The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 4 No. 13

Page 1

PLUS BREWING STRONG TRADITIONS P18 EXPLORING THE LOST KINGDOM

P26

LAUGHING WITH THE BRAVE

P27

J U N E 2 1 – J U L Y 4 , 2 0 1 7 // V O L . 4 N O . 1 3

REMEMBERING TERLTON’S FIREWORK FACTORY EXPLOSION “It’s a scar that went so deep that it eventually melded everyone together.” P22

CHICANO ART IS AMERICAN ART: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHEECH MARIN | P30


paradise never sounded So Good.

Tickets On Sale Now

gabriel iglesias sat, June 24 trace adkins thur, june 29 santana thur, july 6 Trevor noah fri, july 14 Thompson square sun, july 16 mac MCanally fri, july 21 peter frampton fri, july 28 Lindsey buckingham & Christine mCvie sat, aug 5

Live music 7 nights a week, starting at 5pm

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

2 // CONTENTS

June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


ENJOY SOME OF THE BEST DINING TULSA HAS TO OFFER

MCNEL L IE’S w w w . m c n e l l i e s . c o m PROBA BLY T UL S A’S BES T PUB. JOIN US FOR S T. PAT RICK ’S DAY 1S T & ELGIN

YOKOZUN A w w w . y o k o z u n a s u s h i . c o m DOW N TOWN’S BES T SUSHI. 2ND & DE T ROIT

FA S SL ER H A L L w w w . f a s s l e r h a l l . c o m HOUSEM A DE S AUS AGES A ND A GRE AT BEER G A RDEN 3RD & ELGIN

EL GUA P O’S w w w . e l g u a p o s c a n t i n a . c o m

EN JOY ME XICA N FOOD A ND M A RG A RITA S ON DOW N TOW N’S ONLY ROOF TOP PATIO 1S T & ELGIN

T HE TAV ERN w w w . t a v e r n t u l s a . c o m FINE DINING IN T HE BR A DY A R T S DIS T RICT M AIN & BR A DY

DIL LY DINER w w w . d i l l y d i n e r. c o m BRE A K FA S T SERV ED A L L DAY LONG 2ND & ELGIN

EL GIN PA RK w w w . e l g i n p a r k b r e w e r y. c o m

PIZZ A, HOUSE-BRE WED BEER, WINGS, 60 + T VS ELGIN & M.B. BR A DY

THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

CONTENTS // 3


4 // CONTENTS

June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


June 21 – July 4, 2017 // Vol. 4, No. 13 ©2017. All rights reserved. PUBLISHER Jim Langdon MANAGING EDITOR Liz Blood ASSITANT EDITOR Kathryn Parkman DIGITAL EDITOR John Langdon ART DIRECTOR Madeline Crawford GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Georgia Brooks, Morgan Welch PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Bollinger AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf AD EXECUTIVE Craig Freeman EDITORIAL INTERN BreAnna Bell GRAPHIC DESIGN INTERN Katie Volak CONTRIBUTORS Sheilah Bright, Becky Carman, Alicia Chesser, Jake Cornwell, Courtney Cullison, Angela Evans, Barry Friedman, Mitch Gilliam, Valerie Grant, Jeff Huston, Fraser Kastner, Nathan Knapp, Jennie Lloyd, Zack Reeves, Joseph Rushmore, Amanda Ruyle

The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

22

Member of

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by

BY SHEILAH BRIGHT

In Terlton, all is forgiven but nothing forgotten

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:

Nick Schuellein in front of Terlton Grocery | JOSEPH RUSHMORE

NEWS & COMMENTARY

12 BEYOND THE GREEN BARN B Y ANGELA EVANS

26 TOOTH AND CLAW CONSERVATION B Y JENNIE LLOYD

Congress is trying to strip away Americans’ protections from predatory lending

The Reserve gives new meaning to garden party

Meet the inhabitants of Tulsa Zoo’s Lost Kingdom

16 BRUSSELS SPOUTS B Y BECKY CARMAN

27 VICTOR FOXTROT WHISKEY B Y MITCH GILLIAM

Musician J.D. McPherson and partners bring a Belgian-inspired honky-tonk to The Boxyard

Veteran and newbie comedians join in VFW open mic

10 BUTT FOR A TAX B Y BARRY FRIEDMAN The con of the 56th Legislative Session

P27

J U N E 2 1 – J U L Y 4 , 2 0 1 7 // V O L . 4 N O . 1 3

John Fullbright on music and memories

REMEMBERING TERLTON’S FIREWORK FACTORY EXPLOSION

P22

40 SECOND-RATE MELODRAMA B Y JEFF HUSTON ‘My Cousin Rachel’ doesn’t satisfy

MUSIC 36 CAN’T TRAVEL WITH A PIANO B Y JOHN LANGDON

“It’s a scar that went so deep that it eventually melded everyone together.”

TV & FILM

PLUS

LAUGHING WITH THE BRAVE

28 WHAT ART HAS TO DO WITH LIFE B Y ALICIA CHESSER

42 BAD NEWS B Y FRASER KASTNER

BREWING STRONG TRADITIONS P18 P26

ARTS & CULTURE

8 NOR A LENDER BE B Y COURTNEY CULLISON

New education standard requires third-graders to read good

EXPLORING THE LOST KINGDOM

FOOD & DRINK

38 THREE CHORDS AND THE TRUTH B Y MITCH GILLIAM

Street punk fest returns to Tulsa

ETC. 14 THEDIGEST 34 THEHAPS 39 MUSICLISTINGS 41 FULLCIRCLE 43 CROSSWORD

New Living Arts director hopes to invite and empower

30 ALL BY DEFINITION B Y JAKE CORNWELL

A conversation with Cheech Marin

32 IN BLOOM B Y ZACK REEVES Celebrating the life and work of James Joyce

33 LONG SHOTS NEVER WIN HERE B Y KATHRYN PARKMAN Fair Meadows Race Track—free entry, full bar, 10-cent minimum bet

CHICANO ART IS AMERICAN ART: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHEECH MARIN | P30

ON THE COVER Nick Schuellein, 18, and Samantha Ronistal, 15, on Main Street in Terlton, OK. PHOTO BY JOSEPH RUSHMORE THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

PRACTICAL PACKAGING FOR OKLAHOMA BREWERS BY NATHAN KNAPP NEW LAWS TO TAKE EFFECT IN 2018 • THE LEGACY OF STRONG WOMEN, STRONG BEER BY AMANDA RUYLE

SUMMER SWIGS P18 CONTENTS // 5


editor’sletter

I

love this time of year (longer days!), and especially the Fourth of July. There’s no other day I am as consciously grateful for the scrappy, interesting, varied people and communities that make the great American experiment worth it. For our cover story (pg. 22), writer Sheilah Bright traveled 30 miles west of Tulsa to Terlton, Oklahoma, 32 years after a firework factory explosion devastated the town. For years, the town didn’t celebrate the Fourth. Fireworks became taboo. Eventually, as Bright reports, a few people helped pull their community back together. Now, their celebration is one of the largest in the area.

6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Elsewhere in this issue, we see the bonds of community strengthened. For maybe the first time in the Voice’s tenure, we were asked to use non-binary or gender neutral pronouns for a person’s identity (pg. 28). Jessica Borusky, the new director at Living Arts, prefers they/them as a singular pronoun to replace she/her, and their/theirs instead of hers. Associated Press also made this change to its style guidelines in March this year. Amanda Ruyle wrote about one family’s tradition of beer brewing and how it keeps their family members linked together, even in loss (pg. 20).

Jake Cornwell interviewed Cheech Marin (pg 30.) about his Chicano art collection, and how the definition of “who is” and “who isn’t” Chicano has evolved and expanded. “Chicano art,” Marin insists, “is American art.” In that same spirit of inclusivity, “Papel Chicano Dos: Works on Paper from the Collection of Cheech Marin” is Philbrook Museum of Art’s first foray into bilingual shows—all printed material is in both English and Spanish. Philbrook’s front-ofbuilding staff is currently taking conversational Spanish lessons, and over the next few years the museum will transition to being fully bilingual.

Mitch Gilliam attended open mic night at the Centennial Lounge inside VFW Post 577 (pg. 27), where veterans and civilians enjoy laughing together in a place meant to honor our servicemen and women. And Angela Evans dined at The Reserve at Grogg’s Green Barn (pg. 12), where the chefs understand a healthy, wellfed community is a strong one, and the importance of supporting local farmers. Happy summer, Tulsa, and Happy Fourth! a

LIZ BLOOD

MANAGING EDITOR

June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


Find yourself in this month! The wait is over, explore Tulsa Zoo’s newest exhibit complex June 2017.

tulsazoo.org/lostkingdom THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7


okpolicy

L

NOR A LENDER BE Congress is trying to strip away Americans’ protections from predatory lending by COURTNEY CULLISON

8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

ast month, Governor Fallin made the right choice when she vetoed HB 1913—a bill that would have expanded predatory lending in Oklahoma. In her veto message, Fallin pointed out that Oklahomans frequently take out high-interest loans at a high cost to them and their families. Governor Fallin wisely chose not to add another predatory product to the market that could trap Oklahoma families in even more debt. Predatory lending is not just an Oklahoma problem. Only 15 states and the District of Columbia prohibit payday lending with interest rate caps. Interest rates in the remaining states range from an average of 154 percent in Oregon to an astronomical 677 percent in Ohio. The average rate in Oklahoma on a payday loan is nearly 400 percent. Payday borrowers often end up paying more in interest than what they get through the loan, and repeat borrowing is common. Payday loans, auto title loans, and small installment loans are a debt trap for working families in America, and most states have not taken action to protect them. That’s why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (established in 2011) was tasked with protecting borrowers from predatory or unfair lending practices. Last summer, the CFPB proposed new rules for payday and installment loans that, if enacted, would require lenders to verify that the borrower can afford to repay a loan before lending. But hidden deep in the so-called Financial CHOICE Act (H.R. 10) is language that would take away the CFPB’s authority to regulate consumer lending—meaning that, in many states, no one will be protecting consumers from predatory lending practices. This dangerous bill passed the U.S. House early in June and next goes to the Senate. Predatory lending is especially harmful at a time when wage

stagnation and cuts to the social safety net over the last few decades mean that low-wage workers are struggling to make ends meet each month. The minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation and the rising cost of living—the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour has lost about 9.6 percent of its purchasing power due to inflation alone. Overall wages have stagnated in recent decades, and the safety net programs that people once would turn to are also losing value. Since Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) was converted to a block grant in 1996, the program has lost about one-third of its value. Now when families in difficult situations need help, payday and other high-interest loan products can seem very attractive because they are so easy to get. In states where it’s allowed, many neighborhoods have a loan shop on almost every corner—especially in low-income zip codes or near military bases. But these loans often result in a debt trap—borrowers cannot pay off the original loan, and so they take out a second loan to pay it off, then a third loan, and then another. The loans become a permanent financial fixture in the lives of many low-income families and significantly hinder their ability to improve their financial situation. If most states are not regulating these predatory practices, and the CHOICE Act makes it impossible for the CFPB to regulate them, then who will protect families? Banning common-sense regulation of payday loans is a step backward that would make it even harder to build fi nancial security. a

Courtney Cullison is a policy analyst with Oklahoma Policy Institute (www.okpolicy.org). June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


Visit relayforlife.org/tulsaok for info

Help finish the fight against cancer. relayforlife.org/ It's our time to celebrate, Relay For Life of Tulsaremember & fight PARK back! RIVER WEST FESTIVAL

JOIN US.

FRIDAY, JUNE 23 6PM - MIDNIGHT 1.800.227.2345 Visit relayforlife.org/tulsaok for info ©2015 American Cancer Society, Inc.

relayforlife.org It’s our time to celebrate, remember & fight back! ©2015 American Cancer Society, Inc.

1.800.277.2345

“Why does watching a dog be a dog fill one with happiness?”

F L O AT I N G T OY S

– J.S. Foer Boz balls

Dash Frisbee

Float Coat™

WOX Tug Toy

L AKE SNAC KS

1778 UTICA SQUARE WINNER!

THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

OPEN M–SAT, 10–6 Snow Cone Treats NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9


viewsfrom theplains

S

moke ‘em if you got ‘em. And if you don’t got ‘em, buy ‘em. Lots of ‘em. Seriously. The state’s depending on you. Then, if all of you, the old smokers and the new, could hold off dying miserable, painful, and—most germane here—uninsured deaths for a few years from tobacco-related diseases, that would be great. As you know, the Oklahoma legislature, literally minutes before adjournment sine die (that’s Latin for, “Yay! We don’t have to cancel our summer vacations!”), passed Senate Bill 845—legislation that will add a tax of $1.50 to each pack of cigarettes sold in the state, which, according to those who crunch such numbers, will raise about $215 million per year. Considering that’s approximately 20 percent of the state budget hole, the largest revenue increase passed this session, we clearly need tobacco smokers to step up their game. There are approximately 650,000 smokers in the state (about one in six of us), so you could very easily get to that $215 million mark if they all buy a pack a day—and, as mentioned, don’t keel over anytime soon. The problem—well, one of the problems—is that nationally, these taxes don’t fully go to revenue reduction but also go to offset health-related smoking costs, which are staggering. Of every $10 spent on healthcare in the U.S., almost 90 cents is due to smoking, a new anal ysis says.1

But SB 845 doesn’t specifically address that. That was one point of contention on the House floor Friday. State Rep. Collin Walke, D-Oklahoma City, was one of many members who argued the bill likel y isn’t constitutional. He said that the law doesn’t dictate the money be spent on ces10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

BUTT FOR A TAX The con of the 56th Legislative Session by BARRY FRIEDMAN

sation programs, which a fee typicall y would, but it allows lawmakers to treat it as general revenue.2

Smoking is an enormous burden to any state, so the industry and the smokers they’ve bamboozled and addicted should pay a disproportionate amount to state coffers. But neither caused Oklahoma’s deficit. Years of stupid tax cuts and giveaways did. Short-sighted legislators who kept talking about limited government did. Governors of both parties who kept selling the bankrupt notion that tax cuts were the way to a robust state economy did. Look, I’m all for taxing cigarettes more than the current $1.03

per pack—quadruple it for all I care—but before we do, or while we’re doing it, let’s also ask everyone in the state to make some concessions as well, and, say, return income tax rates to 2004 levels of 6.65 percent3 (where they were when the state could sustain itself), increase the gasoline tax (which is 8 cents lower than the national average4), and raise the gross production—ours is presently 1–4 percent—to be more commensurate with North Dakota (11.5 percent) and Texas (7.5 percent).5 The state could have raised more than twice what will come in from the cigarette tax by increasing taxes on oil and gas producers,6 but Harold Hamm

of Continental Resources, among others, thinks the state and its resources are his personal sandbox, and since he seemingly has most state legislators’ cojones in a jar of fracking fluid on his desk, that idea was defeated pretty easily. Plus, better to bother a twopack-a-day roofer in Tishomingo for another three bucks a day than to upset Harold.7 Not onl y are people in poverty more likel y to smoke, but they also devote a much l arger share of their income to cigarette purchases. From 2010 to 2011, smokers earning less than $30,000 per year spent 14.2 percent of their household income on cigarettes, comp ared to 4.3 percent for smokers earning between $30,000 and $59,999 and 2 percent for smokers earning more than $60,000.8

And, for what it’s worth, according to Forbes, Hamm is worth about $10.5 billion.9 Let’s continue. The immediate problem, potentially more serious, as we’ll see in a moment, is that SB 845, according to legislators, is not actually a tax, but a fee (oh, stop laughing) and we know this because authors of the bill renamed it the Smoking Cessation and Prevention Act of 2017, from the original legislation, HB 2365, when it was called the Oklahoma Revenue and Taxation Reform Act of 2017. How clever is that? They took the word taxation out of the legislation and replaced it with prevention (without changing its intent) to circumvent the state constitution’s prohibition against such things. They’re so cute when they’re being obfuscatory. Which is kind of the point: Tobacco taxes can serve multiple functions, although in most cases, in both the United States June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


and around the world, the overriding concern has been to provide a steady revenue stream, not to curb tobacco use.10

So why did they have to do an end-run around the constitution? Because SQ 640, passed in 1992, stipulates that the legislature could not pass any “revenue bills” that aren’t confirmed by votes of the people unless they are passed by three-quarter majorities in the House and Senate and signed by the governor, passed with emergency clauses, which puts them into effect as soon as the governor signs them (which the House version doesn’t do), and—this was the big one—passed in the final five days of the legislative session for fear it might be rushed into law without representatives fully digesting their meaning and being given time for debate. The House budget committee was asked to vote on the bills within 46 minutes, by midnight, because of a legislative deadline.11

table, meaning the whole shebang blows up and Governor Fallin has to call a special session, which nobody wants but pretty much everyone deserves, to fix the budget hole. If I had to bet, I’d say the State Supreme Court defers to the legislature on this and allows SB 845 to slide through. If it does, Tulsa World Editorial Pages Editor Wayne Greene is right—and it makes me nervous when I agree with him—for concluding that if court allows this tax to become law, the state might as well stop pretending State Question 640 even exists. If the Oklahoma Supreme Court allows measures approved in the final days of the 2017 Legislature to stand, SQ 640 is effectivel y dead ... thanks largel y to Republicans.13

SQ 640, a legislative and budgetary straightjacket, dying an unceremonious death, would be the best thing to come out of this awful 56th Legislative Session. a

Oops. Oklahoma’s new $1.50 fee on a pack of cigarettes is an unconstitutional “tax,” cigarette companies and three Oklahoma residents say in a lawsuit asking the state Supreme Court to prevent it from taking effect.

The relentless, rapacious cigarette lobby on one side; cowed, dissembling state legislators on the other. It’s tough to know who not to root for. If the lawsuit is successful and the state Supreme Court throws out SB 845 for being unconstitutional, that $215 million is off the THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

SUMMER C O N C ERT S ER I ES FR EE + LI V E + MUSIC 7/1 let’s zeppelin

6/24

7/15 the tiptons

7/22 G-Force

7/8 the sellouts

7/29 Full Flava Kings

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE RIVERWALK TENANTS LOS CABOS • PINOT’S PALETTE • MAYBELLE AND CO • MARBLE SLAB CREAMERY THE MELTING POT • ANDOLINI’S PIZZA • MARYN’S TAPHOUSE & RAW BAR THE CIGAR BOX WHISKEY BAR & TAPHOUSE • ROBIN’S ROAST COFFE• FLYING TEE ENGAGE LIFE INSTITUTE • L’AMOUR NAILS • RIVEREWALK DENTAL SPA

300 RIVERWALK TERRACE • JENKS, OK • RIVERWALKTULSA.COM

Like Big Tobacco was going to miss that one. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by Phillip Morris USA Inc., R.J Reynolds Tobacco Co. and others, alleges the fee violates a state constitutional prohibition against passing revenue-raising measures in the final five days of a legislative session and without a supermajority of lawmakers.12

FU N ON TH E H E T F O E S ID REET 9 6T H S T ! B R ID G E

JENKS

AN OT H ER I NVI SI B LE M AN P R O D U CT I O N

1) reuters.com: Cigarette smoking costs weigh heavily on the healthcare system 2) yourokmulgee.com: New cigarette fee not dedicated to health care 3) okpolicy.org: The cost of Tax Cuts in Oklahoma 4) okpolicy.org: Motor Fuel Tax 5) okpolicy.org: Unconventional Oil and Natural Gas Production Tax Rates: How Does Oklahoma Compare to Peers? 6) okpolicy.org: In The Know: Proposed bill to raise gross production taxes pulled from budget talks 7) newsok.com: Hamm: Legislature should not raise the gross production tax rate 8) object.cato.org: Cigarette taxes and smoking 9) forbes.com: Harold Hamm & family 10) healthaffairs.org: Health Policy Brief 11) newsok.com: Oklahoma lawmakers advance $6.8 billion at midnight 12) mcclatchydc.com: Lawsuit alleges new Oklahoma cigarette fee unconstitutional 13) tulsaworld.com: Wayne Greene: The Constitution’s limits on the Legislature’s tax powers sure look dead to me NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11


foodfile

BEYOND THE GREEN BARN Guests tour Grogg’s Green Barn gardens before dinner | VALERIE GRANT

The Reserve gives new meaning to garden party by ANGELA EVANS

G

A true garden-to-table experience | VALERIE GRANT

Cavatelli pasta with house-made ricotta cheese, fava beans, and salt-cured duck yolk | VALERIE GRANT

12 // FOOD & DRINK

rogg’s Green Barn has been a gardener’s paradise since it opened in 2011. It only purveys fully organic items—no pesticides found here—and the focus is on native plants and sustainability. Out of this focus grew the idea for a garden-to-table dining experience called “The Reserve.” With only items grown in the adjoining garden, Executive Chef Matthew Owen uses the bounty of seasonal harvests and incorporates other local ingredients to create inspired meals. The farm-to-table concept is not new, nor was this the first of its kind I attended. But I found an unexpected soupçon of whimsy hiding around each corner and dish. The Reserve is a specially designated space within Grogg’s Green Barn, located at 10105 E. 61st St. The special event space is incorporated seamlessly within the retail space of the garden center. Small vases of wildflowers dot the thick, wooden tables on one side. On the other side is an open counter where Chef Owen and his staff are preparing the evening’s offering. Emily Akin, operations manager for Grogg’s, invites guests for a tour of the garden and a preview of the meal to come. I become one in a constellation of ebullient women orbiting through the secret gardens of Grogg’s. A young rabbit, poised

among the plots of raised-bed gardens, welcomes our assemblage to this fairy-tale scene. I am standing in a sacred space, where an ancient pear tree hovers like royalty over each garden plot, even as Highway 169 roars in the background. I watch as the bunny scampers among the garden it knows so well, as if giving us a personal tour of its favorite hors d’oeuvres. Akin pulls a tiny carrot from the ground and the ladies giggle as if this was the first carrot they’d ever seen. The sun begins to dip behind the trees, the last of its rays lightly kissing each green leaf, and a sense of joie de vivre takes over as we figuratively hop from plant to plant. Akin extracts a nubby, neon-green fava bean from its pod and places it in my hand. I sink my teeth into the slick skin of the bean and it gives way to a tender sweetness—a perfect nibble in form and flavor. As we make our way past the hum of the beehives and burgeoning berry patches, I find myself searching for the rabbit in my periphery. I declare the bunny our divine totem, a harbinger of the evening to come. As I follow its path, each character, flavor, and experience take on a more fanciful hue. We return to the dining room, where curtains billow in the gentle breeze. A charming gentleman June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


Executive Chef Matthew Owen arranging pickle plates | VALERIE GRANT

to my left introduces himself, and then talks to me in riddles. The first course arrives in a curious, small cup. Inside the demitasse is a potion of chilled roasted sweet onion broth with green sprigs of dill, thyme, and mountain mint floating among petals of chamomile and puffed wheat berries. A sip of this broth studded with the toasty wheat berries brings caramel notes out to play, while the refreshing snap of mountain mint elevates the concoction. Each course becomes more sensational than the next. The cavatelli pasta, with house-made ricotta cheese blended into the dough, looks like chunky, segmented caterpillars. The familiar fava beans are nestled on top, dusted with a sunshine-yellow salt-cured duck yolk. The pickle plate is Chef Owen’s sweet spot, featuring his politely pungent kimchi and a miniature miso-pickled hakurei turnip, which has elements of apple and umami. The honey-pickled garlic is the surprise delight, though, with the heat of fresh garlic mellowed by the honey’s floral notes. THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

The pork loin sourced from Prairie Creek Farms was brined in whey left over from making the ricotta, which imparts tender salinity. The sorghum vinaigrette sends my olfactory into overdrive, the way the understated pop of acidity blends with the sorghum’s earthy sweetness. Next to the slice of pork loin is a delicate cloud of shaved cabbage, which reminds me of chartreuse cotton candy but contains an undercurrent of verdant minerality. The meal ends with discs of stoneground cornmeal pound cake, punctuated with a violet brushstroke of blueberry curd and topped with blueberries and lavender whipped cream. The sun is setting on the golden evening as I embrace my new friends and give my compliments to the chef. I walk through doors of the garden center and the thrum of the highway breaks the spell of the night. A part of me is wondering if my experience was even real when, suddenly, I see out of the corner of my eye a white tuft of a rabbit’s tail, hopping back to its garden home. a

Seriously Great Suds. Hideaway ’57 Ale, our signature craft beer, brewed exclusively by Marshall Brewing Co.

FOOD & DRINK // 13


THE DIGEST News bites from Tulsa’s food scene by ANGELA EVANS

SUMMER’S HERE AND THE TIME’S RIGHT FOR

SUSHI

UP IN SMOKE. On June 5, SMOKE. Woodfire Grill announced a second

WE ASKED OUR READERS: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ROLL?

WHAT SUSHI ROLL BEST DESCRIBES YOU?

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

THE PINT’S EMPTY

@james_b_elrod The Dilly roll from @YokozunaTulsa is about the best thing ever.....

Tiffany Carroll French I’d be a vegetable tempura roll because I’m trying to be healthy but not doing a great job.

BROOKSIDE IS POPPIN’ The Pop House cools off Tulsa with their

@JordanianRiver Rising Sun Roll from Yokozuna. it’s like candy!!!

Davis ‘dlite’ Light What sushi roll best describes me? I find myself to be a spicy tuna roll. Fresh and friendly with a little spice.

location will open in downtown Owasso’s the Redbud District in 2018. The new restaurant will feature similar aesthetics as the Cherry Street location, like brick archways and crackle glass between the bar and dining room, but will be over one-and-a-half times the size and feature new menu items. SMOKE.’s current location also has a new summer menu.

The Pint on Cherry Street was recently sold to Jason Scarpa, owner of The Rooftop in Broken Arrow and two Main Street Tavern locations in Broken Arrow and Claremore. The Pint opened in 2014 and closed June 14. It will be closed for six to eight weeks before reopening as Main Street Tavern.

selection of couture frozen confections and, as of this month, they have new digs on Brookside. The spiffy little shack, located at 3737 S. Peoria Ave., churns out homemade popsicles—like chocolate-dipped raspberry, pineapple jalapeño, or creamy chocolate sea salt. Business hours are noon to 10 p.m. on weekdays, and until 11 p.m. on weekends.

BRAMBLE ON Blue Dome’s little breakfast spot, The Bramble, will add a new location at RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks. The new spot, slated for a fall 2017 opening, will offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner and seat about 80. Bramble will add more entrees and a special pancake menu to their repertoire, along with a line-up of boozy brunch cocktails and espresso service.

HUBBUB IN THE K-DUB

The Kendall-Whittier District is seeing one of their own mainstays expand, while also adding another restaurant to its roster. Besides recently adding a new outdoor patio, Calaveras Mexican Grill will open a new location in Brookside later this year. Reauxs French Soul Cuisine will take over the infamous Dollhouse Gentlemen’s Club space in early 2018. Tiffanie Dartez, who runs the Stella Reauxs food truck, plans on playing up the risqué history of the space while whipping up food that is “a combination of what you’d expect from a Southern Mema or Nana, but all Frenched up.” a 14 // FOOD & DRINK

@woodenwarship 1. Tango Roll from Sushi Train (+2 pts for delivery style!) 2. Don Won Roll from Sushi Hana Brookside 3. 918 Crunch Roll from Sushi Place @LeBlancLCSW Volcano roll at In the Raw and Spider Roll anywhere. @AgelessForAeons The El Guapo roll at @YokozunaTulsa .......

Anna Bennett Probably the Hot Mess from Yokozuna. Let’s be honest. Evan Parker The Wolverine Roll - ‘cuz it goes down like snickety snickety SNACK! Eric Dean I’m more like sashimi: simple, honest, raw, and best naked. Ali Wokoun DynoMITE! (Said like JJ from Good Times) handle with care or I might explode. June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

ILLUSTRATIONS BY KATIE VOLAk

SMOKE. on Cherry Street VALERIE GRANT


made from scratch Asian inspired dishes, carefully crafted from Oklahoma bounty, local beer and wine selections, and drinks made with house made syrups and fresh squeezed juices. Clean, fresh, handmade, locallyminded Asian cuisine.

1616 S UTICA AVE • 918-382-7777 ROKATULSA.COM

YOKOZUNA • Yokozuna is an Asian restaurant and sushi bar located in the historic Blue Dome District & South Tulsa. Come in to enjoy the delicious food, unique drink selections, and relaxing atmosphere. Visit yokozunatulsa.com to view our menus and to book a reservation.

DOWNTOWN: 309 E 2ND ST • 918-508-7676 SOUTH: 9146 S YALE, SUITE 100 • 918-619-6271 YOKOZUNATULSA.COM

SUSHI HANA • Sushi Hana is one of Tulsa’s premiere Sushi & Japanese restaurants. New York natives Kenny & Shirli Chan have succeeded in bringing the high-quality taste & atmosphere of a upscale & trendy NY style sushi restaurant to the 918 for all to enjoy. Our Master Chefs prepare a variety of menu items, from sushi rolls to many different Asian fusion entrees.

RIVERSIDE: 9904 RIVERSIDE PKWY. • 918-528-6688 BROOKSIDE: 3739 S PEORIA AVE • 918-794-4448 SUSHIHANATULSA.COM

IN THE RAW SUSHI • In The Raw Sushi has been handcrafting sushi for almost two decades now. We pride ourselves on quality, service and outstanding creativity. Our most recent masterpiece was created in honor of our new Eel bar/patio at our Brookside location. The Eel Bar Roll is rolled in masago and inside you will find calamari, avocado, chipotle cream cheese, and sweet shrimp. The roll is then topped with fresh water eel, habanero cream sauce, eel sauce and tobiko, then flame torched. Kampai!

BROOKSIDE: 3321 S PEORIA AVE • 918-744-1300 ON THE HILL: 6151 S SHERIDAN RD • 918-524-0063 INTHERAWSUSHI.COM SUSHI SHOWDOWN // 15

MER SUSHI • SUMMER SUSHI • SUMMER SUSHI • SUMMER SUSHI • SUMMER SUSHI • SUMMER SUSHI • SUMMER SUSHI • SUMMER SUSHI • SUMMER SU

ROKA • Our menu features


downthehatch

Owner Mike McLaughlin (plaid shirt), General Manager Chase Cline (behind the bar), J.D. McPherson GREG BOLLINGER

6808 S Memorial Dr Ste 146 918-461-2605

www.highgravitybrew.com

BRUSSELS SPOUTS Musician J.D. McPherson and partners bring a Belgian-inspired honky-tonk to The Boxyard by BECKY CARMAN

THE LOOP

loop

Don’t miss the bus!

Use the real time Bus Tracker App available at Scan the QR code and keep track of the Loop with the Tulsa Transit Bus Tracker App. tulsatransit.org facebook.com/TulsaDowntownTrolley

16 // FOOD & DRINK

DIM LIGHTING, ANTIQUED DAMASK wallpaper, ragged frames housing paintings of cowboys on the range. In the air, the din of conversation, clinking glass, classic country, and the aroma of ... fries? The Dutch word wirwar means “hodgepodge.” It’s a fitting name for Wirwar Tulsa, a Belgian honky-tonk, where Belgian beers and street food and American hillbilly music collide. Broken Arrow native J.D. McPherson, a partner in Wirwar Tulsa, tours Belgium often and frequents Wirwar Turnhout, the concept borrowed for the Tulsa edition. “I always go in there and hear old American country music; that’s a pretty common thing to run into,” McPherson said. “That’s a neat thing when you’re far from home. It helps you feel grounded.” McPherson accidentally pitched the concept to partners Mike McLaughlin and Alex Desai, who were already in talks to bring a restaurant to The Boxyard. “I mentioned in passing to Mike that I had a dream of someday opening a Belgian steakhouse,” McPherson said. “They called me back and said, ‘We want to do that.’” Wirwar boasts a wide selection of Belgian and Belgian-style beers, many sourced from monastic breweries in Belgium. “Belgium has the oldest, greatest beer culture. Every type of beer has its own glass—the ephemera is a big deal,” McPherson said. “They use wild yeast. It’s never the same and infinitely more exciting than any beer on the planet.” The complexity and wildness of the Wirwar’s beer menu touches both sides of the price—from $2 to $20 or a little more—and

flavor spectrums. There’s something for everyone here. “If someone doesn’t know about beer, but they want to try a Belgian, I’d go with Achel,” a Belgian Trappist blond, said General Manager Chase Cline. “If they’ve tried everything, I might go with [Ommegang’s] Rosetta. It’s a sweet, interesting style that isn’t carried everywhere. Kind of a dessert beer.” But you have to have a meal before you have dessert, and Wirwar offers an array of Belgian-style street foods, like a rich beef carbonnade (eat this with a strong, dark quad beer), liege waffles topped with speculoos, Burn Co. sausages, and the quintessential Belgian street eat, frites (which, McPherson implores, are to be eaten with mayonnaise and not ketchup). Beyond Wirwar’s June 24 grand opening, there are special events in the works in partnership with the Belgian-owned New York brewery Ommegang, including a “Game of Thrones” tap takeover and a music video series. A hodgepodge it might be, but other than the fry mayonnaise, “nothing we’re offering is unfamiliar to the Oklahoman palate,” McPherson said. “It’s steak, potatoes, waffles. It makes a whole lot of sense to dress this up as an Okie-friendly environment. Belgian beer, all the food that goes with it, and country music ... it’s kind of a perfect little scene.” a

WIRWAR TULSA GRAND OPENING June 24, 11am | 502 E. Third St., Unit 31 wirwartulsa.com | (918) 900-2239 Regular hours: Sun–Thur., 11am–12am, Fri. and Sat., 11am–1am June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

FOOD & DRINK // 17


BES T SE AT S IN TOW N FOR F REEDOM FES T J U LY 4 T H , 2 0 1 7

RE SER VAT ION ONLY 9 18 - 5 8 2- 4 6 0 0 Please call for pricing and package details.

L I V E MUSIC W / CHL OE JOHNS & ERIN O ’DOW DS A L L YOU C A N E AT BBQ • 6 - 9 P M bluerosetulsa

$ 5 A DMIS SION L I V E MUSIC W / CUR T HIL L & BC A ND T HE BIG RIG elwoodstulsa

Summer swigs BEERS TO IMBIBE ALL SEASON LONG

BEST OF TULSA READERS’ CHOICE 2017

the place to enjoy local beer & great food

3301 S Peoria Ave / 9409 E 71st St / bricktownbrewery.com

BY TTV STAFF The heat is here with a vengeance, meaning increased need for refreshment beside the grill and by the pool. Don’t have a pool? Find a friend with a pool. And then take your friend with the pool some beer. Here are a few brews to make the brutal summer temps go down easy: TALLGRASS BREWING CO. Key Lime Pie Unusual? Yeah. That’s what they do at Tallgrass, where quality and experimentation go hand in hand. This Kansas brewery’s Key Lime Pie is a sour blonde ale brewed with lime peel—a zingy dessert without the messy whipped cream.

RAHR & SONS BREWING COMPANY Summertime Wheat Based in downtown Fort Worth, these guys know a little something about creating the perfect brew for a hot summer day. With hints of banana and clove, this unfiltered Hefeweizen wipes the sweat off your brow.

BOULEVARD BREWING CO. Hibiscus Gose In the late 1800s, a version of this sour wheat ale became popular in Leipzig. It’s been reborn (in gorgeous pink, thanks to a hibiscus steeping that ends the brewing process) with notes of citrus, coriander, and sea salt.

SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO. Summerfest Delicately malty and slightly bitter with a kick of spicy, flowery hops, this strawgold Czech-style beer from California’s magic-making brewers is as crisp and easy to love as a dip in the Blue Hole. Pair with a light summer meal.

SHINER Strawberry Blonde Pale and wheat malts meet summer’s sweetest strawberries for a light and fruity brew from Shiner, Texas’s smalltown heroes. Effervescent and not overly sweet, it’s a perfect first foray into fruit beers.

DOGFISH HEAD Flesh & Blood IPA Fruity IPAs are in, and this is one of the finest. (Also, as of this month, Dogfish Head started distributing in Oklahoma.) A hoppy beer packed with aromatic citrus, this Delaware brewery’s Flesh & Blood packs real lemon and blood orange juice into a fresh, tart ale.

BOULEVARD BREWING CO. American Kolsch “Crisp. Dry. Comfort.” Sounds good to us. Sweet, clean, minty, and malty— this honey-like golden ale bittered with Magnum, Tradition, Saaz, and Saphir hops is lazy summer hammock-swinging in a can. 18 // FEATURED

MUSTANG BREWING COMPANY Tractor Therapy Session IPA Long day on the John Deere? This light session IPA from the folks down in Mustang, Oklahoma, has big carbonation and a range of citrus flavors in a blend of five different hops. JUNE 21 – JULY 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


DRINK TO THIS! NEW LAWS TO TAKE EFFECT IN 2018

A sample of Oklahoma beers available at Modern Spirits (401 E 11th St), in four packs, at least for now | GREG BOLLINGER

RULE OF FOURS So, you like beer, and you really like Oklahoma beer. Your hot summer, beer-loving daydreams are filled with the sounds of tasty, wonderful local ales filling lovely flute-topped glasses. In these thirsty moments you daydream of the bittersweet aroma of Okie-made brews like those made by Black Mesa and Iron Monk and Renaissance, and your heart fills with gladness. But then, when Friday rolls around, you go to the liquor store, headed to a party with friends who you’d like to impress with your excellent taste and local savviness, and a thing happens. A shitty, no-good thing. You see that nearly every Oklahoma brewery, with a couple of notable exceptions, such as Marshall Brewing Company here in Tulsa and COOP Ale Works in Oklahoma City, only sell beer in four-packs. Despair fills you. Your palms begin to sweat. Goddamn four-packs, you think. And instead of Oklahoma beer, which you spent all week waiting on, you pull down a six-pack of Bridgeport Kingpin Double Red from Portland, or Redhook ESB from the Seattle area, or Crazy Mountain Amber from Colorado, and you head to the checkout counter. After all, you want to bring enough brews to share. And those beers are good, and they come in sixes. Besides, you don’t want to appear stingy at the get-together, do you? Who wants to be the jerk who only brings four beers to a party? THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

Many times I’ve stood next to the local beer section of my neighborhood liquor store, wondering why, why, why at the iterations of four. Turns out the answer is pretty simple: for most brewers, it comes down to production costs. “So, why the four-pack, as opposed to a traditional six-pack?” I asked Iron Monk Brewing Company’s Director of Marketing and Sales Mark Waits over the phone. Iron Monk, based in Stillwater, makes a milk stout that is to die for—and really ought to come in packs of six. “That’s a good question,” Waits said. “I think it’s to keep the prices manageable. With the Payne County IPA, which retails at $11 or $12 for four beers—if we made it a six pack, it would be at the point where people wouldn’t buy it.” There is hope, however, for those of us who like to purchase tasty local brews in iterations of six. Iron Monk is planning to transition their Stilly Wheat beer from 16-ounce cans to 12-ounce cans, which

Practical packaging for Oklahoma brewers BY NATHAN KNAPP

will come in packs of six and stay at a price similar to what it is now. I also spoke with Chris Sanders, co-owner and master brewer at Black Mesa Brewing Co., makers of Endless Skyway Bitter Ale—one of the best ESBs I’ve ever tasted. He said the original reason they only sold four-packs was to “keep cost down. If you went to six-packs the price point would be over $10.” But there is hope still. “We’re switching right now, from fourpack bottles to six-pack cans,” Sanders said. Black Mesa is taking advantage of the change to repackage their flagship ESB and rename their Kolsch, which will become Mountain Boomer, the nickname of Oklahoma’s state lizard. Sanders said Black Mesa transferred its brewing operations from O’Fallon, Missouri to Oklahoma City this past April, where Black Mesa now brews out of Urban Farmhouse. Their new six-packs appeared in May. “We wanted to pass that saving on shipping from going from Missouri to OKC to the consumer,” Sanders said. “The more you brew, everything gets cheaper.” Tulsa’s Renaissance Brewing Company, which will open a taproom near 12th Street on South Lewis Avenue sometime later this year, also sells its beer in fourpack pints. Owner Glenn Hall added that, besides the fact that the cost of packaging for 16-ounce cans is actually higher than those of 12-ounce cans, he had an even more practical reason for sticking to the four-pack: “Because of the pint’s size. That’s the proper way to serve a beer, in my opinion … When you go to have a beer, 12 ounces just doesn’t seem to be enough.” I couldn’t argue with that. a

Last November, Oklahomans voted yes on State Question 792, also known as The Oklahoma Regulations Governing the Sale of Wine and Beer Amendment. In the recently ended legislative session, Oklahoma legislators made changes to our state’s alcohol laws, which will take effect October 2018. Under this new legislation, liquor stores can be open until midnight, giving Oklahomans an extra three hours to do their runs. Spirits can also be sold on holidays, except for the two when many people need booze the most: Thanksgiving and Christmas. Another major adjustment allows grocery stores with retail beer and wine licenses to sell alcoholic beverages between the hours of 6 a.m. and 2 a.m. Separate licensing for beer, wine, and spirits will mean that a retailer with a beer license can sell beer up to 9 percent ABV (but not wine or spirits); a retailer with a wine license can sell wine up to 15 percent ABV (but not beer or spirits); a retailer with a spirits license can basically sell any strength or type of alcohol. Also next year, the same store that sells your lake beer will be able to sell your $17-a-bottle beer— and it will be cold.

Cheers! FEATURED // 19


Bitches brew! THE LEGACY OF STRONG WOMEN, STRONG BEER BY AMANDA RUYLE

It’s a beautiful summer morning and I’m standing in the kitchen of Holly Clay-Bucks midtown bungalow, watching her stir a giant pot of secret ingredients with what people who know their way around the beer brewing world call a “big spoon.” On the counter, a cookbook is opened to the pages containing old family recipes for homemade wine and beer written in perfect penmanship by Irene Holland Clay, or Granny, as Clay-Buck called her. With the recipe, a warning: “It is good and has quite a buzz to it. So, if you make it and drink it, be careful—it ain’t tea!” A fifth-generation brewer, ClayBuck has matured as a brewer beyond the simple and pared-down beer recipe passed down from Granny, but it’s that recipe that ties her to childhood and to the tradition of home brewers. This morning, Clay-Buck is making Granny’s old family recipe to be kegged for the annual Fourth of July family celebration in Stigler, Oklahoma, where she was born and raised. This will be the first year without Granny, or her dad David Dean Clay, both of whom passed away this year, which has made this tradition all the more important. “My dad was the one who brewed from that generation, I think he was just holding space for one of his girls … with my dad gone there is a sense of urgency now. Like, holy shit we’re gonna lose all this stuff.” 20 // FEATURED

Handwritten note by Irene Holland Clay adjacent to family beer recipe | GREG BOLLINGER

Working as she talks, Clay-Buck sticks a pump siphon into the pot and feeds the hose into a five-gallon carboy, which is a giant glass jar where the initial fermentation will take place. She then quickly pulls the hose out of the small opening and fills two large shot glasses. “At this stage, called sparging, we get to taste it … It is traditional and good luck to take a shot of whiskey or scotch mixed with the sparge. It’s good luck, we don’t want to curse ourselves.” Down go the good-luck shots, and I get my first taste of the family recipe. It’s sweet and simple, full of sugars that will eventually turn into booze. The finished product will be different than what most people expect from a beer—it’s sweet due to it high sugar

content, and more carbonated. I could imagine drinking it over ice or using it as a mixer, or straight from the keg on a scorching summer day. The recipe is basic on purpose, created and modified over the years to make sure brewing, and beer, stay accessible in lean times. Like a homemade pie crust or jar of homemade jelly, Granny’s beer exists in a place where tradition, simplicity, craft, and know-how intersect to produce a little piece of backwoods Americana. “I consider [making] it a folk art, and almost like being a historian. Beer was traditionally a woman’s drink … it was important to women in families because it was nutrition. I mean, its cooking. It’s really heat-intensive cooking, and my theory is that it was always just the purview of women.”

Seeing brewing as an extension of traditional women’s work led her to invent a recipe called “Mothers Milk Lactation Stout” with her husband, Daniel Clay-Buck. Inspired by a joke made by a nursing mother about needing a beer to be able to breastfeed, something clicked for Holly. “I kind of went, ‘Okay, we can do this.’ I researched what foods and herbs are good for lactation and the Venn diagram of things that taste good in beer and the things that are good for lactation [makes] a [complete] circle.” A decidedly more complicated and time-consuming process, brewing a batch of “Mothers Milk” takes all day and requires multiple people, but the product is dark and robust with a hint of sweetness, and absolutely worth the effort. While Holly Clay-Buck has a no-nonsense attitude about brewing, she knows it can be intimidating for some women to enter the male-dominated world of craft brewing. After all, not everyone had a straight-shooting, beer-brewing Granny and a dad who was happy to share family traditions with his daughters, and those initial steps into a world filled with intense people with intense opinions can be overwhelming. Her advice to women who want to make beer, which would undoubtedly be the same advice Granny would give: “Ignore everybody and get shit done.” a June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


Downtown Tulsa Blue Dome District 114 S. Detroit

The Andolini’s #Demarco is the finest cheese pizza money can buy. Have it; if you don’t agree, you don’t pay. – Mike Bausch, Owner Andolini’s Pizzeria

Imported Italian extra virgin olive oil, Pecorino Romano cheese, San Marzano tomatoes, made in house fresh mozzarella, then topped with fresh basil. andopizza.com

WINNER!

The Diavolo. Pistachios on a pizza. You wouldnʼt think so, but it totally works. 10 BUCK LUNCH Monday – Friday (Specialty pizza and salad lunch options)

100% wood-fired, 100% authentic Napoletana pizza. Carefully selected wines and beers available. House made daily micro-batch Italian gelato. STGItalian.com

• fine wine • • craft beer • • unique liquor • 401 E. 11th St. • 918-295-0295 facebook.com/ModernSpiritsTulsa

THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

FEATURED // 21


NICK SCHUELLEIN AND SAMANTHA RONISTAL ON MAIN STREET IN TERLTON, OK.

Darkness on the edge of town IN TERLTON, ALL IS FORGIVEN BUT NOTHING FORGOTTEN BY SHEILAH BRIGHT

PHOTOS BY JOSEPH RUSHMORE

22 // FEATURED

June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


JUST AS DUSK SLIPPED INTO DARKNESS ON JULY 4, 2016, Jon Harrod stood on the roof of his Terlton Grocery store, about 30 miles west of Tulsa, and caught a glimpse of his wife, Latina Rose. He saluted goodbye to an orange, green, and silver blaze at the 18th annual Terlton Fireworks Show. Only about 50 of the 1,000 people parked on quilts and lawn chairs knew the last of Latina’s cremation ashes just winked across the sky on that Independence Day—one of her favorite holidays since childhood. She didn’t want an announcement about the “heavenly flight” that the couple had talked about for years, even before her cancer diagnosis. “We always said we wanted some of our ashes put into a firework because we love them. A friend shot it off for me from the ground because I needed to be on the roof to light the other fuses,” Harrod said. “I had a show to put on.” Moments earlier when 8,000 firecrackers kicked off the celebration, Sally Murphy stepped away from her firework stand—the town’s only one—and watched her good friend’s final wish sparkle and fade. Together in 1998 along with resident Kay Tilley, Sally and Latina had organized a fireworks show. They wanted to lift this community of less than 100 people out of a darkness and self-imposed ban on fireworks that began on June 25, 1985, when the locally owned Aerlex Corporation fireworks plant exploded and killed 21 friends and neighbors.

Streets of fire

With the first boom on that 1985 day, people in communities surrounding Terlton looked toward the sky as a grim cloud rose over the countryside. Cattle scattered to the hills. Songbirds hushed. Neighbors jumped into their pickup trucks and cars in a mad rush to the remote location just west of town. No one had to ask what happened. Everyone within miles knew the fireworks plant—packed with explosives for its busiest day of the year—had exploded. Most people died instantly. False reports drifted into town within minutes that no one survived, and the people who didn’t drive to the scene gathered at the Terlton Grocery, owned then by Charlotte Johnson and her husband, Alan, who also owned the firework plant. It didn’t take long to learn that out of 26 workers, only five people survived, including Alan, who was badly injured and lost his stepson. Renee Randall, the Johnsons’ niece, had assembled fireworks at the plant for 10 years along with her mother, Fran Small. The day before, her mother had dropped by and told her not to come to work that next day. Although she was only four miles southwest of the plant, she never heard the explosion. She still wonders why. A preacher came to her house to deliver the news. She drove her truck to the site and busted through the law enforcement roadblock. “I said, ‘My mom’s in there,’ and they said, ‘You’re not going in,’ ” Randall recalled. “I put my truck in first gear, and I floored it. One of the highway patrolmen went on the hood, the other went through the window. I went out the other side and I took off running. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) picked me up at the railroad tracks, which is about a mile in.” Randall said OSHA officials told her the law enforcement had asked them to bring her back, but she stood firm until they relented and escorted her to THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

JON HARROD, OWNER OF TERLTON GROCERY

where she could see what once was Terlton’s most lucrative employment opportunity. “When I topped the hill and saw the plant, I knew my mother was gone,” she said. “By the grace of God, my mother died instantly. She didn’t suffer. I also lost my cousin Dean. All of us were like family. That’s when Terlton died.” For the second time in her life, Randall had survived an explosion. She had been at work in 1979 when a small explosion blamed on spilled black powder ignited and rocked the plant but didn’t kill anyone. “I still have scars on my chest where my bra had burnt to my breast,” she said. “Alan always preached just run to the expressway if there is an explosion, so that’s what we did in 1979. There wasn’t time to run in ’85. My mother had enough time to look up and gasp—that’s it.” Louise Whittenburg, 83, lost her nephew, Jason Creekmore, and sister-in-law, Elvera Potts, in the explosion. Survivor’s guilt coupled with constant grief and funeral planning crippled the community. Nearly

half of the victims were buried in the Terlton Cemetery. Everyone felt numb. Several weeks later, Whittenburg saw something that renewed her hope that Terlton would come through the devastating time. “This kid who lived up on the corner over by the schoolhouse had a horse, and one day he came walking down there leading his horse toward the creek, and he was singing a country song,” Whittenburg said. “I thought, you know, we’re going to come back alive again.” Bill Hickson, who did part-time mowing and maintenance work at Aerlex, lost his wife, Toni Hickson, and brother, Jesse Hickson. He didn’t go to the plant that day because of a foot problem. He was at his parents’ place watching his dad bring in a harvest of roasting corn when he heard the roar and saw the mushroom cloud fill the sky. He drove 70 mph on five miles of mostly gravel road to reach the site. As soon as he saw the empty hill hovered above the plant located in the valley below, his heart sank. FEATURED // 23


24 // FEATURED

June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


“I knew if anyone had survived uninjured, they would have made it to the top of that hill,” he said. In the days that followed, he attended 15 funerals and dealt with the somber knowledge that in the caskets, remains of his family members and friends were “all mixed together because in the end there was very little but dust left.” He fled town that first July 4 and couldn’t find enough peace to celebrate Independence Day with much joy until the past few years. Patriotism eventually won him back over. “These people who died at that fireworks plant were some of the proudest Americans that ever got killed,” Hickson said. “They died making something beautiful that we use to celebrate our country’s independence.”

The brokenhearted

Those feelings echo the emotions felt by Terlton Day organizers who eased the community back into a July 4th mood with a small event that now attracts more than 1,000 people and unites surrounding rural communities. Still, the revival took time. “Our lights went out on June 25, 1985, and they stayed out for a long time,” Murphy said. “It’s a scar that went so deep that it eventually melded everyone together.” Her mother, Joyce Orcutt, had wrapped her arms and prayers around the Terlton community in the days following the tragedy. She attended 19 funerals within a week and delivered comfort with her legendary home cooking. “My mom could make a hot roll that could float you to heaven,” Murphy said. After 13 years of mourning those killed and the loss of her own mother to cancer, Murphy decided Terlton needed a spirit lifter, a patriotic boost, a Fourth of July. She sold a few fireworks in her yard for a year to test how the community would feel about it. Kids who knew nothing about the tragedy grinned while lighting Black Cat fireworks and coughed through clouds created by smoke bombs. As fountain cones gushed pink, purple, and yellow sparks across the neighborhood lawns, people ooh-ed and aah-ed their sighs of enjoyment and relief while the town’s children danced in the glow. No one complained, so Murphy sold a few more the next year. Eventually, people started gathering at Terlton Grocery to watch fireworks shot off from the store roof. The annual Terlton Day—a one-day event formerly held in June—linked to the holiday. People started collecting money and cans to buy even more fireworks the next year. The Fourth of July was here to stay.

Prove it all night

With 33 registered voters, 72 water meters, and a census count of 106 people that no one really believes, Terlton—all .02 square miles of it—had always been the kind of “up by” community that people tend to lock onto as more of a geographical reference than a place to visit. Deer hunters and Cimarron River catfish finders hoard their secret hidey-holes by saying, “Oh, it’s up by Terlton,” with few ever driving down its desolate streets. No school. No gas station. One church. One tiny grocery/makeshift museum that struggles to survive and sells candy bars, chips, pop, and Anheuser-Busch THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

SALLY MURPHY, OUTSIDE HER FIREWORKS STAND IN TERLTON

beer—the only beer that trucks will deliver this far out into Pawnee County. “There are very few photographs of this town from the 1940s, 1950s, or 1960s,” Harrod said. “No one around here had enough money to buy even a $2 Kodak Instamatic.” June 25, 1985, brought Terlton national attention as one of the worst firework explosions of the time. Despite the tragic circumstances, most people hold no resentment toward Johnson, a Vietnam veteran credited as a pyrotechnic genius, community supporter, and someone who was just trying to help the town out by providing jobs. Investigators believe the explosions were likely caused when employees unloaded a metal container from a pickup bed where black powder had been spilled. The friction ignited flames that spread onto the nearby buildings. OSHA fines forced Johnson to sell both the grocery store and plant site. Few local people, if any, blame the tragedy on anything other than an accident. Johnson seldom talks about the incident yet still works in the industry, attends church in Terlton, and has many friends there. When Harrod needed some advice on how to fulfill his wife’s wishes to have her ashes attached to a fireworks shell, he called the most trusted pyrotechnic expert he knew: Alan Johnson. The town hopes to eventually raise money to create a memorial listing the names of those who

died at the plant. For now, they just hope to raise enough money every year to keep the free fireworks show going. On July 4, 2017, after the games, food, and a parade that has to circle the block several times so participants can throw all of their candy to the crowd, Harrod and a few trusted friends will climb atop the grocery store so they can illuminate the town. For Terlton, the beauty of black powder is back. a

FireThief Productions heads to Terlton July 4 to film the Terlton Day festivities for a new documentary expected to be completed by Spring 2018. “I think the odds are stacked against people in rural areas,” said filmmaker Sterlin Harjo. “There is a bad perception about people who, like me, were raised in small towns. I love when you can break that down in real time. Terlton’s story kind of speaks to everything that I love about Oklahoma.”

TERLTON 4TH OF JULY FIREWORKS SHOW Tues., July 4, 7pm–10pm, fireworks begin at dark 50 Main St., Terlton, Oklahoma 74081 FEATURED // 25


animalia

TOOTH AND CLAW CONSERVATION Meet the inhabitants of Tulsa Zoo’s Lost Kingdom by JENNIE LLOYD A snow leopard at Tulsa Zoo | RUTH HOLLAND

A

rroooh! Jin roared. The critically endangered Malayan tiger’s impatience echoed throughout the indoor dayroom of the Tulsa Zoo’s new $21 million exhibit complex, Lost Kingdom. Jin howl-roared again over Kalle Burgess, the zoo’s community relations manager, as she talked about the tiger’s new home. “I’m not a tiger expert,” Burgess said while Jin stalked back and forth like a pent-up heavyweight ready for the ring. “But based on her body language, I’m thinking she’s impatient for breakfast.” The zoo’s biggest and most expensive project to date replaced the 1960s-era tiger and snow leopard grottos with updated, naturalistic homes and demonstration areas. Early this hot June morning, a horticulturist was weeding the 6,000-square-foot east yard of the Helmerich Tiger Exhibit, where Jin likes to eat her breakfast and bask in morning sun amid a rolling landscape and crumbling temple ruins. “So she will have to wait until he’s done,” Burgess said. She and the two other tigers in the zoo’s collection—Jin’s daughter Ava and a male named Tahan—moved from their

26 // ARTS & CULTURE

half-century-old grottos and into an enriched habitat almost five times larger than their former home. “We designed the Lost Kingdom complex to provide immersive, year-round viewing opportunities where zoo guests can feel like they have walked into a forgotten land,” said Lindsay Hutchison, Tulsa Zoo’s vice president of philanthropy and community engagement. “Exploring among the ruins teeming with wildlife, zoo visitors will feel a mixture of curiosity and engagement; curiosity about the animals they are viewing, and a desire to engage in conservation.” Jin didn’t care about the specifics of her new habitat this morning—not even the Hille Foundation Tiger Bridge, where she can stalk over the heads of visitors in an open-air walkway. She wanted her yard and her breakfast. Arroooh! Jin padded past the demonstration area where zookeepers chat with small groups. Training areas are an integral part of the exhibit. Both the tiger and the snow leopard demonstration areas give guests a chance to watch zookeepers show positive reinforcement techniques up close. The Lost Kingdom is a Noah’s ark of endangered Asian species.

There are male-female pairs of snow leopards, Komodo dragons, binturongs (nicknamed “bearcats” or “bear-weasels,” though not related to either), siamangs, and Chinese alligators. “Komodos are on the threatened list. Siamangs numbers are down by 50 percent. Malayan tigers have dropped down to 250–300 in the wild,” Burgess said. “So we are trying to breed them here.” The Tulsa Zoo hopes Jin will become a mother again, and that Tahan will become a father for the first time. Protecting endangered species and maintaining a healthy population is an integral part of Tulsa Zoo’s mission. Komodo dragons are a quiet species, unlike tigers, who tend to talk a lot. In a sky-lit indoor area of his own, a male Komodo dragon splayed out on a heated rock just a few hundred feet from Jin; heated elements were placed near windows for up-close viewing when he warms his belly. Outside, the female Komodo sat in the sun near a shallow pool. Across from her, a father-daughter pair of siamangs—small, black-furred primates—swung from ropes. The daughter siamang had never seen humans this close before moving into her new habitat, according to Burgess.

As if on cue, the small primate walked up to a window and put her hand on the glass to greet a pack of toddlers. The species regarded one another, then moved on to other windows. Most of the animals in Lost Kingdom were previous Tulsa Zoo residents, while newcomers include the red panda, binturong, and a few bird species. Though Jin has to wait for breakfast, human guests can head over to the outdoor Komodo Canteen for fair food and fullpoint Marshall beers on tap at their leisure. A new wood-fired pizza restaurant, Rajan’s, features a wraparound indoor patio with views of the tiger yard, where Jin likes to nap in the sun—after breakfast, of course. Lost Kingdom is the second project of the zoo’s 20-year master plan, revealed in 2012, to rebuild and provide larger, updated habitats for each of the animals. “The completion of Lost Kingdom will allow us to continue work on our master plan, focusing on the African section of the zoo next,” Hutchison said. The next project will be an improved giraffe exhibit. “We got a $1 million donation from Osage Casinos to expand the barn and create indoor viewing,” Burgess said. a June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


lolz

VICTOR FOXTROT WHISKEY Veteran and newbie comedians join in VFW open mic Comedian Ross Clettenberg | JOSEPH RUSHMORE

THE STEPS CHRONICLE THE SEQUENTIAL names of American foreign wars and the bar permanently reserves a seat for a fallen solider. The Centennial Lounge, located on the second floor of VFW Post 577 (1109 E. 6th St.), is one of Tulsa’s hidden gems, replete with shuffleboard, the occasional buffet, and “Hanoi Jane” Fonda urinal targets. On Wednesday nights, one of Tulsa’s best comedy open mics happens there. “This is a comedy show,” opened host Ryan Green on the night I attended. “And the first rule of a comedy show is ‘Shut the fuck up.’” Laughter and light-hearted jeers were fired back at Green from the fresh faces and top Tulsa comics in the packed room. Evan Hughes dropped the house lights, Nicholas Osborne grimaced after slamming a shot, and C.R. Parsons stroked his beard in quiet contemplation. Andrew Deacon and Michael Zampino giggled over something by an unplugged jukebox. A bombed set at other mics can be painful for both performer and audience. But bombing in a room packed with seasoned comics can be just as funny, or even funnier than killing it. The first comic confused the video game “Gods Among Us” with the show “American Gods” in a joke, and endured a good minute of howling from the crowd. He banged out his set before sighing and exiting, only to have Green take the

stage and proclaim: “I’m stealing his dismount... From now on I’ll say, ‘I hate this, goodnight!’” Memphis comedian Lila Bear was passing through Tulsa and popped by to try out new material, including 30 new jokes about her time as a baby. “When I was a baby, I was the fastest roller blading baby, and I was going for the gold in my country,” she said. “Then I lost my sponsorship because they found out I have wheels for feet.” The VFW open mic is presented by the comedy collective Channel Four and a Half, and hosts are selected by Green, who is a CFH member. The mic was created by Chris Ashton Lightell-West, and according to Green, was already an institution when he hit the scene three years ago. When longtime host Vanessa Dawn skipped town this year, CFH took over. “Since of all the Four and a Half folks, I’m the drunkest, and most likely to be at every open mic, [Channel Four and a Half] decided I would be the one to do the booking and monitoring,” Green said. “Hosting VFW is a sort of trial by fire for hosts as it can get rowdy… The host has to be willing to be the mean parent sometimes.” The rowdiness usually comes from the comics in attendance, who might not exactly commit the comedy sin of heckling, but rip into each other in the name of brotherhood. — MITCH GILLIAM

LE ON SA

N O W !17

# BWC

EUGENE MIRMAN

F20

KYLE KINANE SKLAR BROTHERS

GINA BRILLON NAOMI EKPERIGIN DAVID GBORIE JORDAN ROCK

BYRON BOWERS

JACQUELINE NOVAK

NICK VATTEROTT

SAM JAY

LATE LATE BREAKFAST

LIZA TRIGGER

BRIAN MOSES JOSH MEYERS

SEPTEMBER 7TH -10TH , 2017 STAN D U P • IMPROV • PODCASTS • FILM • PARTIES • LIVE MUSIC

BLUEWHALECOMEDYFESTIVAL .COM THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

ARTS & CULTURE // 27


artspot

Incoming Living Arts Director Jessica Borusky | STEPHANIE ECKERMANN

What art has to do with life New Living Arts director hopes to invite and empower

by ALICIA CHESSER

O

n a sunny Wednesday morning, having cycled down to the Pearl District in pink sunglasses, Jessica Borusky was getting to know Tulsa. Borusky is 30, dark-haired, quietly intent, savagely funny, and prefers the nonbinary pronouns “they” and “them” over “she” and “her.” As of July 1, Borusky will take the reins as the first new artistic director of Living Arts of Tulsa in 25 years. “I’m very interested in what I call secret performances and secret sculptures,” Borusky mused. “That’s some of the best art I’ve seen. Instances that are really absurd: that’s the only way I can understand them. Oh, that was a secret performance going on. Humor understood broadly to include the tragic and the absurd. A way of coping in life, in order to exist.” Borusky had emerged from a class at Be Love Yoga Studio in avid discussion with the teacher (“I’m a certified Pilates instructor; we were talking about the MindBody app,” Borusky said), and walked across the street to Cirque Coffee. A handshake later, we settled in at the bar amidst a scat-

28 // ARTS & CULTURE

tering of devices, bags, coffees, a plate of spectacular buttered toast, and an open journal with a pen at the ready beside it. The journal and pen belonged not to me, the journalist, but to Borusky. “Sometimes when I do interviews with people, I like to jot down the questions that are asked,” Borusky said. As we talked, I began to see that the rigorous, humble transparency that would make someone keep a record of questions of possible interest to the community is a key part of Borusky’s way as a person, a research-based artist, and a new kind of facilitator for Tulsa’s bastion of contemporary art. With an MFA from Tufts University’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts, a women’s and gender studies degree from MIT, and three years’ experience teaching and curating performance art in Kansas City, Borusky combines the open, inclusive hopefulness of a millennial with the intense edge of an accomplished academic and artist in a field that’s very comfortable with thoughtfully sticking up the status quo.

At Living Arts, Borusky steps into an organization that for 48 years has been pushing at the boundaries of what art has to do with life. Tulsa has quite an influx of creative dynamos at the moment, what with the Tulsa Artist Fellows and Philbrook’s new director Scott Stulen, among others. Much of the energy now driving the arts community centers around public engagement—which happens to have been a focus of Borusky’s time in Kansas City through initiatives like Alt Lecture, Flesh Crisis, and Art in the Loop. “Even while doing undergrad work I was putting together performance art coalitions and education programming,” Borusky said. “How do you present innovative critical work that’s not only operating with its own history, trajectory, and practice, but also engaging the audience in a way that’s not invasive but invitational for the viewers? How do you invite and empower your viewers to engage this material? “It’s never about silencing the artist. Rather it’s about proper curation, creating that dialogue so that it’s fruitful.”

In Kansas City, Borusky paired local and visiting artists to deepen relationships rather than simply hooking people up through networking or events. “I would invite, for instance, one of the baristas here to talk about making a specific kind of coffee, and I would pair that with, like, an abstract painter. I think very rhizomatically about how to curate not only an event, a partnership, a situation, but then sustainable relationships.” Borusky is also curious about how arts organizations can work not just with the community but with each other. “Any organization is also an organism which is constantly growing and changing,” Borusky said. “It cannot exist entirely on its own accord. Maybe by working with another organization there’s a different kind of grant that’s actually available to both! So what happens when you start to think outside those boxes? What then might become available to all?” Since 1991, the job of Living Arts director has been held by Steve Liggett, who has been relentless in bringing contemporary art from every discipline and every June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


Gilcrease Museum and the Henry Zarrow Center for Art and Education

Summer Art Camps 2017 June 19 through Aug. 11, 2017 9:00 a.m.-Noon & 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. 5-6 years old at Gilcrease Museum 7-12 years old at Zarrow Center Prices per week Half-Day Classes: $100 members; $125 not-yet members All-Day Classes: $200 members; $250 not-yet members

Outgoing Living Arts Director Steve Liggett | MICHELLE POLLARD

part of the world to Tulsa viewers, and building a successful business model in the process. Liggett’s jaunty style sits comfortably alongside a vocal commitment to racial justice, true Tulsa history, and the sort of creative work that the Living Arts mission statement calls “history in the making.” “It’s a bittersweet thing,” Liggett said of his retirement. “I’m proud of what we’ve done. Really proud. This didn’t happen just because of me, but because a lot of people were able to make it work.” He recalled the previous transition at Living Arts, when he became artistic director after the late Virginia Myers. “It changed drastically when I took over from Virginia. She was a musician, a contemporary composer. She was brilliant, spiritual, classically trained. I had a ceramics background, and I was a director at Johnson Atelier with arts administration experience. This new director is really a performance artist and she’s going to take it her direction. “I know that Living Arts will change a lot,” he continued. “I think that’s good. The manifestos from those early days in the early ‘70s state very clearly that it is an organism. The mission has remained the same for 48 years: to present and develop contemporary art forms in Tulsa. As long as we do that, as long as we don’t get watered down, it will evolve and grow.” A retrospective of Liggett’s work will be on display in the gallery starting June 30, and on THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

July 7 Borusky will curate their first show in the space. “Sense Vessel: Stimulating Porous Experience” features Tim Brown’s light sculptures, made out of nontraditional art materials, as well as S. E. Nash’s abstract sculptures inspired by fermentation. Nash will make ferments during the show, using vegetables that viewers bring with them (Borusky: “So bring your veggies, Tulsa!”), which will be available to take home on July 21. “Having these artists doing what they do plays towards what Living Arts does: yes, they’re object-based, but there’s an extension of the body that’s involved, either by way of the viewer in the case of Brown or by way of these living entities with Nash,” Borusky explained. For Borusky, the transition is less about filling Liggett’s shoes and more about honoring a commitment to, in their words, thoughtfully holding space for people to do their thing. “I’m interested in how Living Arts can continue to invite and empower and perhaps build new relationships to be organically in flux with how Tulsa is right now and set it up for future Tulsa and for a national and international contemporary art dialogue at the same time,” Borusky said. “Creating the seeds for that kind of investment requires a lot of different tools. The biggest one is letting people feel seen and heard and safe. If they don’t feel seen and heard and safe, they’re not going to give a shit. It sounds so silly, but care is so essential.” a

Register online at gilcrease.org/summercamp.

TU is an EEO/AA Institution.

GILCREASE.ORG June 22 Mark Gibson and Friends in Concert June 22-25 Local Landmark, National Treasure: An Epic Concert Celebrating 95 Years Theatre Tulsa June 22-25 The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged - Sand Springs Community Theatre

20 17

June 23 One More Day With Danny Day Echo Theatre June 24-25 Oy, Gestalt! Spinning Plates Productions

MAY 25-JUNE 25 TULSA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

STAGETULSA.ORG OR

918.596.7111

TULSA PAC TRUST PRESENTED BY THE

TICKETS @ SUMMER

ARTS & CULTURE // 29


artspot

“ Soy Chicana” | CICI SEGURA GONZALEZ

ALL BY DEFINITION A conversation with Cheech Marin by JAKE CORNWELL Cheech Marin ALLAN AMATO

S

tanding at the entrance of the record-breaking exhibition at Philbrook Museum of Art, “Papel Chicano Dos: Works on Paper from the Collection of Cheech Marin,” giant vermillion-colored block letters splashed upon a midnight background proclaim: “CHICANO ART IS AMERICAN ART.” —Cheech Marin “That’s one of the end stories I’m trying to get out there,” Marin said, “so that people get used to that idea. And the more you say it, the more you show them. Then they get it.” Although he laughingly refers to himself as “an artist of philosophy,” Marin’s commitment to art cannot be overstated. He has established a reputation as an art collector over the last four decades and has used his celebrity to expose the world to another form of popular culture: Chicano art. Since

30 // ARTS & CULTURE

his first acquisition in the 1980s, he has amassed approximately 750 paintings and has shown various installments of his collection in over 50 established museums, from Los Angeles to the Smithsonian and internationally in Spain and France. Tulsa is the latest city to host a cross-section of Marin’s growing trove.

JAKE CORNWELL: You began referring to yourself as a “Chicano” early in life. Progressively, the term has evolved from a negative connotation to a term of endearment. What do you believe defines the school of Chicano art? CHEECH MARIN: I’ve never considered Chicano art to be a derogatory term because my father, who died in ’92, always called himself a Chicano. And I’ve always referred to myself as a Chicano—once I heard the term and found out

what it meant, I thought it was the thing that described me. I never ever associated myself with being a Hispanic or even Mexican-American. I never liked those kinds of hyphens. [Chicano art] is evolving as we speak, as it has its whole history. Speaking at this point, it kind of rotates around what “who is” or “who isn’t”—mostly who is— Chicano. I think the definition is expanded as we see who’s involved in the process, vis-à-vis Mexican and Central Americans. CORNWELL: Your collection has traveled all over the country and to Europe. When you heard a bunch of Okies were interested in Chicano art, what was your response? MARIN: I said, “Well, good for Okies! It’s about time.” I always viewed Okies as intellectual Texans anyways (laughs). CORNWELL: In what ways is Chica-

no art reflective of the community it comes from? MARIN: Well, we are individuals and we have a worldview that is both Mexican-influenced and Latino-influenced, and American at the same time. American pop culture, and where they coincide and mesh together, is what forms Chicano art. What these artists are involved in is giving you not a minute-by-minute, step-by-step, inch-by-inch explanation of community; what you get is the sabor—or the flavor—of what that community is like and represents, and how it feels. It’s a much more well-rounded, 360-degree feeling of what the state of the art is. There’s more and more artists coming into the arena all the time. We’re now on our fourth or fifth generation of Chicano artists that are coming up and have their own identity. And they all comment on the community that they’re involved in. It’s a very fast-moving and wide-ranging field. June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


MUSIC NIGHT of having art in museums and art CORNWELL: Is Chicano art a social with Susan Herndon backers that build museums and & Bella put theirCounsel art in there. We’re start-

commentary on issues of the day?

MARIN: What I’ve noticed is that a new generation of young guys, young painters, come into the area, [and] their first comment is on the social condition of their community. That’s been happening over and over and over again. Once [they make] their statement like that, they get their bona fides. And then they do whatever else they want in art. I mean, you can be a Chicano who paints, or you can be a Chicano who paints “Chicano school,” which is involved in commentary. But it is always involved in the state of the community at some point in their careers. CORNWELL: Viewing art is sensorial and can produce an emotional experience. What is it about Chicano art that made you want to preserve these pieces and become the Chicano art guy? MARIN: I recognized it was well-done art. It was art by painters who really could paint. Because I’d been studying paintings just about all my life, when I discovered these Chicano painters, I said, “These guys are really good.” It’s like discovering a great musician. It doesn’t matter what kind of music he is playing, but you hear it when it’s really, really good—and on tempo and original and new and full of vitality. I felt when I first discovered them that they were not getting ... the shelf space they deserved and recognition within the American art process. So, that kind of became my goal. And then my mantra [became]: “You can’t love or hate Chicano art unless you see it.” So, my journey or my quest was to get as many people to see Chicano art as possible. CORNWELL: Why do you think it took this long for Chicano art to be accepted in mainstream art?

ing into that process right now. Now, [Chicano artists are] firmly established as fine artists. At the beginning they were kind of viewed as a prop folk art. They’ve evolved way past that, and they’re all fine artists now. I love the folk element in some artists and I want to encourage that as well. It’s all by definition. It’s redefining the definitions of “what is” and “what isn’t,” and so I think we’re going to be very much involved with that process.

- Sunday, M U S I C OpenNTuesday I G 10am - 5pmH T

with Susan Herndon & Bella Counsel Late Night Thursdays until 8pm Thursday, June 22 Yoga Night Music starts at 6pm

Thursday, April 20, 6pm with Be Love Yoga

Art for Your Garden

with vegetarian options

*Beer and wine

available for purchase

3900 Tulsa Botanic Drive tulsabotanic.org 918.289.0330

tulsabotanic.org | 918.289.0330 OKLAHOMA STUDY OF NATIVE AMERICAN PAIN RISK RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS NEEDED

CORNWELL: You’ve compared picking a favorite painting to choosing a favorite child—it’s just impossible. But, is there a particular purchase that is especially meaningful? MARIN: I remember one Frank Romero painting I got. I was doing a movie and they really didn’t have enough money to pay me for what I wanted. Part of the payment was in art. It was okay by me!

*Food Truck

Saturday, April 29, 10am-5pm with Garden Deva Sculpture, Tulsa Glassblowing School, and Birdhouses by Mark

A novel research study is being conducted at The University of Tulsa to identify potential markers of risk for chronic pain in healthy (currently painfree) Non-Hispanic White and Native American individuals.

$200 compensation ($100/day)

INVESTIGATORS: Drs. Jamie Rhudy & Joanna Shadlow CONTACT: The University of Tulsa Psychophysiology Research Laboratory 918-631-2175 or 918-631-3565

This study is safe, non-invasive, and does not involve medication. Participants must be able to attend 2 laboratory sessions (4-5.5 hours/day) in which physiological and behavioral reactions to different stimuli are recorded. This is a University of Tulsa, Cherokee Nation, and Indian Health Service Oklahoma Area Office IRB approved research study.

CORNWELL: Where do you see the collection in five or ten years, or even after you’re gone? MARIN: I’ve been given this museum in Riverside, California, to house the collection. So, I kind of see it there—being in the center of Chicano art and culture.

woodyguthriecenter.org

CORNWELL: Is there still resistance from the establishment to showcase such works, or is the old guard beginning to change?

JOHN MCCUTCHEON THUR. JULY 6 7pm

MARIN: No, no, there isn’t that much resistance anymore because SUMMER MUSIC EXPERIENCE The Woody Guthrie Center is excited to once again offer JUNE for 19-28 • 3-4:30 Summer youth 12-18 years ofpm age. we’ve validated it in all kinds of music-related activities museums. Not only with the critiDon’t miss this opportunity to learn and play with professional musicians! cal community, but with people in JUNE 19-28 | 3:00-4:30 p.m. general. So, I think the message is to get it out there. And that’s what I’m trying to do. a

MIKE STINSON BAND SAT. JULY 8 7pm WOODY GUTHRIE POETS SUN. JULY 16 2pm

Sessions include education in different genres of music, songwriting, musical recording, and musical performance. The camp environment encourages young musicians to think independently, work cooperatively and discover their own creativity. Designed for young musicians ages 12 to 18

Participants will learn to work together as a band

MARIN: There was a certain mindset of what American or avant-garde art should look like. And the Chicanos, we’re just coming into the beginning of the influence and the introduction of Chicano art. That’s because they didn’t have the long history THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

Guidance from professional local and visiting musicians to write original songs Workshops with industry professionals Opportunities to perform for the public and on local television stations

PUTTING ON THEIR FIGHTING PANTS: WOODY AND FRIENDS SING WARTIME SONGS ON THE BBC SUN. JUNE 25 • 2pm

Build on what you know about playing to become a MUSICIAN!

PAUL BURCH SUN. JULY 16 7pm

Reduced tuition based on need (reduced/free school lunch

Cheech Marin will be at Philbrook on Thursday, June 22, at 6pm. His talk is sold-out, but the “Papel Chicano Dos: Works on Paper from the Collection of Cheech Marin” exhibition runs through September 3, 2017.

approval forms qualify for half-priced tuition or a rate of $0.50/lesson)

Discounted tuition for members

For more information regarding Youth Rocks, or to register, please contact jerry@woodyguthriecenter.org.

102 East M.B. Brady St. | Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103 | 918-574-2710 | info@woodyguthriecenter.org

WGC_SummerCamp_8.5x11_Flier.indd 1

address 102 EAST BRADY STREET, TULSA, OK 4/18/17 3:20 PM

74103

phone 918.574.2710

email INFO@WOODYGUTHRIECENTER.ORG ARTS & CULTURE // 31


bookworm

In Bloom

Celebrating the life and work of James Joyce by ZACK REEVES

E

very year, on June 16th, cities across the world honor Bloomsday, a celebration of the Irish writer James Joyce and his magnum opus, “Ulysses.” Tulsa, being something of a center for those who revere the 20th century modernist, hosts a bar crawl. To understand the Bloomsday bar crawl, head first to the University of Tulsa. In TU’s McFarlin library, on the fifth floor, there’s a quiet mahogany room guarded by stern librarians. This room houses the Paul and Lucie Léon collection—the fifth largest collection of papers on James Joyce in the world. If this fact surprises you, you’re not alone. One woman I spoke with on Bloomsday said she wasn’t even a fan of the author, but was more interested that Tulsa has such a place in his history. “He’s divisive,” said Dr. Sean Latham, professor of English at TU and editor of the James Joyce Quarterly, an academic journal that publishes works on the stream-of-consciousness pioneer. “He didn’t write very much, as famous as he is, and some of his work is bad.” “Joyce left Dublin in the early 1900s and never went back, but he only wrote books about Dublin,” Latham said. “He really wanted to construct Dublin as an imaginative place that he loved, and I think Tulsa is a lot like that. “Joyce understood how weird it is to live in a city, with people who are themselves weird and diverse and interesting. The reason he took Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ as his starting point is that he sees every day as an adventure. You’re always approaching an adventure in a city.” 32 // ARTS & CULTURE

James Joyce Quarterly (Vol. 39.1) features cover art by Heather Ryan Kelley that alludes to “a chattering dialogue across the [Liffey] river by two washerwomen who as night falls become a tree and a stone” from “Finnegans Wake.” | COURTESY THE UNIVERSITY OF TULSA

The collection itself, housed in a series of folders, is full of memorabilia about the famous author: playbills, letters, facsimiles of drafts, business cards, and postcards. There’s a blue tie that Joyce once wore with a small gravy stain on the chest. Elsewhere in the building is a bronze lion that a friend gave as a gift. Joyce’s handwriting, it should be noted, is near illegible to the point that TU includes transcriptions with many

of Joyce’s letters; otherwise, they couldn’t be read at all. Joyce believed that, if his Dublin were bombed into dust, his books could be used as the blueprint to rebuild it. “This is going to be an adventure all its own,” Latham said before the Bloomsday event began. And so it was. Hired buskers dotted the streets playing fiddles and bagpipes. Actors read from

“Telemachus” and “Calypso,” different sections of “Ulysses.” “Death is a beastly thing,” one actor said into a microphone, “and nothing else.” The crowd stood, sometimes rapt, other times appalled, and every so often they broke out into laughter. A man dressed exactly likeJames Joyce stumbled around with a cane and an eyepatch, conversing with an Irish lilt and drinking straight bourbon from a lowball glass. The crowd was good-natured, singing and raising their glasses to the actors and musicians. At the end of the night, we convened at Guthrie Green to watch The Band with No Name, a U2 cover band, blast the Irish high-schoolband-turned-stadium-rockerphilanthropist’s hits. The James Joyce impersonator ran out into the center of the Green, alone, leaving his cane behind. He began to dance. “Sunday, bloody Sunday,” the rockers crooned. A crowd joined us pub-crawlers, bringing children and blankets and coolers and lawn chairs. James Joyce raised his hands as he screamed. The little kids on the lawn loved James Joyce. They took his hands and danced with him. They copied his moves, and he copied theirs. It’s hard to say who was smiling and laughing more. “Every day is a sort of odyssey,” Latham said, “where we try to make it back home in one piece. It’s not just Greek heroes.” The crowd sang along. Maybe this is what we’ll leave behind: moments of quick bliss, music as the scaffolding. All of us sailing out and trying to come back home. a June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


sportsreport

TRACK RECORD 1903 Tulsa County Free Fair begins at Archer Street and Boston Avenue. Horse races, baseball, and fireworks are popular. 1913 Fairgrounds move to Archer Street and Lewis Avenue.

Horses racing in 1922 | HARRIS & EWING COLLECTION, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Long shots never win here FAIR MEADOWS RACE TRACK—FREE ENTRY, FULL BAR, 10-CENT MINIMUM BET by KATHRYN PARKMAN

H

ow to bet at the horse tracks: walk up to a wagering window, state the race number, amount to bet, type of wager,1 and horses’ numbers— in that order. There’s an automated kiosk too, but it’s more fun when a pretty brunette watches you set your money on fi re. I placed an exacta box bet on Paleface Kitty (horse #6) and Comin N Hot (horse #2). 2 I grabbed a Jack & Sprite from the outside bar near the betting window and found an open metal picnic table overlooking the mile-long oval track. I scrutinized the program, confused by all the data and sure I’d just placed a bad bet. As if on cue, a man wearing a pink-andblack Hawaiian shirt and red reading glasses walked up. “Anyone sitting here, girlfriend?” He looked like he knew something I didn’t. I introduced myself and said I didn’t know what I was doing. Which horses did he like for the sixth race, I asked, and how the hell do you bet on horses, anyway? He told me the fi rst rule: don’t bet your rent money. Good advice, I thought. He was up $300 from the day before and told his wife he THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

brought $100 “to piss away” and “have fun.” But when that $100 is gone? Dig around in your pocket for the $20 your wife doesn’t know about, he said. Paleface Kitty actually came in fi rst, but WI Homeboy (horse #5) placed second and my other pick trailed in third—I could’ve won if I’d gone for the trifecta. “You gotta stay in the game,” my new friend said. The ice in my drink was melting quickly. A man in a cowboy hat and denim joined our table. He said he had his eye on the #10 horse, Swayed Senator, for the next race. With 12–1 odds, he’s a young horse with modest stats. But, the cowboy noted, he’s got a hell of a jockey and the data showed that when he’s fast, he’s fast. He explained a little about what to consider when betting: speed index, jockey, lineage. “Long shots never win here,” the cowboy said. For the better bettors, like this man, this is a numbers game. At the paddock, where the horses are corralled between the track and the betting window, bettors sized-up the ungulate contenders, trying to glean insights not available in the program. A bugle rang out in the air. “Fiiiive minutes to post!” the

announcer’s voice boomed. Horses, jockeys, and trainers sauntered toward the track. This post parade is a long walk for a short race, but it lets spectators and bettors take a closer look at the horses. And they’re off! There, north of the Golden Driller’s shadow, between the old Big Splash and the old Drillers stadium, it’s difficult not to see the horse and jockey as a single creature. Swayed Senator placed fi rst. The cowboy punched the air, victorious. a

1) This is the trickiest part. Typically, you’ll bet exacta, trifecta, or superfecta, which means you wager on the two, three, or four horses to place (respectively). If you “box” them that means the order to show doesn’t matter. 2) The best horses’ names always sound like the white cards in Cards Against Humanity.

LIVE RACES AT FAIR MEADOWS (4609 E. 21st St.) run from early June through late July, typically Thursday through Sunday, with occasional events on Wednesdays, starting at 5pm.

1914 Oklahoma Governor Lee Cruce declares martial law over the fairgrounds to stop gambling. 1916 All gambling becomes illegal in Oklahoma. 1921 Thousands of black people are detained at the fairgrounds following May 31–June 1 race massacre. 1923 Fairgrounds move to between 15th and 21st streets. 1951 Bell’s Amusement Park moves to Expo Square. 1982 Horse racing becomes legal in Oklahoma. 1984 Tulsa Speedway closes after noise complaints. 1989 Fair Meadows Race Track opens at 15th Street and Yale Avenue. 1992 Fair Meadows’ average daily attendance is 7,309. 2004 Creek, Osage, and Cherokee nations agree to pay Fair Meadows $2 million collectively to not host Class III electronic gambling systems, like slot machines, every year. 2011 “The live meet at Fair Meadows Racetrack has become an embarrassment, with pari-mutuel clerks unable to provide change and TV monitors so foggy viewing is impossible,” Kevin Canfield writes in the Tulsa World. Fair Meadows live racing season totals a loss of $823,819. 2017 Demolition project currently is in progress at Fair Meadows. Oklahoma Quarter Horse Racing Association Executive Director Debbie Shauf says: “It should be a lot nicer than the old grandstand.” ARTS & CULTURE // 33


thehaps BOOKSMART

MATILDA THE MUSICAL

Best-selling writer Chuck Klosterman will speak at Cain’s Ballroom in support of his new book “X.” (ICYMI: Read Joshua Kline’s interview with Klosterman from our last issue.) June 21, 7pm, booksmarttulsa.com

Tues., June 20, through Sun., June 25, $24–$79 Chapman Music Hall, Tulsa Performing Arts Center tulsapac.com

eedom #Fr · · !

Years o 01 f ·2

There’s never been a better time for a story about a young lady plotting the downfall of a fascistic leader. In this case, it’s the story of Matilda, the precocious heroine of Roald Dahl’s 1988 book of the same name, who takes down bully after horrible bully at home and at school with clever pranks and mind-bending powers (literally: she’s telekinetic). A movie version of the story starring Danny DeVito became a hit in 1996, but when the Royal Shakespeare Company proposed giving it a go in musical form in 2010, it wasn’t expected to be more than a bit of fun. In the hands of composer and lyricist Tim Minchin, an Australian comic genius in the lineage of Cold War satirist Tom Lehrer, it became a critical and commercial sensation. Need a dose-by-proxy of revolt against thug tactics? Matilda’s your girl. —Alicia Chesser.

Y 4th, 201 L 7 JU

SUPPORT THE TROOPS

American Legion Post 1 will broadcast a live show to the troops for the first time since WWII for Legion Live! The show features two stages of local bands. June 24, 10am–midnight, tulsapost1.org

Awes o m ng ei e B

GRAND OPENING

The Boxyard’s Belgian Honky-Tonk, Wirwar, will celebrate its grand opening with a solo set from JD McPherson. For more, see pg. 16. June 24, wirwartulsa.com

SUMMERSTAGE TULSA

Through June 25, Tulsa Performing Arts Center summerstagetulsa.org SummerStage is coming to a close, and its last week features some can’t-miss shows: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) You don’t need to be a Shakespeare buff to enjoy these three guys in tights performing all 37 of the Immortal Bard’s plays at hysterical, breakneck speed. // 6/22-25, $13–$15

TOUR

Tulsa Art Deco Museum presents the Portico to Penthouse Tour, a self-guided tour through several of downtown’s art deco buildings, including the currently-under-renovation Tulsa Club Building. June 24, 6–8:30pm, tulsaartdecomuseum.com DOCUMENTARY

One More Day with Danny Day Lounge singer Danny Day (Pat Hobbs) returns for a fast-paced trip through the American songbook. 6/23, $15–$20

Philbrook hosts a screening of “Feral Love,” a documentary about Dorian Rence, co-founder of The Artemis Project, which helps homeless cats in New York City. Stay for a Q&A with Rence and director Markie Hancock. June 26, 5:30pm, philbrook.org

Local Landmark, National Treasure: An Epic Concert Celebrating 95 Years of Theatre Tulsa A cast of nearly 100 performers will pay

IN THE GALLERY

Mark Gibson Band // 6/22, $20–$15

tribute to Theatre Tulsa’s 95th consecutive season with iconic moments from productions of the company’s past, including “The King and I,” “West Side Story,” “Man of La Mancha,” “Oklahoma!” and “Les Misérables.” 6/23–25, $23–$25

Joseph Gierek Fine Art presents “Covfefe,” a group show of abstract art. June 29–August 19, gierek.com

Oy, Gestalt! Rebecca Ungerman presents an autobiographical one-woman show with songs, stories, and secrets. 6/24–25, $20–$30 IN THE GALLERY

FOLDS OF HONOR FREEDOMFEST Tues., July 4, 5pm–10pm. Free Veterans Park and River West Festival Park

There are two ways to FreedomFest. At Veterans Park, see the presentation of colors and flag-folding ceremonies, and hear music from 29th Street Band, Midlife Crisis, and a Sweet Adeline group. Across the river at River West Festival Park, try the Conquer the Gauntlet obstacle course, see the Red Bull Sky Diving Team, and hear Casii Stephan & The Midnight Sun, Corey Kent White Band, and Carmela Hill. Both parks will have food trucks, plenty of Budweiser, and some of the best views of the biggest fireworks show around. riverparks.org/freedomfest 34 // ARTS & CULTURE

Living Arts pays tribute to the organization’s retiring artistic director with Steve Liggett: The Living Arts Years. The show will feature photos, sculptures, and videos of performances and installations from 1991 to 2017. June 30–July 20, livingarts.org MORE FREEDOM FESTIVITIES

Get your America on in a more southerly locale at Jenks America Freedom Fest in downtown Jenks (10am–4pm), then head to RiverWalk Crossing for Los Cabos Boomfest fireworks. July 4, Jenks Main Street America, jenkschamber.com June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


thehaps

BEST OF THE REST EVENTS Movie in the Park: Something’s Gotta Give // 6/22, Guthrie Green, guthriegreen.com Tulsa Drillers vs Northwest Arkansas Naturals // 6/22, ONEOK Field Philbrook Film on the Lawn: The Neverending Story // 6/23, Philbrook Museum of Art, philbrook.org Tulsa Drillers vs Northwest Arkansas Naturals // 6/23, ONEOK Field Relay for Life // American Cancer Society’s national signature activity and the nation’s highest grossing fundraiser. Relay helps raise money for research and support services benefiting cancer patients in the Tulsa community. // 6/23, River West Festival Park Undyed Nightmare Book Signing // Oddball Publishing presents a signing event for their new book “Undyed Nightmares,” by Steven Morales and Isaac Gorrell and illustrated by Zach Raw. The children’s book—a sequel to Morales’s “Color Me Zombied”—tells of a town full of zombies that loses all of its color to a nightmarish monster and a boy named Caleb, who will once again have to save the day. // 6/24, Wizard’s Asylum, facebook.com/ pg/oddballpub/posts Tulsa Antique Advertising and Bottle Show // One of the largest antique shows in the country, Tulsa Antique and Bottle Club’s annual show is in its 40th year. // 6/24, Expo Square, tulsaantiquesandbottleclub.com/ annual-show 9th Annual Tulsa Awards for Theatre Excellence // The TATEs pay tribute to some of the best local productions of the year. // 6/25, Philbrook Museum of Art, facebook.com/tulsaawardsforthe atreexcellence/ Movie in the Garden: Apollo 13 // 6/28, Central Library, tulsalibrary.org/central Movie in the Park: The Great Outdoors // 6/29, Guthrie Green, guthriegreen.com Seven Minutes in Heaven, a reading // Seven Minutes in Heaven is a reading series of short fiction and nonfiction. This reading will feature TTV contributor Damion Shade, local author Nathan Knapp, and from Springfield, MO, American Short(er) Fiction Contest winner Jennifer Murvin. // 6/29, Mainline THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

Party at The Max

EVERY DAY! Funday:

Art & Cocktails, facebook.com/ sevenheavenreading Trace Adkins // 6/29, River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove, riverspirittulsa.com

COMEDY Blue Dome Social Club // 6/24, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com

Monday: BLUE MONDAY W/ DJ ROBBO @ 9pm $1 COORS ORIGINAL

Tuesday: FREE TOKENS W/ EVERY PURCHASE Wednesday: TEAM TRIVIA NIGHT W/ QUESTIONABLE COMPANY @ 8pm (WIN $50 CASH!)

Thursday: LADIES NIGHT W/ DJ MOODY 1$ COORS ORIGINAL FREE TOKENS FOR THE LADIES W/ ANY PURCHASE

Laughter at the Lot w/ Charles Bubbay Lawrence, Rocco Amanda Reezy, Cameron Leedy // 6/24, Lot No. 6 Gabriel Iglesias // 6/24, River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove, riverspirittulsa.com

OPEN AT NOON FREE HURTS DONUTS (WHILE SUPPLIES LAST) CHAMPAGNE MIMOSA BAR LIVE EVENT BINGO @ 2pm (W/ PRIZES)

Friday:

6/23 • DJ AFISTAFACE

Saturday: 6/24 & 7/1 • DJ ROBBO OF THAT 90S PARTY

Jyl Johnson - Attempting 30 w/ Kayse Melone, Heather Mackay, Katie Van Patten, Daren Ebacher // Jyl Johnson performs her first half-hour headlining set. Hosted by Daren Ebacher. // 6/25, The Blackbird on Pearl, facebook.com/Blackbirdtulsa Sunday Night Stand Up // 6/25, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com Stand Up Comedy // 6/25, The Blackbird on Pearl, facebook.com/Blackbirdtulsa

BILLIARDS

& BAR

Tulsa Tonight // 6/23–6/24, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com ‘Murica the Great! // 6/30–7/1, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com Sunday Night Stand Up // 7/2, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com

SPORTS Tulsa Drillers vs Northwest Arkansas Naturals // 6/24, ONEOK Field Tulsa Athletic vs Dallas City FC // 6/24, Memorial High School Lafortune Stadium, memorial.tulsa. schooldesk.net Tulsa Drillers vs Northwest Arkansas Naturals // 6/25, ONEOK Field

POOL with BENEFITS

Tulsa Roughnecks FC vs Swope Park Rangers // 6/27, ONEOK Field Tulsa Roughnecks FC vs Real Monarchs SLC // 7/1, ONEOK Field The Center Polo Classic // The Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges presents their annual Polo Match. // 6/23–6/24, Mohawk Park, tulsacenter.org/event/ tulsa-center-polo-classic

3415 S. Peoria Avenue (918)742-9500 (No Tie Required)

And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine INTEGRITY, and settest me before thy face FOR EVER. FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST 924 S. Boulder Church & Sunday School • 10:30am Wednesday Meeting • 6:00pm ARTS & CULTURE // 35


musicnotes

John Fullbright played a Courtyard Concert at the Voice HQ on June 8 | GREG BOLLINGER

Can’t travel with a piano John Fullbright on music and memories by JOHN LANGDON

G

rammy-nominated singer-songwriter John Fullbright is a master in the art of suggestion. He can play the pants off a piano, guitar, or harmonica—or would, if the instruments ever bothered to get dressed. Catch him at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in his hometown, Okemah, July 12–16, or sitting in with other musicians from time to time here in Tulsa. JOHN LANGDON: What was the first song you learned to play? JOHN FULLBRIGHT: My oldest brother told me that the first song he remembers me playing was the theme song to “The X-Files” on piano. On the guitar, I learned the chords to “The Wabash Cannonball.” And then the second song I ever learned was “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves” by Cher. I don’t know why, but it was in a guitar book and I loved it. LANGDON: What’s one of the most memorable shows you’ve played? 36 // MUSIC

FULLBRIGHT: We just did a thing for Jimmy LaFave days before he died. He planned the whole thing. Meticulously. He was days from death and he planned every detail of it. Nobody thought he was gonna get on stage, and he got on stage and sang “Goodnight Irene,” and then he died. Everyone was just crying and crying. It was burned into my brain. LANGDON: He was basically attending his own funeral. FULLBRIGHT: Everyone said, “I love you,” and “goodbye” to him in the audience. Not to him personally, but just, like, in his general direction, while the whole crowd’s there. It was incredible. LANGDON: Most don’t get that chance. FULLBRIGHT: It was equally good and bad. LANGDON: Was there ever a moment that you thought, “This is what I want to do with my life”?

FULLBRIGHT: I always thought, growing up in a very non-musical environment, that if you were gonna be a professional musician, it meant that you put on a tuxedo and played a giant piano. That was my cartoon version of what it was like to play music. And then when I got older, I thought that you had to be Garth Brooks. You had to be, like, the most successful person that ever lived, and that’s the only way that you can play music. And then I met Tom Skinner. He didn’t have a lot of money. He didn’t need a lot of money. And he was such an artist. Just, a singular voice, you know? I didn’t know anything about cash and getting paid for music, except that I knew he was getting paid something or he wouldn’t have been there. And I thought, “How cool. He’s not a superstar, and yet here he is … that sounds like me.” I’m too shy to do all that other stuff. This is my speed right here. LANGDON: What’s a non-musical influence on the way you play?

FULLBRIGHT: My grandpa had such an old-school way of talking. Big, pregnant pauses. You’d ask him a question, say like, “Why is the sky blue?” And he’d just sit there and think about it. Really think about it. And I’d go off and do something else and then he’d come back and say, “Remember when you asked me why was the sky blue?” And then he’d say some one-liner, that was probably a little sarcastic, or a little bit sad, that would just perfectly explain it. And that was it. So as a songwriter, you’ve got, like, two lines to explain what a writer might do with a whole bunch of paragraphs, maybe. There’s that big, long letter supposedly from Abraham Lincoln in the middle of the war, and at the end of it, he says, “Sorry for the long letter, I didn’t have time to write a shorter one.” And I think that’s songwriting. LANGDON: It’s about boiling it down to the essential, and whatever might not be said in words is said through the music. June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


FULLBRIGHT: That’s what’s fun about it … it’s like a puzzle that you make. Once you write the line, the game has begun, you know? You go, “Okay, here’s the rules, but I don’t want to play by the rules, so I’m gonna do this other thing.” It’s like writing your own crossword. LANGDON: You start with that one piece, and you go, “Okay. I don’t know what the complete whole of this is even gonna be,” but piece by piece it kind of shapes itself.

to him, he’s a druggie, and that’s why he never became famous,” which is preposterous. We are technically related, by marriage, super distantly. But anyway, I got that record and went, “Holy shit.” I found my mom’s old guitar, and she said if I got my grades up, she’d string that guitar. I got my grades up for the first and only time in my life. She strung the guitar, I learned to play “The Wabash Cannonball,” and I was hooked, because you could travel with it. I was about that

age where I needed some kind of sexual advantage. I was pudgy, small, shy, and I thought, “I’m gonna learn to play the guitar and the girls are just gonna fall over.” ‘Cause I can’t travel with a piano, and they’re not gonna come to me, obviously. So I’m learning to play the guitar and getting into Hendrix and stuff, and then somebody handed me that Leon record and I just went, this is so much cooler to me, as a piano-minded person. And then it was just all over after that.

LANGDON: What is music to you? FULLBRIGHT: Music is the language of emotion. Like that feeling in the pit of your stomach whenever you hear something that feels like it was custom-made for you. You go, “Oh my God, I can’t believe anyone else felt like this before.” We’re a language-based animal, and one of the more complicated things that we’ve got in our toolbox is music. It speaks when nothing else can. a

FULLBRIGHT: I’ve talked to Kevin Welch about this, who’s an Okie songwriter. He’s a really dear friend of mine and we talk about songwriting. He’s a master-class, powerhouse songwriter with a pretty illustrious career. We talk about writing short stories, just writing short fiction. And we both came to the same conclusion, which is, once you’re trained to write a song, once you’ve learned the rules and write a bunch, you look at a blank piece of paper and go, “What am I supposed to do with all of this?” It’s just endless. If I’m gonna read something, at least I’m the one who’s in control of where my eyes go. But you can’t get away from [music] unless you physically walk away or plug up your ears. So, if you think about that whenever you’re writing it down, like, if this was playing at a bar and someone had to hear it, say something. Don’t just say nothing. LANGDON: Who made you want to play the piano like you do? FULLBRIGHT: Jerry Lee Lewis, as a kid. That was big. Then my mom signed me up for classical piano. Nancy Duvall, the lady that played at the Methodist church would do piano lessons. So I got really into Beethoven and Chopin, the basic piano student stuff. But it really moved me. It changed the way I heard stuff, as it should. Then when I was about 13, someone gave me a Leon Russell record and I lost my shit. My whole life, “Tightrope” or something would come on the radio, and my mom would say, “I think that’s Leon Russell. We’re related to him. He was a druggie.” That’s how he was always summed up: “That’s Leon Russell, we’re related THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

MUSIC // 37


musicnotes

THREE CHORDS AND THE TRUTH Street punk fest returns to Tulsa by MITCH GILLIAM

Fuck You We Rule OK 2016 | Adam DeGross

J

uly, apart from fireworks and franks, means the upscale shops of the Brady will soon be ambushed by liberty spikes, bullet belts, and back patches. The Midwest’s largest street punk festival, Fuck You We Rule OK, is returning for its fifth year. FYWROK is the centerpiece of a culture Tony and Michelle Cozzaglio have cultivated in Tulsa, which includes their former venue, Boulevard Trash, and their semiannual Punk Rock Flea Market. The four-day fest features international heavy hitters from the street punk scene, record and merch vendors, and random afterparties. Street punk is the day-glo sunglass’d and mohawk’d bastard offspring of Papa Punk. The subgenre trades the apocalyptic visions of crust and heavy-handedness of hardcore for the “thou shall sniff glue and pogo” commandments of punk’s early prophets. Often denigrated by the crossed-arm crowd as “fashion punks,” fans of the genre couldn’t care less, and they’ll throw you some middle fingers to prove it. Musically, it’s closer to three-chords-and-thetruth than some of punk’s other offshoots, but if you read that here first, you’re probably a square. The Cozzaglios began FYWROK in 2012, after Tony moved to Tulsa from Michigan.

38 // MUSIC

“In 2007, a close mutual friend of a lot of people and who was important in the scene died,” Tony said. “And his brother, who is the singer of The Bad Engrish, put on a small music fest in his honor, called JJR Fest, which were his initials. And then after that, each year, the same group of friends would throw another music fest under some different title in some other town.” The summer after Tony became an Okie, he and Michelle called their friends up north, asking where the yearly fest would be and when they should take off work. No one from Tony’s home could make the party happen, so the Cozzaglios threw one here. “We got a better response than usual,” Tony said, “because geographically … Oklahoma just opened it up to different crowds.” Since the great response from the first year, FYWROK has grown, drawing attendees from North and South America and as far away as Indonesia. Last year the fest broke from the underground when photos of it by longtime Cozzaglio friend and A$AP Ferg videographer, Adam DeGross, were used by Pabst Blue Ribbon on its cans. DeGross—who photographed the Cozzaglios’ wedding—also published a photo book dedicated to the festival.

Coordinating sponsors, scheduling international bands, and general promotion can take its toll on the Cozzaglios, but it’s all worth it for what they both call their “family reunion.” “It’s fun to watch it grow, and watch the people come and grow,” Tony said. “Either they were young kids at the first one and now they’re bar age … or the opposite, which is our dirt bag friends who came to the first one and now have their shit together!” This year they’ll have an increased vendor presence, and an expanded smoke hole/lounge in the alley behind the Vanguard. Individual day passes will be available for the first time, and the fest will extend to four days with a Thursday night pre-show at Yeti. The pre-party will feature Atlanta’s Rotten Stitches and Tulsa’s own The Shame and Penny Mob. Every cent will benefit Joe Pogo, of Joe Pogo records. Pogo— whose government name is Jon Plishka—was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor. “He’s a great dude who’s been dealt a bad hand,” Tony said. “He’s been putting out Midwestern street punk records since a time when there wasn’t a lot of push for that to be done.” Apart from the four official days of the fest, numerous spur-

of-the-moment brunch shows and after-hours house shows will pop up. In recent years, Tulsa punks could see street punk favorites like The Virus bow residential floorboards with their fury and considerable crowds. Fest highlights this year include seminal U.K. punks Chron Gen, Austin’s Lower Class Brats, and Denver’s Potato Pirates. a

FUCK YOU WE RULE OK YETI | 417 N. Main St. Thursday, 6/29, 8pm – 2am PRE-PARTY BENEFIT FOR JON PLISHKA The Shame, The Penny Mob, Rotten Stictches THE VANGUARD | 222 N. Main St. Doors open at 3pm every day Friday, 6/30 Chron Gen, Lower Class Brats, Biters, The Non-Believers, Wyldlife, Rmblr, The Generators, Corrupted Youth, Killer Hearts, The Ridgelands, Zipperz Saturday, 7/1 The Casualties, Blanks 77, Endless Struggle, The Beltones, The Bad Engrish, Sniper 66, Starving Wolves, Enemy Fire, The Cry!, Dead on a Wire, Loose Wires Sunday, 7/2 Monster Squad, Street Brats, Potato Pirates, Call the Cops, Virgin Whores, Violent Affair, Kinetic Discord, Punks on Parade, The Normandys June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


musiclistings Wed // Jun 21

Mercury Lounge – Travis Linville Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesdays — ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Wink Burcham, Chris Blevins The Blackbird on Pearl – Jankins The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project Vanguard – The Roosevelts — ($12-$14)

Thurs // Jun 22

Blue Rose Cafe – Dan Martin BOK Center – Chris Stapleton, Anderson East, Brent Cobb — ($35.75-$70.75) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – Rusty Myers Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Kidd Ray, Scott Eastman Hunt Club – Ego Culture Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jake Flint, Brent Giddens River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – Dwight Yoakam* — ($60-$170) Soundpony – Caregiver to a Monster, It’s Always Earth, Terror Vision The Beehive Lounge – Handsome Sinners, Lindsay Norton, Carlton Hesston The Blackbird on Pearl – Move Trio* The Colony – An Evening with Jared Tyler Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Mark Gibson Band — ($15-$20) Utica Square – Red Dirt Rangers Vanguard – Earth Groans, Auspicious, Hollow Words, Lights of Alora — ($7-$10)

Fri // Jun 23

American Legion Post 308 – South 40 Band Cain’s Ballroom – The Nixons - Reunion Show, Fiawna Forté, The Bourgeois — ($20-$125) Cain’s Ballroom – The Nixons Reunion Show, Fiawna Forté, The Bourgeois — ($20-$125) Dusty Dog Pub – Barry Seal Ed’s Hurricane Lounge – The Punknecks Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – Rod Robertson Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Chris Hyde, 80s Enuf Hunt Club – Dante and the Hawks IDL Ballroom – Weston Horn & The Hush CD Release w/ Casii Stephan* — ($5-$30) Mercury Lounge – Porter Union River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Randy Brumley, Jake Flint Band River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Poppa Foster’s Creole Trio Soul City – Shane Henry album release w/ Dustin Pittsley, Maggie McClure* Soundpony – Pony Disco Club The Blackbird on Pearl – Moai Broadcast — ($5) The Boxyard – Dustin Pittsley The Venue Shrine – Mezcalave Feat. Marcela — ($10) Vanguard – My So Called Band — ($10) VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge – American Shadows* Zin Urban Lounge – Jim Tilly

THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

Sat // Jun 24

American Legion Post 1 – Legion Live!* Billy and Renee’s – GRIND, Had Enough, For the Wolf, Pittersplatter, Not in Public, Ash Free Brady Theater – Joe Jackson — ($39.50-$89.50) Cain’s Ballroom – Stoney LaRue, Josh Ward, Brandon Jenkins — ($20-$35) Four Aces Tavern – Barry Seal Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – James Muns Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Miracle Max, Another Alibi Hunt Club – BC and the Big Rig Lefty’s On Greenwood – Faye Moffett Mercury Lounge – TJ Mayes, The Fabulous Minx River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Caleb Fellenstein, The Hi-Fidelics River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Jake & Blake Soul City – Jimmy Markham and the Caretakers Soundpony – Sweet Baby Jaysus The Blackbird on Pearl – Wither Unplugged The Colony – Hosty!* The Fur Shop – Shawn James and The Shapeshifters The Wine Loft – Dean DeMerritt with Janet Rutland Unit D – Blues at Unit D w/ “Steady Rollin” Bob Margolin and John Mooney* Vanguard – James McMurtry, Jonny Burke — ($17-$20) VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge – Hamilton Loomis

Sun // Jun 25

Bodean Restaurant & Market – Dean DeMerritt with Janet Rutland East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Guthrie Green – Latin, Funk, Fun Fest w/ Sarah’Tonin, Multiphonic Funk, Tulsa Latin Style* Hunt Club – Randy Crouch* Lot No. 6 – A Night In Remembrance of Michael Jackson* River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Chris Blevins, Chris Foster Soul City – Mark Bruner & Shelby Eicher Soul City – Peter Mayer Soundpony – A Trak and Keeng The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Venue Shrine – Forgotten Space - Grateful Dead Tribute — ($12) Vanguard – Bruise, Omertá , Ruse — ($7)

Mon // Jun 26

Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Tovar, The Marriotts The Colony – Seth Lee Jones

Tues // Jun 27

Guthrie Green – Starlight Band - Across the Briny Seas Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Night Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Duke Mason Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham, Jacob Tovar Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Scott Musick, Dos Capos, Erin O’Dowd

Soul City – Tuesday Bluesday w/ Dustin Pittsley The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night Vanguard – Mom Jeans, Graduating Life, Community Theatre, Postparty — ($7-$10)

Wed // Jun 28

Crow Creek Tavern – Jake Flint Mercury Lounge – Travis Linville Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesdays — ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Wink Burcham, Chris Blevins Soundpony – Howardian, Night Pits The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project The Venue Shrine – Agent Orange — ($10-$15)

Thurs // Jun 29

Billy and Renee’s – Kick Tree, Much Less, Class Zero Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – Paul Bogart Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Phil Vaught, Travis Marvin Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - The Joint – America — ($35-$45) Hunt Club – Erin O’Dowd and Chloe Johns* Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman Philbrook Museum of Art – Barron Ryan album release - The Masters’ Apprentice* — ($16.82) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jake Flint, Brent Giddens Slo Ride Saloon – Scott Ellison Band Soundpony – Burn Thee Insects, Stone Cold Electric, Turbo Wizard The Colony – Honky Tonk Happy Hour w/ Jacob Tovar The Fur Shop – Jaimee Harris Utica Square – Mary Cogan Yeti – FYWROK Pre-Party w/ The Shame, The Penny Mob, Rotten Stitches* Zin Urban Lounge – Jim Tilly

The Venue Shrine – Otep, Machine in the Mountain, SEVERMIND, Edge of Zephyr, AlterBlood — ($16-$20) Vanguard – Fuck You We Rule OK w/ Chron Gen, Lower Class Brats, The Casualties, Blanks 77, Monster Squad, Street Brats & more* — ($75)

Sun // Jul 2

East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Fassler Hall – ROXY ROCA* Soul City – Mark Bruner & Shelby Eicher Soundpony – Jam eCono - Happy Hour Show The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing Vanguard – Fuck You We Rule OK w/ Chron Gen, Lower Class Brats, The Casualties, Blanks 77, Monster Squad, Street Brats & more* — ($75)

Mon // Jul 3 Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins Soundpony – An Evening with Bugchaser Entertainment The Colony – Seth Lee Jones

Tues // Jul 4 Blue Rose Cafe – Erin O’Dowd Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Night Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham, Jacob Tovar Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams Soul City – Tuesday Bluesday w/ Dustin Pittsley Soundpony – Mr. Burns/Freenation Enterprise Presents: King of Tallulah Review* The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night

Fri // Jun 30

American Legion Post 308 – American Strings Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – Phil Vaught Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Todd East, Super Freak, DJ Sally Mercury Lounge – Blackfoot Gypsies, The Shelter People* River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Randy Brumley River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Vashni Duo Soul City – Rio Band Soundpony – Soft Leather The Bistro At Seville – Dean DeMerritt and Sean Al-Jibouri The Blackbird on Pearl – Dustin Pittsley Band — ($5) Vanguard – Fuck You We Rule OK w/ Chron Gen, Lower Class Brats, The Casualties, Blanks 77, Monster Squad, Street Brats & more* — ($75)

Sat // Jul 1

Billy and Renee’s – Less Than Human Soul City – The Grits Soundpony – Soul Night* The Blackbird on Pearl – Big Rahb, Higher Learning Academy, L-Smooth, DJ Al Compton, The Outsiders

Your VOICE For

Live Music Send dates, venue and listings to John@LangdonPublishing.com MUSIC // 39


filmphiles

Sam Claflin and Rachel Weisz in “My Cousin Rachel” | COURTESY

Second-rate melodrama ‘My Cousin Rachel’ doesn’t satisfy by JEFF HUSTON

F

rom the novel by Daphne du Maurier, author behind two Alfred Hitchcock classics (“Rebecca” and “The Birds”), “My Cousin Rachel” is the tale of a young British 19th century aristocrat named Philip who becomes seduced by the target of his vengeance. The thriller revolves around a possibly poisoned tea, and that toxic element within a soothing beverage serves as a metaphor of the movie as a whole. “My Cousin Rachel” is a piping pot of well-crafted suspense, yet it succumbs to one lethal liability that contaminates the entire

Tulsa’s independent and non-profit art-house theatre, showing independent, foreign, and documentary films.

40 // FILM & TV

brew: a young actor who’s out of his depth. Convinced that the untimely death of his cousin Ambrose was at the hands of Ambrose’s widow Rachel, Philip sets a plan to expose the murderous scheme of this apparent black widow— whom he’s never met—and avenge his beloved Ambrose. That strategy abruptly changes when Philip actually meets Rachel (Academy Award-winner Rachel Weisz), promptly gets weak in the knees, and swoons with passion rather than retribution. This central shift, and actor Sam Clafl in’s complete inability to sell it, undercuts what is otherwise a handsomely mounted psychodrama that’s rich in period detail and genre atmosphere. Philip’s youthful pride, not so dissimilar to that of an entitled millennial, isn’t enough to justify his dramatic swing because that swing contradicts his own internal logic. Within the span of a single encounter, Philip fl ips his merciless conviction to compulsive attraction. Once Rachel’s most aggressive adversary (unbeknownst to her), Philip becomes her staunchest defender and would-be lover. Our sense of “What just happened?” is as strong as his, except

for the bizarre fact that Philip lacks the self-awareness, reflection, or shock to ask that question of himself. Philip is, in modern vernacular, completely whipped. This is particularly baffl ing considering how subtle Rachel’s charms initially are. Weisz plays these demurred calculations with superb nuance. The widow she portrays is certainly not the wretch that Philip has concocted in his mind, through Ambrose’s final letters. If she’s spinning a web she’s doing it with humility, not seduction. At most, Philip’s first response to Rachel’s modesty should be circumspect, or an understandable second-guessing. Instead, he becomes absolutely smitten. With Clafl in’s limited range, director Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”) has backed his otherwise superlative adaptation into an impossible corner. The script either needs a more gradual turn for Philip to make or, more simply, needs Clafl in (“The Hunger Games” franchise) to play the turn as scripted but more gradually, building it toward Philip’s declaration to Rachel: “You’re not the woman I hated.” That line should be Philip’s turning point, where the switch is

fl ipped, and come at the apex of a steady hypnotized conversion. Instead, the sentiment is stated well past Philip’s established fawning delusion. He’s supposed to be spellbound but merely comes off as foolish. Lush images of refi ned interiors and sweeping shots of great English locales give “My Cousin Rachel” an artistic precision that makes up for a lot, as does Weisz who imbues the fi lm with whatever level of intrigue it may possess. But as Philip descends into lustful madness, the movie descends into second-rate melodrama. It becomes increasingly annoying, not tense, to watch someone this stupid. An apparent inevitability hangs over the proceedings as well, causing you to feel one step ahead of the story at any given point. This places another drag on what’s meant to be mysterious. Yet for the capper, it has the gall to throw in a fi nal twist. Intended to broaden our perception of everything we’ve come to believe, it actually makes the whole experience that much more unsatisfying. “My Cousin Rachel” doesn’t keep you on edge. It only tries your patience. a June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


FREE IT ’S L E G A L T IL L

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

OPENING JUNE 23 BEATRIZ AT DINNER This sophisticated dark comedy, about an Hispanic health practitioner who’s invited to a party of rich white elites, has been hailed as the first great film of the Trump era. Starring Selma Hayek and John Lithgow, from director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White (“The Good Girl”). An official selection at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Rated R. BANG! THE BERT BERNS STORY E-Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt narrates this documentary about Bert Berns, the 1960s songwriter/producer known as “The White Soul Brother” who also had mafia ties. Behind such hits like “Twist and Shout” and “Hang on Sloopy,” Berns helped launch the career of Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, and others. Includes pre-show trivia and vinyl giveaways with host Steve Higgins. Not Rated.

OPENING JUNE 30 THE BEGUILED Winner of Best Director for Sophia Coppola at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, this period piece thriller set during the Civil War lives up to its name as a wounded Union soldier stirs tension, division, and confusion amongst the sheltered young women of a Virginia girls school. Starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning. Rated R. THE HERO Sam Elliott stars in a role tailor-made for his iconic Western persona. He plays an aging film actor at the end of his career who, with the help of a younger woman, begins to face the regrets of his broken family and impending mortality. From writer/director Brett Haley (“I’ll See You in my Dreams”), this co-stars Nick Offerman and Laura Prepon. Rated R. THE BAD BATCH Set in the wasteland of a dystopian Texas, a young woman fights for survival after she’s captured by a clan of cannibals. From director Ana Lily

THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

Amirpour, the hailed auteur of the visionary horror drama “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” this stars Jason Momoa, Suki Waterhouse, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi, and Jim Carrey. Rated R.

SPECIAL EVENTS ERASERHEAD (1977) Graveyard Shift celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the debut film from David Lynch. Produced while Lynch was still a student at the American Film Institute, this is a surreal fable about male paranoia, from meeting the opposite sex to the horrors of his newly born mutant child. A landmark of independent cinema that has become a cult classic. Rated R. Fri., June 23 & Sat., June 24, 10pm THE SURGERY SHIP This free event will screen the powerful documentary about a ship of doctors and nurses that travels the coast of West Africa. As they bring aid to some of the poorest nations on the earth, this volunteer humanitarian crew is overwhelmed by more needs than they can meet. Q&A follows with current and past ship volunteers, hosted by Dr. Todd & Joli Beasley and Dr. Brian & Jami Barki Tue., June 27, 7pm PAPRIKA (2007) Anime Club presents this visionary, psychedelic modern-day classic. It’s the futuristic tale of a young woman who, following the theft of a machine that helps therapists enter their patient’s dreams, seeks to quell societal chaos. From director Satoshi Kon, it questions the limits of science and the reach of Big Brother. Rated R. Fri., June 30 & Sat., July 1, 10pm BEHIND THE LENS: COPPOLA IN TULSA A free Tulsa FMAC panel and photo showcase from behind the scenes of Coppola’s “Rumble Fish” and “The Outsiders,” featuring Tulsa photographers Joe Cervantez, Western Doughty, Gaylord Oscar Herron. Moderated by Chuck Foxen. Wed., June 28. Reception at 5:30pm, panel at 7.

Tulsa’rsee F ONLY u na a j i r a M Lawyer

Free legal representation for first offense marijuana possession. Tulsa District & City Courts only. No juvenile cases. Reasonable fees for other charges. Some restrictions apply.

Michael Fairchild • Attorney at Large • 918-58-GRASS (584-7277)

DID YOU MISS WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN TULSA L AST WEEKEND? DON’ T MISS OU T THIS WEEK END! Sign up for the FREE weekly Insider today at TheTulsaVoice.com/theinsider.

We’re giving away FREE STUFF! Visit TheTulsaVoice.com for our June “DINE LOCAL” package featuring: In The Raw Prairie Brewpub R Bar & Grill Roosevelt’s Burn Co. REGISTER FOR THIS $250 PACKAGE BY JUNE 30 TH !

FILM & TV // 41


NEW EDUCATION STANDARD REQUIRES THIRD-GRADERS TO READ GOOD ... AND OTHER CRUD TO GET EXCITED ABOUT • BY FRASER KASTNER

BAD NEWS POLICE BLOTTER Tulsa County detention officer Rickardo Williams is facing charges of sexual battery after appearing in surveillance videos inappropriately touching inmates in the Tulsa County Jail. The sheriff ’s deputies shook their heads in dismay. Presumably, they know where the security cameras are and would never make a rookie mistake like that.

The Tulsa Police Department has asked the public for help locating a stolen police vehicle. The vehicle is unmarked, reducing chances of finding it to approximately fuck-all. The vehicle was stolen in South Tulsa earlier this month, and contained a police vest, pepperball gun, ballistic shield, police radio, and a mix cd titled “Funky Summertime Jamz (2001).” The public is advised to be on the lookout for a gray 2012 Chevrolet Equinox, possibly blasting “Bootylicious” by Destiny’s Child.

A Tulsa Sheriff ’s Deputy was charged with possession of a firearm while intoxicated after he arrived to work drunk. Deputy Raul Nieves faces a misdemeanor charge and is currently on unpaid leave pending an investigation. Luckily, law enforcement in this town gets enough bad press these days that this story will probably just go away. 42 // ETC.

LINCOLN COUNTY INMATES ESCAPE THE SAME WAY TWICE IN THREE MONTHS A three-day manhunt in Lincoln and surrounding counties was conducted after four men broke out of the Lincoln County Jail on June 12. In March, two of the suspects escaped custody from the same jail, using the same hole in the ventilation system, presumably while arguing about whether it was rabbit or duck season. A spokesman for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department expressed confidence that the escapees would soon be caught, saying, “We’w gonna catch those wascawwy cwiminaws.” A guard assigned to keep watch over the inmates was reportedly hit on the head with some sort of oversized wooden mallet, leaving two large and clearly visible raised lumps that caused his hat to sit comically askew. The guard, a diminutive man with a large red moustache, was quoted saying, “Oooh, if I ever get my hands on those varmints I’ll, I’ll …” before trailing off into a bout of agitated gibberish. Investigators came close to capturing the fugitives last week after following a suspicious car for some miles, only to be thwarted when the car drove into a tunnel that had been painted on the side of a sheer cliff face. The final inmate was captured on June 15. Police declined to discuss the arrest, but a source close to the story says that they followed a trail of partially eaten carrots leading to a hole in the ground.

OU ACCIDENTALLY EXPOSES PERSONAL RECORDS OF THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS

OKLAHOMA HAS HIGH STANDARDS FOR 3RD GRADERS, NO ONE ELSE

The University of Oklahoma is rushing to fix a few holes in its digital fence after The OU Daily discovered in early June that 15 years’ worth of students’ records, including social security numbers and other personal information, was accessible to the public. The Daily, OU’s student newspaper, uncovered more than 29,000 improper disclosures of student information due to a month-long security gap. Each disclosure is a violation of federal law under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. But whatever, they don’t put education on ESPN, so it’s not really a priority. All things considered, this wasn’t that big of a deal. Sure, there was a glaring hole in the security of a major university which jeopardized individual students’ well-being, but the school itself didn’t lose any revenue. Like, can you imagine if the athletic department had a problem like this? That would be national news, easy. But students? Nah.

Oklahoma has rais e d the standard for the 3rd grade state reading test, now re quiring that students s c ore “proficient” or higher in order to pass on to the 4th grade. Last year, 12 p erc ent of students did not me et the re quirements for promotion to 4th grade, including a disprop ortionate numb er of lower-inc ome black and Hispanic students. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister told Oklahoma Watch that “families will begin to appreciate even more strongly the need to be reading earlier,” in a stunning display of buck-passing. What, did you think it was the state’s job to educate kids? If you care so damn much, read “The Cat in the Hat” to your kid, or something. a June 21 – July 4, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE


ACROSS 1 One of the Allman Brothers 6 Keep ___ profile (be easy to miss) 10 What baking soda fights 15 Paul Bunyan’s blue ox 19 Cabaret show with skits 20 Gentleman’s opposite 21 “___ Without a Cause” 22 Top spot 23 “To repeat ...” 24 Dominator of world maps 25 Wood for model airplanes 26 Sandy part of a golf course 27 Glowing from intense heat 29 Acts of the Apostles? 31 Female reproductive cells 32 “So what ___ can I bring you?” 33 It’s for the course? 34 What some scouts seek 37 U.S. ski mecca 39 Skating competition category 41 Breathing apparatus? 42 “For goodness’ sake!” 43 Name, as to a position 46 After-shower powders 48 Is a sign of something to come 49 Put bandages on 50 Inspire with affection 52 Dog breed in a Sherlock Holmes title 53 Abbr. on an old TV knob 54 Get carried away in a play 55 Word in MYOB 56 When planes are expected to land, briefly

60 Sounds from a doctor’s depressed patients? 61 Brightest star after Sirius 64 In a stupid, silly manner 66 Prefix with natal or classical 67 ___ dictum (passing remark) 68 Found on this page, legally 69 Thing to do before firing a weapon 70 Magnetized kitchen gadget 72 Senilities 73 Simple seat for a toddler 74 Etc.’s relative 75 Commandment total 76 Orderly arrangement 77 List of movie characters and players 78 Simple little tune 80 Somewhat broad 82 Short appearance for a big star 83 ___ Road Studios of Beatles fame 84 Baltimore football pro 85 Stereotypical attitude of the privileged 87 Like an angel’s head 89 Kind of formality 90 Monetary unit of Bangladesh 91 An Indian language 92 Violin relative 94 Human thing to do 95 Reduce to a pulp, as potatoes 99 Good stuff to find in a mine 100 Like fresh cake 102 Breakfast melon 105 Spanish woman 107 Open an aspirin bottle, e.g. 109 Certain citrus fruit 110 Hearing-based 111 Kept sight of

112 Brownish-gray shade 113 Yemen coastal city 114 Slow, spiral-shelled mollusk 115 Stupid extinct bird? 116 Thing some do nightly or lightly 117 Two for a twenty 118 Transcription pro DOWN 1 Words of Thanksgiving thanksgiving 2 A la king? 3 J.J. or Florida, on TV 4 Traveler’s aid that shows the way 5 Legendary dancer Kelly 6 Bill of fare 7 Some printers 8 Supreme Norse deity 9 First name at the OK Corral 10 Poet’s sphere 11 Numbs 12 Like a squash 13 Put a trip meter back to zeros 14 Strip of a picket fence 15 Face a pitcher 16 Befitting 17 Theodore Cleaver’s nickname 18 Spread out or get wider 28 Laundry cycle 30 Composer Franz Joseph 35 Dishes out or distributes 36 “Filthy” money 38 Greta Garbo’s countrymen 40 “___ for airplane” (grade school lesson) 42 Canadian officer on horseback 43 Move forward 44 Prepare an oven for baking 45 Chaplin’s Tramp, for one 46 Alter or falsify (with “with”) 47 French love

48 Limb with a curve 51 Term for adults retaining juvenile characteristics 52 Encouraging shouts of cheer 57 Large egg-shaped structures of the brain 58 Criminals’ other names 59 Sign of an illness 61 Police officer 62 Was a bank robber’s lookout, e.g. 63 Very good test score 64 Hold for questioning 65 Attachments to walk or trade 68 Large throng of people 71 “Good” inner circle member 72 Senseless, shallow talk 76 Prize from a jury 77 Large feline resembling a lion 79 Big construction girder 81 Cheers or gives hope to 82 USSR successor 83 Estranged 84 Time-delaying bureaucratic annoyance 86 Turkish currency 87 Like some jackets or snakes 88 Steep-sided gully 89 Pool hall blunder? 90 Calligraphers’ “ship”? 92 “All sales are ___” 93 Showy success 96 Psychic glows 97 Barcelona’s locale 98 “Haven’t you been listening to me?” 101 27 per team, in baseball 103 Senator’s assistant 104 Girl from Glasgow 106 Word in a Shakespeare play about nothing? 108 Type of pill or rally

Universal sUnday Crossword Can do! By Timothy e. Parker

© 2017 Andrews McMeel Syndication

6/25

REAL COLLEGE RADIO

Tune into Tulsa’s eclectic, uniquely programmed, local music loving, commercial free, genre hopping, award winning, truly alternative music station. @RSURadio | WWW.RSURADIO.COM THE TULSA VOICE // June 21 – July 4, 2017

ETC. // 43


Pleas e re cycle this issue.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.