The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 4 No. 24

TIS THE SEASON D ONATE P24 D E C . 6 – 1 9 , 2 0 1 7 // V O L . 4 N O . 2 4

YULETIDE SHOPPING P19

ENCHANTED CORNER P22

OPIOIDS IN OKLAHOMA AND THE TULSA TRIANGLE | P25

paradise never sounded So Good.

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Leann rimes fri, dec 15 old dominion sat, dec 16 styx thur, dec 28 lee Brice thur, jan 18 bob newhart sat, jan 20 brothers osborne sat, jan 27 jim gaffigan sat, feb 10 tom jones sat, may 19

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2 // CONTENTS

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

ENJOY SOME OF THE BEST DINING TULSA HAS TO OFFER

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

THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

CONTENTS // 3

Celebrate the holiday season with Philbrook!

On the following nights, the garden lights glow until just before the Museum close at 9 p.m.

NOVEMBER 2017

Nov. 17–Dec. 31, 2017

philbrook.org/festival DECEMBER 2017

4 // CONTENTS

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

TWO TURTLE DOVES, ONE STONE P19

BY TTV STAFF

December 6 – 19, 2017 // Vol. 4, No. 24 ©2017. All rights reserved.

Knock out your holiday shopping while supporting these local businesses

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon EDITOR Liz Blood ASSISTANT EDITOR Cassidy McCants DIGITAL EDITOR John Langdon

ENCHANTED CORNER P22

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

BY ALICIA CHESSER

Magic City Books brings a third place to downtown

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‘BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE,’ YOU SAID P24

CONTRIBUTORS Becky Carman, Alicia Chesser, Barry Friedman, Jeff Huston, Debra McCall, Mary Noble, Joe O’Shansky, Gene Perry, Zack Reeves, Kris Rose, Joseph Rushmore, Andrew Saliga, Damion Shade, Sarah Sullivan, John Tranchina, Brady Whisenhunt, Chris Williams The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

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NEWS & COMMENTARY 7 YOU’VE GOT TO BE

CAREFULLY TAUGHT

B Y ZACK REEVES

Two Bartlesville residents talk race in public

8 ON NAZIS, THE TULSA RACE RIOT,

AND THE TIES THAT BIND

B Y BARRY FRIEDMAN

A conspiracy of goodness

10 MAKING THE POOR POORER

B Y GENE PERRY

P24

36 OF THE MUSIC FIRMAMENT

B Y BECKY CARMAN

D E C . 6 – 1 9 , 2 0 1 7 // V O L . 4 N O . 2 4

YULETIDE SHOPPING P19

ENCHANTED CORNER P22

OPIOIDS IN OKLAHOMA AND THE TULSA TRIANGLE | P25

ON THE COVER Holiday weaving by Sullystring.

Enter to win the pillow made out of the weaving at thetulsavoice.com/sullystring.

Read more about the artist on page 19.

THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

JD McPherson brings new material home to Tulsa

28 TA-DA!

B Y ALICIA CHESSER

Local musicians channel Daft Punk

38 NOW WE’RE HERE,

IT’S BEEN SO LONG

B Y JOHN LANGDON

Cabin Boys Brewery embarks on a DIY journey

14 FROM THE GROUND UP

B Y ANDREW SALIGA

Getting the coffee low-down at DoubleShot

15 STAR BRIGHT

B Y KRIS ROSE

The Starlite Bar is a welcome addition

TV & FILM 41 ICECAPADES

B Y JOE O’SHANSKY

‘I, Tonya’ takes the gold

41 SUBVERSIVE HOMESICK BLUES

B Y JOE O’SHANSKY

38 WORK IT, MAKE IT, DO IT

B Y JOHN LANGDON

ARTS & CULTURE

12 BEER BUILDERS

B Y BRADY WHISENHUNT

The EITC has been an unfortunate victim of Oklahoma’s budget gridlock

MUSIC

TIS THE SEASON D ONATE

FOOD & DRINK

‘ Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ isn’t bad, but it is overhyped

42 MUD BOWL

B Y JEFF HUSTON

Netflix awards contender wrestles with post-WWII racism

Rachel Hayes’s work is huge, colorful, tough, delicate, and feminist

29 SO SERIAL

B Y KRIS ROSE

Heller Theatre Company has a new way for you to spend Sunday night

30 A FISH STORY

B Y CASSIDY MCCANTS

Seth Lee Jones is your local luthier

31 RELENTLESS

B Y DEBRA MCCALL

A poem

32 GETTING CAGEY

B Y JOHN TRANCHINA

Area MMA fighters on display at Xtreme Fight Night 345

ETC. 34 THEHAPS 40 MUSICLISTINGS 42 FULLCIRCLE 43 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD

For The Revivalists’ Rob Ingraham, Cain’s show was a homecoming CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

I

t blows my mind that this is this year’s penultimate TTV issue. Since it isn’t quite time for year-end reflections, I’ll save that for the next issue. For now, I’m looking ahead.

At the end of the month—I’m stoked to announce here—I’ll

marry my partner, Will. Wedding prep has ramped up in the last week—we decided in September to do a December wedding, but it suddenly became go time when we turned the corner from November.

My mother brought to Tulsa a laundry basket full of old family

photos for me to select from for a wedding slideshow. There are pictures of my siblings and me playing in the sprinkler, me dressed as Joan of Arc for Halloween, me sleeping on my grandmother’s lap. One of the pictures is of the house I grew up in in Oklahoma

City. Built in 1925 and owned by my family since 1927, it’s a red brick Craftsman-style one-story on a corner in an historic neighborhood. Think Florence Park or White City-type digs. Small but beautiful old homes.

In the photo, the house, yard, driveway, and our family’s old bronze Monte Carlo are covered in what looks like a foot of snow.

The photo is nearly as old as I am; the giant oak tree my parents planted when I was born isn’t yet visible. Seeing the photo now, I can’t help but focus on the tree’s absence, knowing what it will grow to be. Fast-forward thirty years—that tree now towers over the house.

The oak looms large in my mind, too, where it stands as a reminder that something beautiful and strong can emerge from humble beginnings. I think of this as encouragement for marriage, for artists growing their craft (read about our cover artist, Sarah Sullivan, and other local makers, on pg. 19), and for the times in which we live—not even a year into a Trump presidency and already we’re witnessing the resilience and impact of those who oppose it. It makes me think of conversation—a recurrent theme in the past few TTV issues—a dialogue between things. For the tree, it’s the negotiation of space, light, water, wind. For us, it’s conversations on race in America (pg. 7), or how to handle Oklahoma’s opioid crisis and its tangential effects (pg. 25).

As we get ready to close out a year, here’s to looking forward to the next—and even as far as thirty years down the road. Who knows what currently lies latent, what seeds planted now will be towering creations then. a

LIZ BLOOD EDITOR 6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

community

YOU’VE GOT TO BE CAREFULLY TAUGHT Two Bartlesville residents talk race in public

by ZACK REEVES Tom O’Connor and David Lewis Jr. | GREG BOLLINGER

Y

ou could hear the microphone humming after he mentioned Colin Kaepernick. The mostly-white crowd was all ears.

On a cool November weeknight, in front of more than a hundred people gathered at the Bartlesville Tri County Technology Center, David Lewis Jr. sat on a stool next to his friend Tom O’Connor. It seemed, to me, an odd place to hold an event titled “A Conversation about Race.”

But there we were, listening to Lewis, a 27-year-old black man, and O’Connor, a 76-year-old white man, discuss the ways in which race and racial identity have formed and deformed America. It was their first public event.

“This is gonna be uncomfortable,” Lewis said.

Both bald as turtles, irresistibly likable, and in possession of arguably unnecessary microphones, they told us first about their friendship.

United by their involvement in community service, the two would often get together and discuss current events. But last year, Lewis said, after four years of friendship (and after the presidential election), O’Connor came to him with an admission. “‘Dave, you’ve known me for a while,’” he recalled O’Connor saying. “‘But there are some things

THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

you don’t know about me. In my younger days, you and I wouldn’t have been friends, wouldn’t have broken bread. Because I didn’t like black people. I was a white supremacist.’”

O’Connor grew up in Queens, where gang violence was drawn across racial lines.

“All the white guys gathered in one place, and all the black guys gathered in another,” O’Connor said. “And we were supposed to come at each other with clubs, knives, chains, whatever.”

The death of a friend in a gang fight spurred his racism.

“The best way for me to express it is from the Broadway play, ‘South Pacific.’ There’s a song in that play called ‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.’ I’d sing it for you, but I don’t want to clear out the room: “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear, You’ve got to be taught from year to year, It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear, You’ve got to be carefully taught.

“You’ve got to be taught to be afraid, Of people whose eyes are oddly made, And people whose skin is a different shade,

You’ve got to be carefully taught.

“You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, Before you are six, or seven, or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate, You’ve got to be carefully taught.”

“To me,” O’Connor said, “this is absolutely right, and it’s something white people don’t realize.

If we think about where racism originates, it originates with white men. We perpetuate this in ways that are so subtle, and often we don’t even mean to do it. But sometimes when people do it, it’s not subtle; it’s blatant. And they’re getting away with it, because nobody wants to speak up.”

Perhaps people don’t speak up, they suggested, because they see the consequences of doing so in today’s media.

“When people criticize Colin Kaepernick for kneeling because it’s unpatriotic,” Lewis said, “I think about how this country was founded. It was founded out of a revolution. It was founded off of some ‘unpatriotic’ behavior. And then I think about why he was kneeling: unarmed African-Americans being killed by the people who are supposed to be defending them. To me, that is, in fact, the ultimate sign of patriotism: to take a knee.”

After the conversation, when the duo asked if the crowd had any questions or comments, hands flew up. Multiple people visibly flinched when someone asked Lewis to give the crowd examples of racism he had personally experienced.

“Take your time, brother,” said a man in the front.

But for the most part, the crowd wasn’t there to pick fights.

White people spoke about feeling powerless. Black people spoke about feeling alienated. The common thread among them was a simple statement: Racism still exists, and we want to do more about it.

There’s no automatic cure for a societal ill. The road of progress is littered not with miracles, but with rooms full of people united by common cause, being vulnerable with each other for the sake of community.

“Tell your readers to continue the conversation on race and racism in America,” Lewis said to me. “Encourage them to educate themselves on American history told through the lens of the African-American experience.”

If you missed the event, there will be another opportunity to engage in the dialogue soon—Lewis and O’Connor are planning another conversation for February 2018. a NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

viewsfrom theplains

On Nazis, the Tulsa Race Riot, and the ties that bind A conspiracy of goodness

by BARRY FRIEDMAN

A

t Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, there is a treelined path leading to the Hall of Remembrance. This path has a name—“The Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations”—and it honors those Gentiles who saved Jews during World War II. As then-Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir said at the opening of the complex and during the installation of the first 11 trees, “The Jewish people remember not only the villains, but also every small detail of the rescue attempts.” She compared the path to “drops of love in an ocean of poison,” adding that the people honored there “rescued not only the lives of Jews, but had saved hope and the faith in the human spirit.”

Twenty-seven hundred miles north and west from Jerusalem is Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in south-central France, where 70 years ago its residents provided 5,000 Jews with refuge from the Nazis. In 1990, Israel recognized the inhabitants of Le Chambon as “righteous among the nations.”

All of them.

Filmmaker Pierre Sauvage was one of those saved. He was born in Le Chambon (he called his birth “singularly lucky”) after his parents arrived from Marseille in 1940, as the rest of his extended family was being murdered in Nazi death camps. In 1987, he wrote, produced, and directed the documentary “Weapons of the Spirit,” a film, he says, celebrating the “conspiracy of goodness” of

8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Pierre Sauvage in 1990 with rescuers Marie Brottes and Henri Héritier | COURTESY

this mountain community. What made the story remarkable—a story he says he was comfortable telling only because his parents kept from him the details of their struggles and his birth—was the “high-minded Gentiles who risked their lives for Jews.”

It was that story—and the story of the film’s re-release— that brought him to Tulsa on November 9 and 10, during the 79th commemoration Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass,” which refers to a night of violent anti-Jewish pogroms that took place throughout Germany in 1938). Of those high-minded Christians in Le Chambon, Sauvage says they were not part of an organized resistance.

It was organic.

“Yes, there the peasants and villagers turned no one away, betrayed no one, attempted to convert no one. There was

something to be done, and they just did it. No big deal. It was who they were.”

But Sauvage came to Tulsa not just for the film, or Kristallnacht, but also to explore what Tennessee Williams called “the kindness of strangers.” He came, as well, to find out more about Tulsa’s own shame in 1921—The Tulsa Race Riot.

Before arriving, Sauvage made contact with Hannibal Johnson, read Johnson’s “Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District,” and was reminded of how familiar he’d been with the inhumanity depicted in the book. In a speech at the Charles Schusterman Jewish Community Center the day after the re-release of the film at Circle Cinema, with Johnson in the audience, Sauvage quoted John Hope Franklin.

“Perhaps the very first thing we need to do as a nation and as

individual members of society,” Franklin writes, “is to confront our past and see it for what it is.”

A dinner for Sauvage and Johnson was arranged.

For reasons still not clear, I was invited, as well.

Over lamb-chop lollipops, kale Caesar salads, and warm cider, we bemoaned Trump and the coarsening of America.

Johnson brought up the Cherokee Freedmen and affirmative action; Sauvage talked of assimilation and guilt.

They had never met, but they knew each other.

“It was as though we’d known one another for a long time,” Johnson told me later.

“I visited the remarkable Greenwood Cultural Center and the once-thriving Greenwood District of your city,” Sauvage said at the commemoration. “It is inescapable to recall your own Kristallnacht, what we Jews would call ‘the pogrom’—a horrendous pogrom—that occurred here in 1921 and was then kept out of public consciousness for a very long time, with responsibility for the crime being stubbornly and massively ducked. I know that you don’t need a visitor to recall—but again, I would be remiss, in this context, not to do so—that several hundred blacks were murdered over one night and day, many thousands later persecuted, more than a thousand homes and businesses and churches savagely destroyed, strewing the streets and homes of Greenwood with their own broken glass.”

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

“One of the things I like about the Sherwin Miller Museum,” Johnson told me, “is that it included a Klan robe and reference to the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. It’s the connectivity—the shared experiences around hate— that can and should draw us together. I’m a big believer in the King quote, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’

African Americans and Jews share a rich civil rights history in America, from the founding of the NAACP in 1909 to the 1960s King era and beyond.”

Sauvage heard those echoes.

“I prefer to be as blunt as I can about the past and let the possible analogies waft into people's consciousness. But, yes, the challenge to us will always be to be mindful of the past’s relevance to us.”

From Johnson’s “Black Wall Street”: It was a sorry sight indeed: Black Tulsans, young and old, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, streaming out of the ruins of their community—a community known nationwide as a model of and center for African-American industry, commerce, and collaboration. They marched involuntaril y, heads bowed low, not in humility but in humiliation. They marched involuntaril y, hands held high, not in salutation but in surrender. Among the ‘Negro’ masses, class no longer existed. Black was black—doctor, lawyer, laborer, or thief—it simpl y no longer mattered …

Almost one half of Tulsa’s African-American citizens found themsel ves held captive, and under armed guard. They were the defeated prisoners of a civil war, the enemy by virtue of skin color.

And from Sauvage at the commemoration: “I am a 73-year-old Europeanborn Jew, and that means that at the time of my birth, much of my family was humiliated, tortured, and murdered while the world watched. Those facts, far from receding in importance with every passing year, somehow seem to THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

Pierre Sauvage at Circle Cinema | JESSE ULRICH

me to loom ever larger in my consciousness.”

The brotherhood of captivity and humiliation, of Jews and African-Americans, of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and Greenwood.

“What surprised me,” Sauvage said of those who took in his family, “is that far from being ‘selfless’—a misleading term I never use—the people of Le Chambon derived great strength from having a strong and clear sense of self. Wouldn’t that be the opposite of ‘selflessness’?”

Johnson, too, wrote of Tulsans during the riot who “exhibited empathy and compassion for their defeated African-American brothers and sisters,” like Tulsans Sam and Rose Zarrow, Jewish immigrants from Latvia, who sheltered fleeing blacks.

“The common denominator is a sense of shared humanity,” Johnson said.

Sauvage says the dynamic in Le Chambon was often inexplicable.

“When I was researching the story, I was struck that even the

apparent ‘bad guys’ acted better than they should have. I couldn’t help wondering if that meant that there could be conspiracies of goodness, just as there are the evil kinds.

“It reminds me of Anne Frank’s line,” I said to him, “the sweetly naive, ‘In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.’”

“I think this is different from Anne Frank's somewhat puzzling commitment to the goodness of people,” Sauvage said. “My own feeling is that there is at least a little goodness in all of us; the challenge to us is to identify it and cultivate it. But I think that’s different from believing that people are fundamentally good.”

Within the people of Le Chambon, he found that goodness. More specifically, he found the Christ in Christianity.

“I shaped portraits of the Christians of Le Chambon that, while accurate, I think (and nobody has contested them, including the people themselves), were influenced by my desire to

stress aspects of Christian belief that resonate the most to me.

Thus there is relatively little ‘Jesus talk,’ because what interested me is what these people did.”

Something else was at work.

After Germany invaded and bisected France, the Nazis knew there were Jews in Le Chambon.

Why were they saved when so many weren’t?

Was it Providence? Luck?

“It may have been good luck that the German officer responsible for that area of France was not a committed anti-Semite who might have done great harm,” said Sauvage.

“On the other hand, it may also have been that he was influenced by the fact that Le Chambon was, for the most part, acting nonviolently. While luck unquestionably plays a role in people’s lives—Holocaust survivors frequently invoke it to explain their survival—my own inclination is to think that its importance is exaggerated.”

So what did we learn, not just from the horrors perpetuated by Nazis, but by those who burned down Black Wall Street?

When asked what the Holocaust taught the world, Elie Wiesel answered, “You can get away with it.”

For Sauvage, the answers—the few he has—came only after he found his identity.

“Before turning 18, I was not Jewish, I was not Christian.

Nothing.”

Even now, even after renegotiating his faith, he doesn’t dwell on the questions of how a just God could allow such a thing.

“I’m not religious, so the issue of God and the Holocaust is not a pressing one for me.”

But it was for other members in his family.

“When my son was four, he turned to me one morning during breakfast and asked me—I vividly remember this exchange— whether God helped during the Holocaust. I didn’t know how to answer and thought he would be satisfied with a somewhat dismissive response. ‘Well, he didn't do very much,’ I said. My son did not relent: ‘But did he help a little?’ he persisted.

“I agreed—and still do.” a NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

MAKING THE POOR POORER The EITC has been an unfortunate victim of Oklahoma’s budget gridlock

by GENE PERRY

10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

okpolicy

I

n 2016, Oklahoma lawmakers were struggling to pass a state budget amid a massive revenue shortfall. Sound familiar?

One of the measures taken by lawmakers that year to fill their shortfall was making Oklahoma’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) non-refundable. The EITC is a tax credit designed to incentivize work and keep low-income working families out of poverty. It grows along with wage income up to a maximum level and then phases out gradually, so it never becomes a disincentive to earning more wage income.

Making the EITC non-refundable in 2016 saved about $25 million for the state budget, but only by undercutting a key poverty-fighting tool with a long history of bipartisan support and proven, long-lasting benefits for entire families. Refundability is critical to the success of the EITC because it allows the credit to reward work even if families have small state income tax bills—yet these families are also paying sales taxes, payroll taxes, and, directly or indirectly, property taxes.

Without refundability, the EITC does far less to reduce poverty for those workers earning the least. For example, a single mother with two kids working full-time at $10 an hour ($20,800 annually) lost $231 when the state EITC was made non-refundable.

A married couple with 3 children making $20,800 lost $313.

When lawmakers were debating their cut to the EITC, dozens of clergy, non-profits, and foundation leaders spoke out to defend it. Since the cut went through, the Legislature has faced backlash in Oklahoma and nationally. In a scathing editorial, The New York Times wrote that the measure “cruelly targeted some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens— the working poor—by cutting an average $147 a year from the income of 200,000 households.”

Several members of the Legisla-

ture expressed regret over their vote, and many members promised to fight for restoring the EITC in coming years.

Bipartisan consensus behind the EITC helped make sure that restoring the credit was included in House and Senate budget plans in the last few weeks of special session. It has been perhaps the only uncontroversial element of a package that also included increasing the cigarette tax, fuel tax, and, most recently, the gross production tax on oil and gas drilling.

Unfortunately, the narrow failure of the overall package appears to have taken the EITC down with it.

Unless a deal can be resurrected, working families will go another year without the full benefit of the state EITC. They will have less incentive to work—and may actually find it impossible to work when the low wages offered aren’t enough to make up for added childcare costs. Those parents who are still working will have less to pay down debts or save for the future, which means their longterm ability to rise and stay out of poverty will be compromised. It will make all the problems facing poor and working-class Oklahomans just that much harder.

That’s a shame, because lawmakers from both parties clearly want to undo this damage and restore the EITC. Instead of embodying what the majority wants, the EITC has become another victim of Oklahoma’s extreme super-majority requirements and a few hold-out legislators who are blocking the popular will.

Restoring the EITC is another reason lawmakers should keep the pressure on to change the last few votes needed for the comprehensive solution that Oklahomans want. a

Gene Perry is policy director of Oklahoma Policy Institute (www.okpolicy.org).

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

You can fill the plates of so many people in our community this holiday season. Your donation will go twice as far, thanks to the generosity of the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

“A lot of times we can pay the bills and not eat, or we can eat and not pay bills.”

-Melissa (Phoebe and Danielle’s mom)

Fighting Hunger, Feeding Hope

Community FOOD BANK of Eastern Oklahoma

www.okfoodbank.org

WWW.OKFOODBANK.ORG

www.TraversMahanApparel.com South Lewis at 81st • The Plaza • 918-296-4100

For this flash fiction contest, Nimrod International Journal and The Tulsa Voice will select one firstprize and one second-prize winner. First prize: $150; second prize: $50. Both winners will be published in The Tulsa Voice.

Addiction Are you addicted to heroin or prescription opiates?

Are you unable to stop using?

Are you in chronic pain and the painkillers no longer work?

Or do you know someone with these problems?

There is new hope for opiate addiction. Where abstinence approaches have failed to work, Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) has been shown to increase abstinence rates by 5-10 times.

It is now not unusual for opiate-addicted persons to remain clean for years if they are on the right treatment. You have other options besides abstinence.

We have been helping people with these problems for over 12 years. Our success rate is over 90%.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT US AT PETERALANRAOMD.COM OR CALL (918) 747-4900.

For submission guidelines, visit nimrodjournal.submittable.com/ submit.

Peter Alan Rao, M.D., P.L.L.C

DEADLINE: JANUARY 31, 2018

Board-certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine

Winning work will be published in a late spring/early summer 2018 issue of The Tulsa Voice. Selected finalists will also be published, though they will not receive prize money.

THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

downthehatch

BEER BUILDERS Cabin Boys Brewery embarks on a DIY journey

by BRADY WHISENHUNT Ryan Arnold, Austin McIlroy, Liza McIlroy, and Hunter Hillenburg of Cabin Boys Brewery | GREG BOLLINGER

T

he Cabin Boys Brewery taproom (1717 E. 7th St.)has a warm, woodsy, rustic vibe. The long beer hall tables, shelving, and even the countertops all come from the same source: one old, majestic ash tree that the owners selected and felled themselves. Master Brewer Austin McIlroy estimates it took five or six people over 500 hours of labor to transform that one tree into tables designed to bring people of all different backgrounds together to drink beer. The taproom opened to the public on Nov. 25.

In many ways, the taproom is an extension of an experiment that started when Austin’s dad Jeff had what Lisa McIlroy— Austin's wife—calls “kind of a funny midlife crisis.” Jeff decided he would build a cabin on his land in Catoosa with help from Jeff and other friends and community members. The cabin became a place for friends and family to hold events, get away from the world, and drink home-brewed beer. This place, an eclectic source of stories and experiences, is the reason Jeff,

12 // FOOD & DRINK

Austin, Lisa, and the other cofounders chose the name Cabin Boys Brewery.

When Austin and Lisa moved to Japan to teach English about four years ago, they joined a community of people interested in brewing. From there, they decided to take their passion for home-brewing to the next level.

Austin and friend and co-founder Ryan Arnold immediately started educating themselves about the business of brewing. Arnold changed his academic major to entrepreneurship while Austin completed the Master Brewer Program at the World Brewing Academy in Munich.

There, Austin decided he wanted to create an outstanding Kölsch for Oklahoma’s market.

When the average beer-lover thinks of Kölsch, odds are it rests nicely in the “miscellaneous curiosity” category in their heads.

Unlike trendy, popular craft styles like IPAs, imperial stouts, and American golden ales, Kölsch is a style you read about but usually don’t go nuts over.

But drinking Cabin Boys Brewery’s Cast-A-Line Kölsch

might make local beerheads reassess. The single-malt Western German-style ale conjures fresh buttermilk biscuits, handmade pie crust, and lemongrass. It is, in a single word, dope. Its doughy, comforting sweetness balances a mild, bitter zing of noble hops on the finish.

The brewers at Cabin Boys hate to choose a favorite beer, but they admit to a particular fondness for the Kölsch, one of McIlroy’s proudest creations. Based on his research—picking the brains of traditional German brewers—he believes their Cast-A-Line is a perfect example of the style.

McIlroy also spent time in Belgium learning the country’s brewing secrets. Cabin Boys’ Bearded Theologian quad ale contains all the delicious elements of the Belgian quad and a 8.4% ABV, resulting in a punch of malt with accents of raisins, dates, and dulce de leche—without the astringent backlash of a higher alcohol content. As the name suggests, it is a mellow, strong, benevolent, and deep beer.

The Cornerstone Saison ale is a classic wild and cloudy

saison at 6.2% ABV. Complex and refreshing with yeasty citrus flavors, it is the lowest ABV saison they offer. Cabin Boys also intends to release medium and super variations of the Cornerstone, which they believe will fill a niche in the Tulsa and Oklahoma craft beer scenes. “[Oklahoma is] one of the biggest consumers of 3.2 beer.

That product quality is not the best by any means. It’s just a means of getting drunk,” Arnold said.

In the near future, they plan to host movie nights, sporting event watch parties, game tournaments, and other events designed for Tulsans to get together and have fun. The idea is to create an environment as enjoyable and welcoming as the original cabin in Catoosa. McIlroy wants to show the community that a taproom “is a community-based thing that can really be a positive impact on peoples’ lives.”

There, “cabin boy” is practically synonymous with “builder and facilitator.” They hope to build their own vision one craft beer at a time. a December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

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THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

FOOD & DRINK // 13

thebrew

FROM THE GROUND UP Getting the coffee low-down at DoubleShot

by ANDREW SALIGA

Inside DoubleShot Coffee at 1730 S. Boston Ave. | GREG BOLLINGER

I

t may seem counterintuitive to turn to a coffeeshop with a reputation of elitism for a lesson in coffee basics. From the lawsuit with Starbucks to the nod to their “manifesto” in an episode of “Portlandia,” DoubleShot Coffee Company has certainly made a name for itself. Whether its reputation hints at fact or legend is debatable, but the art of subtlety is certainly not DoubleShot’s forté.

Owner Brian Franklin understands the anxiety new customers sometimes experience when coming through the shop’s doors. And while he acknowledges his own coffee elitism, there is no secret handshake or lingo required to enter the shop.

“I think the purity aspect scares people for some reason, but it should be the opposite,” Franklin said. “We have stripped away all the fanciness and pretension behind coffee and went to the basics.

It’s simple to come in here and order a cup of coffee.”

Franklin recalls his first roasting experience just over 20 years ago, an event that inspired him to open the shop in 2004.

“I drank freshly-roasted coffee, and it was an explosion of flavors,” he said. “I had never had coffee that wasn’t stale.”

This epiphany formed the

14 // FOOD & DRINK

foundation of DoubleShot’s mission—to serve freshly-roasted, high-end coffees.

DoubleShot aims to share the uniqueness found in various coffees while also educating, which the baristas are happy to do with each customer interaction— whether about coffee varietals, preparation of certain drinks, or why they don’t make others.

When I met with Franklin, he walked me through some of the coffee basics, starting with flavor.

As with wine, the flavor of a coffee is dependent on several factors: the coffee plant’s variety, elevation, soil, climate, and processing method. The first coffee trees can be traced to Ethiopia and have since been cultivated in tropical regions across the globe.

Coffee beans come from the fruit of the coffee tree, which is referred to as a “cherry.” The red, ripe cherries are harvested and processed before being exported.

Coffee processing can be split into two broad categories—naturally-processed and washed.

Natural-process coffees are dried with the entire cherry intact, then the dried skin and fruit are removed mechanically. Washed coffees have the skin and fruit mechanically separated prior to undergoing fermentation. After

fermentation, the cherries are washed and then dried.

Once processed, the light green, unroasted beans are packed into 100-pound burlap sacks and exported. It’s then up to the roaster to dial in the exact roast time and temperature required to extract the most flavor. However, all the work up to this point could be in vain if it’s not followed by proper brewing procedures.

No matter the brewing method, the variables at play remain the same. The coffee should be both freshly roasted and ground.

The grind size and extraction (brewing) time will depend on the brewing method, but the water should be filtered and heated to 195°F to 205°F. Franklin won’t say any element of brewing is more important than the other; however, he does concede that a consistent grind size will have the greatest impact.

Electric blade grinders are notorious for creating inconsistent grinds and should be avoided in favor of burr grinders. For the most consistent grind, Franklin recommends the Comandante C40 Nitro Blade, which he uses for his own daily cup. For those not ready to spend $235 on a German-engineered hand grinder, the Baratza Encore electric burr grinder ($137) is a

good entry-level model. Cuisinart also sells one for around $100.

DoubleShot roasts a special holiday coffee annually, and this year it’s a double release. This isn’t your franchise-style coffeehouse blend with festive packaging and matching seasonal mugs. Franklin has sourced two specialty coffees from Finca Hartmann, a nearly 250-acre farm in Panama from which Franklin has purchased since 2009. These coffees are of a variety known as Geshas. Known for their tea-like subtle complexities, these coffees fetch high prices due to low yield, high demand, and a difficulty to cultivate. The Gesha Natural #3 is priced at $40, and the Gesha Natural #5 is priced at $42. Both will also be available in the shop as 10-ounce pourovers for $7.

Next year, DoubleShot will move to a new space designed by Franklin and Joel Collins, a longtime DoubleShot regular and architect. Designed from the ground up, it is meant to be an expression of what DoubleShot represents— an enhanced coffee-drinking experience. The new building, called The Rookery, will feature reclaimed barn lumber from Berne, Indiana, and bricks from an old Coca-Cola plant in Muskogee. It’s set to open on South Boulder Avenue in the spring of 2018. a December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

downthehatch

DJ’S EVERY FRIDAY & SATURDAY!

Starlite Bar | GREG BOLLINGER

STAR BRIGHT

PINBALL WIZARD TOURNAMENT!!

The Starlite Bar is a welcome addition

$5 ENTRY / $250 CHAMPION / $50 RUNNER-UP

by KRIS ROSE

THE MAX RETROPUB • 114 S. ELGIN AVE MON-SAT 4PM-2AM / FUNDAY 12PM-2AM

WHEN I WALKED INTO THE STARLITE BAR (1902 E. 11th St.) for the first time, I was overwhelmed by the changes owners Lynn and Rob Robertson made. Originally a dive bar called Chatterbox, The Starlite has been fashioned into the kind of clean, cozy, neighborhood bar you might find in New Orleans or Chicago. The decor is eclectic—vintage beer signs, old radios, antique wind-up toys, knick-knacks and curiosities, many of them gifts from already-loyal patrons. Lynn knows you can’t create an atmosphere like this without the generosity of customers.

“The objects mean so much more when there’s a story behind them,” she said.

Though they’ve been open only a few weeks, the clientele is already dedicated to their new haunt. Some patrons live nearby, but The Starlite is more a destination than a place you accidentally stumble into.

For the Robertsons, The Starlite is the culmination of years of dreaming—and a lot of construction. They rebuilt the bar, built the stage and booth riser, added walls, redid the floors, and put in new fixtures where needed. Some may know the Robertsons from their wildly successful ‘80s Prom, which will celebrate its 16th year in April 2018, and That ‘90s Party, which now happens every July. Rob, aka DJ Robbo, has been a DJ and promoter since the ‘90s, while Lynn has been a DJ, bartender, and bar co-manager for over a decade.

I no longer imbibe, so I asked Lynn to make one of her most popular cocktails for my husband Dave and a non-alcoTHE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

QUALIFYING ROUNDS: DECEMBER 4-7 TOURNAMENT: DECEMBER 10TH @ 4PM

holic cocktail for me. I usually drink club soda and lime when I’m out, but I’m no longer satisfied with that after sampling Lynn’s creation, called a Robbo Roy—no similarity to the alcoholic Rob Roy—so named because it’s what Robbo likes to drink when he’s taking it easy. It consists of seltzer water, lime juice, bitters, and a basil simple syrup made from scratch by Lynn. It’s the most refreshing beverage I’ve ever had. Dave had the Mezcal Paloma, made of mezcal, fresh-pressed (in a vintage presser) lime, simple syrup, a pinch of salt, grapefruit soda, a salt rim, and a lime. Dave said it was generous with the mezcal without masking the other flavors: “Delicious but quite potent.”

The Starlite Bar has several hand-crafted cocktails, but this is not an uptight establishment whose bartenders look down their noses at regular beer-drinking Joes. You can get a beer and a shot with the same friendly service you’d find at any regular neighborhood bar (although pool players and sports fans might be disappointed by the lack of TV screens and pool tables).

The Robertsons made a conscious choice to make music the focus of the bar.

The tunes are carefully selected and sufficiently obscure enough to please the music snobs. For those who just want to dance, Robbo provides plenty of ass-shaking hit singles from the past. There’s also karaoke night every Tuesday that even die-hard haters can’t resist.

Welcome to Tulsa's best new little bar. a FOOD & DRINK // 15

Not just an ordinary bar

BEST OF TULSA

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OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 303 MLK Jr. Blvd. www.gypsycoffee.com

3336 S. Peoria Ave. | 918-949-6950 208 N. Main St. | 918-398-6700 idaredgeneralstore.com

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2 Tulsa Town Hall tickets for February, March and April lectures

featuring music, holiday treats &

2 Five Horizons Spa float sessions

the glow express train ride

2 Flying Tee gift cards www.guthriegreen.com

16 // TULSA ARTS DISTRICT GUIDE

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

NEW & V I N TA G E V I N Y L T U R N TA B L E S LIVE MUSIC WE BUY RECORDS!

Open Tues. - Sat. 11am - 7pm

11A M -11P M E V E R Y D AY

217 E. Archer Historic tulsa Arts District (918) 619-6353

9 18 .7 9 4 .7 8 8 1 11 E M . B . B R A D Y S T

woodyguthriecenter.org

It’s back!

CHRIS BUHALIS AND THE RED DIRT RANGERS IN CONCERT FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8 • 7pm

COLIN HALLIBURTON ERIN O’DOWD W/ & RYAN ALLEN SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16 • 7pm

CHARLIE MARS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21 • 7pm

address 102 EAST BRADY STREET, TULSA, OK

74103

phone 918.574.2710

email INFO@WOODYGUTHRIECENTER.ORG THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

TULSA ARTS DISTRICT GUIDE // 17

TULSA’S NEIGHBORHOOD INDIE BOOKSTORE Records•Books•VHS Zines•Cassettes

Open Tue.-Sat. 1-7 Sun. 1-6 4624 E. 11th St. Tulsa, OK 74112 Like us on Facebook

Holiday Luminaries

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Thursday evenings: November 30 and December 7, 14, & 21 bicycles

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Saturday, December 9 Register online or by phone

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Leave Santa the Good Stuff!

401 E. 11th St. • 918-295-0295 /ModernSpiritsTulsa 18 // FEATURED

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

DILLON ROSE

AMERICAN SOLERA

GOOD MISCHIEF

DILLON ROSE Married duo Rachel and Seth Dazey have been making jewelry for eight years. Two and a half years ago they decided to open a business as Dillon Rose. Working out of a studio space (1229 Charles Page Blvd., #1, which you can visit Tues.–Fri., 12–4 p.m., or by appointment), the two create pieces that feel organic and simple—bringing the natural world to an everyday, wearable style. Dillon Rose’s current collection’s theme is leaves and wings, and most of the pieces are bi-metal, made of both copper and silver. The Dazeys also make custom earrings, rings, bolos, necklaces, and bracelets in silver, gold, and copper.

“People often come looking for a specific kind of stone or design,” said Rachel. “I work with them to make a design that’s unique to them and holds the meaning they’re looking for.”

Find Dillon Rose at: Ever Something during Christmas in Kendall-Whittier, Dec. 9, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Pottery Barn in Utica Square, Dec. 10, 12–5 p.m.

TAC Gallery, entire month of December, Thurs.–Sat. 6–9 p.m.; closing party with music and drinks, Dec. 23, 6–9 p.m.

Dillon Rose jewelry is also available at Spexton Jewelry (1609 E. 15th St.), This Land Press (1208 S. Peoria Ave.), and online. DILLONROSE.NET THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

SULLYSTRING

KNOCK OUT YOUR HOLIDAY SHOPPING WHILE SUPPORTING THESE LOCAL BUSINESSES

TWO TURTLE DOVES, ONE STONE

BY TTV STAFF AMERICAN SOLERA Named the best new brewery in America in 2017 by RateBeer.com, American Solera makes exciting oak barrel-aged beers, and always offers a good selection of bottles to take home. These make great gifts (as do the gift cards) but our favorite—and soon to be yours—is the crowler (like growler, but not). These 32-ounce beers come in a giant gold can—way more fun than a tallboy. Once you open it, you gotta drink it, but it’ll last unopened for two weeks if kept cold. Buy three and save three bucks. 108 E. 18TH ST.

EAST ELEVENTH STREET Route 66, The Mother Road, has an excellent shopping stretch. From Peoria to Yale Avenue, you’ll find upscale consignment (SoBo Co., 1344 E. 11th St.); furniture, homeware, and fun stationery (Jenkins & Co., 1335 E. 11th St.); records, turntables, cassette tapes, and CDs (Josey Records, between South Quincy and South Rockford on Eleventh Street); and books and comics (Bound for Glory Books, 4264 E. 11th St., and Dice Addiction, just a few steps west from there). Though not right on Eleventh, Vintage Vault at 1134 S. Harvard Ave. has

excellent vintage wares and wears. If you need fuel, there are three of this year’s Best of Tulsa restaurants along the route: Lone Wolf (Best Korean, Best Vietnamese, and Best Food Truck) at 3136 E. 11th St.; Taco’s Don Francisco (Best Tacos) at 4008 E. 11th St.; and Tally’s Good Food Café (Best Diner) at the corner of 11th Street and South Yale Avenue. Definitely check out Generations Antique Mall next to Tally’s, too.

SULLYSTRING “From an early age, I was attracted to graphic and colorful art more than anything figurative,” said weaver extraordinaire Sarah Sullivan. “It was always about color, for me, and the emotions that color can make you feel.” The wall hangings, placemats, and pillows she makes under her brand Sullystring conjure joy, humor, curiosity, and fun. Though a consistent aesthetic sense travels across each piece, Sullivan says she’s never made the same one twice. Through her website, you can begin the process of ordering your own unique work. “We’ll talk about colors, sizes, deadlines—all the details,” she said.

“I’m always interested in the concept that everyone has their own individual color palette. That’s my favorite thing with custom work—for a piece to look like someone just through the colors that are used.”

FEATURED // 19

BOXYARD

FATCITYCLAY

SCISSORTAIL PRODUCTIONS

Sullystring can also be found at Jenkins & Co. and in the 108 Contemporary gift shop (108 E. MB Brady St.). TTV is giving away the Sullystring pillow seen on this issue’s cover. For more information and to enter, visit thetulsavoice.com/sullystring.

SULLYSTRING.COM

SCISSORTAIL PROVISIONS Pickle your fancy: The family-operated Scissortail Provisions appears at the Brookside Winter Farmers’ Market (Whole Foods, 1401 E. 41st St.) every other Saturday, 8–11 a.m.

Since 2014, they’ve specialized in handmade small batches of fermented seasonal produce. Choose from their vinegar pickles, relishes, and chutneys made with everything from carrots to okra and peaches to jalapeños; classic and specialty krauts (the Kimchi Reserve is perfect for belly-warming during the winter months); and various healing tonics. The Scissortail Provisions store in Owasso (702 N. Main St.) is open Thursdays and Fridays and by appointment—and they’ll give you a dollar off per jar if you can bear to ride your bike to the shop. SCISSORTAILPROVISIONS.COM

FATCITYCLAY A good mug should feel just right—just ask Joe Staskal, potter, sculptor, painter, and owner of Tulsa’s FatCityClay. Staskal studied business, economics, and law before working full-time on his art. Now he regularly produces and sells coffee/tea mugs, oil cruets, bowls, and platters, among other pottery items, all in a style distinctly his own. FatCityClay is known for mugs of all shapes, sizes, and colors celebrating Tulsa pride (“S.E. Hinton Rules”; “Midtowner”) and flaunting catchy—sometimes perfectly snarky—sayings (“Namaste Bitches”; “Don’t Worry Be Yonce”; “Frackin’ Okie”; Wish You Were Deer”). You can find Staskal’s mugs at The Nest on Cherry Street (1515 E. 15th St.). Lambrusco’z Market and Deli (114 S. Detroit, A) also carries a limited selection.

HOLIDAY PLANTS What gift beats a growing flower, tree, or shrub?

Get your holiday plant fix—for yourself, your holiday party, or your loved ones—at various local nurseries and garden centers.

If you’re looking for poinsettias, check out the selection at Southwood Landscape & Garden Center (9025 S. Lewis Ave.). Want something a bit less sanguine? Under the Sun Garden Center (5151 S. Harvard Ave.; 8998 S. Sheridan Rd.) has Amaryllis and Christmas cactus aplenty. (The Christmas cactus is not to be confused with the Thanksgiving cactus, which blooms just a bit earlier—or the Easter cactus, for that matter, which blooms, unsurprisingly, in the spring.) For rosemary and holly, try String20 // FEATURED

er Nursery (7203 E. 41st St.), and, if you’re wanting to go big, Colebrook Nursery (5915 W. 31st St. S.) is stocked with evergreens.

VARIOUS LOCALES

BOXYARD The Boxyard is a one-of-akind retail center, made entirely of repurposed shipping containers that traveled the world before they settled in Tulsa. And its offerings are as unique as its construction and will help in checking off even the quirkiest of wishlists. For the budding scientist, there’s The STEMcell Science Shop, which sells everything from Bunsen burners to bacteria-culture containers to NASA-grade (and child-size) astronaut suits.

Grab some Tulsa merch or designer outdoor gear—and a coffee to keep you going—at Dwelling Spaces. Find fashionable flannel at East+West or the perfect pair of oversized sunglasses at Abelina’s Boutique. Or maybe just nab a gift card to Sole Massage for that hard worker on your list.

502 E. 3RD ST.

THE ARCHER BUILDING Thanks to the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Archer Building has become not only a hub for many artists, but also a necessary stop during any shopping spree. Its brandnew Magic City Books is perfect for your favorite bookworm (see page 22 for more info).

Buying for an aspiring—or established— musician? Try Guitar House of Tulsa. Or go next door to Made: An Indie Emporium for handmade or vintage jewelry. Grab a snack to sweeten the gift—or just reward yourself for burning through your holiday checklist—at The Goods Bodega. And be sure to peek through the windows at the stores and restaurants that haven’t opened quite yet; the Archer Building promises even more exciting offerings to come. 215 E. ARCHER ST.

KITCHEN 66 Kitchen 66 isn’t just a food market; it’s a launch program for upand-coming food businesses in Tulsa. And it might be just the right place to get some foodie-pleasing fare. Currently there are seven companies going through the Fall Launch Program curriculum, which they will complete on December 11. The Kitchen 66 Cafe features a different food entrepreneur daily, offering breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.—so you can have a meal before grabbing a gift box packed with mini-versions of the most popular items from Kitchen 66 companies.

907 S. DETROIT AVE.

FIRST STREET FLEA MARKET Inside the ever-colorful, mural-covered Gateway Buildling is a once- (sometimes twice-) monthly flea market with a unique December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

curating process and an equally noteworthy collection. You never know exactly what you’ll find, but that’s part of the point. At First Street Flea you’ll likely see an eclectic mix of records, action figures, handmade jewelry, collector’s items, vintage clothing, weird lamps, and more. Familiar vendors like Bound for Glory Books and Good Mischief also rent out booths for the market. It’s the kind of place you should enter without a specific shopping plan—instead, let the gifts choose you. Prices are fair but not everything’s inexpensive. Still, it’s a good stop for the fiscal gift-giver. The next Flea is Dec. 17, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. 823 E. 1ST ST.

JAKE FOWLER Wedding photographer, woodworker, and leather goods crafter Jake Fowler spends his days creating in his Kendall-Whittier studio (located just two doors down from his wife’s floral shop Ever Something). While he does not hold normal shop hours, Jake is considering opening a retail space at the front of his studio in the near future. Jake’s online store showcases his leather goods, including various bags, clutches, and wallets, as well as his handmade wood kitchen items (think stylish cutting and serving boards). He also does commission projects—he was working on an oriental-style bed when we visited the shop.

His pieces will be available for purchase at Ever Something during Christmas in Kendall-Whittier on Saturday, December 9.

JAKEFOWLERDESIGN.COM

BLUE MERCURY For those on your list needing some beauty self-care this Christmas, cosmetics retailer Blue Mercury could be a one-stop shop. The store opened on Brookside in February and offers a wide range of beauty services, including facials, chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and waxing. The storefront sells various skin and beauty products, candles, soap, make-up, and fragrances for both men and women. Employees will gift-wrap items at no extra charge—and they’ll even put together and customize gifts and baskets.

Blue Mercury also offers make-up classes for individuals, groups, and parties. 3524 S. PEORIA AVE.

TALLGRASS STUDIO Tallgrass Studio, a local leather goods company, builds bags and other accessories in a studio space shared with Dillon Rose.

Inspired by Western and vintage leather goods, owner and designer Christian Reed aims to provide customers with a timeless product—his designs are classic and minimal with the intent of lasting for generations. Reed focuses on durable construction, quality materials, and versatility in his products. Tallgrass goods are offered THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

in one color, a light hue known as vegetable-tanned leather. He prefers his leather free of dyes—the color darkens naturally as it ages over time. Though the business is just over one year old, Reed stays busy with word-of-mouth orders, Instagram orders, and local craft shows. Look for his website with an online shop, expected to come out in mid-December. You can also find him at the First Street Flea on Dec. 17, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

TALLGRASS-STUDIO.COM

JO & JUNE Located in Kendall-Whittier, Jo & June carries a variety of handcrafted and vintage goods like rugs, clothing, plants, wall hangings, pillows, hanging chairs, ceramic mugs, candles—and whatever else happens to catch the eye of owners Phillip and Danielle. “We hunt wherever we can. Anytime we travel we can’t stop hunting, even if we’re going on vacation for ourselves; we can’t help it,” Danielle said.

Jo & June will be participating in this year’s Christmas in Kendall-Whittier on Saturday, December 9 from 11 a.m.–6 p.m. The shop will temporarily house several local vendors, making holiday shopping to-dos a fun, interactive experience. 2313 E. ADMIRAL BLVD.

EVER SOMETHING Ever Something offers floral design services ranging from personal bouquets to full wedding planning for their clients. The shop also holds events and workshops for those wanting to explore or sharpen floral arranging skills. Owner Katie Carpenter likes to offer clients an assortment of classes, varying from solely floral-focused, medium or large-scale arrangement classes to classes on arranging and floral crown-making. On Dec. 7 from 5:30–7:30 p.m., Ever Something will hold a wreath workshop at the new Heirloom Rustic Ales (2113 E. Admiral Blvd.). For $60, attendees will craft a wreath for their doors or mantles. Registration is at eversomething.com.

2306 E. ADMIRAL BLVD.

JAKE FOWLER

JO & JUNE

EVER SOMETHING

IDA RED Ida Red is the perfect place to find a Tulsa souvenir for loved ones near and far. This year you can find sundry Christmas-themed goodies, including handcrafted 24-karat gold-wash ornaments depicting various Tulsa landmarks—Guthrie Green, Will Rogers High School, and Cain’s Ballroom, among many more. Designer Bobbie Whaling donates 100% of profits to three local charities: The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, Neighbor for Neighbor, and Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma.

If you need a break from all the Christmastime chaos, head to the downtown location (208 N. Main St.), find a barstool, and try one of their chocolate or vanilla egg cream drinks, Weber’s root beer on tap, or a birthday cake milkshake. 3336 S. PEORIA AVE. a FEATURED // 21

DAVID SEDARIS is a member of the Magic City Books advisory board. He’s currently on tour promoting his most recent book, “Theft

by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002,” in cities from Melbourne, Australia, to Manhattan, Kansas.

ALICIA CHESSER: What do you do in a bookshop? Are you a focused seeker or a meanderer?

DAVID SEDARIS: I associate bookshops with work now. They’re my place of business and make me slightly anxious, the way a ringing phone does. Usually I’m a focused seeker though I like to look at covers and note the designers I like.

AC: What do you think a bookstore like Magic City can bring to the life of a neighborhood?

DS: It can pull a neighborhood together, starting, usually, with young mothers, then moving on to grownups and surly types who want to be writers.

AC: You’ve been to Tulsa more than once now and met a few folks, like Jeff Martin, who are working hard to make it a bit more livable. What is your impression of the city?

DS: I think it’s full of guns and really good baked goods.

22 // FEATURED

I

n the intimate bays of Magic City Books on the corner of East Archer Street and North Detroit Avenue, a simple “Did you ever read that one?” starts a thread of memories and opinions, pleasures and ideas among the patrons packed almost as close as the volumes on the no-fuss wooden shelves.

Folks encounter their neighbors here, comparing finds as light streams through the floor-to-ceiling windows. A few sit with coffee, brewed in-house, in the shop’s Wes Anderson-esque Algonquin Room, backed by a green velvet curtain and surrounded by whimsical wallpaper and dark wood paneling. Some clutch an unpurchased book close to their chest—perhaps “the one.”

Magic City opened just days before Thanksgiving on November 20. In the days following—during the most consumerist weekend of the year—hundreds of Tulsans visited and engaged in something that looked more like discovering than shopping.

“I think people have this craving for interpersonal dialogue, getting off their phone and meeting face to face, talking about something that matters,” said Jeff Martin, founder of Booksmart Tulsa and president of the Tulsa Literary Coalition (TLC), the non-profit umbrella under which Magic City Books operates.

Martin has been running Booksmart since 2009, putting on more than 400 author events in partnership with local venues and businesses. In 2015, he found himself in a serendipitous collective of people, places, and visions, taking new steps for the community of readers he’d helped cultivate.

“Steve’s Sundry closed in 2013. That was the last independent bookstore in Tulsa that sold new books,” Martin said. “That was where the idea was born, but I didn’t know what to do with it. In early 2015 I had the idea to do a bookstore, and I asked Cindy Hulsey, who had been at the Tulsa City-County Library for nearly 20 years, to come run this thing. I’ll give her all the credit in the world for saying yes.

We met in a bookstore years ago, and I knew that a dream of hers was to have one.

“We put together the TLC, and around then the George Kaiser Family Foundation said, ‘We have this building, the Archer Building—would you ever want to do something here?’ Those two things colliding seemed too perfect.”

The name of the shop is a nod to Tulsa’s boomtown

years, when oil barons supercharged the city’s cultural life.

But the model is very 2017. Magic City Books blends retail with a non-profit community-building mission.

“The bookstore is the retail arm of the nonprofit, like how a gift shop works at a museum,” Martin said. “If we have a revenue stream, it’s not that we won’t have to fundraise, but it gives us a base. I think that’s a model we’ll be seeing more of. Using retail to help push your mission.”

And the mission? Martin calls it “intellectual fellowship.”

“Books create conversations,” said LeeAnna Weaver, the store’s buyer and TLC’s program director, who handpicked nearly every book on the shelves, taking into consideration thoughts from the staff and the community.

“They’re a way to find a bridge with someone that you might not otherwise relate to.

Patrons shouldn’t expect a Barnes & Noble. The shop is small, the selections diverse and surprising. In one fiction aisle, a Sam Shephard novel sits alongside Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and a book by Sri Lankan-American author SJ Sindu. There’s nature writing and history, memoirs and graphic novels.

“If you’re looking for a book about how to put a new roof on your house, this is not the place,” Martin said. “This is a place for books you read, not for books you look at. We’re not going to have tons of $80 coffee table books about Robert Rauschenberg.”

For Hulsey, now TLC’s executive director, moving from the wide array of library activities to a narrower focus on books and literature has been exciting.

“There’s no better way to achieve our mission of using books and reading as a catalyst for reflection, exploration, and connection than with an independent bookstore,” she said.

Several people involved with Magic City describe it as a “third place,” a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg to describe a place you go that’s not your house and not your office—an important anchor in a healthy community.

Think barber shops and diners, accessible places where there are regulars and new faces, encouraging loose, creative, unpretentious interaction.

“Next to home and the workplace,” Hulsey said, “the store functions as a safe haven that contains the entire world of ideas and experiences between the pages of books.”

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

MAGIC CITY BOOKS BRINGS A THIRD PLACE TO DOWNTOWN

BY ALICIA CHESSER

Part of intellectual fellowship, Martin explained, is simply bringing people together.

“If you can’t afford a new hardcover book, this place is still your place. Come to an event. Come talk. We’ve got Wi-Fi. Be part of the culture here. I want this place to be fun and for everybody.”

Magic City Books will continue to put on author events at the shop and other venues through Booksmart Tulsa, now also under TLC, as well as help organize book clubs.

“One of our first initiatives,” Hulsey said, “is to offer five monthly book groups and to provide a meeting place, as well as services, for book clubs that already exist in Tulsa. We also plan to provide books and facilitate discussions with groups that may not have had the opportunity to participate in a book club before.”

Martin is tossing around other ideas, like a subscription service—someone at the shop would pick a book and send it to the recipient once a month (perfect for a gift or for surprising yourself with new reads).

There are longer-term dreams, too.

“Around 2020-ish I want to have a book festival in the Tulsa Arts District, modeled after ones in Austin and Nashville. Say Guthrie Green is our hub, and we utilize these great venues for headliners and local authors. Maybe 50 authors over a weekend, set up like a music festival.”

It’s a vision of a city where literary culture is just another part of daily life.

“The story of Magic City is representative of what is happening in Tulsa now: people with a dream of making this city better finding the way to realize that dream,” said Mayor G. T. Bynum, who cut the ribbon on the store’s opening day. “It comes down to people who could live and work anywhere in the world realizing Tulsa is the place where they can make their dream a reality.”

“I don’t think a bookstore is any more important than art, music, or film, but I think it’s equally important,” Martin said.

“I think you have to have all those things to have 360 degrees of cultural life. I want to check that box for the city a little bit.”

The store will celebrate its opening with a series of author events around the city Dec. 6–10, including an exploration of “Why Bob Dylan Matters,” a discussion with Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman, a MUSED. poetry night, a chat with Michael Wallis on the Donner Party, and a presentation by children’s author Jeff Ruby. For information on upcoming events, visit magiccitybooks.com a THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

“It’s not that I’m obsessed with books,” said Jeff Martin, founder of Booksmart Tulsa and president of Tulsa Literary Coalition. “I’m obsessed with ideas and stories. As far as I know, the best place to get these is books.”

PHOTOS BY CHRIS WILLIAMS FEATURED // 23

Salvation Army

BY TRENT GIBBONS

Put your money (or time) where your mouth is

I YWCA

f this holiday season has you looking for how to give back to the community, to ensure your name makes Santa’s nice list, or even to ward off a few Christmas spirits, Tulsa has more than enough ways to satisfy your charitable side.

TULSA PUBLIC RADIO Tulsa Public Radio is comprised of two stations, KWGS 89.5, Oklahoma’s first-ever FM radio station, and KWGS 88.7, a classical radio station. To help keep public radio alive and well in Northeastern Oklahoma, Tulsa Public Radio always accepts monetary donations through their website. Or you can donate your old car. publicradiotulsa.org ARTS ALLIANCE TULSA When you support Arts Alliance Tulsa (AAT), you’re supporting Tulsa’s art scene as a whole.

AAT is a United Arts Fund whose members include local galleries, museums, theatre companies, and musicians, among many, many others. You can see how to donate—as well as exactly where your support will go—on the Arts Alliance Tulsa website. artstulsa.org IRON GATE Located in downtown Tulsa, Iron Gate is a safe, welcoming atmosphere for Tulsans seeking food assistance. To aid Iron Gate in its mission to feed and offer reprieve for Tulsa’s hungry, you can donate online or by mail or phone, or you can volunteer in the soup kitchen or pantry. irongatetulsa.org THE CENTER FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH PHYSICAL CHALLENGES The mission of Tulsa’s Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges is to provide opportunities for and improve the lives of physically handicapped Tulsans. The Center offers rehabilitative fitness courses, adaptive sports and recreation, community reintegration assistance, transition services, and support groups. To help keep The Center running and provide for their staff, they take donations year-round. tulsacenter.org

Iron Gate

SALVATION ARMY Salvation Army is responsible for what is perhaps the defining image of holiday giving: the redaproned, bell-ringing Samaritan with a kettle for donations outside your local mall or grocery store. You can always donate money as you pass by, attend one of the fundraising events Salvation Army hosts around Tulsa, or volunteer to be a bell-ringer yourself for a day. salvationarmyusa.org YOUTH SERVICES OF TULSA Youth Services of Tulsa (YST) works to guarantee that no young person’s potential goes to waste. Its programs seek to prevent delinquency, provide youth counseling, and shelter runaway and homeless youth. You can help with a monetary donation or by volunteering as a Safe Place Responder, driving youth (ages 12-17) seeking assistance to YST’s Adolescent Emergency Shelter. yst.org

24 // FEATURED

TULSA DAY CENTER FOR THE HOMELESS Tulsa Day Center doesn’t just temporarily shelter Tulsa’s homeless—its leaders are looking to end homelessness here. In addition to providing meals and short-term living spaces, the Day Center also offers permanent residence for those suffering from chronic homelessness. A caring staff also treats addiction and improves residents’ chances of employment.

Those passionate about the center’s mission can find a list of material goods to donate online. You can also volunteer your time. tulsadaycenter.org YWCA & YMCA There’s a bit more than a letter’s difference between these two organizations. Tulsa’s YMCA focuses on promoting youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility, while the YWCA seeks to eliminate racism and empower women in Northeastern Oklahoma. Whichever one you choose to support, your money’s going towards good work. ymcatulsa.org, ywcatulsa.org TULSA AREA UNITED WAY United Way aims to promote the common good by financially supporting agencies with ties to the “three building blocks of a better quality of life”— education, health/safety, and financial stability. United Way is a national organization, but Tulsa’s ranks among the top in America in donations. tauw.org TULSA PUBLIC LIBRARY: TUTORS OF LITERACY About 11 percent of Tulsa’s adult population struggles with illiteracy. You can help by volunteering as a literacy tutor with the Tulsa City-County Library. Tutors must have a high-school diploma or GED certificate, donate at least an hour of their time each week, and pass a criminal history background test. Volunteers must commit to tutoring for at least a year. tulsalibrary.org DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INTERVENTION SERVICES Tulsabased DVIS helps victims of domestic violence and sexual assault escape abusive homes and family members and/or partners. DVIS provides counseling, education, and shelter to its clients. You can donate money and other items listed on their website’s wish list. The agency also has a wide range of volunteering opportunities, from jail outreach programs to child care to assisting in the office. dvis.org ANGEL TREE Youth cycling programs in Tulsa are growing, and this year you can help Tulsa’s children continue to chase this passion while also supporting local bike shops.

To give more kids the chance to learn to ride and compete in local races, donate online or at any one of the participating bike shops in Tulsa: Bicycles of Tulsa, City Cycles, Phat Tire Bike Shop, Spoke House Bicycles, Tom’s Bicycles, and T-Town Bicycles. Money raised will be divided between the retailers to provide cycling equipment for Bike Club and Oklahoma Flyers. oklahomaflyers.com/tree a December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA TRIANGLE Mental health, homelessness, and the opioid crisis form a dangerous trio

BY DA MIO N S H A D E PHOTO S B Y JO S E P H R U S H M O R E

TULSA HAS A CORRIDOR OF PROBLEMS FEW PEOPLE talk about, a narrow triangle ringed with poverty, mental health issues, and substance abuse. It’s an actual physical space. The intersection at Archer Street and Denver Avenue downtown marks one edge. Every day around dusk, scores of homeless men, women, and children walk from the Tulsa Day Center, a shelter just off Archer, and head north. They pass the Family & Children’s Services Center and The Salvation Army on the corner. There’s a bus stop shaded by short red pines under which people sleep. On the west side of the street they pass the David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center, and on the east they pass a collection of gaudy bail bondsmen signs and an industrial dairy plant.

The neighborhood seems bleak at times, but every day some of these people get help from local nonprofits, religious groups, and public organizations working downtown. Sadly, and for many reasons, some don’t find help at all. You see them in heavy coats year-round, hoarding backpacks under I-244, or panhandling outside bars in the Brady District. They are tangible evidence that the social safety net has cracks, that this town has a revolving-door cycle of poverty and homelessness.

Over the past few years, these issues have been compounded by the introduction of an inexpensive painkiller known as Fentanyl into Oklahoma’s drug economy.

The opioid crisis, which has devastated so many communities nationally, has taken Tulsa’s complex social problems and magnified them.

THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

FEATURED // 25

TPD Officer Anthony First

Narcan, an opiate-specific anti-overdose agent

26 // FEATURED

Anthony First, a decorated 15-year veteran of the Tulsa Police Department, presently serves as the main law enforcement instructor for the department of mental health and substance abuse services in the state. He trains police officers across Oklahoma in the use of Narcan, an opiate-specific anti-overdose agent credited with saving thousands of lives. Officer First has watched the opioid crisis evolve here.

“EMSA has been hammered with overdose calls,” said First. “It’s been that way for some time. Unfortunately, we now have a general acceptance that this is the new normal. It’s only been in the last two years that Fentanyl became so prominent. In times past, if you found white powder it was usually cocaine. It’s not that way anymore. Now it’s usually Fentanyl.”

According to the CDC, Oklahoma was in the top five states in the nation in 2016 for pill overprescription. Early data suggests the current digital pill tracking system may be starting to solve this problem, but doctor overprescription only represents a fraction of the Fentanyl and opioid crisis here. Trucks loaded with pills cross into the state from Texas and Missouri every day, and law enforcement believes the source of these opioids is overseas.

“It’s shipped on the same routes that every other drug comes in,” said First. “The same routes methamphetamine and marijuana and ecstasy take. It’s the same business network. It’s not necessarily being diverted from legitimate prescription companies. It’s that China can make it, and they can smuggle it into the U.S. With any country, if there’s enough money involved, mechanisms can be created. As long as there is a customer base and there’s money, they will find a way. If you think about the distribution system for any drug, whether it’s cocaine or methamphetamine, it’s more organized than Walmart. The smaller agencies I teach at are right on major highways. On I-40 or I-35, many of their car stops result in hundreds or thousands of pills of Fentanyl. It’s just out there—everywhere. It’s not hard to get.”

The prevalence of these pills has altered the appearance of addiction all over Oklahoma. Rural counties have seen upticks in crime and violence. The image of melancholy teenagers experimenting no longer holds. Police statistics suggest that the most common demographic of heroin addicts in Tulsa County today is white moms from the suburbs, ages 24 to 35. These same women often graduate to Fentanyl.

“Pretty much everywhere, it always starts out with pills and, usually, no intent to become addicted,” said First. “People get in an accident, they have back injuries—that kind of thing. At first they have a prescription, but now pills are getting harder to find. We have a database system in Oklahoma that requires doctors to track how many scheduled medications are given to an individual patient. When patients find themselves unable to get pills, they go over to things like heroin. Heroin typically, though, is not that powerful. It’s very addictive, but on average it’s 15 to 35 percent pure. Then enters Fentanyl, which has become more prevalent than cocaine and which is 100 percent pure. If you can get ahold of Fentanyl, why bother with heroin?”

Fentanyl and heroin have changed the jobs of Oklahoma’s emergency responders. EMSA paramedics used Narcan to revive patients from overdose a total of 970 times in 2016. This is the largest number of uses in the state's history. Police started carrying Narcan recently, in response to chaotic situations out in the field.

“Our officers are being flagged down,” said First.

“We had an officer on a traffic stop and a car pulled up behind him. The driver jumped out and said, ‘Hey, we just bought heroin, and my friend’s not breathing!’ So the officer got him Narcan and brought him back.

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

“Several times, potential suspects have tried to eat their drugs before they saw us. They would see us walking or driving up and eat everything they had on them.

They’d pass out right there in front of us. In fact our very first use of Narcan was that. It was in the area of South 61st Street and Peoria Avenue, and the officers were about to check somebody who was suspicious. He swallowed a bunch of pills as they were walking up and passed out as the officers were talking to him. We’re very happy people are feeling more free to flag us down.

Had that driver I mentioned not felt like they could stop and talk to us and not worry necessarily about arrest, the passenger probably would've died.”

The scale of the national opioid crisis has only recently started to become clear—and Oklahoma’s public policy isn’t prepared for these new realities. Critical services are strained statewide, and the 215 million dollar budget shortfall next year only increases the strain.

Fewer dollars means fewer services for people in need.

Fewer drug rehab clinics, fewer addiction treatment specialists, social workers, and state grant dollars to support an already beleaguered mental health and addiction system.

Michael Brose, CEO of the Mental Health Association Oklahoma (MHAOK), put this problem in its broader context.

“If that 215 million dollar hole is filled, that just takes us back to breaking even, underfunded,” he said, then went on to explain how funding for mental health care in Oklahoma has not kept pace with inflation.

“If the hole’s not filled, the Department of Mental Health has to pass the cuts along … And what happens if those people can’t get services? It’s going to put an added burden on the emergency rooms, first responders, police, fire, ambulance; you put everybody at risk.

And then you fall back to reinforcing and expanding the largest mental health institutions in the state of Oklahoma—our jails and our prisons.”

This has local police genuinely concerned. Tulsa’s resources are insufficient now. There is only one publicly-funded mental health and addiction facility in the whole city, Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health (TCBH).

But the entire facility only has 56 beds. There’s also only one publicly-funded drug rehabilitation center in Tulsa.

It’s called 12 & 12, Inc., and the waiting list to get in averages between 4 and 6 weeks. Private facilities like Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital and Shadow Mountain Behavioral Health System can cost between $15,000 and $30,000 a year. For the homeless or working-class families struggling with opioid addiction, those prices and wait times are infeasible. Police fear that successful programs, like Community Outreach Psychiatric Services (COPES) and 12 & 12, Inc. could be on the chopping block for budget cuts next year.

COPES is a mobile psychiatric crisis service in Tulsa that also manages the suicide prevention hotline.

They average between 1,200 and 1,300 calls a week and often follow up with a suicidal or in-crisis client for weeks. This is the type of relationship-oriented community work that produces results. COPES Clinical Supervisor Laura James describes their work as a mixture of counseling, mental health consulting, and connecting patients to services.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time on police calls, we’re able to keep them from going to jail,” said James. “So we help divert from jail, and our goal is to always stabilize them in the least restrictive means. So, keeping them out of the hospital. We’re able to do that about seventy percent of the time. We also work really closely with the police department. Not just the Tulsa Police Department, but all of the Tulsa county police departments. So, Skiatook, Owasso, Glenpool, Sand Springs—all those little areas.”

THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

Police feel ill-equipped for these tasks. The opioid crisis and the lack of addiction resources in Tulsa intensifies this. Rachel Diacon, another clinical supervisor at COPES, put it more bluntly.

“We need more rehab treatment locations,” she said.

“A person on a waitlist in Tulsa for treatment often has no choice but to keep using heroin or pills, and there’s usually such a brief window of time when people are ready to quit. When people want to detox and to get help, we want places for them to go. We want to stabilize people, and we want people to be able to stay home and be safe, but we don’t always have the resources to do that.

“You can’t quit cold turkey. It can be lethal ... Heroin and opioids are among the most dangerous to detox off of. With meth you’ll get sick, but you can detox off of it and be ok. With heroin and opioids, you might not be ok.”

No problem exists in a vacuum. The opioid crisis and homelessness in Tulsa are connected. Rev. Steve Whitaker, director of the John 3:16 Mission, says that the homeless population in Tulsa is growing and that opiates are to blame.

“We’ve been over our limit for a while, but the numbers are up substantially,” he said. “Those numbers have been creeping up the last 24 to 36 months. Opiates are now the new normal. It’s insidious. I think it would be unfair at this point to single out the homeless. Although that’s the context we’re talking about today. It should be said that you could be talking about a high-end attorney that’s spending $100,000 a year on opiates, or you could be talking about a doctor that’s fallen into addiction.

“We’re seeing high-performing, white-collar people find themselves homeless on the streets in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because opiates have taken them. We can and we must do better with them and for them.”

John 3:16’s facility is about 10 percent over capacity right now. This normally doesn’t happen until the hardest part of winter, but now there are so many people at the site that some are sleeping on benches in the lobby.

The Tulsa triangle is growing, and law enforcement is looking elsewhere for solutions.

“We can’t incarcerate our way out of this problem,” First said. “My officers out there agree with that. It doesn’t do us any good to lock someone up for a problem like that when their lives are endangered. It certainly doesn’t help the patient.”

Though the crisis is staggering, people who have dedicated themselves to the mission of battling addiction and serving vulnerable populations in Tulsa haven’t given up.

“I’m hopeful about it,” said James. “I know that there’s a lot of different ideas people get about those who have mental illness and people who are struggling, but we get to see those people on their worst days, and it’s really amazing how resilient people are.

Whatever they’ve been faced with through the years in their childhood or in their young adulthood, it is amazing to me. That’s one thing that this job has taught me: People have hope and resiliency if they can get a hand up and get that support from the community that they need.” a

Outside the Tulsa Day Center

FEATURED // 27

artspot

Ta-da!

Rachel Hayes’s work is huge, colorful, tough, delicate, and feminist

by ALICIA CHESSER

W

hen you stand in the alley north of the Archer Building and face south, you see a nondescript row of identical garage doors lining the concrete walkway outside the Tulsa Artist Fellowship Refinery.

When you stand at artist Rachel Hayes’s garage door to be let in, a mechanical hum cranks it up one foot, then two, then three.

What you then see is an eyeful of heaven—a multi-story, multi-colored blanket, a playground parachute, a gigantic magician’s handkerchief, a wall of shifting light. It looks like the makings of your childhood tent of dreams, and is big enough to knock you back a step.

“It’s tent material, exactly, like a tarp! And this one, the wholesaler told me it’s princess dress material,” Hayes said, pointing with a smile to each strip of fabric that makes up one of several gigantic panels in a new work in progress.

She’s a woman of 40, a mother of two young children, in frayed-hem jeans and a black button-down shirt festooned with white swans.

She’s pieced these four-inch strips together one by one, in a pattern that’s a riff on an old log cabin quilt design.

“Light, dark, light, dark, opaque, translucent,” she said, running a finger across the panel.

It’s almost like a chant. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell what I’m doing because the piece is getting so big. It’s like a game. I don’t plan it beforehand.”

Hayes was organizing her studio the day I visited, cleaning up after a whirlwind trip to Italy, where her work floated above a fashion show runway celebrating Angela Missoni’s 20 years at her company’s helm. Missoni found Hayes on Instagram, by way of a photo Hayes posted of one of her

28 // ARTS & CULTURE

Above: “Angela’s Sky,” 1 of 7 panels, various fabrics; Right: Rachel Hayes | COURTESY

pieces in the empty field out by Cain’s Ballroom.

After the show, Missoni invited her to collaborate on an ad campaign that featured some of her work in White Sands National Park. (She’s having to learn about licensing her art for commercial use, a process she described as “sticky.”) Facebook headquarters recently acquired one of her pieces. She’s got installations going up in February 2018 at 108 Contemporary and in Philbrook Museum of Art’s rotunda, in March at the University of Maryland, and later in the year on the Carl Sterner

Arts Trail in Pennsylvania. It’s her first year as a Tulsa Artist Fellow, though she’s lived in Tulsa since 2016, when her husband, painter Eric Sall, joined the inaugural class of the fellowship program.

“I feel like I’m tapping into something, finally,” Hayes laughed.

Like much of the textile art traditionally considered to be women’s work, from which she draws

inspiration in both form and process, Hayes’s work holds complexity with ease. It’s visually powerful, striking in scale, and tough enough to hang in the elements. It’s also comforting and delicate and personal—hand-cut, wobbly-stitched, laboriously pieced, using materials from tulle to theater-lighting gels.

Her spectacular Missoni panels live, nestled in soft bundles, in an IKEA tote.

“I loved working big in the beginning because I just wanted to take up space,” she said. “You have this intimate experience with the tiny stitches, but you also have a big ta-da when it’s all unfurled.”

Hayes grew up in Kansas City in a family of musicians and artisans. She studied sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute, but something about it irked her.

“There were 20 people in this stone carving class and only two girls. I was detecting something I didn’t really want to be challenged with,” she said. “I was attracted to sewing because it was a way for me to build something big and I could fold it up, kind of like a quilt, and then have the surprise of this huge physical object.

“There’s been a lot of feminist manifesto secretly going on while I’m sewing,” she continued. “Sewing comes with its own meaning.

These stitches really did come through the lineage of women’s work. I keep reusing pieces so they don’t just have one life. I love to voice those things more now.”

Quilts, tents, prayer flags. Color, movement, light. Hayes holds many layers all at once. The meaning’s in the pieces, one by one.

“When I was making my first piece out of light gels in 2015,” she recalled, “I wanted to give the work more meaning. To say something. Eventually I just decided I was going to try to make something beautiful. Like a gift.” a December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

onstage TULSA BALLET’S

SO SERIAL

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F e a t u r i n g T h e Tu l s a S y m p h o n y O r c h e s t r a

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PLUS! Ask about our

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Your family will get to meet the dancers on stage and take home an autographed nutcracker.

Heller Theatre Company has a new way for you to spend Sunday night

THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

the Swarthy Gentlemen,” written by Quinn Blakely. All three plays were well-acted— the depiction of Montago in “Jack Dickey” was among a few shining examples.

We were given a short intermission to refill our wine glasses or grab some cereal (get it?) while the actors got ready for the last two plays.

“Take 5” by Geoffrey Yeager had a more serious tone, and it probably suffered due to this fact. It’s difficult to make an audience care deeply about a character in such a short time—and this story was overly complicated. The final play, “Whatever’s Whatever” by Justin Tomlinson, had similar problems.

Alas, the first three were chosen to carry on.

This renegade take on theatre proved to be a fun and interesting way to spend a Sunday night. Who knows, perhaps the Serials will provide us with our next Tracy Letts, or, even better, a breed of playwright we’ve never seen.

Plays must be submitted to secsunsersub @gmail.com by the first of the month.

There is no submission fee, and playwrights may submit up to two scripts each month, though only one by each writer can be performed per month.

Monthly performances will be held on the second Sundays of Dec., Jan., Feb., March and May at Agora Event Center, 1402 S. Peoria Ave., #200, at 7 p.m.

Plays may contain mature content and adult language. Ticket admission is $5 at the door. For more information, visit www.hellertheatreco.com. a

TULS

THE AGORA EVENT CENTER FELT BUZZY on November 12th as actors and writers anxiously studied scripts for the evening's installment of Heller Theatre Company’s Second Sunday Serials. Hostess George Romero, who dreamt of this format for years, was excited to see it come to fruition.

For the Serials, playwrights submit a short play or plays (around 10 pages, or ten minutes) each month. The best five are chosen and performed in front of an audience on the second Sunday of that month.

The audience votes for their favorite, and in the following month, the top three continue their story and two new plays begin.

The plays are meant to be both connected and self-contained, so audience members can follow the storyline without having seen the previous installment. Updates are provided for continuing plays.

Romero and company keep things simple and pretty DIY, offering a low-key gateway for new writers to break into theatre.

“Anybody can tackle a ten-page play,” said Romero, “but taking on a full play can be overwhelming.”

The first play that evening, "Prairie Tales," had a “Twilight Zone” feel to its story and characters. Set in a gas station in the desert, the plot was intriguing and made me want to know what would happen next—which, I suppose, is the point. The second play, “The Heist,” written by Josh Gammon, was a humorous crime caper told from the viewpoint of bumbling, bickering criminals. This was followed by a detective noir spoof called “Jack Dickey and

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by KRIS ROSE

Dec. 6

Tulsa Festival Ringers PAC Trust Brown Bag It Series- FREE! (in Williams Theatre) Dec. 8-23

A Christmas Carol American Theatre Company Dec. 9-23

The Nutcracker Tulsa Ballet Dec. 21-22

Christmas Cabaret Sheridan Road Jan. 12-21

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ARTS & CULTURE // 29

entrepreneur

Y

ou might’ve seen Seth Lee Jones playing at The Colony with Paul Benjaman, Jared Tyler, or Jacob Tovar. But Jones doesn’t just play—he also restores and repairs guitars, and it would seem he’s the perfect person to do so, having spent most of his life around the instrument.

I visited Jones in his workspace, where the magic and lore of his SLJ Guitars happens. I also met John Hnath, who was there working on a guitar. He took one of Jones’s guitar building classes a few years ago.

“I never left,” Hnath said.

Throughout my stay, the sounds of their work—sanding, polishing, chatting—filled the space.

Jones works from home, with a dedicated shop for guitar work out back. It’s clear he’s honored to live and work where his mentor Dixie Michell did until she passed away in 2015. Michell was a luthier who “wanted to improve sound as well as longevity,” he said, explaining her legacy of revolutionary advancements in guitar design. The house is filled with her old soda bottles and vintage décor. Guitars cover the walls of the front room. Jones showed me one of Michell’s guitars, marked in pearl with “The Dixie.”

Jones is partial to shaping the necks.

“It’s personal. When someone says a guitar ‘feels good,’ they’re not talking about the body,” he said. “They’re talking about the neck.”

To do this work by hand rather than by CNC (computer numerical control), a luthier must know how to carve; it must be an art.

“I became infatuated with woodwork,” he said. “Like people do with comic books.”

He prefers to use local materials, but it’s not always possible— his projects demand wood from all over. He loves black walnut and choke cherry, which comes from a small tree and must be found locally. People bring him the keys and wood from old pianos, as well as rosewood (now rare due to overuse) table runners—he’s

30 // ARTS & CULTURE

A FISH STORY Seth Lee Jones is your local luthier

by CASSIDY MCCANTS

Luthier Seth Lee Jones at work | GREG BOLLINGER

even had koa wood shipped from Hawaii.

Jones’s first job was in furniture and building remodeling. At age 15, he moved to California to attend L.A. Valley College and Musicians Institute, going on to work with many master luthiers there, including John Carruthers, Fren Asken, and Mike Peters. He also attributes several of his tricks to furniture makers like Steve Walter, former director of Tulsa Wood Arts.

“When it comes to guitar building, many have this traditionalist idea—but the guitar as we know it isn’t even 200 years

old,” Jones said. “I think a lot of people get in trouble by being too traditionalist. You can use other technology and facets of the same medium. Furniture makers are woodworkers. We’re doing the same stuff.”

Sixteen years after that first job, Jones still loves his work and intends to keep it that way.

“I don’t want to squeeze the life out of it,” he said. “I want to play a few times a week and enjoy the work. I didn’t play when I worked on 80–90 guitars a week. I didn’t want to see strings after.”

He credits musicians Jacob Tovar and Jared Tyler with his success

as both a luthier and a musician in Tulsa: “They kept sending me work. Eventually Paul Benjaman heard about me. I was playing his guitar I fixed when he came to get it; he said ‘Man, what are you doing on Sunday?’” Now he regularly joins Benjaman for The Colony’s Sunday Nite Thing and has his own weekly gig there on Mondays.

Jones says the true trick to his craft is in putting a story behind the work.

“Stradivari is one of the most famous luthiers,” he said, “but not because he was the best. It’s the lore. A fish story. You can make beautiful instruments all day, but who wants to buy one without a story?” (Stradivari made more than 1,100 instruments, including the Viotti violin, first played in Paris in 1782 by Giovanni Battista Viotti.

650 of his instruments survive today, selling for up to $3.5 million.)

Jones and his guitars are expert storytellers. When I asked about his favorite neck style, he responded, “I’m partial to the Telecaster style. I’ve been playing one since I was a kid. I’ve always had a blondish one with a maple neck.”

He showed me his “old glove”—the one he can’t seem to part with—explaining how he once tried playing a sparkly new guitar, but it was “too shiny.” His old one is stained blue on the bottom from his jeans. He showed me where Tom Skinner and Jimmy Markham signed it, recalling one of his last interactions with Skinner: “Tom said, ‘Come and sit in on a Science Project before I die,’ so I went out on a Wednesday. I had to.” Skinner died shortly after.

When the shop suddenly grew quiet, I realized Hnath had finished the neck he’d been working on.

“It’s a whole different world in here,” I said, noticing a line of necks hanging on the wall.

“It’s a different world, all right,” he said, holding up his finished product.

“Time to sand those strings,” said Jones.

There were plenty more stories to tell; it wouldn’t be quiet much longer. a December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

poem

The GAST House Event Center

BY DEBRA MCCALL The first of December–instead of snow caramel-colored leaves blow like murmurations of starlings trilling above driveways, sidewalks, bits of mortar fly from brick houses.

In Oklahoma nothing remains hidden for long– everything is at the mercy of the wind.

Mountain poor, this land where Northwest

The GAST House Event Center, built in 1929, has been one of Tulsa’s most distinct venues since 1992. This gorgeous mini cathedral features vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors, and stained-glass windows throughout. We have no required vendor list to give you the freedom to customize your event.

and Gulf Streams collide, where summer days can turn dark in a moment, here the highest wind speed on earth was recorded–318 miles per hour in 1999, long after the Joads loaded their wagon traveling past rattling windows through dust to gold.

My fifteen-year-old dog and I teeter towards home with no desire but deliverance from this bone-clattering dance.

Tomorrow I’ll pick through my yard, find bits of my neighbor’s life– receipts for motor oil, McDonald’s, report cards, tattered love poems, labels from their private poisons, Allegra, Wellbutrin, Lipitor, persistent, impossible to outrun, natural and fierce as the God

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918.744.6997 • THEGASTHOUSE.COM GASTHOUSEOFFICE@GMAIL.COM THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

ARTS & CULTURE // 31

sportsreport

O

n Friday, Dec. 8, Xtreme Fight Night 345 will fill the new 2,700-seat Paradise Cove at the River Spirit Casino on Riverside Parkway near South 81st Street in Tulsa, featuring 12 exciting mixed martial arts (MMA) and kickboxing bouts.

“I think we deliver more than just a fight night; it’s an experience,” said XFN promoter Dale “Apollo” Cook, himself a former fighter (boxing, kickboxing, MMA). “We also bring in some pretty big names sometimes.

We’ve had fights going on in Tulsa since 1977, years before UFC, and it’s a very educated public.”

Through the late ‘70s and ‘80s, Cook, now 61, was in his prime as a fighter. He won multiple kickboxing world championships—and even starred in several low-budget martial arts action movies in the ‘90s. He started promoting with his first professional fight in 1977; back then, this was the only way he could get in the ring or cage without leaving Oklahoma. If he wanted to fight, he had to make it happen. He has arranged a total of 345 Fight Nights (hence the event name) over the decades.

It’s not quite the UFC, but the Xtreme Fight Nights spotlights talented, determined, and entertaining fighters. Once held in the 1,500-seat former Event Center at River Spirit, this event has become so popular it requires the bigger, new venue now—and it still gets packed.

“It is an incredibly beautiful venue, and it’s state of the art,” Cook said. “On Fight Night, it becomes a pretty loud, packed place. It has VIP suites, VIP tables cage-side. It’s very plush. Giant big screens in the venue. It’s the perfect place. They’re great partners.

I’m lucky to be there.”

The Dec. 8 event features several intriguing matchups.

“It’s a mixed card like always, kickboxing and MMA, and the kickboxing main event is for the [Xtreme Fighting League’s] featherweight world championship, 32 // ARTS & CULTURE

Daryl Wilson | JOEL KLAMM PHOTOGRAPHY

GETTING CAGEY Area MMA fighters on display at Xtreme Fight Night 345

by JOHN TRANCHINA featuring reigning champion Alfred ‘Freight Train’ Walker against the former champion Jarrett ‘The Legacy’ Rouse,” Cook said. “Haze Wilson is also on the card, taking on the King of the Cage heavyweight champion Rob Morrow, and in the MMA main event, Tevin Laskey takes on top contender Jacob Thrall. Both guys are 5-0.”

There will also be a special guest appearance from a local UFC fighter, Monica Stewart.

“She is one of the stars of this

season’s ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ on Fox Sports 1. It airs every Wednesday night, and she’s coming in to meet fans and sign autographs,” Cook said.

Stewart is just the latest female fighter to gain such acclaim, as women’s fighting has risen in popularity in recent years, perhaps sparked by the rise (and subsequent fall) of the UFC’s Ronda Rousey. Locally, Jaymee “Ambush” Jones, who is from Tahlequah, has developed a large following

at XFN events over the past few years, gaining a reputation as a fierce, technically strong battler.

While Jones isn’t fighting this time, Cook always includes a bout featuring women. On the XFN 345 card, Cara Greenwell faces Rosie Alaya in an MMA fight.

“I think women fight with a level of emotion that, most of the time, is pretty intense,” Cook said.

“I think they’re great. They have a lot more dexterity, an ability to be more versatile and not just be a wrestler or a striker. They fight with a lot of emotion. I’ve always believed in the women’s fights and love the local gal, Jaymee ‘Ambush’ Jones. She’s been a pretty big star for us, but there’s a bunch of new ones, like Greenwell, coming up, and I like to give them a platform.”

In addition to Greenwell, who is from Owasso, many of the XFN fighters are local, with Wilson and Laskey hailing from Tulsa and Walker from Muskogee. Cook also owns, operates, and trains fighters at his Apollo’s Mixed Martial Arts studios (located in Tulsa, Bixby, and Owasso)—and believes that the local talent is better than ever.

“It’s really starting to develop,” he said. “Montana, the girl coming in to be our guest, is a big star now and just got a UFC contract—and two fights ago at River Spirit, she won our championship. That’s how she got started.

So we are proving grounds and a jumping board for guys to move on, and that’s because of the long history we have. A lot of former wrestlers make great MMA fighters, and we have such a strong wrestling base here that there’s a lot of high-level talent. Those are the guys I’m trying to be loyal to as much as I can.” a

Tickets to Xtreme Fight Night 345, Dec. 8 at 8 p.m., are available at River Spirit Casino or online at riverspirittulsa. com/entertainment/paradise-cove.

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

20-20-20

OPEN HOUSE EVENT BENEFITS JOHN 3:16 MISSION Travers Mahan Fine Apparel is hosting an Open House event on December 7th to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the store at The Plaza shopping center. Patrons who bring 20 non-perishable food items to the event—to be donated to John 3:16 Mission—will receive 20% off any purchase.

Open House hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will include wine and appetizers from local businesses. Pictured are store owners Travers and Laurie Mahan with Dusty, “the shop dog”. The store is located at 8146 South Lewis.

ARE YOU CURRENTLY PAIN-FREE BUT WANT TO LEARN HOW TO REGULATE PAIN? A TU IRB-approved research study is being conducted at The University of Tulsa that uses biofeedback to teach participants to regulate responses to pain. Participants must be healthy, currently pain-free, and able to attend 3 laboratory training sessions (3.5-4.5 hours/ day). Behavioral and physiological reactions to painful stimuli will be assessed each day to test the efficacy of the training.

Up to $300 compensation will be provided for completing the study.

CONTACT: Psychophysiology Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience (PI: Jamie Rhudy, PhD)

918-631-2175 or 918-631-3565

The beloved of the LORD shall dwell in SAFETY BY HIM; and the LORD shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST 924 S. Boulder Church & Sunday School • 10:30am Wednesday Meeting • 6:00pm

BEST SELECTION TOP BRANDS LOWEST PRICE

TulsaBodyJewelry.com 1746 S Harvard Ave 918-398-9508

Merry Woofmas!

Come see us for the perfect “Howliday” gifts and tasty treats…

A treat for a friend or neighbor’s dog is a welcome gift, too!

Extended Holiday Hours: Open Sundays, 12-5pm ‘til Christmas 1778 Utica Square • 918-624-2600 • dogdish.com THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

ARTS & CULTURE // 33

thehaps

MAGIC CITY BOOKS GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION Wednesday, Dec. 6 through Sunday, Dec. 10 tulsalitco.org

Magic City Books is now open and will celebrate its opening with five days of literary events.

12/6 Why Bob Dylan Matters – A conversation with Harvard Classics Professor Richard F. Thomas and Sean Latham, CoDirector of The University of Tulsa Institute for Bob Dylan Studies. // TU’s Terrell Hall 12/7 Smitten Kitchen Live – An evening of books, food, and conversation with Deb Perelman. // Congregation B’nai Emunah 12/8 Poetry Night with MUSED. – An evening of poetry and drinks with MUSED. Organization in MCB’s Algonquin Room. // Magic City Books 12/9 The Donner Party with Michael Wallis – The Tulsa writer and historian discusses his book, “The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny,” which cuts through 160 years of myth-making to tell the ultimate cautionary tale of America’s westward expansion. // Magic City Books 12/10 Book Bash with Emma Roberts – The actress and book lover brings her Belletrist Book Club (and a surprise guest author) to Tulsa. // $50, IDL Ballroom

PUBLIC FORUM

Oklahoma Watch-Out: The Marijuana Question // A public forum on medical marijuana with Oklahoma State Medical Association president Dr. Kevin Taubman and Oklahomans for Health co-founder Chip Paul. Dec. 7, 6 p.m., Central Center, oklahomawatch.org

FESTIVAL

The Lantern Light Festival features larger-than-life handcrafted lanterns in the form of architecture around the world, animals, and mythical characters.

Thursdays–Sundays through Jan. 14, $12–$49, River West Festival Park, lanternlightfestival.com

NEW IDEAS

After a study of the neighborhoods north of downtown, The University of Notre Dame Graduate Urban Design Studio will present their work in the Unity Heritage Neighborhoods Design Workshop with the hope to provide inspiration for the future of the area. Dec. 8, Greenwood Cultural Center, facebook.com/tulsadesignworkshop SYMPHONY

Signature Symphony presents its annual holiday concert, Christmas in Tulsa, conducted by Dr. Barry Epperly. Dec. 8-9, 7:30 p.m., $32–$47, VanTrease PACE, signaturesymphony.org

PARADE

The theme for this year’s Tulsa Christmas Parade is “A Storybook Christmas.” As a throwback to the city’s earliest Christmas parades, this year’s will be the first held during the day in over 30 years. Dec. 9, 2 p.m., downtown, tulsachristmasparade.org 34 // ARTS & CULTURE

BALLET

100 children join Tulsa Ballet to perform Tchaikovsky’s eternal dream-world, The Nutcracker. Dec. 9–23, $25– $105, Chapman Music Hall, Tulsa PAC, tulsaballet.org

PARTY

Enjoy seasonal drinks and desserts and music by Tulsa Honors Orchestra at Christmas at The Mayo, which will also have a raffle benefitting the Child Abuse Network. Dec. 10, 3–5 p.m., The Mayo Hotel, themayohotel.com

ART

Philbrook Museum of Art will unveil a Major Art Acquisition by one of the most important American artists working today. Watch the presentation in a livestream on Facebook. Dec. 13, 8:30 a.m., facebook.com/PhilbrookMuseum

MUSIC

A group of Tulsa musicians will perform Daft Punk’s Discovery in its entirety. For more information, see pg 38. Dec. 15–16, 10 p.m., $15, Fassler Hall, fasslerhall.com

MUSIC

Tulsa musicians present a Bowie Tribute & Toy Drive, performing music by David Bowie and benefitting Lindsey House and The Salvation Army.

Dec. 16, 9 p.m.–1 a.m., Yeti, yetitulsa.com

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

TULSA SYMPHONY

2017-2018 S E A S O N T W E LV E

BEST OF THE REST EVENTS The Tulsa Farm Show // Oklahoma’s premier agricultural and ranching event // 12/7, River Spirit Expo, Expo Square, tulsafarmshow.com Broken Arrow Wine Walk // Sample local wines while walking through Broken Arrow’s Rose District and several holiday scenes. // 12/7, Rose District, rosedistrict.com/ events/broken-arrow-wine-walk Junior League of Tulsa Holiday Market // A three-day, one-stop holiday shopping extravaganza featuring over 100 vendors. // 12/8, Union Multiperpose Activity Center, jltulsa. org/fundraisers/holiday-market/ TFA 2nd Saturday: Deco in December // This installment of Tulsa Foundation for Architecture’s monthly tour will focus on Tulsa’s Art Deco history. // 12/9, The Mayo Hotel, tulsaarchitecture.org Star Wars Trivia // Know the difference between a TIE interceptor and a TIE defender? Republic clone troopers and Imperial stormtroopers? Tatooine and Dantooine? Put your strength in The Force to the test with Questionable Company trivia. // 12/10, Fuel 66, facebook. com/Questionable1company Tulsa Toy Run // Thousands of bikers fill the streets to donate toys to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots campaign. Organized by American Bikers Aimed Toward Education of Tulsa. // 12/10, abateoftulsa.com A Very Vampire Christmas, featuring Bill Paxton // Sample Heirloom Rustic Ales nine craft beers while watching a screening of Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 horror “Near Dark,” which is set in our fine state. // 12/13, Heirloom Rustic Ales, heirloomrusticales.com Ok, So … Story Slam // True stories based on a given theme told in front of an audience. This month’s theme: Courage. // 12/14, IDL Ballroom, facebook.com/oksotulsa Eat, Drink, and Be Ugly // YBR hosts an Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest with cash prizes. // 12/14, Yellow Brick Road Pub, facebook. com/YBRTulsa The Tulsa Festival Ringers // 12/18, Broken Arrow Community Playhouse, bacptheatre.com

PERFORMING ARTS Sesame Street Live // Grover, Big Bird, et al return to Tulsa. // 12/6, Expo Square Pavilion, sesamestreetlive.com

A Christmas Carol // Ebenezer Scrooge et al return for American Theatre Company’s 40-year tradition. // 12/8, John H. Williams Theatre - Tulsa PAC, tulsapac.com Christmas with the Annie Moses Band // The acclaimed classical crossover family band performs stunning arrangements of holiday classics. // 12/10, Broken Arrow PAC, brokenarrowpac.com Improve Thru Improv // Stacey Mason merges art and science, demonstrating how principles and techniques used in improvisational theater can be applied outside the theater to better understand human behavior. // 12/12, Charles E. Norman Theatre, Tulsa PAC, tulsapac.com

COMEDY

Classics Series

AN EVENING WITH ERIC WHITACRE

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2018 | 7:30 PM

T U LSA P E RFORMING ART S CEN TER Whitacre: Water Night Five Hebrew Love Songs Equus Songs of Immortality Godzilla Eats Las Vegas Deep Field Eric Whitacre, Grammy-winning Composer and Guest Conductor with Tulsa Oratorio Chorus

Tulsa Symphony welcomes GRAMMY® Award winner Eric Whitacre as a guest conductor and composer. His groundbreaking Virtual Choirs have united musicians across the globe in new and powerful ways. He will lead the Tulsa Symphony and the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus through a thrilling and diverse collection of his works which include Water Night, Equus, Deep Field, and Godzilla Eats Las Vegas. *Pre-Concert Conversation | 6:30 PM *Pre-Concert Student Recognition Concert | 6:45 PM

*Post-Concert Reception – All Welcome *Childcare Available

Brandon Vestal, Dougie Almeida // 12/6, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com Nick Birkitt: Existential Anxiety w/ Nicholas Osborn, Joan Cmiel-Wright, Jon W. Tyler, Billy Bazar, James R. Hefner // 12/10, Blackbird on Pearl, facebook.com/BazarEntertainment

For Tickets, Call 918.596.7111 or www.tulsasymphony.org

Trenton Davis // 12/13, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com 6-Pack of Punchlines w/ Antonio Aguilar, Dave Short, Chris Cagle, Ryan Green, Darcy Elmore, Tiffany Watt // 12/17, Blackbird on Pearl, facebook. com/BazarEntertainment

SPORTS TU Women’s Basketball vs Arkansas - Pine Bluff // 12/5, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com ORU Men’s Basketball vs Southern Nazarene // 12/8, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com Xtreme Fight Night 345 // 12/8, River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove, riverspirittulsa.com ORU Men’s Basketball vs Missouri State // 12/10, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com TU Men’s Basketball vs Prairie View A&M // 12/14, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com Tulsa Oilers vs. Colorado Eagles // 12/15, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com Tulsa Oilers vs. Allen Americans // 12/16, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com TU Men’s Basketball vs Manhattan // 12/16, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com

Cool DJs. Tough cowboys. Hot girls.

Big Tobacco will try anything to get kids to start smoking.

Why? Because more than half of current smokers will die from smoking, and Big Tobacco needs our kids as “replacement smokers” to keep profits high.

Big Tobacco’s influence may be strong, but yours is stronger. Talk to your kids about tobacco, and join the fight at StopsWithMe.com.

The Regifters // A couple find out the value of a gift they received when it’s too late: after they’ve regifted it. // 12/8, Broken Arrow Community Playhouse, bacptheatre.com THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

ARTS & CULTURE // 35

musicnotes

Of the music firmament JD McPherson brings new material home to Tulsa

by BECKY CARMAN

W

hile writing his new album, JD McPherson didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, he said, but he “exposed maybe one or two chambers.”

A lifelong Oklahoman who relocated with his family to Nashville last year, McPherson recorded the deeply personal Undivided Heart & Soul with his band at the historic RCA Studio B, recording home of Chet Atkins and Elvis Presley and a major player in the creation of the Nashville sound. Permission to do so was an unexpected, saved-by-the-bell twist of fate that capped a series of creative frustrations and false starts. The album is full of lyrical tension and release, experimental work with equipment steeped in history, and, in terms of McPherson’s career, unprecedented levels of collaboration in production and songwriting.

McPherson and band (guitarist Doug Corcoran, keyboard player Ray Jacildo, drummer Jason Smay, and bassist Jimmy Sutton) will play Cain’s Ballroom Saturday, Dec. 16, at the tail end of two months of intense touring in support of the album, which was released in October.

lot. There were some tough decisions that had to be made, and we’re still feeling that on the road.

Looking back, it was a fond experience, but the other side of that is you’re still trying to play these shows with the band, and you put them through a lot. We’re gonna be okay, though.

CARMAN: You had a plan to record in a different studio. What happened?

JD McPherson | JOSHUA BLACK WILKINS

BECKY CARMAN: You’re calling this a “truly romantic garage rock record.” What does that mean?

JD MCPHERSON: I was a little more transparent with thoughts and experiences. I love it when music is sort of jagged and maybe even a little abrasive, but it’s coming from sort of a tender place, and I kept thinking about music like that when I was writing. It was almost like I had this fear of the music being an unexpected twist for fans 36 // MUSIC

of our band, and somehow I was already in the muck and decided to let more personal things out. I guess it’s probably the most vulnerable I’ve allowed myself to be yet. When you think about garage rock or any kind of loud fuzzy stuff, it doesn’t usually conjure images of vulnerability. I kind of wanted it to be a little of both.

CARMAN: The record seems to be doing really well critically. At what

point in your process are you most at peace with the finished product?

MCPHERSON: I am happy with it, but I’m still a bit haunted by some of the inner-band politics that happened during the making. The band was having a really hard time when we were making that record, and it was probably because of the nervous breakdown vibe I was putting out. I felt like I was dragging a refrigerator across a parking

MCPHERSON: I’ll play both sides here. It was very detrimental to morale and to the budget, but the producer pulled the plug after the first day. Nobody’s making Van Halen bucks anymore, so record budgets are pretty small, and when the session gets canceled and nothing comes of it ... that was a huge loss, and it just made everybody feel bad. Everybody was like, wow, one day, and we can’t cut it?

On that producer’s side, the songs really weren’t ready, and the band wasn’t, as far as morale goes, in shape. I guess it wasn’t moving fast enough for the producer, so he pulled the plug. I’m actually quite happy with the way it ended up, even though for a while it felt like we were just the scum of the earth. It took a little bit of nursing our wounds, but being invited to RCA Studio B was the best thing that could have happened. For history nerds like us, you couldn’t have picked a better spot.

CARMAN: What are a couple of specific things on the record that only happened because of RCA Studio B? MCPHERSON: Anytime you hear a vibraphone. We put a vibraphone track on pretty much every song. The bell sound on “Lucky December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

Penny”—that’s vibraphone. The marimba on “Style (Is a Losing Game).” The Floyd Cramer piano was the reason Ray and I started writing together. That piano was a really magic piano. Two things about it: The studio staff has to clean out the piano, because people will come on the studio tour and dump a relative’s ashes into it. The other thing: One day we pulled the music stand out to write a chord chart, and the light hit a certain way, and there were decades of ballpoint pen remnants of people writing out charts. Indentations from the golden days.

you know, what do you say? Like, oh yeah, there’s another brilliant example of perfect songcraft. I was punching myself in the forehead on the elevator. I don’t think there’s anybody better or cooler than Nick. Maybe one day I’ll get another shot.

CARMAN: How do you feel about Cain’s Ballroom? For somebody

with your appreciation for the history of music, it seems like it might mean a little bit more to you than it does to others.

MCPHERSON: The first shows I ever went to were at Cain’s. At that time, there were pews. It sounds really, really hokey, but in the back of my brain, there was some sort of church-like image I

summoned up whenever I thought about going to Cain’s. It became my favorite place to be, to play. I think it’s pretty much everybody’s favorite place to play. To me, the music firmament of the United States is an example of what can be right and what can be good, and Cain’s is my favorite example of that. I think about that every time I’m there. a

CARMAN: There are many influences people have picked up on on this record. As somebody who hoards musical knowledge and really loves those subtleties, has anyone drawn any parallels or noticed something that surprised you?

MCPHERSON: The one word that 80 percent of people use—incorrectly—is “rockabilly.” I’m not purposely excluding rockabilly as an influence; it’s definitely a thing in my mind, and we’ve never done that thing. But as long as people are talking about the album, I’m grateful. In Birmingham, Alabama, this guy came up to me and said, “You guys really remind me of my favorite band, Sonic Youth.” I couldn’t figure it out but also was really pleased.

CARMAN: You did several co-writes for this album. Do you have a dream co-writing partner?

MCPHERSON: Yes, and what’s really, truly sad about it is that I already had a crack at it and failed miserably. I was Nick Lowe’s first cowrite. Nick Lowe visited Nashville, and his manager called me and said Nick was flirting with writing with other people and “We’d really like you to be the first guy.”

So I’m in Nick’s hotel room, and he’s lying on his bed in his socks with a guitar, and the news is on, and I didn’t really have any ideas.

If you told me there was gonna be a co-write with Nick Lowe, I would have taken a year to prepare for it. I played him some songs I was working on, and he played songs he was working on, and, THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

MUSIC // 37

musicnotes

WORK IT, MAKE IT, DO IT Local musicians channel Daft Punk by JOHN LANGDON

Now we’re here, it’s been so long FOR THE REVIVALISTS’ ROB INGRAHAM, CAIN’S SHOW WAS A HOMECOMING The Revivalists at Cain’s Ballroom on Nov. 29 | GREG BOLLINGER

Local musicians will perform Daft Punk’s Discovery, Fassler Hall Dec. 15 and 16

IN MARCH OF 2016, A GROUP OF TULSA musicians performed Radiohead’s OK Computer in its entirety to a ravenously enthusiastic crowd at Fassler Hall. The band endeavored to accurately recreate the album’s lush sound—down to every note and electronic blip—in a live setting.

This was no cover band; it was an offering of reverence.

After OK Computer, the band, whose members eschew the notion of giving the group a name, knew a follow-up was in order. The obvious choice, it seemed, was to play Radiohead’s equally heralded next album, Kid A, but the group decided it best to avoid the pigeonhole of becoming a tribute to any one band and looked elsewhere for their next project. They landed on Daft Punk’s Discovery.

On the journey into the French duo’s masterpiece, returning band members Costa Upson (vocals, synthesizers, programming), Chris Combs (guitar, synth), Aaron Boehler (bass, synth), and Nathan Price (percussion) were joined by Riverfield Rocks director Paul Knight (vocals, guitar, synth, sampling), Jake Lynn (drums, vocals), and Malachi Burgess (drums).

When you’re dancing or otherwise swept into Discovery’s groove, it seems deceptively minimalistic, but it’s exacting in its precision. Over seven months of rehearsals, the musicians shook the proverbial fist at the pair of robots responsible for the nu-disco opus.

Upson called the process “a terrific nightmare” and said it took a full month to dial in the wide-eyed, childlike innocence in the vocal tone on “Digital Love.” Much of 38 // MUSIC

the early process was dedicated to experimenting and learning how Daft Punk created the sounds and textures of the album in the first place, asking questions like, is it a vocoder that makes their iconic robot voice, or a talk box? (It’s both, together.) Eventually the group honed their French touch.

When the band performs the album on December 15 and 16 at Fassler Hall, they’ll be accompanied by ambitious audio and visual production, befitting the scope of the musical undertaking. Mike Russell will run sound with three times the subwoofers typically present at the venue. Logan Sours of Iconic Lighting is the last piece of the puzzle; he will create an immersive light show incorporating visuals from the album’s accompanying anime film, “Interstella 5555.” Matt Leach will capture the performances on video.

Upson said his personal goal in these shows is “to grow as much as possible in too little time” and to show that largescale productions are not out of reach for local artists. Eventually, he’d like to do more in a year, and he already has a short list of albums to tackle. For now, if this show can set a new bar for what’s possible at a local concert, the future of our music scene shines bright. a

Daft Punk Discovery Friday and Saturday, December 15 & 16 Opening sets by Afistaface on Friday and Darku J on Saturday Fassler Hall, 304 S. Elgin Ave. $15 at the door

ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, NEW Orleans band The Revivalists played to a sold-out crowd at Cain’s Ballroom. Their song “Wish I Knew You” from their 2015 album Men Amongst Mountains has been in heavy rotation on radio stations around the country, reaching #1 on Billboard’s Alternative charts and earning the band gold record certification for the single.

Though based in NOLA, each of The Revivalists moved there from a different city. Our very own Revivalist is saxophone player and Tulsa native Rob Ingraham.

Before their show at Cain’s, we sat down with Ingraham and keyboardist and trumpeter Michael Girardot to discuss touring relentlessly and what’s next for the band.

See more of this interview in a video at thetulsavoice.com.

FIRST SHOW SEEN AT CAIN’S ROB INGRAHAM: Robert Randolph and the Family Band [in June 2004].

BEST SHOW SEEN IN TULSA, EVER RI: It’s the first one. I was super lucky as a kid to see Ray Charles at the Brady Theater. That was my first concert. So the bar was pretty high after that.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF TULSA RI: I moved out of town in 2004, so for me it’s still kinda new. I come back to town on the holidays and say, “What’s all this stuff down here?”

ON BEING A BAND WITH MANY HOMETOWNS RI: I think that really helped us out in the beginning. We have a lot of guys from

the Northeast, so we’d be able to do New York and Philly and D.C. and kinda build those places up before we could have otherwise.

THE HOTTEST REVIVALISTS SHOW MICHAEL GIRARDOT: We played a show under a bridge at Forecastle [Festival in Louisville]. My computer and my iPad, which I use for the show, both stopped working and gave me, like, “Your computer is too hot to exist right now” messages.

RI: Shovels & Rope played right before or after us. I don’t remember whether she is Rope or Shovels, but she was, like, eight months pregnant at the time, banging the drums in that heat, and I thought, “Ok. You’re a god.”

ON LIFE WITH A GOLD RECORD MG: “Wish I Knew You” started getting a lot of radio play—people liked it and kept requesting it, or would hear it and go, “What song is that?” and Shazam it. So it started getting played all the time, and now it’s in rotation at, like, the grocery store and the airport.

RI: It’s weird to kind of be the background noise to being in America now. I get texts that say, “Every time I’m at the gym I hear your darn song!”

MG: But that has made it so that all of these new people that we could never have had the chance to get in front of—because you just can’t physically be in the grocery store and the airport, playing to everyone who goes to there— RI: Maybe that’s a good business model, though… a December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

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Mon-Fri 4-7pm $1.25 Domestics $3 Well Cocktails ALL THE TIME Open Everyday 4pm-2am 2630 E 15TH ST MUSIC // 39

musiclistings Wed // Dec 6

Sat // Dec 9

Brady Theater – Walk The Moon, Dashboard Confessional, Sir Sly – ($35) Cain’s Ballroom – Alter Bridge, All That Remains, Sons of Texas – ($29-$44) Coffee House On Cherry Street – Open Mic Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesdays – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Dement Soul City – Don & Steve White The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project Vanguard – Kyle Lucas, Steelyface, Goodfella, Lilac Kings – ($10-$12)

Blackbird on Pearl – Brujoroots, The Danner Party – ($5) Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Deerpaw Cox Business Center – Tommy Emmanuel – ($27.50-$53) Expo Square Pavilion – Cody Johnson, William Clark Green, Jon Wolfe, Randall King – ($22-$48) Fassler Hall – Hosty Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – Rusty Meyers Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Travis Kidd, Superfreak Magoo’s Billiards – Shotz Mercury Lounge – Patrick Sweany – ($10) pH Community House – Mxnstruation: A Benefit Show w/ Girls Club, Junfalls, Jillian Holzbauer – ($5) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Hi-Fidelics River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Vashni Duo Soul City – *Pilgrim – ($10) Soundpony – Algebra and Friends The Colony – Chris Lee Becker’s Imaginary Friends – ($5) The Hunt Club – Straight Shot The Max Retropub – DJ Aaron Bernard The Venue Shrine – *Won’t Back Down - A Tom Petty Tribute ft. Erin O’Dowd, Steve Liddell, Chloe Johns, Dave Les Smith, Weston Horn and the Hush, and more – ($10) Vanguard – Winterfest on Main Street w/ Dixie Wrecked, Black Jellybean & The Peeps, Savya Worldwide, Micah Jiles, Had Enough, Young Life, Screaming Red Mutiny, Stinky Gringos – ($10-$20) Yeti – Sunglasses at Night w/ DJ Kylie & Darku J

Thurs // Dec 7 Blackbird on Pearl – Aaron Kamm and the One Drops, Ekubembe – ($6) Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – Rivers Edge Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – The Hi-Fidelics, Jumpsuit Love Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jake Flint Soul City – The Begonias The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Thirst The Max Retropub – DJ Moody Unity Center of Tulsa – Mark Bryan, Rebecca Ungerman

Fri // Dec 8 Bad Ass Renee’s – Hoodstock w/ Unknown Kapriest, DJ YG, Garrett Heck, and more Blackbird on Pearl – *The Kayfabe’s 5th Annual Toy Drive for St. Francis Children’s Hospital w/ GRAY, Sarah Hutchison, Joe Myside Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Dan Martin Coffee House On Cherry Street – Cassie Latshaw Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – George Brothers Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Jacob Dement, Members Only Josey Records – Brother Rabbit, Andy Moore Living Arts – *Night of the Divas w/ Tea Rush and Faye Moffett – ($13-$15) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Ayngel & John Soul City – Susan Herndon Soul City – Dustin Arbuckle and the Damn Nations – ($10) Soundpony – *Count Tutu The Colony – *The Don White Band – ($5) The Hunt Club – JT and the Dirbox Wailers The Max Retropub – Sweet Baby Jaysus The Venue Shrine – Whey Jennings and The unwanted – ($7.50) The Wine Loft – The Blue Dawgs Utopia Bar & Lounge – DJ MO Vanguard – *Grind’s 3rd Annual Christmas Toy Drive w/ Skytown, Kovalent, Forever in Disgust, Dead Leaves Fall – ($10) Woody Guthrie Center – Chris Buhalis, Red Dirt Rangers w/ Terry “Buffalo” Ware – ($20-$22)

40 // MUSIC

Sun // Dec 10 Cain’s Ballroom – Seether, Shaman’s Harvest, The Dead Deads – ($32-$295) Coffee House On Cherry Street – John Darling Doc’s Wine and Food – Mark Gibson East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Fur Shop – Dan Martin Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Bruner & Eicher The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Venue Shrine – Winds of Plague – ($13))

Mon // Dec 11 Blackbird on Pearl – Monday Night Portal w/ Josh Beeson Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Marriots The Colony – Seth Lee Jones Yeti – The Situation

Tues // Dec 12 Blackbird on Pearl – The Pearl Jam Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Runnin’ On Empty Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham & Jacob Tovar Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Dane Arnold Soul City – Dustin Pittsley The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night

Tin Dog Saloon – Dan Martin Yeti – Writers’ Night

Wed // Dec 13 Blackbird on Pearl – Scott Evans and Dylan Stewart Coffee House On Cherry Street – Open Mic Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesdays – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Dement Soul City – Don & Steve White The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project

Thurs // Dec 14 Cain’s Ballroom – Eli Young Band, Hunter Hutchinson – ($30-$45) Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – James Muns Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Miracle Max, Satellite Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jake Flint Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – Ramsay Midwood The Colony – The Soup Kitchen with Dane Arnold The Hunt Club – Erin O’Dowd and Chloe Johns The Max Retropub – DJ Moody The Venue Shrine – Read Southall – ($12)

Fri // Dec 15 Bad Ass Renee’s – Dixie Wrecked, Follow The Buzzards Blackbird on Pearl – Ese Cain’s Ballroom – Texas Hippie Coalition, Fist of Rage, Smoke Offering, Cosmic Wool – ($17-$32) Crow Creek Tavern – Str8ght Shot Fassler Hall – *Tulsa musicians perform Daft Punk’s Discovery Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – Duke Mason Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Empire, FM Live River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ Morgan River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – LeAnn Rimes – ($30-$219) River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Vashni Duo Smitty’s 118 Tavern – Dan Martin Soul City – Susan Herndon Soul City – A Mark Gibson Christmas – ($10) Soundpony – No Parking Stillhouse Bar & Grill – DJ Nasty Navi The Colony – Monoculture, The Dull Drums, Colouradio – ($5) The Hunt Club – Dante and the Hawks The Max Retropub – DJ Moody The Run – Deuces Wild Band Utopia Bar & Lounge – DJ MO Yeti – *American Shadows, Redwitch Jonny, Carbone

Sat // Dec 16

River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – Old Dominion – ($40-$129) River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – The Morgan Band Soul City – Blues Society of Tulsa Christmas Party w/ Katy Guillen & The Girls, Dave Daniel – ($10) Soundpony – Pony Disco Club The Colony – Sam & The Stylees The Hunt Club – Weston Horn and the Hush The Max Retropub – DJ Aaron Bernard Unit D – *The Hi-Fi Hillbillies, The Dirty Creek Bandits Vanguard – Brother Hawk, Ryan McLaughlin – ($10) VanTrease PACE – *Christmas with Brian Nhira and Friends from the Voice w/ Caity Peters, Malik Heard, Whitney Fenimore, Shalyah Fearing Woody Guthrie Center – Erin O’Dowd, Colin Halliburton, Ryan Allen – ($18-$20) Yeti – *Bowie Tribute and Toy Drive

Sun // Dec 17 East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Fur Shop – Dan Martin Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soundpony – Deerpaw The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing Vanguard – Michale Graves of The Misfits, The Decomposed, Tight Rope, Basses Loaded – ($15)

Mon // Dec 18 Blackbird on Pearl – Monday Night Portal w/ Josh Beeson Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Marriotts The Colony – Seth Lee Jones Yeti – The Situation

Tues // Dec 19 Blackbird on Pearl – The Pearl Jam Coffee House On Cherry Street – Jeremiah Kerby Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Great Big Biscuit Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham & Jacob Tovar Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Dane Arnold Soul City – Dustin Pittsley The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night Yeti – Writers’ Night

Cain’s Ballroom – *JD McPherson, Parker Millsap, Jesse Aycock & Lauren Barth – ($17-$32) Fassler Hall – *Tulsa musicians perform Daft Punk’s Discovery Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – Chad Lee Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Darren Ray, Another Alibi Mercury Lounge – Charley Crockett, Vincent Neil Emerson River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Zodiac December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

filmphiles

filmphiles

SUBVERSIVE HOMESICK BLUES

by JOE O’SHANSKY Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding in “I, Tonya” | COURTESY

ICECAPADES ‘I, Tonya’ takes the gold IT’S PRETTY RARE THAT WE REEVALUATE and reconsider our low expectations. In the case of Tonya Harding—subject of the new film “I, Tonya,”—mine were low because I lived through her 15 minutes. There’s even a “Seinfeld” episode with Harding’s avatar playing understudy to a hospitalized Bette Midler, who, unprepared to take the lead role in the stage version of “Rochelle, Rochelle,” winds up crying over her untied boot laces.

I thought “I, Tonya” would be regurgitation instead of revelation. Turns out director Craig Gillespie’s (“Lars and the Real Girl”) wry, funny examination is much more than the sum of its tabloid, pop culture parts.

You know the story. Harding (here portrayed as a child by McKenna Grace, and later by Margot Robbie) is a driven and talented figure skater, renowned for being the first woman to land the triple axel in an international competition before becoming an Olympic contender. Her domineering, awful mother—and manager—(a blazing Allison Janney) seems incapable of praise.

After she falls short of her rival, Nancy Kerrigan (Caitlin Carver)—whose flair and refined background are clearly more suited to the taste of the snooty judges—Harding’s husband, Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) hatches a misguided plan to attack the squeaky-clean Kerrigan’s character.

That goes awry when two of Gillooly’s dipshit cohorts, Shawn Eckhardt and Shane Stant (Paul Walter Hauser and Ricky THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

Russert), decide to kneecap Kerrigan instead. The rest is ‘90s history. As Stan’s Gillooly says, “I became a verb.”

You can perceive Harding as the opportunist she was portrayed to be—too talented for her station in life, ridiculed for her roots (both of hair and family) by an establishment that prizes poise. Or you can view her as a victim of familial dysfunction and domestic abuse. Harding’s desire for approval flourished during the seminal 20th-century trifecta of professional wrestling, melodramatic talk shows (a la Jerry Springer, Geraldo Rivera), and the birth of tabloid television news. Gawkers and rubes who likely never cared about figure skating before suddenly felt invested in the sensationalism.

What’s brilliant about the script by Steven Rogers (“P.S. I Love You”) is how it contextualizes Harding in a way that the feeding frenzy back then never did.

Gillespie and Rogers find the heart in it all and execute it like some Scorsese-inspired populist gem—with narration, fourth-wall breaks, and pivotal scenes cut to an extensive soundtrack of period-pulsing pop songs. Stellar performances, particularly from Janney and Robbie, bolster the tightrope balance between the deadpan absurdity of the story and the resigned reminiscences of those telling it.

“I, Tonya” is a vibrant and vastly entertaining surprise that, like its namesake, makes the most of what it’s got to work with. –JOE O’SHANSKY

Frances McDormand in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” | COURTESY

DESPITE HAVING ONLY WRITTEN AND directed three under-the-radar films in the last nine years, Martin McDonagh has built a cult following with his Tarantino-by-wayof-Guy Ritchie crime comedies—namely 2008’s “In Bruges” and 2012’s “Seven Psychopaths.”

With “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” McDonagh adopts a provincial, Coen Brothers vibe with the story of Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), whose daughter was brutally murdered and raped. The crime has gone unsolved for a year and she’s out of patience with the local law.

Noticing three derelict billboards on the edge of town, Mildred conscripts their owner, Red Welby (Caleb Landry Jones) to host a Bob Dylan-esque, cue-card message: “Raped while dying.” “And still no arrests.” “How come, Chief Willoughby?”

Chief Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), along with his deputy Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell), a boorish drunk who lives with his needy mother, takes issue with the signage—leading to a sort of civil war where each of them begins to break down emotionally for disparate reasons.

Willoughby thinks he’s hiding a cancer diagnosis, though everyone in town already knows—and which doesn’t sway Mildred’s insistence that he find her daughter’s killer.

Her relationship with her still-living son, Robbie (Lucas Hedges), suffers from her zero-fucks-given crusade for justice and her bitterness towards Robbie’s father (John Hawkes), who moved on to greener, 20-year-old pastures.

Unsubtle, almost ham-fisted indictments of religion, the law (or those who enforce it, at least), and small-town, familial dysfunction are totally fine by me, but—

like Harrelson’s cancer confession—here they often feel obtuse and pandering. Mic drops and contemporary socio-political Molotov cocktails are meant to get you to root for largely unsympathetic, superficial—though well-acted—characters.

Despite the terrible death of her daughter, the script does little to give Mildred any complexity or reason to empathize with her. At least until she joins forces with the contemptible Dixon—arcs that (kinda sorta) stick the landing in a satisfying way.

It’s really the tone of the film—a quirky black comedy that can’t quite commit to its misanthropic nature because it misappropriates the drama at its heart— that muddies the water, diluting the potency of otherwise standout performances from McDormand, Rockwell, Harrelson, and Peter Dinklage, as well as Caleb Landry Jones.

Which isn’t to say “Three Billboards” is a bad movie. It’s just an overhyped one. a

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

FILM & TV // 41

filmphiles

Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen, and Danny Kaye in “White Christmas” | COURTESY

MUD BOWL

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

Jason Mitchell and Garrett Hedlund in “Mudbound” | COURTESY

Netflix awards contender wrestles with post-WWII racism

by JEFF HUSTON A POTENT IF CONVENTIONAL WORK, “Mudbound” doesn’t quite fulfill its ambitions. Still, those intentions make it resonate. Its power is undeniable, as are the merits of its craft, and it comes from a young, emerging African-American filmmaker who has a masterpiece brewing somewhere inside her.

Set in the American South of World War II and after, “Mudbound” is a raindrenched Delta echo of Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” Dust Bowl. Like the Joads, its characters are born into trials far bigger than themselves—so big they’re overwhelming.

This Netflix streaming exclusive is a tale of two families—one white, one black—toiling along the same stretch of Mississippi cotton fields. But their shared hard times fail to bring them together— and bigotry’s right there to keep them apart. However, as the title suggests, the land and its dirty, dense history makes them inextricably linked.

Each has a loved one serving in the war, fighting for that very land. Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund) is from the white family; Ronsel Jackson (Jason Mitchell) the African-American. Jamie witnesses horrors as a fighter pilot while Ronsel is embraced in Europe as a liberator, enjoying a freedom and equality foreign to him at home.

This is the fourth feature for Dee Rees.

“Pariah,” a coming-of-age lesbian story, remains Rees’s best, most personal film to date. Like her breakthrough indie, “Mudbound” boasts stunning images now expanded to an epic scale.

Confident with visuals and tone, Rees is less assured here as a storyteller. Inspired by a novel by Hillary Jordan, Rees 42 // FILM & TV

relies more on the language of literature (prose) than she should, and not enough on cinema’s toolbox (image, juxtaposition, subtext). Narration by multiple characters, heavy in exposition and description, packs in too much. Despite some beautiful poetry, too, the recurring voice-overs make for a less complex portrait.

Addressing racism, class, PTSD, and more, “Mudbound” is a thematic hodgepodge. Issues are thrown together, not woven. The narrative also juggles too many perspectives. With no true lead, there’s no true focus. The story’s two halves feel like sequential mini-series episodes, centered on different people from the same milieu.

It all crescendos to a truly devastating act of brutality, only to be tagged with a coda that belies that brutality’s plausible extremes.

The cast also produces mixed results.

UK-born Carey Mulligan and Australian Jason Clarke aren’t convincing as born-andbred Southerners; Hedlund, whose acting has never been impressive, is no better.

Jonathan Banks chews scenery as the malevolent, racist Pappy.

The best actor here is the least known. Rob Morgan plays the Jackson family patriarch, Hap, with method-level verisimilitude. Mary J. Blige is effectively restrained in her first major role, and Mitchell’s Ronsel bears joy, humiliation, pain, and pathos that ranges in intensity and nuance.

Artfully rendered, “Mudbound” is compelling but not daring nor essential, though it holds the promise of those things. For Rees it’s not a question of whether she’ll achieve those virtues some day—only how soon. a

OPENING DECEMBER 8 ALL THE QUEEN’S HORSES Documentary about Rita Crundwell, a horse breeder who embezzled more than $50 million over two decades from the city of Dixon, Illinois. Not Rated.

OPENING DECEMBER 15 WONDER WHEEL The latest from writer/director Woody Allen. Set in the 1950s, Kate Winslet stars as the beleaguered wife of a carousel operator on Coney Island. She falls for a local lifeguard (Justin Timberlake), but so does her estranged stepdaughter (Juno Temple). The mafia also gets involved. Jim Belushi co-stars. Rated PG-13.

WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954) This holiday musical favorite starring Bing Crosby plays as a regular feature with daily showtimes. It’s an annual Circle Cinema tradition, including sing-along screenings on Fri., Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. and Sat., Dec. 23 at 2 p.m. Rated G.

SPECIAL EVENTS YOUNG MARX: NT LIVE A new comedy directed by Nicholas Hytner, from London’s Bridge Theatre. By the team behind “One Man, Two Guvnors.” Pre-show trivia

and prizes begins at 5:45 p.m. with Theatre Tulsa’s award-winning actor Nick Cains. Adults $18; Seniors $17 (Thu., Dec. 7, 6:00 p.m.)

TOKYO GODFATHERS (2003) Anime Club presents this modern reimagining of the Nativity story.

It’s inspired by the John Ford/John Wayne classic western “3 Godfathers.” (Fri., Dec. 8 & Sat., Dec. 9, 10:00 p.m.)

THE CLINGING VINE (1926) A presentation of Second Saturday Silents, starring Leatrice Joy, a silent film favorite of director Cecil B. DeMille. This film showcases Joy at her best, as a career woman who is superior to her boss but deprecates to his authority. Program includes a “Felix the Cat” cartoon. Accompaniment by Bill Rowland on the Circle Cinema’s original 1928 pipe organ.

(Sat., Dec. 9, 11:00 a.m.)

VALLEY GIRL (1983) with special guest The classic California high school comedy starring Nicolas Cage is screened with special guest Deborah Foreman, the valley girl herself.

Pre-show meet-and-greet with Foreman starts at 6 p.m. Q&A with Foreman, hosted by The Outsiders House, will follow the movie. $25 ticket for both pre-show and movie.

Normal ticket price for just the screening. (Sat. Dec. 16, 8:00 p.m.)

December 6 – 19, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE FUZZ THE TULSA VOICE SPOTLIGHTS: TULSA SPCA

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

JEFFREY absolutely loves people! Jeffrey is an eightyear-old lab/Great Dane mix who weighs 75 pounds. He loves to play fetch and tug on ropes. He sits for treats and loves affection. He may be a little older, but he loves to play and goof off. Jeffrey is one in a million.

ACROSS 1 Long NFL pass 5 The FDIC insures them 10 Minor work detail 14 Carbonated drinks 19 Soft white cheese 20 Accumulated, as charges 21 Guitarist’s accessory 22 Genetic duplicate 23 Syllables in “Deck the Halls” 24 Shampoo brand 25 “Narc” ending 26 Mailperson’s responsibility 27 Go for the gold four times 31 Confine, as zoo animals 32 Double negative 33 Fighting force 34 Mouse mover 35 When Brutus was a brute 36 At the pinnacle of 37 U.S. crime busters 40 Certain clergyman 43 Horrific smell 44 Garbage-hauling ship 45 Happy and appreciative 46 Versatile truck, informally 47 Statue you bought in Guam, e.g.

52 Achieved, as a goal 53 Goes all over the place 54 Scarlet and strawberry 55 Big city in Nebraska 56 Brief lines about one’s life 57 “Rambo” or “Rocky” ending?

58 Island near Borneo 59 Potable in a pub 60 Take the silver three times

ALMOND is an adorable one-and-ahalf-year-old pointer/ Jack Russell terrier mix who would love to be adopted with her friend Cameron! It can take a little while for Almond to warm up to new people.

If you just bring her a few treats, she will be ready to play in no time.

69 Bubkes relative 70 Smallest Great Lake, by volume 71 Medium limits?

72 He floated and stung 73 Neighbor of a Finn 76 Drink unit from a flask 77 Natural hosiery shade 80 Needing medicine 81 Mantle decoration, sometimes 85 Shad delicacy 86 First-rate 87 Has-been’s verb 88 Sword-wielder’s competition 89 Vigorously passionate 91 Informal mothers 92 A way to unite things 93 Was an aggressive baserunner 94 Mr. Kristofferson 96 Part of a foot 97 Pre-Columbian Peruvian 98 Venues for bulldoggers 101 Settle for the bronze four times 108 Gain, as weight 109 Sound of a crowd or tiger 110 Incredibly absurd 111 Yak 112 With rice, the San Francisco treat 113 Painful reminder 114 Peter, to a pumpkin 115 Prefix meaning left 116 Parry alternative 117 Hammering superhero 118 Cricket, for one 119 Site of the first eviction DOWN 1 Some beer containers (Abbr.)

2 Give a major speech

The Tulsa SPCA has been helping animals in our area since 1913. The shelter never euthanizes for space and happily rescues animals from high-kill shelters. They also accept owner surrenders, rescues from cruelty investigations, hoarding, and puppy mill situations. Animals live on-site or with foster parents until they’re adopted. All SPCA animals are micro-chipped, vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and treated with preventatives.

Learn about volunteering, fostering, upcoming events, adoptions, and their low-cost vaccination clinic at tulsaspca.org.

CAMERON is an active threeyear-old pointer mix who would love to be adopted with his friend Almond! Cameron is very shy around people. When he is around other dogs, especially Almond, he is a lot more comfortable with people. If you are an adopter that is willing to give Cameron some extra TLC, he will make such a wonderful addition to your family.

3 Large city in Italy 4 Little brown thing?

5 Big name in perfumes 6 It’s more than a job 7 Source of online tech news 8 Jethro of music 9 Qualities that outshine the usual 10 Views with contempt 11 Alfresco dining spot 12 Of great proportions 13 Some parrots 14 Be frugal 15 Ending for crypt or method 16 Flutie who threw passes 17 It can be a single chip 18 Sucker attachment 28 Type of training 29 Orange Free State denizens 30 Really go down with the ship 35 Same as before, for writers 36 Vinegary 37 Hot dog biter?

38 Noted Baroque composer 39 Brainstorm product 40 Mambo kin 41 Had dinner at home 42 Placed a wager 43 They travel through ducts 44 Ancient upright stone 45 Third Hebrew letter 48 Fancy window with brackets 49 Pinot ___ (wine) 50 Egyptian, e.g.

51 Some pullover shirts 57 Source of wall flowers?

58 “See ya” 59 Non-P.C. “pitchers” 61 Smallish film 62 Lincoln’s secretary of state 63 Spring upward 64 Fixes, as a carnival game 65 French military cap 66 Beastly resting places 67 Give out in shares 68 The Life of ___ (ease) 73 Conning activity 74 “Hold on there!”

75 Some coastal eagles 76 Be quite suspicious 77 Precisely sculpted shrubs 78 Scored on a serve 79 Banjo relative, briefly 82 Men’s suit material 83 Public util.

84 Coast 90 Of service (var.)

92 Type of roast 93 Bad type of dorm mate 94 Danish monetary units 95 Guillaume who was Benson 96 Certain native of southern China 97 Type of potato 99 Looked at all over 100 Aida was one 101 “C’mon, be ___” (“Help me out here”) 102 Wise giver of advice 103 Prestigious school or type of collar 104 Scottish waterway 105 “Sack” lead-in 106 Partnership for Peace org.

107 Black of old poetry

ROYELLE is the epitome of the perfect lap cat! All she wants to do is snuggle up and take naps. She is one and a half years old and weighs eight and a half pounds. Royelle does have long-term medical issues involving her lungs, which her adopter will need to monitor for the rest of her life. Feel free to contact the Tulsa SPCA if you need more information on Royelle’s medical condition and treatment.

Universal sUnday Crossword Five-rinGed

By Timothy e. Parker

© 2017 Andrews McMeel Syndication THE TULSA VOICE // December 6 – 19, 2017

At first a very scared cat, SURLY came from a hoarding situation. Over time, Surly has begun to trust people.

He is three and a half years old and weighs seven and a half pounds.

Surly will definitely need some time to adjust to his new home once he is adopted, but the Tulsa SPCA staff knows once he is comfortable and given a lot of TLC, Surly will be back to his affectionate self.

12/10 ETC. // 43

Pleas e re cycle this issue.