tow tried something that fi t right into that

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

comfort-food philosophy and gave a jump-start to 2019’s event.

“Maybe two or three months later, the chef served these bacon cheddar grits that were unbelievable,” she said. “Right then I was like, this is what we’re going to do.”

Perhaps the most notable change this year will be the open bar. There will be mimosas, Bloody Marys, beer, and wine to choose from. Inner Circle Vodka Bar is providing the vodka for Bloody Marys, and Perry said that’s just the start of what will make them delicious. “It’s not just a celery stick. There’s going to be

bacon and all kinds of garnishments,” she said.

Perry said there also will be fun gifts at affordable prices.

“They have all these different boxes from Kendra Scott with a range of jewelry. They all have different price points. Your item will be at least that minimum price, but usually it’s more,” Perry said. “I’ve done it every year, and I’ve gotten an amazing ring [worth] $150 for $50. It’s a fun piece, and it’s something I probably wouldn’t have picked out just going to the store, so that’s also why it’s fun.”

They will also have mystery boxes, which work similarly to the jewelry pool, with surprise prizes such as custom artwork or restaurant and boutique gift cards.

While the draw is food, fun, and fundraising, the event will also shine a light on the serious, lifesaving work done by DVIS. The hope is that attendees will come way from the event with a full stomach and a broader understanding of the services available for Tulsans dealing with the horror of domestic abuse.

In addition to legal aid, DVIS also has advocates available for people fi ling protective orders.

“Those advocates sit with people as they fi ll out protective orders, answer questions … and explain the process to them and what to expect, because that can be scary—especially if you’ve already been through something scary,” Hon said. DVIS also has a law enforcement liaison to help in situations where police are involved.

Hon also noted the DVIS Rapid Intervention Team: “The focus is to hold offenders accountable. They take the most violent offenders, the offenders most likely to kill somebody, and they speed up that process.

They’re accepted based on the history and the level of violence.”

DVIS Best of Brunch will be from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26 at The Mayo Hotel, 115 W. 5th St. Tickets can be purchased at the link on the event’s Facebook page. a FOOD & DRINK // 13

downthehatch

W

hen La Pivon Spanish vermouth arrived in Tulsa, it was accompanied by a story, as most alcoholic beverages are. Selling a story is easier than selling a bottle of booze, especially one as little understood as vermouth.

Yes, good bartenders know what vermouth is and how it works best—but for most of us, it’s a prop in a James Bond fi lm or a dusty bottle on a relative’s home bar. Sure, the labels are often intricate and perhaps even beautiful, but unless you drink Manhattans, your experience with vermouth is likely very limited.

According to the La Pivon story, Madrid slows down at “La Hora del Vermut,” the vermouth hour, and friends gather in cafes to drink vermouth from cordial glasses as an end of the day/ before dinner aperitif. The Spanish, we should note, have done many things right in the world of lifestyle enhancers: paella, manchego, Tempranillo, and Jamon Iberico (Iberian ham), to name a few. But vermouth?

A martini drinker once told me he just looks at the vermouth on the back bar, and that is suffi cient for his preferred martini, yet we have these festive Spaniards slogging it down as if it’s magical.

What is the truth?

Good vermouth is very drinkable as an aperitif, either on the rocks or with soda, as a spritz. It begins as wine, and is then fortifi ed with a neutral spirit, and fi nally “aromatized” with botanicals, including wormwood typically, from whence it derives its name; wormwood is vermut in German. The effect is similar to what happens when botanicals are added to a neutral spirit to make gin—it becomes more interesting, more complex.

Logan Sweetwood, the general manager at Hodges Bend, said he 14 // FOOD & DRINK

THE VERMOUTH HOUR

Bird & Bottle’s modified Negroni pays homage to Anthony Bourdain.

The thick wedge of orange is torched for garnish. | GREG BOLLINGER

De-mystifying a drinkable aperitif

by GREG HORTON likes to use vermouth in cocktails before dinner because the lower alcohol means he’s less likely to get drunk before the meal.

“Vermouth also adds an interesting set of components to a drink, and it helps create a more balanced, less boozy cocktail,” Sweetwood said. “We have an Adonis—a classic cocktail—on the menu now.”

The Adonis is simply vermouth, sherry and bitters, which

means low alcohol, tons of fl avor, complex notes, and good balance.

It makes for a good digestif, too, after a meal because it won’t leave you feeling overly full and it won’t slow digestion like a boozy cocktail.

“I think people have had bad vermouth more than they realize,” Sweetwood said. “It’s not like liquor. You can’t just leave it sitting out. It’ll keep in a refrigerator for a couple weeks, but that’s it.

When people taste vermouth that’s been kept right, they are typically surprised at how much they like it.”

Like Hodges Bend, Bird & Bottle uses vermouth in a classic cocktail, but in this case, it’s a variation on a classic. Bartender Jason Thompson said he started making the modifi ed Negroni as an homage to Anthony Bourdain last year. He uses Turmeon Spanish vermouth, London Dry Gin (Hayman’s Navy Strength is excellent), and Cappelletti Amaro (a bitter liqueur).

“I torch a thick wedge of orange—Bourdain’s preference— to garnish,” Thompson said.

Spanish vermouths started showing up in Oklahoma in late 2017, and Turmeon was fi rst.

While it fi rst appeared in Germany, vermouth is better known as a French or Italian spirit, but the Spanish are making exceptional vermouth now, especially if you like vermouth neat on the rocks. The Turmeon is pleasantly sweet but not cloying. It’s made with twelve botanicals, so there is some complexity. Whether or not the product does what its producers claim (“Turn Me On”) we’ll leave to your own personal investigations. Still, even if it’s not an aphrodisiac, it is delicious.

The La Pivon is the newest of the Spanish vermouths, and the Rojo is fi lled with pleasantly bitter baking spice notes, like the barely-burned edge of a cookie or pumpkin bread. You can fi nd the La Pivon at Amelias, or if you want a bottle for yourself, Ranch Acres and Parkhill’s.

A quick note to clarify: red vermouth started as white wine—all vermouth does—and it’s typically referred to as sweet, but it’s not Coca-Cola sweet. Dry vermouth is always white, but some white vermouth is sweet, so it’s not dry vermouth in the traditional sense. a

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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FOOD & DRINK // 15

BUDGET CUTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE SPELL TROUBLE FOR RURAL OKLAHOMA

BY FRASER K ASTNER PHOTOS BY NICK OXFORD

16 // FEATURED

AT TIMES, IT SEEMED 2018 WOULD NEVER END. Earth-shattering news stories seemed to come once a week as the United States was rocked by everything from natural disasters to domestic terrorism. Somewhere in the midst of all this, thousands of acres in western Oklahoma went up in fl ames.

In April, two separate fi res— the Rhea Fire in Dewey County and 34 Complex Fire in Woodward—together burned roughly 348,000 acres in western Oklahoma over the course of two weeks. Ultimately, Gov. Fallin issued a state of emergency for 52 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties.

Shane Sander is chief of the Seiling Fire Department in Dewey County. He was there on April 12, when the Oklahoma Forestry Service warned his department that the day was projected to pose an extreme wildfi re risk. The previous year brought a strong growing season, followed by drier conditions that left much of the area covered in withered brush and yel-

lowed grass—fuel for the fi re. On that day, humidity was expected to fall into the single digits as the area was battered by stronger-than-normal winds.

“It was the perfect storm,” Sander remembered nine months later.

Even with warning, it’s hard to get fi res under control in these conditions. On the fi rst day of extreme fi re danger, most of Dewey County burned in what came to be called the Rhea fi re. Less than a week later there was another day of extreme fi re risk, but only so much could be done. “[The Forestry Department] told us, ‘It’s gonna be bad guys. Get ready,’” Sander said. “And we did, but getting ready means not getting your guys in trouble at that point.

Stay out of the way of it, and don’t get overrun.”

Fire conditions were so probable that Sander and his crews had to abandon the idea of stopping the fi re’s progress once it had started. They basically ended up managing the fl anks of the fi re.

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Usually fi refi ghters will dig a shallow trench, called a fi reline, in the path of the fi re to halt its progress.

But the dry conditions, massive amount of fuel, and unusually high wind speed ensured the Rhea fi re moved so quickly that Sander’s crew couldn’t dig one fast enough, even with assistance from eastern Oklahoma fi re crews who had driven over to help.

Sander made special note of the Rogers and Mayes County Fire Departments, with whom he worked personally during the crisis. “Those guys are heroes in my book,” he said. “Because they drove a long way to get here, and they fought like warriors once they got here.”

PREPARING FOR THE WORST Standing in a clearing in the pine forest by Lake Blackwell in Stillwater, Oklahoma Forestry Service fi re management chief Andy James introduced the various fi refi ghting tools to the assembled students gathered for a training session:

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

the council rake, rogue hoe, reinforced shovel, Comby, Polaski, and collapsible rake—all designed to scrape grass, brush, roots, and other fl ammable materials from the fi re line. James, along with Wilburton area forester Craig Marquardt, explained that a wildfi res aren’t put out by smothering them with water or dirt, like you would extinguish a campfi re. Instead, fi refi ghters in rural areas typically control these blazes by depriving them of fuel.

The students broke up into four groups of seven or so. Preassigned team leaders distributed the tools, and each group marched into the woods single fi le, 10 feet between each member. James and Marquardt led two teams apiece a short distance along a trail, out of the warmth of the morning sun and into the forest. The students were shown the planned route of their fi re line, a roughly 25 yard semicircle of blue plastic ribbons extending from the trail.

The groups were instructed to begin their fi reline from a place

that won’t burn, usually a paved road. They began digging their line from where each end of the semicircle meets the forest path. Marching at ten-foot intervals, each crew member took one pass with their tool, clearing away more fuel from the fi re line until a shallow trench of bare earth is made along the entire route. It took about 20 minutes to complete their planned fi reline. This is, in miniature, the way that wildfi res are contained.

The students were fast workers, but even fi refi ghters with years of experience have had trouble keeping up with what the last few years have brought. Sander has been with the Seiling Fire Department for 24 years, 16 of them as their chief. During his quarter-century as a fi reman he says he has never seen anything like the Rhea fi re.

“Our little county here, that was the largest in history,” he said.

“We are seeing fi res growing in intensity and size as the years go by, but last year was an anomaly for sure.”

James says that the last few years have brought some of the most devastating fi re activity he has seen in his 23 years as a fi reman. “Dating back to 2016, just in northwest Oklahoma we’ve burned well over a million acres,” he said.

We’re doing a little better so far this year. The area has gotten suffi cient precipitation over the last few weeks, enough to keep moisture levels up. Still, James notes that Oklahoma’s weather is just as unpredictable as people say it is.

“We get a couple weather systems that move through and this time of year it doesn’t take long for things to dry out and we’re off to the races,” James said. “So I just don’t want people to let their guard down and think because it’s a little wet and the ground’s a little mushy that things won’t burn. Because they will.”

When asked if he was worried about another fi re season like last year, Sander erupted in laughter.

“Absolutely! No doubt.”

FEATURED // 17

The last few years have brought some of the most devastating fire activity Andy James has seen in his 23 years as a fireman.

OKLAHOMA FORESTRY SERVICE FIRE MANAGEMENT CHIEF ANDY JAMES | NICK OXFORD

A DISTURBING PATTERN The last few years’ fi re activity is part of a worrying trend toward more extreme weather seen across the world. The Fourth National Climate Assessment, released last year, shows that average temperatures in our area are expected to increase by 3.6 to 5.1 degrees by the middle of the century, and 4.4 to 8.4 degrees by the end.

Our region is also expected to see at least 20 more days over 100 degrees per year by the end of the century, with higher-scenario projections placing it closer to 60 or 70 if no reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are made.

As a result, Oklahoma is dry 18 // FEATURED

with infrequent precipitation—but when it rains, it pours. This leads to a pattern of drought, followed by fl ooding, a pattern associated with greater soil aridity and an increased risk of wildfi res as well as a longer fi re season.

The Rhea and 34 Complex were both rural fi res, and most of the area destroyed was either farmland or grazing pasture. More than a thousand head of cattle were killed. In some instances the same land has burned multiple years in a row, which is even more devastating for farmers and ranchers. It is bad news for any state when its ecosystem becomes increasingly hostile to life, especially for an

agrarian state like Oklahoma.

When asked if he had the resources or personnel to handle another fi re like last year, Sander struggled to answer. “To tell you the truth … if I’d have had every fi re department in the state sitting here at my disposal, I don’t think that we could have adequately handled that fi re with the way that it was moving and the intensity,” he said. “I don’t know if a person could ever have the resources or the manpower to handle anything like we experienced last year.”

Additionally, the Oklahoma Forestry Service—originally founded to look after eastern Oklahoma’s forests but now also

responsible for coordinating the state’s wildfi re response—is badly underfunded after a decade of budget cuts. The Service is forced to make due without needed personnel and equipment as its vehicle fl eet slides into disrepair.

“Our fl eet of vehicles is really starting to show a lot of age, and due to consistent budget cuts the last 10 years, we’ve lost our funding to update our fl eet and also maintain our fl eet,” James said. “That’s really crucial to be able to respond with well-maintained operational equipment when we get the call.”

For now, the Forestry Service gets help through the Southern Group of State Foresters, an organization dedicated to conservation and protection efforts in the southern United States. Through SGSF, the Service have access to experienced personnel and necessary equipment. Even so, it comes at a price. “It’s not cheap to fi ght fi re, and you bring in resources from out of state,” James said.

“You bring in aircraft from out of state. You bring in overhead and personnel with expertise from out of state. It’s pretty easy to spend millions of dollars.”

The last two years have brought unprecedented fi re damage to the state of Oklahoma and beyond.

California is still reeling from last year’s historically deadly and destructive wildfi re season, which killed more than 100 people and cost upwards of $3.5 billion in damage, as President Trump—who has claimed that climate change is a Chinese “hoax” and blames California’s forestry service for the disaster—threatens to withhold FEMA assistance for victims.

Despite resistance from those in power, the scientifi c consensus is clear: Conditions for these kinds of large-scale disasters grow more favorable thanks to rising temperatures brought by climate change.

Unless steps are taken to curb the emission of greenhouse gasses, our state will only be at greater risk for such catastrophic weather events—the devastating price of negligence, paid in lives, property, and treasure. In the meantime, people like Sander and James will watch the approaching fi re season with an uneasy eye, ready for the worst. a January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

It’s once again one of our most eagerly anticipated times of the year, when we ask you to voice your opinions on who and what are the Best of Tulsa.

Between exciting new developments and trustworthy favorites, there’s a lot to celebrate in our city. Cast your vote in these 97 categories of food, art, entertainment, and fun to reflect what to you makes Tulsa a great place to live, work, and play.

And to sweeten the deal, by submitting a Nomination Ballot, you’ll be entered to win a $500 dining package. Nominations are open through Jan. 20.

Look out for the runoff ballot, available from Feb. 1 through Feb. 28.

WWW.THETULSAVOICE.COM/BOT

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

FEATURED // 19

E V E N T S @ T PA C

Beauty and the Beast Theatre Tulsa Now - Feb. 3 Wild Kratts Live Innovation Arts & Entertainment Jan. 20 The Sound of Science Choregus Productions Jan. 25 Kenari Saxophone Quartet Chamber Music Tulsa Jan. 27 Lara Logan Tulsa Town Hall Feb. 1 Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony Tulsa Symphony Feb. 2 The Green Book Theatre North Feb. 3-10 Jambalaya Jass Band Brown Bag It Tulsa PAC Trust Feb. 6

TICKETS @ TULSAPAC.COM 918.596.7111

20 // FEATURED

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

BOX OFFICE

BONANZA YOUR PERFORMING ARTS GUIDE FOR WINTER AND SPRING 2019

On stage in the coming months, you’ll find classic tales, beloved characters, and show-stopping Broadway hits.

You’ll also find world premieres, innovative expression, and history-making performances. Your seats await you.

Every Saturday

THE DRUNKARD AND THE OLIO Tulsa Spotlighters perform this melodrama—which is the longest-running play in the country—and its accompanying variety show weekly.

Spotlight Theatre

JANUARY 11–Feb. 3

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Theatre Tulsa presents Disney’s “tale as old as time.”

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – John H. Williams Theatre Theatre Tulsa 17

CONCERTS WITH COMMENTARY: GERMAN ROMANTICS—BRAHMS AND SPOHR Clarinetist Kristi Sturgeon, soprano Meray Boustani, and pianist Stuart Deaver will perform and discuss Brahms’s Sonata No. 1 in F minor and Spohr’s “Six German Songs.”

Lorton Performance Center TU School of Music

18

20

26

PETER AND THE WOLF Tulsa Ballet resident choreographer Ma Cong created this version of the classic adventure for the Ballet’s Children’s Series.

Anne & Henry Zarrow Performance Studio Tulsa Ballet

WILD KRATTS LIVE 2.0 – ACTIVATE CREATURE POWER! Chris and Martin Kratt bring their PBS Kids show to the stage.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Innovation Arts & Entertainment

BACH AND SONS, INC. To celebrate their 40th anniversary, Signature Symphony will recreate their very first program, playing selections by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, and Peter Schickele’s fictitious creation, P.D.Q. Bach.

VanTrease PACE Signature Symphony

18–19

25

OKLAHOMA MUSIC EDUCATORS CONFERENCE Performances by ensembles comprised of musicians from high schools and colleges around the state.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall OKMEA

GOLDEN HORNET’S “THE SOUND OF SCIENCE” World-renowned cellist Jeffrey Zeigler performs in this concert of eight pieces written by celebrated composers in collaboration with scientists in a variety of fields.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Liddy Doenges Theatre Choregus Productions

19

DAVID SPADE The SNL alum, actor, and stand-up comedian performs.

Hard Rock Casino – The Joint 20

DEMETRI MARTIN The comedian brings his “Wandering Mind Tour” to Tulsa.

Cox Business Center – Assembly Hall

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

25

BRIAN REGAN The stand-up comedian performs.

Brady Theater Live Nation

26–27

KENARI SAXOPHONE QUARTET The quartet will perform pieces by Gershwin, Piazzolla, Zarvos, and more.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Westby Pavilion and John H. Williams Theatre Chamber Music Tulsa 29

AMY SHOREMOUNT-OBRA: RECITAL OF SONGS AND ARIAS The Metropolitan Opera soprano will perform pieces by Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, Wagner, Puccini, and others.

Lorton Performance Center – Gussman Concert Hall TU School of Music

FEATURED // 21

THE LITTLE PRINCE

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE

FRED ARMISEN

FEBRUARY 1

LARA LOGAN CBS News’s chief foreign affair correspondent will speak about covering political and human conflicts.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Town Hall 1–3

WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT The actor in this experimental play does not read the script until the performance is underway.

University of Tulsa – Tyrrell Hall Oklahoma Center for the Humanities 1–10

AS YOU LIKE IT This Shakespeare comedy is full of betrayal, fighting, love, and confusion.

Clark Youth Theatre 2

SHOSTAKOVICH’S 7TH SYMPHONY Tulsa Symphony performs Shostakovich’s musical testament to Soviet citizens who lost their lives in World War II. Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Symphony 3–10

THE GREEN BOOK This play was inspired by “The Negro Motorist Green Book,” which listed places throughout the country that welcomed black customers during segregation.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Liddy Doenges Theatre Theatre North

22 // FEATURED

8–17

15 & 17

JAMBALAYA JAZZ BAND The Oklahoma band performs New Orleans Jazz, standards, big band music, and Western Swing.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Kathleen Westby Pavilion PAC Trust

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE [ABRIDGED] Brave performers set out to breeze through the Bard’s entire catalog in just one evening.

Broken Arrow Community Playhouse

THE LITTLE PRINCE Oscar-winning film composer Rachel Portman (“Emma,” “Chocolat”) composed this operatic adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved book.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Opera

7

SECOND SUNDAY SERIALS See five new one-act plays and vote on which stories will continue in the next month’s installment.

Agora Event Center Heller Theatre Company

6

10

CONCERTS WITH COMMENTARY: LOVE SONGS AND DANCES Performances and discussion of compositions by Saint-Saëns, Hermans, Debussy, Obradors, Ginastera, Piazzola, and Gershwin.

Lorton Performance Center TU School of Music 8

MENDING MASCULINITY Spoken word artists Kavie Ade and Vision perform pieces that explore all forms of masculinity and the inherent toxicity of gendered binaries in a patriarchal world.

University of Tulsa – Tyrrell Hall Oklahoma Center for the Humanities and Association of Black Collegians

14

JEFF DUNHAM The ventriloquist and comedian brings his “Passively Aggressive” show to town.

BOK Center 14–17

EURYDICE Sarah Ruhl’s 2003 play retells the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus from the perspective of his wife.

University of Tulsa – Kendall Hall TU School of Theatre & Musical Theatre

15–17

SEUSSICAL KIDS The world of Dr. Seuss jumps off the page and onto the stage.

Cascia Hall PAC Clark Youth Theatre and The Penguin Project 15–24

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE This Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine is inspired by Georges Seurat’s painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Liddy Doenges Theatre American Theatre Company and Theatre Pops

8–10

THE RESURRECTION OF BLACK WALL STREET This new play by Rebecca Marks Jimerson and Henry Primeaux is based on childhood memories of Greenwood from Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Lassie Benningfield Randle.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – John H. Williams Theatre Tulsa Project Theatre

15–16

18

BREAKING GOOD Signature Big Band performs with featured trumpeter Walter White.

VanTrease PACE Signature Symphony

JERSEY BOYS The story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons comes to Broken Arrow for one night only.

Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center 21

FRED ARMISEN The “Portlandia” creator performs his show, “Comedy for Musicians but Everyone is Welcome.”

Cain’s Ballroom

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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MAY 18 • 7:30 PM LORTON PERFORMANCE CENTER

Use code TOCVOICE to receive 20% off your purchase!

Tickets at TULSACHORUS.COM THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

FEATURED // 23

BRUCE BRUCE

COMPAGNIE HERVÉ KOUBI

THE PLAY GOES WRONG

FREDERIC DE FAVERNEY

21–24

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY The world-famous fairy tale is also one of the great classics in the history of ballet.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Ballet 22–March 2

MY FAIR LADY Based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” this beloved musical features such classic musical numbers as “I Could Have Danced All Night.”

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – John H. Williams Theatre Theatre Tulsa 26–March 3

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG A classic murder mystery show goes off the rails in this disastrous madcap comedy.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Celebrity Attractions 28–March 3

BEST OF ENEMIES Based on Osha Gray Davidson’s bestselling book, this play tells the story of the 1971 community meeting co-chaired by civil rights activist Ann Atwater and KKK leader C.P. Ellis on the court-ordered desegregation of schools in Durham, NC. Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Liddy Doenges Theatre World Stage Theatre Company 24 // FEATURED

MARCH 1

MOONSHINE BALLADS AND VARIOUS CHARMS A performance featuring modern classical ensemble Gryphon Trio and singer Patricia O’Callaghan.

Renaissance Square Event Center Chamber Music Tulsa 1–3

OLIVER TWIST Spotlight Children’s Theatre brings Charles Dickens’s story to life on stage.

Spotlight Theatre Spotlight Children’s Theatre 2–3

GRYPHON TRIO This performance will include Clarke’s “Trio in E-flat major,” Wijeratne’s “Love Triangle,” and Ravel’s “Trio in A minor.”

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Westby Pavilion and John H. Williams Theatre Chamber Music Tulsa 5

COMPAGNIE HERVÉ KOUBI Led by one of Europe’s most distinctive choreographers, the company’s performances combine martial arts and urban and contemporary dance.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Choregus Productions

6

8

MARGARET SINGER AND BARBARA MCALISTER The pianist and opera singer perform.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Kathleen Westby Pavilion PAC Trust

PLATON The internationally acclaimed photographer—who has produced more than 20 covers for Time magazine—will speak about The People’s Portfolio, which aspires to create a visual language that breaks barriers and enlists the public to fight for human dignity around the world.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Town Hall

7

BRUCE BRUCE The former host of BET’s ComicView performs.

Hard Rock Casino – The Joint

9 7

CONCERTS WITH COMMENTARY: VINTAGE WILDFLOWERS Mandolinist Scott Schmidt and violist Quinn Maher will join Vintage Wildflowers for an evening of Celtic, folk, and bluegrass music.

Lorton Performance Center TU School of Music 7–10

BRIGHT STAR When literary editor Alice Murphy meets a young soldier just home from WWII, she sets out on a journey to understand her past.

Howard Auditorium ORU Theatre

PETER AND THE WOLF Tulsa Ballet resident choreographer Ma Cong created this version of the classic adventure for the Ballet’s Children’s Series.

Studio K Tulsa Ballet 10

SECOND SUNDAY SERIALS See five new one-act plays and vote on which stories will continue in the next month’s installment.

Agora Event Center Heller Theatre Company 14

PJ MASKS LIVE: SAVE THE DAY The Entertainment One animated series comes to life on stage.

BOK Center

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Classics IV

Saturday, February 2, 2019 • 7:30pm Tulsa Performing Arts Center Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 in C major A musical testament to the Soviet citizens who lost their lives in World War II, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 expresses conflict and strength as well as lyricism and loss. Prior to the piece, guest conductor Gerhardt Zimmermann will present his “beneath the score” insights into this incredible work of music with a dramatic visual presentation.

Get tickets at tulsasymphony.org or 918-596-7111

Jan. 25

7-9 p.m.

FREE admission

BEER & B I E R S TA D T Kick back with an evening of craft beer courtesy of Oklahoma breweries, music and art. Plus, don’t miss the opportunity to view our exhibition Albert Bierstadt: Witness to a Changing West before it’s gone.

Presenting Sponsor:

gilcrease.org/gah

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

FEATURED // 25

14

5–6

CARROT TOP The comedian performs.

Hard Rock Casino – The Joint

TULSA SINGS! THE BERNSTEIN/ROBBINS CENTENNIAL The annual singing competition will pay tribute to the 100th birthdays of Broadways legends Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins.

VanTrease PACE Signature Symphony

14–15

PROFESSOR SMART Professor Smart demonstrates fascinating science concepts through cool experiments and physical comedy.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – John H. Williams Theatre PAC Trust 16

POWER OF DIVERSITY Signature Symphony will perform Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for Violin in D major, op. 35, and Amy Beach’s Symphony in E minor (Gaelic) featuring 22-year-old award-winning violinist Rubén Rengel.

Vantrease PACE Signature Symphony

5–14

STEEL MAGNOLIAS The bond between the women at Truvy’s Chinquapin, LA beauty salon is as tough as steel.

Broken Arrow Community Playhouse 5–14

THE WEDDING SINGER Rock on back to the ‘80s in this musical adaptation of Adam Sandler’s 1998 comedy.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – John H. Williams Theatre Theatre Tulsa

WHO’S LIVE ANYWAY?

24

PUDDLES PITY PARTY The “Sad Clown with the Golden Voice” performs.

Cox Business Center – Assembly Hall 28

AMERICAN GIRL LIVE An all-new musical based on American Girl dolls.

Cox Business Center – Assembly Hall 28–31

C.S. LEWIS’S ‘THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS’ In a stylish office in Hell, one of Satan’s senior tempters schemes meticulously to capture the soul of an unsuspecting human.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – John H. Williams Theatre Fellowship for Performing Arts 29

IMPRACTICAL JOKERS The comedy troupe behind truTV’s prank show performs.

BOK Center 29–31

TCHAIKOVSKY: THE MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC Tulsa Ballet presents the world premier of choreographer Ma Cong’s ballet about the life of the “Swan Lake” and “The Nutcracker” composer.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Ballet

APRIL 3

CYNTHIA SIMMONS TRIO Celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month with one of the area’s best jazz singers.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Kathleen Westby Pavilion PAC Trust 26 // FEATURED

5–14

THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES This musical version of the classic tale was written by Oklahoman Martha Kemm Barrett.

Clark Youth Theatre 10

FRANK ABAGNALE The cybersecurity and fraud prevention expert, best-selling author, and subject of “Catch Me If You Can” will speak about his adventurous life.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall OSU-Tulsa Business Forums 12

SARAH PARCAK The space archaeologist, Egyptologist, and satellite imagery pioneer will speak about Xplorer, an online platform that will allow citizen-scientists to discover lost civilizations.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Town Hall

TCHAIKOVSKY: THE MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC

12–20

DENIM DOVES The Oklahoma Premiere of Adrienne Dawes’s feminist farce lies somewhere between “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Idiocracy.”

Studio 308 American Theatre Company and Theatre Pops 13

TRIAL BY JURY This four-part dance program is anchored

by Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury” with a modern tech twist: iPhone or Android?

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Liddy Doenges Theatre Oklahoma Performing Arts Inc.

CYNTHIA SIMMONS TRIO

13

14

SECOND SUNDAY SERIALS See five new one-act plays and vote on which stories will continue in the next month’s installment.

Agora Event Center Heller Theatre Company

AGORA EVENT CENTER 1402 S. Peoria Ave. #200 agoraeventcenter.com

VENUES

RACHMANINOFF’S “SYMPHONIC DANCES” This program will also include Strauss’s “Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche,” Op. 28, and Piazzolla’s “Serie Del Angel.”

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Symphony

BROKEN ARROW COMMUNITY PLAYHOUSE 1800 S. Main St., Broken Arrow bacptheatre.com

ANNE & HENRY ZARROW PERFORMANCE STUDIO 1901 W. New Orleans St., Broken Arrow tulsaballet.org

BROKEN ARROW PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 701 S. Main St., Broken Arrow brokenarrowpac.com

BOK CENTER 200 S. Denver Ave. bokcenter.com

CLARK YOUTH THEATRE 4825 S. Quaker Ave. clarkyouththeatre.com

BRADY THEATER 105 W. M.B. Brady St. bradytheater.com

FLY LOFT 117 N. Boston Ave. #208 facebook.com/flylofttulsa

GUTHRIE GREEN 111 E. M.B. Brady St. guthriegreen.com

STUDIO 308 308 S. Lansing Ave. studio308tulsa.com

NIGHTINGALE THEATER 1416 E. 4th St. nightingaletheater.com

TULSA BALLET STUDIO K 1212 E. 45th Pl. • tulsaballet.org

PARADISE COVE AT RIVER SPIRIT CASINO RESORT 8330 Riverside Pkwy riverspirittulsa.com SPOTLIGHT THEATRE 1381 Riverside Drive spotlighttheatre.org

TULSA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 110 E. 2nd St. • tulsapac.com VANTREASE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 10300 E. 81st St. • tulsacc.edu WALTER ARTS CENTER Holland Hall, 5666 E. 81st St. hollandhall.org

16–21

WAITRESS Based on Adrienne Shelly’s 2007 film, this adaptation features music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Celebrity Attractions 18

REIMAGINING THE 1921 TULSA RACE MASSACRE Songwriter and playright Ronvé O’Daniel and Jen Latham, author of “Dreamland Burning,” will discuss the role that art, fiction, and music play in helping us remember the Tulsa Race Massacre.

University of Tulsa – Tyrrell Hall Oklahoma Center for the Humanities

28

4

CARPE DIEM STRING QUARTET This concert will feature pieces by Shostakovitch and Rautavaara and “Fiddle Suite Montana” by the quartet’s violist, Korine Fujiwara.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – John H. Williams Theatre Chamber Music Tulsa

SOMETHING ROTTEN! Two unsuccessful Elizabethan-era playwrights set out to change the game by producing the world’s first musical.

Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center

28–May 5

SASSY MAMAS This comedy by Celeste Buford is about three professional women looking for love from younger men.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Liddy Doenges Theatre Theatre North

20

MAHLER’S RESURRECTION Signature Symphony will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor with featured soprano Maria Lindsey and mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski.

VanTrease PACE Signature Symphony 26–28

TBII: NEXT GENERATION This performance from Tulsa Ballet’s second company will feature three world premiere works from in-demand choreographers.

Studio K and Anne & Henry Zarrow Performance Studio Tulsa Ballet 27

MEGHADOOTAM: THE CLOUD MESSENGER Based on the epic work by the Sanskrit poet Kalidasa, this play tells the story of an exiled man who pines for his wife and convinces a passing cloud to take a message to her.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – John H. Williams Theatre South Asian Performing Arts Foundation

MAY 3

WHOSE LIVE ANYWAY? An evening of improvised comedy with Dave Foley, Greg Proops, Joel Murray, and Jeff B. Davis.

Brady Theater DCF Concerts 3&5

8

CASII STEPHAN The local singer-songwriter performs.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Kathleen Westby Pavilion PAC Trust 9–12

SIGNATURE SERIES: FROM BALLET TO BROADWAY This program features pieces by Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, and Andy Blankenbuehler that fuse classical ballet and Broadway-style dance.

Lorton Performance Center Tulsa Ballet 12

SECOND SUNDAY SERIALS The culmination of the current season of serialized audience-chosen one-act plays.

Agora Event Center Heller Theatre Company

DON GIOVANNI Lucia Lucas will make U.S. history, becoming the first trans person to perform a principle role on an operatic stage in the country, in the title role in Mozart’s tragicomic opera.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Opera

17

3–5

18–26

THE WIZARD OF OZ Follow the Yellow Brick Road in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s take on this classic tale.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – John H. Williams Theatre Theatre Tulsa 3–12

POLLYANNA The ever-optimistic Pollyanna comes to Bruce Goff’s iconic Riverside theater.

Spotlight Theatre Spotlight Children’s Theatre THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

HANSON: STRING THEORY WITH TULSA SYMPHONY Isaac, Taylor, and Zac team up with Tulsa Symphony for this one-night-only concert event.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Tulsa Symphony THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME Based on the novel by Mark Haddon, an autistic teenager seeks to investigate when a neighbor’s dog is found dead.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Liddy Doenges Theatre Theatre Tulsa

31–June 1

THE LIGHTNING THIEF: THE PERCY JACKSON MUSICAL The Greek Gods are real and it’s up to Percy Jackson, a son of Poseidon to prevent a war between the gods. Adapted from Rick Riordan’s best-selling novel.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Celebrity Attractions

JUNE 5

KYLE DILLINGHAM & HORSHOE ROAD The Enid fiddle player and Horseshoe Road play a kind of music they call Heartland Acoustic.

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Westby Pavillion 7–16

GODSPELL The Gospel of Matthew is reset in modern-day New York City to a rock and roll score.

Broken Arrow Community Playhouse 8

THE TEMPEST Members of The Orbit Initiative’s intergenerational art classes will perform this musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall PAC Trust 18–23

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF The classic musical about maintaining cultural identity against encroaching influences features several Broadway hits, including “Sunrise, Sunset,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.”

Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Chapman Music Hall Celebrity Attractions a

FEATURED // 27

T

onstage

Alex Geiger | GARY MASON

SAFE SPACE Theatre North’s ‘Green Book’ offers a lesson in humanity

by MARY NOBLE

Nick Bushta | GARY MASON

28 // ARTS & CULTURE

raveling was a dangerous affair for black Americans in the Jim Crow era. It was so potentially perilous that tens of thousands used a guide to get safely from city to city. Written by a New York City mailman named Victor Hugo Green, “The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide,” later known simply as “The Green Book,” was widely used from 1936 until shortly after the passage of The Civil Rights Act in 1964.

Green was inspired to write the guide after seeing similar books written for Jewish travelers who also faced discrimination during travel. The guide detailed locations across America deemed safe for people of color to eat, shop, stay, and enjoy themselves without fear of humiliation or arbitrary arrest. Several destinations on Tulsa’s Black Wall Street were listed in the book. The historic Threatt Filling Station in Luther was also listed as one of the few gas stations on Route 66 that would serve African Americans.

At the time the guide was used, many cities in the deep south employed “sunset laws,” forcing black visitors to depart at the end of the day. Since many cities did not have hotels that would serve African Americans, the guide included a list of homes where black families could rent a room. These encounters served as the foundation of the play “The Green Book” written by author, playwright, and fi lmmaker Calvin Ramsey. The play is inspired by the travel guide and is the latest production from Tulsa’s Theatre North. The play will be performed Feb. 3–10 in the Liddy Doenges Theatre at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.

Founded in 1977, Theatre North is Tulsa’s fi rst African American theater company. The theater recently made history when it won a TATE award for their production of “Seven Guitars.” Tulsa’s production of “The Green Book” is directed by Dr. Rodney Clark, who has been working with Theatre North since the early 90s. The play is set in the 1950s and tells a story of an unlikely friendship formed in the home of the Davis family—a location in Jefferson City, Missouri, listed in the Green Book as

a haven for black travelers.

The play takes place during a weekend when W.E.B. DuBois is set to deliver a speech at a local black college. The Davis family is taken aback when a white traveler, Jacob Lansky, shows up on their doorstep. “He was a survivor of the Holocaust, and he refused to stay in an establishment that wouldn’t accept negroes,” Clark said. “Part of that [resistance] is based on the fact that he was Jewish, and probably wouldn’t [have been accepted] either.”

“The Jewish people … knew what it was like,” said Nick Bushta, who plays Jacob. “They understood prejudice fully.”

However, the Jewish guest is not welcomed by all with open arms. Keith Chenault, a houseguest in the Davis home, becomes upset at the idea of a white man staying in a haven for African Americans. Played by Alex Geiger, Chenault is a traveling salesman for the Green Book whose focus on profi ts causes him to lose sight of the book’s mission.

Chenault’s approach to selling the book is often exploitative, missing the guide’s primary purpose of keeping black Americans safe. “[There is a] contrast of the characters,” Clark said. “You’ve got this young businessman, who’s a go-getter and doesn’t know much about his own culture … and he kind of gets a lesson from the Jewish man on humanity. The young guy that’s selling the Green Book makes some serious mistakes about the concept of what the Green Book is all about [because] it isn’t about the money. It’s about people’s safety, it’s about people being welcomed [and] having a safe place when traveling.”

Soon after Jacob arrives, the Davis family leaves to attend an event. Jacob and Keith are left alone in the home. The two travelers engage in conversation and as Keith learns of Jacob’s disturbing past their understanding of one another grows.

“I can’t read through [the play] without crying,” Bushta said.

“One’s person worst trauma isn’t comparable to another person’s worst trauma. So, it’s not really comparing the differences in the traumas—it’s saying that they’re both wrong, because it’s all wrong.” a

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

NOW THROUGH APRIL 2019

Leonard Bernstein at 100: A collaborative exhibition between Tulsa’s Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art and the Woody Guthrie Center.

Visit both museums to experience the full exhibit.

Leonard Bernstein at 100 was curated by the GRAMMY Museum in collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Bernstein Family.

Presented in cooperation with the Bernstein Family, The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc., Brandeis University, and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 29

artspot

L

egendary animator Ron Campbell devoted his 50-year career to making Saturday morning cartoons, tapping out the moment the industry moved away from pen-and-paper in favor of more advanced technologies.

He was working on Cartoon Network’s “Ed, Edd, and Eddy” in 2008 when he completed his very last scene of animation. “I knew that was it for me because everything from that point on was going to be done by computers,” Campbell said.

The writing on the proverbial wall was clearly laid out in digital font. But for Campbell—who had a hand in bringing to life some of the most iconic animated characters in cartoon history— computer-generated moving images, however sophisticated, lacked the spark of life at the root of the word “animation.”

“To me, the fascination was being able to do drawings that come alive. Manipulating images on a computer screen would not have had the same charm for me,” Campbell explained.

Campbell’s career began in Australia. A young man fascinated with Saturday morning cartoons at the movie theatre, he knew little about animation when he got his big break in TV. “Nineteen fi fty-eight was the year I did my very fi rst commercial, pretending I knew how to do cartoons,” Campbell said. “A centipede being sprayed by bug spray. The centipede had to collapse in every drawing, 100 legs in every drawing. Today it would be the most dreary thing to do, but at the time I remember thinking, ‘I would pay them to let me do this.’”

Campbell’s resume reads like an all-time greatest hits list of Saturday morning cartoons. Starting with his earliest shows “Beetle Bailey,” “Krazy Kat,” and “Cool McCool,” he made a splash with the success of The Beatles Saturday morning cartoon in the 60s, which led to the opportunity to be a part of the cultural landmark fi lm “The Yellow Submarine.”

30 // ARTS & CULTURE

Legendary animator Ron Campbell with his artwork from “The Yellow Submarine” and the Beatles Saturday morning cartoon. | ROB SHANAHAN

SATURDAY MORNING SUPERHERO ‘Yellow Submarine’ animator’s classic cartoon art show comes to Tulsa

by BRADY WHISENHUNT Campbell acknowledged the massive impact of “The Yellow Submarine” on popular culture, but his memory is grounded.

“It was just fortuitous events in my life, you know. It just happened that the studio that was making ‘The Yellow Submarine’ in London needed extra help.

They had animation they couldn’t get done, and the producer Al Brodax had a lot of confi dence in me, I presume.”

Campbell and his colleague Duane Crowther animated 12 minutes of the fi lm, which took them eight months with several assistants. “It required a different type of animation,” Campbell said. “It was all two-dimensional, so it was kind of fl at animation, as if the drawings were cut out instead of round characters like Donald Duck.”

At the same time he was work-

ing on scenes for “The Yellow Submarine,” Campbell was doing the “George of the Jungle” series and spending about two days a week animating “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” “I was a very busy boy in 1968, I guess you could say,” Campbell said.

Campbell also played a role in creating other iconic HannaBarbera cartoons such as “Yogi Bear,” “The Flintstones,” “The Jetsons,” and “Harlem Globetrotters.” In the 80s, he storyboarded the immensely successful series “The Smurfs,” and its spinoff “Snorks.” His later work included “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Darkwing Duck,” “Goof Troop,” and “Rugrats,” just to name a few hits.

During the time he was actively animating, Campbell’s only sense of his audience was through ratings. “The audience

was always, ‘Hey Harry, how’d we do last Saturday?’ And we’d get numbers on a page, and that’s what the audience was.

We got 20-share or 10-share or 15-share,” he said, pointing out that “The Yellow Submarine” got a staggering 67-share, meaning 67 out of every 100 televisions were tuned into the program when it debuted.

Since retiring in 2008, Ron has been painting and traveling, sharing his stories from behind the scenes of his career in animation. Jan. 20–23, he’ll be in Tulsa showing his paintings at a pop-up art show at Grant’s Frames (8007 S. Sheridan Ave.). The paintings will all contain images based on Campbell’s career in animation.

The works range in price from less than $300 to approximately $10,000 and will include a certificate of authenticity made out by Campbell on the spot along with a spontaneous original drawing.

Posters will also be available for purchase for around $40.

Campbell invites people to come out and visit, whether they have money to spend or not.

“Now in my retirement, I’m traveling all over America. You can hardly name a city I haven’t been to. And in all those cities, I’m meeting the audience, that is, the adults who were the audience years ago, of all ages. People watched the cartoons in the 50s, or that I made through the 2000s, and that has been one of the greatest pleasures of my old age. Actually meeting the audience live and listening to what they say to me.”

And after getting to fi nally interact with his audience, Campbell saw what his career meant to others.

“If their childhood was horrible, the one thing, invariably, is that they had happy memories of Saturday mornings. And if their childhood was perfect in every way, they still have happy, happy memories of Saturday mornings.

So Saturday morning cartoons did a great service for children’s growth, you know?” a

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

DIY

Make your own megaphone Whitty Books celebrates the zine scene

by ALICIA CHESSER ATKIN

F

rom the rebirth of indie bookstores to the return of music on cassette, it’s Millennials and Xennials who are driving the push toward the personal, the analog, and the handmade. But giving the middle fi nger to corporate anonymity is a founding impulse behind— among many other historical examples—Henry David Thoreau walking out of his pencil factory to live at Walden Pond, the early-20th-century Arts & Crafts movement, and of course, punk rock.

Online culture is existentially exhausting. Leafl ets and pamphlets have been around since the fi rst dissident who had a friend who ran a print shop. It’s no wonder zine culture is having a renaissance.

“Anyone can make a zine.

It’s a culture of DIY. You don’t even have to be interesting to anyone but yourself,” said John Gabriel, who’s been making zines for 20 years and whose work will be on display at the Hard Copy Zine Faire, coming to Whitty Books on Jan. 26.

Operating outside the mainstream channels of writing, publishing, and distribution, these handmade publications have played a key role in countless countercultures, from the Star Trek fandom to the Riot Grrrls.

“It’s such a cool way to put your ideas out there,” said Victoria Moore, co-founder of Whitty Books. “People think making a piece of art or writing something has to be a huge production.

Zines are a really stripped down, simple way to put something out without the pressure to be perfect or going through ‘professional’ channels.”

For Whitty Books, hosting a zine event feels like a natural development.

Whitty Books co-founder Victoria Moore holds a stack of zines at her Kendall Whittier bookshop.

GREG BOLLINGER

“There hasn’t been a real hub for zines since Holy Mountain shut down,” Moore said. “When we opened the store we knew we wanted to carry local authors and artwork. We put out a call to zinemakers as well and got some good responses.” Locally-made zines are prominent at the shop: a solid selection sits in a rack right by the register.

“A lot of people who came in kept talking about Zine Fest and asking if we knew if there was another one planned,” Moore continued. “The last one was in 2016, at ahha, put on through Holy Mountain, and the one before that was at Charles Page Library. It defi nitely made an

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

impact. We got asked enough times that we thought we should move forward with it.”

With its Yves Klein-blue walls and boldly curated selection, Whitty Books itself feels like the bookshop version of a zine, where you can get a vivid reminder that sharing books and words and creativity with real human beings might just help you be a better version of yourself.

“I fi rst started making zines as a teenager,” said Jenna Buschmann, one of the artists who’ll be featured at the Zine Faire.

“I liked the independence of it, making something on my own.

Most of my zines are writing zines, which seemed like an easier

route at the time than submitting for publishing. It was all under my control. When I found out there was a community or culture around it, I just fell in love.”

For Tony Delesdernier, a professional writer who is venturing into zines for the fi rst time, the appeal is manifold. “The aesthetic of DIY has always attracted me.

Hand-screened record covers, things like that. Also, there are lots of things I want to do, but I don’t really want to go through a publisher. It doesn’t have to be commercially viable, which is what attracts me to zines in general.”

Gabriel, Buschmann, and Delesdernier agreed that seeing their work in physical form— instead of online—is a huge draw for zine-making and zine events like this one. “Blogs are essentially online zines,” Delesdernier noted. “Would blog culture have been what it is without them? But I would rather do this than post my work to a blog in the same way I wouldn’t put my music online.

It just gets lost there. Here’s this thing I made that I can physically put in your hands.”

The Hard Copy Zine Faire will feature 14 artists, as well as work from students in the eighth grade zine class at Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences, with whom Buschmann and Moore have been sharing their experience in zine culture. A DIY station will be set up where people can make their own cut-and-fold zine—and maybe share it with a whole new circle of friends.

“It’s a feeling of physical accomplishment,” Buschmann said. “With a blog, it’s anonymous; I don’t know who’s really behind the screen. With these, it’s more personal, and there’s more of a relationship with people— whoever might pick it up.” a ARTS & CULTURE // 31

contactsheet

ARTISTS IN THEIR SPACES

by VALERIE WEI-HAAS

I always try to capture the authenticity of a person in my images. I think of it as getting to peek behind the curtain into a secret life or artistic process that you normally don’t get to witness. This is the reason I love photographing artists in their studios or workspaces. I may have seen or experienced their art beforehand, but getting to document them in their own personal space creating is intimate and organic, and it is these moments that I truly love to share.

This series is a collection of documentary-style photos of local artists that I’ve taken over the last few years—featuring potters, painters, installation artists, and musicians. I wanted this series to focus more on the artists and their process rather than the art itself. a

Contact Sheet is a place for local photographers to share their projects.

If you’re interested in submitting, write to voices@langdonpublishing.com.

You can find more work from Valerie at valerieweihaas.com or follow along at @valweihaas on Instagram.

32 // ARTS & CULTURE

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 33

sportsreport

‘Don’t call it a comeback’ Oilers celebrate a rich and turbulent 90-year history

by JOHN TRANCHINA

T

he current incarnation of the Tulsa Oilers has only been in action since 1992, but minor league hockey has a long and rich tradition in this city, dating back to 1928. The Oilers recently celebrated the 90th anniversary of the fi rst game played here, commemorating the occasion on Dec. 22 with the debut of retro jerseys modeled after the ones they wore in the 1930s.

There have been many landmark moments in Oilers history over the years—multiple championships, Hall of Famers, and NHL veterans who played parts of their careers here—and less-celebratory occasions, like leagues folding, arenas burning down, and team ownership collapsing in the middle of a season.

For much of its history, the team was known locally as the “Ice Oilers,” because the baseball team in town was also called the Oilers until the Drillers arrived in 1977.

“We have a long-standing history, probably one of the longest of any minor pro hockey team out there, and a lot of people here in Tulsa don’t really remember it,” said Taylor Hall, Oilers general manager and former player. “It’s more than the Cox Convention Center and then the BOK Center … we’ve got a great history, why not celebrate it? We wanted to do something to celebrate all that and also to create a little more awareness about hockey in Tulsa.”

The Oilers started play back in the 1928–29 season, skating in the American Hockey Association.

The team even won the league championship in each of its fi rst three seasons, playing out of the Tulsa Coliseum, later called Avey’s Coliseum, which was located downtown at the corner of Fifth Street and Elgin Avenue.

34 // ARTS & CULTURE

Three Oilers players pose for a promotional photo with goaltender Nelson “Freckle” Little in the center.

COURTESY TULSA OILERS

The AHA, along with the Oilers, ceased operations in 1942 for the duration of World War II but returned as the United States Hockey League in 1945, continuing until 1951, when the league folded. The following year, the Coliseum was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. Tulsa then had no team (or arena) until 1964, when the Oilers joined the Central Professional Hockey League, later called the Central Hockey League, skating at the new Convention Center downtown. They won championships in 1968, 1976, and in the CHL’s fi nal season, 1983–84.

The Oilers won that last title as a team without a home, as the Tulsa ownership went bankrupt mid-season and the CHL took

over the club’s operation. They actually set up at the University of Denver after that, living in a hotel and practicing at a nearby mall rink using nerf balls because pucks weren’t allowed. They didn’t play a home game the fi nal six weeks of the season, including the playoffs, but still won the championship.

For most of the Oilers’ history up to that point, they played in leagues considered one rung below the NHL, and many times were affi liated directly with NHL clubs. Among the top-level hockey dignitaries who played here were Hockey Hall of Famers Duke Keats (who played 85 games for Tulsa from 1928–31); Clint Smith (64 games in 1947–48, when he also served as head

coach); current Canadian TV personality Don Cherry (17 games in 1965 –66); legendary coach Pat Quinn (140 games, 1964–65 and ‘67–70); current Team USA World Juniors GM John Vanbiesbrouck (36 games, 1983–84); and Vegas Golden Knights GM George McPhee (110 games, 1982–84).

It wasn’t until the CHL reformed as a lower-rung minor league in 1992 that the Oilers returned. Hall was a player on that fi rst new Oilers team in 1992–93, a squad that won the CHL championship—its last, as of this writing—and says the atmosphere surrounding the rebirth was amazing.

“It was incredible,” said Hall, who scored 35 goals and 80 points in 58 games that fi rst season. “I had played pro hockey for eight years—played in the NHL, the AHL, all over the place—and had no idea what to expect. This was like a Double-A league, lower than I had ever played, and the fan support was off the charts. People had missed hockey so much. We were fi lling up the Convention Center every night and that fi rst year, we ended up winning the championship, so the city was just electric about hockey coming back. I was blown away.”

Hall, who skated in 41 NHL games from 1983–88, ended up playing four seasons in Tulsa.

He returned as the GM in 2008.

He is proud of the city’s hockey history and doesn’t want it to be forgotten, as the Oilers play their 68th season, now in the ECHL, in 90 years.

“Tulsa’s got a really cool history, and I think that’s the big thing that we’re trying to get across to people,” Hall said. “We haven’t just been here since ‘92.

We go way beyond.” a

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

woodyguthriecenter.org

MEMBER OPENING THURSDAY, JAN. 24 6:30pm SOLD OUT

Mar ch 2 , 2019 | Cox Busines s Center T U R N U P T H E S U P P O R T AT R E D R I B B O N G A L A . O R G

KALYN FAY SATURDAY, FEB. 2, • 7pm

SCOTT MULVAHILL FRIDAY, FEB. 8, • 7pm

EVENT CO-CHAIRS DRS. SAR AH-ANNE & JOHN SCHUMANN address 102 EAST BRADY STREET, TULSA, OK

74103

phone 918.574.2710

email INFO@WOODYGUTHRIECENTER.ORG

COME

A Singalong & Dessert Auction

Saturday • Feb. 2

7:00 to 10:00 p.m.

All Souls Church • 2952 S. Peoria Ave. It’s a rip-roaring, toe-tapping, fun-filled singalong & fabulous silent dessert auction benefiting partner schools.

INDOOR“HOONING” FREESTYLE ACTION ARENA & DEMOLITION DERBY!

Win A Year Of Fresh Baked Artisan Bread Tickets $10 (or any donation to PIE) available at the door the night of the event.

Info: pie@allsoulschurch.org

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 35

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY CELEBRATIONS mlktulsa.com

Celebrations honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. begin with the annual One Tulsa Junior High Basketball Open, Jan. 19 at the Hutcherson Family YMCA, which will include special dance performances and an anti-bullying seminar.

On Sunday, Jan. 20, the MLK Walk in Peace will commence at 5:30 p.m. at Seventh Street and Cincinnati Avenue, and will conclude at Boston Avenue Methodist Church for the MLK Commemorative Service.

Tulsa’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade will take place in Greenwood on Monday, Jan. 21, beginning at 11 a.m.

PODCAST

HEY LADIES

Museum Confidential LIVE | Public Radio Tulsa and Philbrook Museum of Art will present a live staged production of the museum’s behind-the-scenes podcast. Jan. 16, 6:30 p.m., philbrook.org

The theme of the third annual Tulsa Women’s March is “Get Involved, Ignite Unity.” Jan. 19, 11 a.m.–1 p.m., Guthrie Green

METAL

ART SHOW

A Cold Death: A Lager and Metal Experiment will feature four local metal bands and lagers on tap from nine local breweries. Jan. 17, Soundpony, soundpony.com

Legendary animator Ron Campbell (“Yellow Submarine,” “The Jetsons”) will exhibit original artwork at Grant’s Frames & Gallery. See pg. 30 for more information. Jan. 20–23, grantsframestulsa.com

PHOTOGRAPHY

PARTY

Terrence Moore has photographed Route 66 since the ‘60s. In Photos from the Mother Road, Moore and Michael Wallis will discuss Moore’s book, “66 on 66: A Photographer’s Journey.” Jan. 18, 7 p.m., Magic City Books, magiccitybooks.com

Champagne & Chocolate | Living Arts’ 50th anniversary gala will honor Ma Cong, Mary Ann Doran, Jean Ann Fauser, Abby Kurin, and Ricco Wright.

Jan. 26, 7 p.m., $50–$100, livingarts.org

36 // ARTS & CULTURE

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

BEST OF THE REST EVENTS Year of Women: Legislative Kick-Off // 1/17, Mother Road Market, okwc.org Food & Wellness Talk: An Affordable Whole Food Plant-Based Diet // 1/17, Mother Road Market, motherroadmarket.com

TU Men’s Basketball vs Uconn // 1/16, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane. com

Suds and Science // 1/18, Oklahoma Aquarium, okaquarium.org

ORU Men’s Basketball vs South Dakota // 1/17, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com

Gilcrease After Hours: Beer & Bierstadt // 1/25, Gilcrease Museum, gilcrease.org

ORU Women’s Basketball vs South Dakota // 1/18, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com

Trans Resource Fair // 1/26, Dennis R Neill Equality Center, okeq.org

TU Women’s Basketball vs Cincinnati // 1/19, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com

Native American Literature Book Club: Heart Berries // 1/28, Whitty Books, facebook.com/shopwhittybooks 2 Friends & Junk // 2/1-2, Expo Square - Central Park Hall, twofriendsandjunk.com

runsignup.com

Jumpstart your 2019 fitness routine with this a running/walking/stair climbing event through all three levels and up and down many staircases inside the BOK Center. Read about the Oilers’ 90th anniversary on pg. 34. Jan. 26, 8 a.m.–12 p.m., $30–$45

Tulsa Historical Society Free First Saturday // 2/2, Tulsa Historical Society & Museum, tulsahistory.org Modern Masters: Sam Lipsyte // 2/5, Magic City Books, magiccitybooks. com MUSED. Poetry Night // 2/27, Magic City Books, musedorganization.org

COMEDY ART CRAWL

Exhibition openings at First Friday Art Crawl include Richard Barlow’s temporary chalk installation at Philbrook Downtown and Bobby C. Martin, Erin Shaw, and Tony Tiger’s “Altars of Reconciliation” at ahha. Feb. 2, 6–9 p.m., thetulsaartsdistrict.org

ON STAGE

The actor in the experimental play White Rabbit Red Rabbit does not read the show’s script until the performance is underway. Feb. 1–3, $5

Shaun Jones // 1/16-20, Loony Bin, loonybincomedy.com Chocolate City Comedy Anniversary Show w/ Velly Vel, geral Hurricane Harris // 1/19, Agora Event Center, snl918.com David Spade // 1/19, Hard Rock Casino - The Joint, hardrockcasinotulsa. com Laughing Matter Improv // 1/19, pH Community House, facebook.com/ laughinmatterimprov Tulsa Night Live // 1/19, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Demetri Martin // 1/20, Cox Business Center, bokcenter.com

BBALL

Teams from 14 area schools will compete in the allday High School Hoops Showcase at BOK Center.

Feb. 2, 9 a.m.–8:30 p.m., $2–$22, bokcenter.com

CONSERVATION

Join scientists, artists, journalists, and tribal representatives at Conservation Conversations on the plight of the prairie and American Bison. Feb. 3, 2–4 p.m., Gilcrease Museum, gilcrease.org

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

SPORTS

Abstracted // 1/17, Tulsa Artery, tulsaartery.com

Tulsa Boat Sport & Travel Show // 1/282/3, Expo Square - River Spirit Expo, tulsaboatshow.com

TULSA OILERS ARENA CHALLENGE

Trav and Peter are Joking Off w/ Travis Cagle, Peter Bedgood, Cam Porter // 2/2, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com

MacKenzie Bryan, Trever Carreon, Cian Baker, Ethan Sandoval, Laura Cook // 1/23, Fur Shop, furshoptulsa.com Quinn Dahle // 1/23-26, Loony Bin, loonybincomedy.com

Go Short, Go Long, Go Very Long 5K, 10K, 25K, 50K // 1/19, River West Festival Park, fleetfeettulsa.com ORU Women’s Basketball vs Denver // 1/20, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com ORU Men’s Basketball vs Denver // 1/20, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com Tulsa Oilers vs Allen Americans // 1/25, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com Tulsa Oilers vs Allen Americans // 1/26, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com ORU Women’s Basketball vs North Dakota State // 1/26, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com ORU Men’s Basketball vs North Dakota State // 1/26, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com Tulsa Oilers vs Allen Americans // 1/27, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com TU Men’s Basketball vs Houston // 1/27, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane. com Tulsa Oilers vs Utah Grizzlies // 1/29, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com TU Women’s Basketball vs Temple // 1/29, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com Tulsa Oilers vs Utah Grizzlies // 1/30, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com ORU Women’s Basketball vs Purdue Fort Wayne // 1/30, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com TU Men’s Basketball vs Memphis // 1/30, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane. com ORU Men’s Basketball vs South Dakota State // 1/31, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com

Brian Regan // 1/25, Brady Theater, bradytheater.com

Xtreme Fight Night 356 // 2/1, River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove, riverspirittulsa.com

Cookies and Milky Improv Anniversary Celebration // 1/26, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com

ORU Women’s Basketball vs South Dakota State // 2/2, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com

Lavell Crawford // 1/27, Loony Bin, loonybincomedy.com

ORU Men’s Basketball vs Purdue Fort Wayne // 2/2, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com

John Morgan - The Ragin Cajun // 1/302/2, Loony Bin, loonybincomedy.com Shuler King, Velly Vel // 2/1, Greenwood Cultural Center, shulerking.com

BasketCase Disc Golf’s Mohawk Park Open // 2/2, Mohawk Park, discgolfunited.com

ARTS & CULTURE // 37

musicnotes

Grammy-winning folk musician Dom Flemons with his trusty guitar. | TIMOTHY DUFFY

Sounds of the black west A conversation with Dom Flemons

by JAKE CORNWELL

F

olk multi-instrumentalist and Carolina Chocolate Drops co-founder Dom Flemons knows the historical black cowboy because he has painstakingly resurrected his existence through the narrative of song. Now in the midst of a successful solo career, Flemons converses with these ghosts of the past through his newest endeavor, Black Cowboys, an album dedicated to the history of African American cowboys and the interchange between frontier expansion and changing city dynamics.

Flemons will perform at Gilcrease Museum on Jan. 30 in conjunction with the exhibit, The Chisholm Kid: Lone Fighter for Justice for All, highlighting the fi rst black cowboy featured in a comic strip.

JAKE CORNWELL: You partnered with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture to produce Black Cowboys, right?

38 // MUSIC

DOM FLEMONS: That’s correct.

When I thought to do the project, I had the materials together.

At fi rst I just searched out where would I want to try to put this project out. Because I played at the opening ceremonies for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, I realized that their African American Legacy Series on Smithsonian Folkways would be a perfect place for the Black Cowboys record. … I felt like it makes a great piece of musical literature for people to be able to take in if they wanted to learn a little bit about the black West.

CORNWELL: I couldn’t help but think about the Oklahoma connection whenever you mention Bass Reeves in your song “He’s A Lone Ranger.” That ties into you coming to Tulsa in conjunction with the exhibit at Gilcrease featuring The Chisholm Kid, the black lawman in the Sunday funnies.

FLEMONS: I had heard about The Chisholm Kid, right when I

started the project, from [musician] Taj Mahal. … I asked him about it and he said, “When I was growing up there was this comic book that was called The Chisholm Kid. And it had a black cowboy!” … When the Gilcrease called and I saw that they were doing an exhibit [about the character], I thought “Wow, isn’t that sort of interesting serendipity?”

Taj Mahal took me down this particular rabbit hole that has led me now to meet up with the Chisholm Kid himself.

CORNWELL: Black Cowboys seems to cover a great deal of geography from the southwest to the Rocky Mountains to Oklahoma Territory to Appalachia and abroad.

Was that intentional in the song selection?

FLEMONS: Absolutely. At fi rst I researched and I found a lot of material and got kind of a big meta view of it. Kind of a bird’s eye view of all the history. …

I tried to really point out the parts of the westward expansion

that included parts of the Deep South, but mostly Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and their westward expansion out to places like L.A., Denver, Arizona, Las Vegas, and places like that.

CORNWELL: The purpose of this album appears to expand that narrative beyond one person or one region. The black cowboy is more than just Nat Love or bulldogging Bill Pickett, right?

FLEMONS: That was part of the reason I broke the album down into different sections. There was fi rst the section of black cowboy stories like “Home on the Range” and “Goodbye Old Paint,” were some of the specifically black cowboy stories. The second part was familiar cowboy material. The third part was bringing in Southern vernacular music, and put it into the context of black cowboy music because as people moved out west they brought with them their musical traditions.

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

CORNWELL: Were there any songs that you wish had been included?

FLEMONS: There were a couple of songs that I had thought about but they didn’t make it. ...

I needed to really pull the narrative into a certain direction.

Which is why songs like “Steel Pony Blues” ended up being a strong part, as an original song, to put into the record because … it seemed like these black cowboys just disappeared. Like right into thin air: “Phew! Black cowboys disappeared.” But if you think of cowboy work as being a job, an occupation, and then there was a mass exodus to go to work on the train lines. That tells a lot about the story and the transition of black cowboys going into urban America as a predecessor to the civil rights movement. …

Thinking of Nat Love cleaning up and then putting on a Pullman porter’s suit, and the way his life changed profoundly after that. …

That’s part of the reason there’s a subtitle: Songs from the Trails to the Rails. What an amazing image to see of African American culture changing as America itself was changing.

Chisholm Trail,” share this notion that the West was expansive, tough, but also mythical.

What is your opinion of the mythical West?

FLEMONS: There is a nostalgia of the old west that I think is where the mythical West comes in. …

For me, the mythical West is that people think it’s just one type of thing. The West can be ranchers, it can be farmers, it can be city slickers, it can be people that

are half way between the country and the city, and it can be people that are from the United States and not from the United States. … The myth is that it is just one type of thing or that is monolithic. It is really different every fi ve miles in the west—why people are there, and why they thought that they could make it out in the desert. [Laughs] CORNWELL: What can people expect to see and hear when you

come to Gilcrease Museum on January 30th?

FLEMONS: I will do stuff from the Black Cowboys, but I will do a little bit of the old-time material to give people a little extra context. I will have my banjo and I will also play a couple of different guitar styles, some early country blues. Kind of give people a primer of what sort of stuff I do. And then I will bring in the Black Cowboys material. It will be a great time. a

CORNWELL: You’re giving up one horse-power for another horsepower—that changing technology from one mode of singular, organic transportation to this mass transit. But along with that comes the Great Migration.

FLEMONS: Exactly. It’s something that is very logical and is very easy to connect once you see it. … It brought me full circle, in a certain way. To be able to go to Oklahoma and go to Tulsa where a whole other chapter of this particular story sits. People always bring up Black Wall Street. There is more [to African American history] than Black Wall Street. It is the fact that that the place even existed is fascinating and amazing in and of itself. There are the all-black towns that are just east [and west] of Tulsa. There is a lot of history that is there. It is pretty amazing to be able to make it down to Tulsa and be able to tell a little bit of that story.

CORNWELL: The Chisholm Kid, the comic, and your song “Old THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

MUSIC // 39

musicnotes

So long, Steve Ripley Remembering Tulsa’s renowned musician and producer

by JIM EDWARDS

S

teve Ripley, long-time pillar of American rock and country music, died peacefully last week, surrounded by his family at their Land Run homestead between Pawnee and Glencoe. News of his departure came suddenly to most, as he had disclosed his long battle with cancer only to a small group of family and friends. He was loved and admired by an array of colleagues, friends and fans— including musicians, sound innovators, recording artists, and producers from across America and beyond.

Stillwater was where Ripley earned his college degree in communication, launched his fi rst studio, and recorded his fi rst album. Los Angeles played host to his studio engineering endeavors at Leon Russell’s Paradise Studios, his guitar-playing adventures with Bob Dylan, and his inventions like the “stereo guitar” developed for players like Eddie Van Halen, Ry Cooder, and Vince Gill. Nashville introduced him to the virtuoso players and household names of traditional country and bluegrass music.

But it was Tulsa where Ripley launched and managed his career as a recording artist and enjoyed a life of family, friends, and likeminded musicians.

In the fall of 1986, Steve and Charlene Ripley moved to Tulsa to care for Steve’s mother and raise their children, Elvis and Angelene. They also came to make music. Within a few months, Steve got a tip that Leon Russell’s former record40 // MUSIC

Tulsa music legend Steve Ripley kicks back at The Church Studio. | JIM PERRY

ing studio was for sale, and he quickly enlisted his Oklahoma friend, Glen Mitchell, to partner with him in the acquisition of the building and the revival of the place into a state-of-the-art recording facility.

Ripley also teamed up with his friend Ron Getman, in the initial ownership and operation of the recording studio. Another section of the rambling building was dedicated to Ripley’s sonic research and guitar-making operations he started in Los Angeles,

thus the Tulsa version of Ripley’s beloved “mad scientist lab” had offi cially begun.

The great stone edifi ce called The Church Studio was fi rst known as “Shelter Records Church Studio.” Ripley shortened it to “The Church Studio.” But for the nearly 20 years of the Ripley/Mitchell tenure there—by far the longest run in its storied history—the place was known by music insiders as, simply, “Ripley’s Studio.”

Early in the going, a demo

tape recorded there by Tulsa transplant Ronnie Dunn was ushered onto the desk of Ripley’s pal from the Stillwater days, Tim DuBois. The former OSU professor had recently been named the president of Arista Records, Nashville. DuBois had the insight to pair Dunn with another solo artist, Kix Brooks, creating what would eventually become one of the biggest country duos of all time, Brooks & Dunn.

Ripley, meanwhile, was already working on a project with Getman and three other friends from the Tulsa music juggernaut: pianist/producer Walt Richmond, drummer Jamie Oldaker and bassist Casey van Beek. With a loving nod to Ripley’s farmer heritage, they called themselves The Tractors. The four-song demo and clever marketing package made the journey to DuBois in Nashville.

“It wasn’t exactly country, but it was exactly great,” DuBois said. So he went for it. Tellingly, the record deal Ripley worked out with Arista included an iron-clad provision that the recording work would be done at his recently re-born studio.

Defying every trend in country music, the album The Tractors went platinum faster than any debut album in the history of the genre. The album featured a dream cavalcade of guest players that included Leon Russell, Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, JJ Cale, and Jim Keltner.

It eventually sold over 2 million copies, became the highest-selling country album of 1994 and

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

remains the highest-selling album ever recorded in Oklahoma. The video for the hit single, “Baby Likes to Rock It,” won CMT Video of the Year, and two of the album’s singles were nominated for Grammy awards.

As Ripley continued making Tractors records, he also took on a variety of worthy projects, largely for Oklahoma-based artists. His status as a founder and patriarch of the so-called Red Dirt music scene is widely known, but his broader infl uence among developing musicians in the region wasn’t unique to the country genre. Power pop wunderkinds, Admiral Twin, booked the studio for Tulsa’s fi rst non-country recording by a major label since the halcyon days of Leon and company.

“One night, pretty late really, the four of us just decided to go to Ripley’s studio and knock on the door. Amazingly, he answered the door and let us in,” said Admiral Twins drummer and vocalist Jarrod Gollihare.

With a glint of astonishment still in his eyes, Gollihare recalled how that late-night meeting was the beginning of an apprenticeship and friendship that lasted a lifetime. “Steve quickly advised us to drop out of music, start having babies and raise a family,” he laughed. “Then he began telling us everything we ever wanted to know about the music business.”

Ripley also advised and encouraged Hanson from their earliest a cappella days through their emergence as pop megastars and their long and continuing careers as seasoned artists. He recorded an album for Tulsa reggae favorites, Local Hero, and another for Oklahoma City altrock darlings, Chainsaw Kittens.

In later years, while continuing to write and record a series of increasingly personal, genre-bending songs, Ripley also developed a radio series tracing Oklahoma’s contributions to American music.

This completed a full circle jour-

ney for Ripley, connecting him back to his communications days at Oklahoma State and giving expression to his life-long interest in modern musicology. More recently, he began the massive task of preserving and categorizing the Leon Russell Archives on behalf of the Oklahoma Historical Society and OKPOP, completing another circle.

Likewise, Ripley was never far from Bob Dylan’s orbit. In a concert at the Brady in 1991, Dylan’s road manager pulled him from the audience and led Ripley to a guitar and amp set up on stage. A stunning set ensued, punctuated by the rare occurrence of a stage comment from Dylan. “Steve Ripley up here on stage with us,” he announced with a sly grin, “... almost like time standing still.”

Later when the Bob Dylan Archives arrived in Tulsa, the Kaiser Foundation asked Ripley to produce a live concert celebrating Dylan’s work. Ripley recruited a cast of A-list musicians and vocalists while curating a perfect set list from Dylan’s vast catalogue of more than 500 songs. The event also allowed him to return full circle to his beloved role of band-leader and arranger and to his fi nely-honed skills as a live performer.

The resulting show, “On a Night Like This,” was one for the ages. Dylan’s original melodies and inimitable lyrics could be clearly heard atop the thumping groove and intricate jingle-jangle of Ripley’s brilliant arrangements. The ephemeral event let everyone see the multi-faceted genius of Oklahoma’s faithful son on full display. The band came together in an astonishing fl urry of mad scientist moves.

There was a notable glow on Ripley’s face through the entirety of what would prove to be his last live performance. He was surrounded by just about everything he held dear in music and in life itself. It was a great night.

Almost like time standing still. a

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

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MUSIC // 41

musiclistings Wed // Jan 16 Chimera – bloom., My Heart & Liver are the Best of Friends, Ben Quad Coffee House On Cherry Street – Open Mic Duet – Rachel Caldwell – ($5) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Great Big Biscuit Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Shelby and Nathan Eicher – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Fite The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project

Thurs // Jan 17 Agora Event Center – LYRX – ($25) Duet – *Booker Gillespie Trio – ($5) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Barrett Lewis Band, Lush Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit Soul City – Don & Steve White Soundpony – *A Cold Death w/ Acid Leather, Blind Oath, Grass Giant, Satanico and the Demon Seeds The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night The Hunt Club – Songswappers w/ Jimmy Ray Taylor and Bill Crane The Run – The Zinners Jam The Willows Family Ales – Rachel Bachman

The Vanguard – *Gloom Fest w/ Grass Giant, Gadgets Sons, Constant Peril, Carcinogen Daily, Iron Cathedral, The Holy Void, Dope Patrol, End Timers – ($10) The Venue Shrine – *Music to Mend Mikey w/ Paul Benjaman Band, Smoochie Wallus, Seth Lee Jones, Brujo Roots, TFM, Garrett Heck, Sweatin Bullets, Timbo Kelly – ($5)

Sun // Jan 20 Bad Ass Renee’s – Don Swavor, Drag Dinero, SlimMCo, FB$, Brando West, Mike Da Don, Sango Bangzz, Uriah Owens, Nasti Musiq, El London Blackbird on Pearl – Jimmy Tebeau of The Schwag – ($5) Cain’s Ballroom – Atmosphere, deM atlaS, The Lioness, DJ Keezy – ($25-$40) East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – The Pink Spiders, Brandon Clark Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Skanka Retro Grill & Bar – *Koolie High & The Wise Men – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Dustin Pittsley’s Blues Brunch Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soundpony – Surgir The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Colony – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee w/ David Hernandez Whitty Books – ¡Vamanos!, Plush, Søaker, ImGunnaDie

Fri // Jan 18

Mon // Jan 21

41 Brookside – Dan Martin Blackbird on Pearl – James Groves Band – ($5) BOK Center – *Metallica – ($65-$135) Cabin Boys Brewery – Josh Roberts Cain’s Ballroom – Eric Johnson – ($30-$33) Dead Armadillo Brewery – Kevin Price, Steve Liddell Duet – *Dara Tucker – ($15) Dusty Dog Pub – The Hitmen Ed’s Hurricane Lounge – Spook., Gadgets Sons, Omni Zero Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Jacob Dement, FM Live Lefty’s On Greenwood – The Clueless Band Mercury Lounge – Bryce Dicus & The Mercenaries Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Marie Curie, Cherokee Rose, Ben Leonard River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Chris Hyde Soul City – Susan Herndon Soundpony – DJ Mooneyham The Bistro at Seville – Dean DeMerritt and Sean Al-Jibouri The Colony – Paul Benjaman Band – ($5) The Colony – Giakob Lee - Happy Hour The Hunt Club – November The Stumbling Monkey – The Gear Dogz The Venue Shrine – The Stylees, Society Society, Bubble – ($8-$10)

Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Sarah Shook Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Chris Foster River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd The Colony – Seth Lee Jones

Sat // Jan 19 41 Brookside – Adam Miller Bad Ass Renee’s – DRYVR, Mudd Flux, Forbidden Serenity Blackbird on Pearl – *Oceanaut, SPRNRML, Cherokee Rose – ($5) Cain’s Ballroom – Riverfield Rocks – ($15) Duet – Dean DeMerritt’s Jazz Tribe w/ Sarah Maud – ($10) El Coyote Manco – Alex Ramirez y su Grupo Profetas, Monarcas del Valle Elote Cafe – Second Wind Fassler Hall – Montu Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Kalo, Paralandra Juicemaker Lounge – *Scott Evans, Bubba Hopkins, and Kurt Nielsen Lefty’s On Greenwood – Curt Hill Mercury Lounge – Chucky Waggs MixCo – Jennifer Marriot Band Rabbit Hole Tulsa – *Fabulous Minx, Girls Club, On Holiday River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Fuzed River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – *Boyz II Men – ($55-$65) River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Jesse Alan Soundpony – Pony Disco Club Studio 308 – Sweet Randi Love & The Love Thang Band – ($15-$20) The Colony – *Jim Watson EP release w/ Urban Pioneers, Vagittarius, JoeMyside – ($5) The Hunt Club – The Agenda

42 // MUSIC

Tues // Jan 22 Blackbird on Pearl – Community Sound Jam Central Library – *Kenari Quartet Lefty’s On Greenwood – Stephanie Oliver & Friends Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Evan Hughes Presents River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Faye Moffett The Colony – Dane Arnold and the Soup The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour

Wed // Jan 23 41 Brookside – Jacob Dement Coffee House On Cherry Street – Open Mic Duet – Drew Thomas Quintet – ($5) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – River Road Trio Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Shelby and Nathan Eicher – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Fite The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project

Thurs // Jan 24 Blackbird on Pearl – Jack Waters Duet – Kenari Quartet – ($30) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Jesse Joice, The Stolen Winnebagos Mercury Lounge – Patrick Sweany, The Greyhounds – ($20) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – Lyrical Smoke w/ Wotko, The Grea, El London, Keezy Kuts, Hakeem Eli’Juwon, Payroll, Scrappavelli, Young Jager, Buddy Rodriguez The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night The Hunt Club – Dave Kay The Run – The Zinners Jam The Willows Family Ales – Adrienne Gilley

Fri // Jan 25 41 Brookside – Jerry Pringle Barkingham Palace – *Tail Light Rebellion, Vagittarius, Deerpaw Blackbird on Pearl – The Dopest Matrix – ($5-$10) Cabin Boys Brewery – Justin Logan

Cain’s Ballroom – Midland – (SOLD OUT) Dead Armadillo Brewery – Ragland, Katelyn Myers Duet – *Bishop Marsh Quartet – ($10) Ed’s Hurricane Lounge – Namesless Society, Meta4, G Sharp, Nick Leflore Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Trett Charles, Travis Kidd Hard Rock Casino - The Joint – Clay Walker – ($39.50$59.50) Lefty’s On Greenwood – Brujo Roots Mercury Lounge – Osage County Rabbit Hole Tulsa – *American Shadows, Electric Billy Club Retro Grill & Bar – J’Parle Reloaded: Clueless – ($15) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Stars River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – Toni Braxton – ($65-$225) River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Crystal Williams Soul City – Susan Herndon Soundpony – Combsy The Bistro at Seville – Dean DeMerritt and Sean Al-Jibouri The Colony – Monoculture, Cucumber and the Suntans – ($5) The Colony – Giakob Lee - Happy Hour The Hunt Club – Josh Yarbrough Band The Vanguard – The Normandys, When the Clock Strikes, The Big News, Follow the Buzzards – ($10) The Venue Shrine – Infamous – ($10)

Wed // Jan 30 41 Brookside – Jacob Dement Coffee House On Cherry Street – Open Mic Duet – *Rachel Bachman single release – ($5) Gilcrease Museum – *Dom Flemons – ($20) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Runnin On Empty Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Shelby and Nathan Eicher – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Fite The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project

Thurs // Jan 31 Blackbird on Pearl – Hakeem Eli’Juwon – ($10) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Travis Marvin, Stars Lefty’s On Greenwood – The Percolaters Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit Soul City – Don & Steve White The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night The Hunt Club – Ego Culture The Run – The Zinners Jam The Willows Family Ales – Feral Ghost, Jillian Holzbauer

Fri // Feb 1

Sat // Jan 26 41 Brookside – Kevin Jameson Bad Ass Renee’s – Harnish Carcinogen Daily, Grass Giant, Creatures of the Earth Blackbird on Pearl – Stephen White Group – ($5) Dixie Tavern – Megawatt Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Alaska and Madi, Chinatown Lefty’s On Greenwood – Faye Moffett Mercury Lounge – The Bottle Rockets, BC and the Big Rig River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Amarillo Junction River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Jacob Dement & Co Soundpony – Pleasuredome Steve’s 727 Club – Braxus The Colony – *Casii Stephan, Nightingale – ($10) The Hunt Club – Hosty The Starlite – ResurXtion 53: Bowie in Boas The Vanguard – My So Called Band – ($10) The Venue Shrine – The Damn Quails – ($10-$15) White Crow Tavern – Chuk Cooley’s Good Time Believers

Sun // Jan 27 Cain’s Ballroom – Reel Big Fish, Mest, Bikini Trill – ($21$36) East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Skanka River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Dustin Pittsley’s Blues Brunch Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soundpony – Paige Howard After Party The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Colony – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee w/ David Hernandez

Mon // Jan 28 Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Chris Foster River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd Soundpony – The Goffy Memry Boys The Colony – Seth Lee Jones

Tues // Jan 29 Blackbird on Pearl – Community Sound Jam Lefty’s On Greenwood – Jennifer Marriott Band Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Evan Hughes Presents River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Faye Moffett The Colony – Dane Arnold and the Soup The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour

Cain’s Ballroom – The Cadillac Three w/ Kyle Daniel – ($17-$32) Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Rhizomorphic, NOIZMEKKA, YeshwaH, Psyonix Soul City – Susan Herndon Soundpony – Soft Leather The Colony – The Grits – ($5) The Colony – *Adrienne Gilley - Happy Hour The Hunt Club – Doc Fell & Co. The Vanguard – Through Being Cool w/ The Noise Estate, Second Glance

Sat // Feb 2 Blackbird on Pearl – *Brad James Band – ($5) Cain’s Ballroom – *Cherub, Mosie – ($22-$37) El Coyote Manco – Ramon Ayala, Los Rieleros, La Corriente Soundpony – *Soul Night The Colony – Josh Yarborough Band – ($5) The Vanguard – *Fear the Locals benefit w/ Brother Rabbit, Downward, Goodfella – ($10) The Venue Shrine – *Bob Marley’s Birthday Bash w/ Local Hero, Jah Mystics, The Sun Drops, The Stylees – ($10) Woody Guthrie Center – Kalyn Fay – ($15)

Sun // Feb 3 East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Skanka River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Dustin Pittsley’s Blues Brunch Soul City – Bruner & Eicher The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Colony – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee w/ David Hernandez The Hunt Club – Spence, Had Enough, LeFlore, Second Glance, Carcinogen Daily, Razorwire Halo – ($8)

Mon // Feb 4 Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams pH Community House – *Steve Dunn, Peter Tomshany, Vagittarius, Rachel Bachman Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Chris Foster River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd The Colony – Seth Lee Jones The Vanguard – Source, Let Slip the Dogs – ($10)

Tues // Feb 5 Rabbit Hole Tulsa – Evan Hughes Presents River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Faye Moffett Soul City – Kalo The Colony – Dane Arnold and the Soup The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour The Venue Shrine – Wink Burcham

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

MUSIC // 43

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44 // FILM & TV

TREAD LIGHTLY Henry Dunham’s taut debut puts a right-wing militia on trial

924 S. Boulder

Tulsa’rsee F ONLY u na Marij yaer Law

“The Standoff at Sparrow Creek” | COURTESY

“THE STANDOFF AT SPARROW CREEK” kicks off after a shooting on a police funeral by a suspected member of a fringe militia. A reclusive ex-cop and fellow militia man named Gannon (James Badge Dale) suspects the gunman may be one of his own. When the remaining members of this unidentified Michigan militia regroup, Gannon is forced to put his own members under the intense scrutiny of his interrogation skills, find out who perpetrated the crime and before igniting a nationwide war between cops and militias. So begins this audacious debut from first time writer-director Henry Dunham.

The original script for “Sparrow Creek” topped the 2015 BlackList, an industry tastemaker featuring the hottest un-produced scripts floating around Hollywood—a distinction that quite often turns unknowns into A-listers. Recent other BlackListers include “Spotlight,” “Manchester by the Sea” and “American Sniper.” Dunham’s script is in good company and deserving of the accolade.

The film unfolds into a nail-biting exploration of what motivates the “unidentified white male” shooters that have perpetrated countless mass killings across our country. Dunham executes this high-tension interrogation by spinning a hypothetical yarn from within the ranks of a well-regulated militia, in all its multitudes: the militiaman disgusted with government overreach, the disgruntled patriot, a former member of the Aryan brotherhood, the school shooter, and the fringe conspiracists who want to Make America Great Again by destroying the

rule of law no matter what the cost.

“Sparrow Creek” eschews the trappings of more modern, often spatially chaotic thrillers, instead opting for a strippeddown, pulpy whodunit that evokes the playful suspense of Agatha Christie for our current climate of gun nuts and InfoWars conspiracy theorists.

From the very first frame, “Sparrow Creek” will have you teetering on the edge of your seat, and when the final moments play out you’ll find yourself gasping for air having forgotten to breath throughout its 90-minute runtime. The suspense unfolds within the confines of a cavernous lumber warehouse, yet Jackson Hunt’s claustrophobic cinematography makes even a hint of light feel threatening; and Josh Ethier’s rhythmically sharp editing winds the razorwire tension tighter until the film’s explosive and shocking finale.

“Sparrow Creek” features a who’s-who of “that guy” actors who’ve been stealing scenes in everything from “The Sacrament” (Gene Jones), to “Mulholland Drive” (Patrick Fischler) and Netflix’s “Mindhunter” (Happy Anderson) but it’s the terse MacReady-like determination of James Badge Dale, a perennial stand-out in every role he’s played, who, as the stoic Gannon, finally gets a role deserving of his understated demeanor and anchors this electrifying thriller through to the very last frame.

“The Standoff at Sparrow Creek” is often as sparse as its premise, yet this slowburn thriller, which lands on VOD January 18, packs a wallop of a payoff that will have you reaching for the blood pressure pills as the credits roll. — CHARLES ELMORE

January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Rick Ducommun, Corey Feldman, Tom Hanks, and Bruce Dern in “The ‘Burbs” | COURTESY

A BRIEF RUNDOWN OF WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE CIRCLE CINEMA

Yoo Ah-in, Jong-seo Jeon, and Steven Yeun in “Burning” | COURTESY

THE FAINT GATSBY ‘Burning’ is a labored generational critique that tries your patience

FOR ALL ITS OMINOUS PORTENT, “Burning” barely flickers. A tedious thriller without many thrills, the latest from acclaimed South Korean auteur Lee Chang-Dong is too much of a slow-burn for its own good.

Manipulation and jealousy swirl around a puzzling love triangle in this would-be mystery that amounts to a dark, plodding cautionary tale with ambitions of striking a salient Millennial allegory. Jong-su, a mostly-aimless but aspiring young writer, bumps into a childhood acquaintance named Hae-mi in a busy marketplace. He doesn’t recognize the beautiful, grown-up woman in front of him. Hae-mi says she’s had cosmetic surgery, and that Jong-su once teased her for being ugly.

After an ad-hoc date, they hook up.

Slowly, one begins to wonder if Hae-mi is sincere or staging a long-con revenge trap.

Is she even who she says she is, or possibly some sexpot sociopath that’s pegged Jong-su as a gullible mark? This all sounds compelling—and it is, particularly in how he falls under her spell, but it drags on with meandering, lethargic filler over the film’s first half hour.

Jong-su pines for Hae-mi while she’s away on a trip to Africa but is blindsided when she returns with a man, Ben—a rich, attractive enigma she met on the flight.

The three become a social trio with loosely-defined relationships, though Hae-mi’s flirtations turn squarely to Ben, leaving Jong-su as a humored third wheel.

You wait for the story’s hooks to dig in, but they never do. Instead, more layers, undercurrents, and psychological intrigue emerge—but it’s not the ambiguity that’s bad; it’s the languid pacing.

There’s a taught 90-minute nail-biting

head-trip somewhere inside this twoand-a-half hour grind, but that padding obfuscates the film’s plot, tone, suspense, and ideas.

Chang-Dong is clearly trying to get at something here, principally in its overtly-referenced Great Gatsby dynamic with Ben as the shady affluent, Hae-mi the self-absorbed wannabe socialite, and Jong-su as a Nick Carraway archetype who, rather than being in awe of the privilege around him, is bitter and lost.

The film scrutinizes modern class disparities within Millennial culture, along with the toxic male pathologies they trigger. This is best laid out in in Hae-mi’s distinction between “Little Hunger” and “Great Hunger,” which become ChangDong’s thesis. Little Hunger speaks to the practical pangs of needing food for the body, but Great Hunger refers to the existential yearning of the soul. “Burning” tries to speak to the latter but, instead, merely leaves us with it.

It’s all caricatured and contrived, with each person a generational stereotype in a fable of bloated, empty pretense. There’s a simmering ennui inside Jong-su but it’s also abstract; present, but without a foundation or core. There are haunting, provocative images, too—but like everything else here, they’re ephemeral and fleeting.

Ultimately, you’re either on ChangDong’s tempo or you’re not. If you are, you’ll find yourself mesmerized. If not, “Burning” will be an interminable slog, perpetually teasing a payoff that, when belatedly delivered, frustrates rather than satisfies.

Indeed, Jong-su receives something near the end that proves to be the film’s most apt metaphor: a soulless, unsatisfying jerk-off. — JEFF HUSTON

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

NEW FILMS CONTINUING ON THE BASIS OF SEX Felicity Jones (“The Theory of Everything”) stars in this biopic about the early career of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Nearly 50 years ago as a young lawyer, Ginsburg brought a groundbreaking case of gender discrimination before the Supreme Court.

Rated PG-13.

OPENING JAN. 25 STAN & OLLIE Biopic about Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, the popular comedy team from the early days of Hollywood. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly star in the title roles. It will be paired with a Laurel & Hardy short on opening night, as well as the early Sunday matinee on Jan. 27. Rated PG.

SPECIAL EVENTS NT LIVE: THE TRAGEDY OF KING RICHARD THE SECOND Simon Russell Beale stars in this new London stage production of William Shakespeare’s play about the reckless and vain king.

5:45 p.m. pre-show trivia/prizes with Theatre Tulsa actor Nick Cains. Tickets $17; Circle Members $15. (Thu. Jan. 17, 6 p.m.)

AKIRA (1988) Circle’s Anime Club presents the groundbreaking anime film made thirty years ago–but set in 2019–that became a global phenomenon. (Fri. & Sat. Jan. 18 & 19, 10 p.m.)

TALL TALES An animated tale set in the kingdom of bugs. Order is disrupted when the beloved queen bee is kidnapped by her treacherous cousin and a kind-hearted cricket is framed for the crime. Starring the voice of Justin Long (Sat. Jan. 19, 12 p.m.)

STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. (1928) Free special presentation of the Buster Keaton silent film classic.

Sponsored by the Sooner State Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society. Live accompaniment on the Circle’s original 1928 organ. (Mon. Jan. 21, 7 p.m.)

RUMBLE: THE INDIANS THAT ROCKED THE WORLD Free screening of the documentary about the Native American influence on Rock & Roll and the major artists from that legacy. (Fri. Jan. 25, 7:20 p.m.)

THE ‘BURBS (1989) Graveyard Shift presents a 30th anniversary screening of the dark comedy about a suburban neighborhood that may be home to a satanic cult. It stars Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, and Bruce Dern. (Fri. & Sat. Jan. 25 & 26, 10 p.m.)

NT LIVE: I’M NOT RUNNING The explosive new play from writer David Hare (“Skylight”), about a doctor whose health campaign challenges a Labor Party politician that just happens to be her old boyfriend.

5:45 p.m. pre-show trivia/prizes with Theatre Tulsa actor Nick Cains. Tickets $17; Circle Members $15. (Thu. Jan. 31, 6 p.m.)

FILM & TV // 45

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January 16 – February 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE FUZZ THE TULSA VOICE SPOTLIGHTS: TULSA SPCA

2910 Mohawk Blvd. | MON, TUES, THURS, FRI & SAT, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 918.428.7722

WHISKERS is a beautiful cat—and true to her tortie nature, she knows it! Whiskers would prefer to be the only kitty in the home, but she adjusts well and doesn’t mind respectful dogs. She’s a good girl and would fit perfectly into almost any family.

ACROSS 1 Pet protection org.

6 Reeds’ environment 11 “ASAP!” 15 High-five sound 19 Professorial jacket material 20 Nebraska’s largest city 21 Upside-down U shape 22 Vegas ball game 23 Welsh singer whose name becomes 70-Down if you rearrange the syllables 25 Weakening processes 27 Web image descriptor whose first word is a PC key 28 Baby buggy in Bath 30 Hunting garb, for short 31 Some undergrad degrees 32 Get misty-eyed 33 “The Talk” star whose name becomes 72-Across if you rearrange the syllables 36 Pizarro’s treasure 38 Lesser of two ___ 39 Important period 40 Startup’s NASDAQ goal, often 42 Moonfish or sunfish 45 “Many years ___ ...”

46 Bamboo devourers 49 Started playing for money 53 Heists 56 “Dios ___!”

57 Maryland bird 58 Happen to 59 Terra firma 61 Veto trendy grain charge?

63 Lunchroom, slangily 64 Sculpture and others

PATCHES would make a great family dog. She loves to play with toys. She is a goofball and seems to enjoy making people smile. She likes to roll in the grass and will sit for treats.

This eight-month-old, 38 lb. cutie is eager to please!

65 Producer of college rankings, informally 66 Seacrest, to Ripa 68 $100 per hour, say 71 “___ Kapital” 72 “Believe” singer, if she were from the Emerald City?

78 Fridge drawer 80 “___ the beef?”

81 Dealer’s workplace 82 Opposite of max.

83 Fixes, as a tennis racket 85 Lower shaving target 86 Treat, at a restaurant 88 Had a campaign 89 Apt name for an Uber driver?

91 K-12 grp.

92 Naughty 93 Cousin of a croc 95 Coach’s “Hurry up!”

99 “Her” actor whose name becomes 61-Across if you rearrange the syllables 104 Sounds from chicks 107 Often-torn body part, for short 108 Clip’s partner 109 Dodge Aries, e.g.

110 Protective wall on a castle 111 9-to-5 worker 114 WWII general whose name becomes 16-Down if you rearrange the syllables 116 Circus insect 117 Russell of “The Americans” 118 Scare off 119 “Widows” director McQueen 120 Like a good souffle 121 Canadian gas station 122 Perfect places 123 Tubes that may have kinks

DOWN 1 Up, in baseball 2 Really muscular, slangily 3 A cappella group with three Grammys 4 Middle, in Manitoba 5 French goodbyes 6 Applesauce eponym 7 Tan who wrote “The Joy Luck Club” 8 “___ Breaks the Internet” (2018 film) 9 He-Man’s twin sister 10 Capital of Zimbabwe 11 Just pathetic 12 French flag, e.g.

13 Compact Mercedes-Benz 14 Hitchhiker’s digit 15 Do slaloms, say 16 “DiCaprio, Pitt, deface something!”

17 Former U.N. head Kofi 18 Sheriff’s squad 24 Event with booths 26 Simple to a fault 29 Not fixed 33 Soak (up) 34 Bruce or Farage 35 Caterer’s coffee container 37 Aussie animal 40 Triumphant cry 41 Prefix with scope or meter 43 Geometry calculations 44 “Baywatch” star David’s nickname, with “the” 46 Necessarily, quaintly 47 “It ___ over till the fat lady sings” 48 Rolls out a lawn 50 Culinary school hats 51 + 52 Dancer, for one 54 Sweetie, slangily

You can often find EEVIE poolside. This water-loving pup can be nervous around new people but warms up quickly.

She may do best with another friendly, confident dog. Eevie would love an active owner who takes things at her pace. This sweet girl is 1.5 years old and weighs about 54 lbs.

55 State known for taters 58 Deferential greetings 60 Running a bit behind 62 Zeroes in on 63 Inner ears?

66 Colgate competitor 67 Unexpected problem 68 The Mounties, for short 69 Solo for Maria Callas 70 Athlete who must really jump to dunk?

72 Pacific salmon 73 Layer on a farm?

74 Thus 75 She played Pam Fields on “Pretty Little Liars” 76 Doing the job 77 Author ___ Neale Hurston 79 Infomercial subject 80 Sinful anger 84 They seek hides 85 “Skip to My ___” 87 Helpful webpage initials 90 Texter’s word of gratitude 93 Kitschy garden ornaments 94 Modify a computer program 96 Wound mark 97 Defeat in a rout 98 Bring about 99 Israeli port with a namesake orange 100 Eye-shaped openings 101 “Very nice!”

102 Having a handle?

103 Really ticked off 105 Really tick off 106 Eye afflictions 110 Hipster beers, briefly 112 Install, as bricks 113 2016 Olympics host 115 Kylo ___ (“Star Wars” villain)

Find the answers to this issue’s crossword puzzle at thetulsavoice.com/puzzle-solutions.

THE TULSA VOICE // January 16 – February 5, 2019

The Tulsa SPCA has been helping animals in our area since 1913. The shelter never euthanizes for space and happily rescues animals from high-kill shelters.

They also accept owner surrenders, rescues from cruelty investigations, hoarding, and puppy mill situations. Animals live on-site or with foster parents until they’re adopted. All SPCA animals are micro-chipped, vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and treated with preventatives. Learn about volunteering, fostering, upcoming events, adoptions, and their low-cost vaccination clinic at tulsaspca.org.

WALTER may be too smart for his own good! He has yet to meet a fence he can’t climb, so he needs to be monitored in the yard. He is happy being inside with people and enjoys going on walks so he can explore. Walter is about 60 lbs. and would do best in a home without young kids.

FLOUNDER is one of the sweetest cats ever. He enjoys being cuddled and will not leave you alone until you give him some attention. He enjoys the company of other cats and talking to people he meets.

Flounder is an affectionate, five-month-old kitty who will love you forever.

UNIVERSAL SUNDAY CROSSWORD SOUND MIXING

By Will Nediger, edited by David Steinberg

© 2019 Andrews McMeel Syndication

1/27 ETC. // 47

Pleas e re cycle this issue.