Twist and Shout • 0823

PUBLISHER

terry christensen tchristensen@messengernews.net

HR/ACCOUNTING

melissa wendland mwendland@messengernews.net

DESIGN COORDINATOR

nick manwarren nmanwarren@messengernews.net

SALES DIRECTOR

leanne darr ldarr@messengernews.net

jody kayser jkayser@messengernews.net

brittney benson bbenson@messengernews.net

EDITOR

bill shea bshea@messengernews.net

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

tom tourville

lori berglund

COPYRIGHT 2023

Twist & Shout is published monthly by ogden newspapers inc. All content and opinions expressed may not be those of the publishers.

*All photos submitted to Twist & Shout become property of Twist & Shout. We are not responsible for their return.

10:

16: Artist Spotlight: Kelby Wingert

18:

Sports Director, Keith Murphy

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2023

opportunity to showcase itself. I know the sports team is always overwhelmed at the help and the welcome they receive from the host communities. That’s what makes it memorable and successful.”

As always, WHO personalities travelling with RVTV will include Keith Murphy, John Sears, Andy Fales, Scott Siepker, Mark Freund and the always-popular meteorologist Ed Wilson.

Qualifying Show for the North American Six-Horse Hitch Classic Series.

Elias Johnson and Erin Kiernan

If possible, Johnson said he would like to be in Manson, at least for the 10 p.m. news, but it’s always up to what’s happening in the news of the day to determine his final schedule.

“I just want everyone to have a fun night and celebrate what makes small town Iowa a great place to call home,” Johnson said. “Growing up in Manson really instilled in me how to treat people and value a sense of community; to be proud of where you’re from.”

As for the Cy-Hawk game itself, the Hawkeyes will be coming to Ames ready to make up for last year’s upset in Iowa City when the Cyclones won it 10-7. Cyclones, on their home turf, will be working not to let that happen. But anyone who thinks football is just about the game, hasn’t been to many. It’s an American event.

This year’s Cy-Hawk game will actually be the 70th meeting of the in-state rivals on the football field. The match-up was played sporadically beginning in 1894 until being suspended in 1934. It came roaring back in 1977 and is now looked forward to every fall.

This year’s full RVTV route begins in Ankeny on Monday, Sept. 4. From there it will travel to Jefferson on Tuesday, Sept. 5, up to Manson on Wednesday, Sept. 6, then to Humboldt on Thursday, Sept. 7, on to Nevada on Friday, Sept. 8, and wrapping up in Ames for the Cy/Hawk Classic on Saturday, Sept. 9. Kick-off for the game is set at 2:30 p.m.

One of The Truly BIG Stars Performs At The Laramar Ballroom

a look back RAY STEVENS

There are stars and then there are STARS. The Laramar Ballroom welcomed to its stage one of the biggest stars in pop, country and comedy music in October of 1961. This man has won TEN Grammys and has received gold records for hit after hit. He has owned his own television show, built and ran two amazing live theaters and was inducted into the Country, Christian, Songwriter, Nashville Music, Georgia Music and Atlanta Music Halls of Fame.

How’s this for hits: “Guitarzan,” “The Streak,” “Everything Is Beautiful,” “Misty,” “Ahab The Arab” and “Shriner’s Convention.” He has recorded for Capitol, Prep, NRC, Mercury, Warner Brothers, Barnaby, Curb. Monument and MCA Records.

You might have guessed his name by now his name is Harold Ray Ragsdale! OK, he changed his name for the stage, including his appearance at the Laramar, simply as Ray Stevens. Often, we forget who came and performed for us at our Laramar, Pla Mor or Twilight Ballrooms. Some of the biggest stars of the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s stood tall in front of us while leaving us with more music memories.

By Tom Tourville

Ray Stevens was born Harold Ray Ragsdale in Clarksdale, Georgia in 1939. By high school he was leading one of the hottest rock bands in Georgia, the Barons. After high school he was off to Georgia State University where he was majoring in music. At age 18 he was signed to his first recording contract with Capitol Records no less. His first record of note was “Silver Bracelet.’” Because of that hit, Stevens was signed to NRC Records to be a studio musician, song writer, music arranger and vocalist. Why, it paid more money than working for Capitol Records? Wow, did Capitol ever goof up.

But Stevens liked recording records and the amazing fame that came with that. In 1961 he would go on to record for Mercury Records. His hit at that time was “Harry The Hairy Ape.” This is when he came to the Laramar Ballroom while “Harry The Hairy Ape” was charting. It was in 1962, while still recording for Mercury, he hit it big with “Ahad The Arab” that reached #5 on the Billboard charts.

It wasn’t until 1966 when Stevens would move over to Monument Records and the hits would come back in a big way with “Mr. Businessman” and “Have A Little Talk With Myself,” were released and then he hit it big with “Guitarzan” that was a Top Ten hit for Stevens along with being awarded a Gold Record as well as two Grammys for this hit.

While he was not recording his own hits, he would write songs for: Dolly Parton, Ronnie Dove, Brenda Lee, Brook Benton, Patti Page and Dusty Springfield. Ray was at the top of his game.

By the ‘70s, Ray was back in the studio working with different artists as well as continuing his recording life. I know he worked with Ronnie and the Daytonas at some of their recording sessions. As for his own recordings, he hit it out of the park with his recording of “Everything Is Beautiful” in 1970 which won Ray another Grammy and went to #1 on the charts selling well over one million copies and went gold.

Between 1973-74, he was working on various Nashville TV shows and took the fad of streaking and turned that fad into another #1 gold record, “The Streak” and he won another Grammy for his release of “Misty,” that he released in 1975.

The music scene was changing quickly in the ‘90s, so Ray took on one of the biggest challenges of his life, he built his own “Ray Stevens Theater” in Branson, MO. How could the show not do well with Ray’s catalog of monster hits to perform from. While at his theater, he tapped into the next new trend, music videos.

Ray has continued to release records and videos all the way into today. He sold his theater in Branson in 1993 and would open a new theater in West Nashville called the CabaRay Theater in 2018 and Ray would publish his own autobiography, “Ray Stevens’ Nashville.”

In October of 1961 the Recording Stars Dance Party Tour arrived at our Laramar Ballroom. It was a star laden package show and was headlined with Bobby Vinton and Tony Orlando. It used New York’s Prep Tones to back all the artists. The idea was to have a set of headliners and some “one hit wonders” artists on the show. The “one hit wonders” for this tour included: Janie Grant, Ral Donner and that young guy from Georgia named Ray Stevens. If we had only known.

I so hope you were one of the lucky ones to have paid the $1.00 to get in. It gives me chill bumps just to think about it.

This year at Bandshell Bash ‘23 we have an all star lineup featuring award winning singer Sundance Head, winner of NBC’s “The Voice” from super country star Blake Shelton’s team. On the season finale he joined classic rock legends Kiss for a medley of some of their biggest hits. After winning “The Voice”, Sundance was added to all the dates of the Doing it to Country Songs tour, with Blake Shelton. Then later opened shows for the Zac Brown Band. At a young age he recorded with ZZ Top and wrote songs for them as well.

He has had three Number 1 hit songs on the Texas Music Charts and country radio including performing at the Grand Ole Opry and historical Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. Sundance Head on guitar and vocals has put together one of the hottest trios with Casey “King”

Cowling on drums and “Drop Kick” Dave Walters on bass - it is one show that will have you two stepping to soulful country blues. Sundance Head’s unique style of American country - soul and blues is what has propelled him into the spotlight and to eventually become the winner of “The Voice”.

Our Special Guests in the lineup this year will be 6 artists from Iowa who are highly recognized by the Midwest Country Music Organization out of Minnesota. Monica Austin, Scott Kirkhart and Jesse Wilson are all nominees this year at the Midwest Country Music Organization Award show to be held at the Roof Garden Ballroom

in Arnolds Park, IA - April 22nd. Monica Austin is not only one of the hosts for this red carpet event, but is up for nomination for “Entertainer of the Year”, Scott Kirkhart is up for nomination for “New Artist of the Year” and Jesse Wilson is up for nomination for “Maverick of the Year”. To this already incredible lineup, we will be adding new upcoming country artists, Liv McNair, Mike Bernard and Doc Johnson to round out the show!

This year Broken Strings and the Gowrie Area Arts Council will be presenting a guitar to a Southeast Valley School District music student during the event, autographed by Sundance Head.

Pulse THE S & H O

LOCAL EVENTS CALENDAR

Badgerfest

10:00 AM

Town of Badger

1st Ave SE • Badger, Iowa

Rock and Rail Bike Race

12:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Downtown Fort Dodge

AUGUST 5

Watercolor for Beginners - 14+

1:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Blanden Memorial Art Museum

920 3rd Ave s. • Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 6

Bandshell Bash ‘23

1:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Gowrie City Park

1407 Market St • Gowrie, IA

Bingo

3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery

Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 1

Pokemon Inspired Art Camp

7+ - 3 Day Camp

1:30 PM

Blanden Memorial Art Museum

920 3rd Ave s. • Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 4

7th Annual D/SAOC Tee’d Off Against Violence Golf Outing Kickoff Event featuring Lone Tree Revival

7:00 PM

Laramar Ballroom

Doors open at 5:00 PM

Nedd Freeley Funn Band

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery

Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 5

7th Annual D/SAOC Tee’d Off Against Violence Golf Outing

9:00 AM

Lakeside Municipal Golf Course

Sunflower Festival

10:00 AM - August 06 • 5:00 PM

The Community Orchard

2237 160th St • Fort Dodge, IA

Tarot Card Design

Major Arcana

1:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Blanden Memorial Art Museum

920 3rd Ave s. • Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 10

Virtual Tasting

4:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery

Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 11

Hilltop Fest

5:30 PM - 9:30 PM

420 Kenyon Road • Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 11

Hawk McIntyre

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery

Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 13

LoJo Russo

3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery

Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 15

Member Meet & Eat

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Community Orchard

2237 160th Street • Fort Dodge, Iowa

AUGUST 18

Facing Autism Color Run

Check in: 5:30 PM

Run/Walk: 6:30 PM

Webster County Fairgrounds

Riddled with Class

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery

Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 19

22nd Annual

Princess City Car Show

3:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Free Car Show

Main Street • Pocahontas, IA

Scott Amusements Carnival

1:00 PM

Pocahontas, IA

AUGUST 20

Bingo

3:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 22

Auditions for Comedia Musica

Player’s Production of Seussical the Musical

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Phillips Middle School Auditorium

1015 5th Ave N • Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 23

Auditions for Comedia Musica

Player’s Production of Seussical the Musical

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Phillips Middle School Auditorium

1015 5th Ave N • Fort Dodge, IA

Hawkeye Community Theatre Presents “Play On!”

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Hawkeye Community Theatre

521 North 12th Street • Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 24

Hawkeye Community Theatre

Presents “Play On!”

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Hawkeye Community Theatre

521 North 12th Street • Fort Dodge, IA

AUG

AUGUST 25

The Community Orchard Guitar and Grill-Out: Featuring Live Music by Day

6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

The Back 40 Patio at the Community Orchard

2237 160TH ST • Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 25

Hawkeye Community Theatre Presents “Play On!”

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Hawkeye Community Theatre

521 North 12th Street • Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 25

Virtual Tasting

4:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery Fort Dodge, IA

Kriss Karr Band

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 25

Fort Dodge YP Pub Crawl

7:00 PM

AUGUST 26

Hawkeye Community Theatre

Presents “Play On!”

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Hawkeye Community Theatre

521 North 12th Street • Fort Dodge, IA

Hawkeye Community Theatre Presents “Play On!”

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Hawkeye Community Theatre

521 North 12th Street • Fort Dodge, IA

AUGUST 27

Ryne Doughty

3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Soldier Creek Winery Fort Dodge, IA

Good Eats &Drinks

dining:

1762 Johnson Ave, Fort Dodge, | (515) 570-8574 Hours:

FAST-FOOD:

MONDAY: Burger night, $3.00 o all burgers

TUESDAY: All you can eat fried chicken bu et starting at 5pm WEDNESDAY: Pizza night, buy one large specialty pizza at regular price and get one free medium one topping pizza. THURSDAY: Wing night, $3 o each order of wings (traditional or boneless)

Prime rib and fried chicken

artistspot

Kelby Wingert

Who, or what, inspires you?

I try to find inspiration everywhere I look. I’m inspired by the nine-year-old who decides that instead of asking for presents for her birthday, she wants her friends to bring pet food and toys to her party so she can donate them to Almost Home. I’m inspired by the siblings who were separated as children and reunited in a Fort Dodge diner nearly 60 years later. I’m inspired by the ingenuity of a group of fifth-graders who thought that encasing a chicken egg in a jar of peanut butter might soften the landing of a drop experiment. I’m inspired by the courageous victim of a horrific attack looking her attacker in the eye as she confronts him in the courtroom during his sentencing.

Most of all, I’m inspired by how quickly the Fort Dodge and Webster County communities step up to help one another in need.

Besides writing, what other creative outlets do you enjoy?

Congratulations on your 4th Anniversary at the Fort Dodge Messenger! We are lucky to have your talent in our community. What do you most enjoy about your job?

Thank you! What I love most about my job is getting to spend time in my community, hearing peoples’ stories and being able to help tell those stories to a larger audience. Between going away to college and spending the first four years of my career in Texas, I’ve really enjoyed that my job here at The Messenger allows me to get reintroduced to my hometown.

What is the most challenging part of your job?

As a journalist, I have to report on an infinitely wide array of topics and events. If you’ve picked up the paper any time over the past couple months, you may have read about several violent incidents in our community or maybe you’ve read about some of the criminal trials I’ve covered. Those kinds of stories are always the most challenging. It’s a delicate dance to balance the public’s right to know what’s happening in their community, but also acknowledge and respect the parties involved, especially the victims of violent crimes. I definitely don’t always get it right, but I’m always trying my hardest and aim to be better the next time.

Though reporting on violent crime can sometimes be a significant part of my job, I’m grateful that Fort Dodge and Webster County also have plenty of good news to report on as well.

Age: 31, Hometown: Fort Dodge, Profession: Journalist

Cooking can be such an exercise in creativity. I’ve never once followed a recipe exactly as written – I always add my own little spin (though sometimes it’s less than successful). Recently, I’ve been focusing more on baking. This summer, I spent about six weeks perfecting a cookie recipe to enter into the Webster County Fair’s open baking show, and I won a blue ribbon!

What do you most enjoy about the art and culture scene in our community?

I love the variety and affordability of events and opportunities in our community. If you check out the calendar in Twist & Shout, you’ll see there’s no shortage of live music throughout the summer. The Blanden Memorial Art Museum offers so many art classes and camps for all ages. And between the Hawkeye Community Theatre, Stage Door Productions, Comedia Musica Players and the schools in the county, there is almost always at least one play or musical taking the stage each month.

Whether you want to get involved in a show or just enjoy the view, there’s something for everyone in the community.

What advice do you have for a student considering a career in journalism?

The world has never needed caring, inquisitive, dogged journalists more than it does now. This is very often a thankless job, but it is paramount to a democratic society. It is our job to hold accountable those in power, ask the tough questions and – in the words of the late Washington Post publisher Phil Graham – be the “first rough draft of history.”

Ask hard questions even if you know the answer is going to be “no comment.” Let your readers know what questions you’re asking and who’s refusing to answer them. Above all else, remember the people who will be impacted – even in the most minute

ways – by your work. The HBO drama “The Newsroom” had a line of dialogue that I have printed out and posted above my computer on my desk – “News is only useful in the context of humanity.”

What would you like your readers to know about you?

I truly and deeply care about the Fort Dodge community. This isn’t just my hometown and where I grew up – this is Home, with a capital H. It was my dream since I was in seventh grade to see my name on the byline in The Messenger and I take this responsibility incredibly seriously. As I mentioned before, I am always trying my best with every story I sit down to write. Sometimes it comes easily, sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes I get it wrong. I’ve learned from every mistake I’ve made in print – from misspelling someone’s name (often my own) to getting the math wrong on some statistics I’ve calculated to misunderstanding a medical term. I will always fix those mistakes and aim to do better the next time. If any reader wants to pitch a story idea to me or has any questions about my process for writing a story, I welcome them to stop by our newsroom in downtown Fort Dodge, located next door to the Webster County Courthouse.

I am beyond grateful for every single reader who picks up The Messenger every morning. You are why I do what I do.

shiningstar

Abby Newman

Age: 13 • Hometown: Fort Dodge, IA School/Grade: Going into 8th grade at Fort Dodge Middle School

What do you most enjoy about being involved in community theater?

It’s fun to get dressed up in a costume and pretend to be someone else.

What has been your favorite show to perform? Why?

“Scrooge! The Musical”. I like the ‘Christmas Carol’ story and working with everyone, and I made a lot of new friends. I also got to be on stage with my little brother and my mom. The costumes for this show were so much fun to wear.

What is the hardest part about performing in a show?

Getting over the nerves and hoping I remember my lines.

If you could be in any show, and play any role, what would you pick? Why?

I would want to play a role that is creepier, something like Wednesday Addams in “The Addams Family” musical.

I’m actually auditioning for a part like that next month, a character described as a “child terror”. I think it’s more fun to play the crazier characters.

What is your favorite part about dancing?

I like learning new dance skills and working on getting better. I like being up on stage, dancing a routine and the feeling I get when it’s done, and I know I did well. I just love to dance.

What are some of your other hobbies? Drawing and crafts, reading, dancing, listening to music and photography.

What do you think you’ll do after high school?

I love the idea of being a Marine Biologist, or maybe something to do with chemistry. I would also like to start a small side business doing home design.

Walk us through a typical day in the life of Abby Newman.

On a typical day I wake up for school, check the temp and get dressed and ready to go. If I have extra time before we leave I usually listen to music on my phone. My dad usually takes me and my older brother to school.

Sometimes when we get there I’ll help my dad get his class ready, then head to my own classes.I make it through my day and talk to my friends between classes. After school I either stay and go home with my dad or my mom will pick me up. When I go home I take care of my chores and sometimes go hangout with my friends. Depending on the night I also go to dance class for United All Stars, play practices, 4H, faith classes or spend time on any of my hobbies.

moviespot

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer

THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ARE BACK, AND MAYBE BETTER THAN EVER

Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu) and Raphael (Brady Noon) really want is to fit in and go to high school like other teens. They have been relegated to the sewer ever since Splinter, a rat voiced by Jackie Chan, happened upon them after they were exposed as hatchlings to the same ooze that spawned Super Fly — who himself was the product of experiments by scientist Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito, fated to dubious laboratories).

Splinter has much the same opinion of the majority of the rats in “Ratatouille”: Humans can’t be trusted. (Splinter’s particular fear is that they will “milk” him.”) So the turtles have grown up underground, a little like the homeschooled family of “The Wolfpack,” while yearning for the wider world.

They find a hint of it with a high-school journalist named April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), who wants to document, and thus prove to humankind, their decency. At the same, the turtles meet the charismatic Super Fly (voiced with bombastic aplomb by Ice Cube) and his band of mutants. At first, they’re fast-friends — “cousins,” Super Fly says — but the turtles then start hearing of Super Fly’s plans to turn all animals into mutants and eradicate the world of humans.

“Peoples, they got to go,” chimes one mutant.

There are some good gags and clever innovations in the animated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” but there is one brilliant idea: casting Ice Cube as the voice of the movie’s mutant insect supervillain Super Fly.

It might have once been hard to foresee the value of having the emcee who rapped of “dropping bombs on your moms” as the MVP of a PG-rated kids movie. But we’re now up to the seventh “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film, not counting all the series and videogames. That’s a lot of movies for a bit of IP that’s clung more firmly to lunch boxes than it has to pop culture. For the turtles, it was getting to be time to either, as Ice Cube would say, “chickity-check yo’ self” or try something new.

“Mutant Mayhem,” which opens in theaters Wednesday, can’t entirely get over the feeling of trodding over well-covered turtle ground. But if we must go once more into the ooze, the film by director Jeff Rowe (co-director of “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” ) and co-written by co-producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, is

probably the best of a not-so-stellar franchise. It’s certainly the one most invested with that “teenage” part of the turtles’ name. Plus, it’s got Ice Cube as a fly who quotes from the O’Jays.

The animation is vividly textured, the beat is persistently hiphop (Lauryn Hill, De La Soul, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and others pack the electronic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) and the New York of the film is impressively detailed. But the most important twist to this “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” iteration may be diving into the teenage-ness of its 15-year-old turtles.

If “Barbie” was balanced between Greta Gerwig’s childhood memories and her adult feminism, “Mutant Mayhem” gives itself over more fully to the mindset of adolescence. That’s in the grossout humor and the comic book-like feel of the animation. But these are also recognizable teenagers who watch movies (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”), pine for concert tickets and make goofy phone videos of themselves slicing watermelons.

What Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown

Some of the thunder of “Mutant Mayhem” has been stolen by “Into the Spider-Verse” and this year’s “Across the Spider-Verse” — films that likewise upend the typical look of studio animation and do it with a pulsing soundtrack; but they did it more eclectically.

Yet this “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” while a half shell of those films, has its own low-key charms. It’s goofier, grosser and mostly fun. The four turtles are never more than a hard-todifferentiate bale of overlapping dialogue of doubt and anxiety. But that first word in their name finally feels genuine. Seven films in, it’s only right that Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael should get a renaissance.

out of 4 stars

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Mutant Mayhem

Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for sequences of violence and action, language and impolite material.

Running time: 99 minutes

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows, from left, Michelangelo, “Mikey,” voiced by Shamon Brown Jr., Donatello “Donnie,” voiced by Micah Abbey, background left, Leonardo “Leo”, voiced by Nicolas Cantu, and Raphael “Raph”, voiced by Brady Noon, (Paramount Pictures via AP)

AUGUST 17TH

SEPTEMBER 21ST

OCTOBER 19TH

Great food, music for the ages, door prizes, and over 100 cars expected!

SCOTT AMUSEMENT CARNIVAL is headed to Pocahontas August 18th & 19th

22nd Annual No pre-registration, just stop by shined and ready to show at the registration table at New Way Ford!

SCOTT AMUSEMENTS IS BRINGING THE CARNIVAL!

August 19th | 3-6 p.m. | Free Car Show

Main Street, Pocahontas, IA Evening band entertainment sponsored by Luft & Sons at 6 pm next to Odd Fellows

Starting at 5pm on 18th and afternoon & evening of Saturday

August 19th @ 1pm