November 2014 NTown

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Nov. 14, 2014

Wall

to wall

Muralist Rick Sinnett brings big ideas to downtown Norman

+ Norman Philharmonic Q&A — abstract art from the american southwest The revivalism of kyle reid — caught on camera — ntown's top 10 calendar

from the editor’s desk H

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walks through the door. I can't help but feel like there's a graduated scale here, but I don't care. Not this time. I'm getting the damn license or strangling someone with a seat belt. I'm up.

———— Success.

I'd never seen this tester before. He had a spring in his step and an easy smile. He seemed impervious to the evil in this place, like he could've carried the one ring into Mordor skipping and whistling.

We started with parallel parking. If there were an award for such things, I would've just secured a nomination.

It set the tone. Clearly, I could drive and he knew it. Ten minutes later we were back in the parking lot having a laugh and I went off to get my first Oklahoma driver's license. Why they don't just give it to you on the spot, I couldn't tell you. There's probably a practical reason, but I'd like to think it's just unreasoned spite for mankind.

Either way, I'm free. I won't have to get it renewed until 2018. If I let it expire next time, I'm going to use my Passport, which I had been carrying as an I.D., for its intended purpose and leave the country. There may be a driving test in Italy, but from what I've seen I doubt it.

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• Online: normanscript.com/ ntown

ello Norman, I'm writing to you from the depths of Hell — The Department of Public Safety. I don't know how this happened. How a 30-year old man can manage to let his (Texas) driver's license expire is easy enough to explain.

I was busy. That, and based on hearsay I was under the assumption (wrongfully) that there's a 30-day grace period to get it renwed, or in this case get a new Oklahoma license.

The second part, the part where I fail the driving test, is mind-blowingly mind blowing. I've driven hundreds of thousands of miles across the continental United States, driven in other countries and driven professionally.

I've never been a race car driver, but pizza delivery develops similar levels of expertise, I'm sure.

Despite my credentials my bitterly condescending tester saw fit to deny me for: 1. Failing to reverse in straight line • I avoided a car parked behind me.

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

2. Failing to turn my tires into the curb • This one was new to me. I could take responsibility for this one, but I'd rather not. If ever there was a hill in Oklahoma that warranted this maneuver, he may have a point. As the truth would have it, to scale, Oklahoma is actually flatter than a pancake.

So, having refuted my failure for posterity, I'm looking forward to giving it another go sometime in the next 5 to 5,000 minutes. They're giving 'em away like candy to every 16-year-old that

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Q&A with Norman Philharmonic director

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Abstract art in the American Southwest

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Caught on camera: Fuego Friday

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Reverse engineer: Kyle Reid finds his sound

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Hidden gems on Netflix instant play

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Wall to wall: Muralist goes big in Norman

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NTown's top 10 of the month

Publisher Mark Millsap

Cover Design Anthony Kimball

Production Manager Rob Rasor

Scott Strandberg Jessica Bruha

Executive Editor Andy Rieger

Advertising Rebekah Collins Robin Escarcega Kimberly Lehenbauer Ryan Dillard

Writers Mack Burke Doug Hill Mary Newport Katherine Parker

Photographers Kyle Phillips Jay Chilton Nick Powers Mack Burke

Editor Mack Burke

N-town is a monthly publication of The Norman Transcript, 215 E. Comanche St, Norman, OK 73070. (Phone: 405.321.1800). Letters or editorial contributions should be sent to: N-town, P.O. Drawer 1058, Norman, OK, 73070 or emailed to mburke@normantranscript.com. N-town is not responsible for unsolicited submissions. Reproduction or use of editorial or graphic content in any manner, without permissions is prohibited. Address advertising inquiries to Debbi Knoll, 405-366-3554 or dknoll@normantranscript.com. N-town can be found online.

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orman Philharmonic artistic director Richard Zielinski has been all over the world. He spends his summers at the Eisenstadt Music Fesitval in Austria, exposing OU students to a world of music at the very palace where famed composer Joseph Haydn made his mark. He regularly travels to Poland, the land of his ancestry, and never finds himself a stranger even in a foreign land.

For all his worldly travels and international connections, for Dr.Z and the Norman Philharmonic it's about what's cooking in the melting pot. It's about American music. It's about the present more than the past and a bright future for Norman's four-year old symphonic darling.

Last year, the Norman Philharmonic brought in contemporary visiting composers like John Mackey and Michael Daugherty to give the stories behind the music and give listeners some food for thought. This concert season will be no different as Dr.Z and company welcome visiting composer Jerod Tate on Jan. 18.

NTown caught up with the former Wisconsin football player, percussionist, choir master, conductor, and current Norman Philharmonic artistic director to talk about life and music.

NTown: What's going on with the Norman Phil?

Dr. Z: Well, this season, 2014-2015, we have four concerts that are planned. We are going to be part of the opening of Legacy Park. I think it will be done in the spring. We are going to do Handel's Messiah at McFarlin Memorial United Methodist Church with the Chancel Choir and soloists on the 30th of November, which is the first Sunday of Advent. We do it as part of the church service because our goal of the Norman Phil is to do concerts in concert halls, standard concerts, and we also want to do things that are a little different. Repertoire-wise, as far as mix-

By Mack Burke

with Norman Philharmonic artistic director Richard Zielinski

ing the style, contemporary music with music of Bach and doing works that have just been composed by composers here in Oklahoma, for example. We will be doing Part I of Messiah which tells the Christmas story within a church service.

So there will be a recitative, an aria, chorus then a small sermonette by Pastor Linda Harker. So it will be a part of the service at both 8:30 a.m. and 10:55 am. It's open to the public and free.

NTown: The last concert series you guys did a couple of things with visiting composers. Will that be a part of future programs?

Dr. Z: Yeah, our next concert will be in January 18th and Jerod Tate, born in Norman, Oklahoma, part of the Chickasaw tribe, and the piece we will be doing is "Tracing Mississippi." It tells the story of the Chickasaw nation. It's a very interesting piece. He is a living composer, which is also one of our goals of the Norman Phil to work with composers who are writing at this time so that they can come and talk to us about it. There is a historical message in this piece. We will have him speak at the concert as well as the Meet the Composers concerts with 3rd through 5th graders of the Norman Public Schools on the Friday before.

NTown: You just a raised a good point there about bringing in living composers who are doing it right now. I think for so many people, classical music is this thing of antiquity almost, and it's not as present in pop culture. How is it alive today?

Dr. Z: I try to tell the audience or the listener that Beethoven was like Jerod Tate. He had a life like Jerod Tate. These people didn't compose music in the classical period in a vacuum. They had commissions or wrote for a church service

or the king was visiting at the palace where they knew of this great event and special music was needed. All music was relative when it was written. We all have history to our lives and America is very young compared to a lot of countries where classical composers come from so I think bringing in someone (we have done this four years in a row now), we are going to hear music that was written just a couple of years ago and you have a composer who can speak about what inspired him to tell us this story that he is calling "Tracing Mississippi," and he is doing it through this musical language. All great music has a story line, if it has text to it or if it doesn't. There is always a story behind it. And you're right. A lot of symphonies will program their music where you will hear all classical music.

In this concert, not only will you hear a work by Jerod Tate, but we will start off with a Beethoven overture, then we will do a piece written in 1987 by an English composer, Gregson, which is a tuba concerto. We try to highlight the people in the orchestra. I don't bring in a tuba player or a flutist, we take people right out of the orchestra, right out of the community here. So, I think that's different. Especially as we establish the Norman Phil as the orchestra of Norman, Oklahoma, I'd like to get more community involvement. I want people to get to know us. We are playing music that no other symphonies are playing. No one is programming music like we are programming here. Very few orchestras can say that in four years of existence, they have brought in Larsen, Mackey, Daugherty, and Jerod Tate. These are our big hitters. These are our Beethovens and Mozarts of America, our Aaron Coplands.

NTown: Going back to what I was saying before, I think in a way symphony music, people associate that a lot of times with Europe. Amer-

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NTown file photos Dr. Richard Zielinski conducts the Norman Philharmonic last year during rehearsals at McFarlin United Methodist Church (left) and Paul F. Sharp Hall on the OU campus. ica being so young, we have a different history.

What's the American sound if you could describe that?

Dr. Z: There are so many because we are so diverse. We become more diverse every year. There are more cultures coming to America and you'll hear that kind of music. I think if you look back at Europeans, they would describe American music as jazz, or pop music, and then we have what they call "classical composers." Those are like a Jerod Tate. The genius of his writing is how he is connecting it and telling the Chickasaw story or stories of other areas of this country which I think is really special. For him, he's writing a lot about the history of the Chickasaw tribe.

NTown: So you have the melting pot of the American sound right there ...

Dr. Z: Right. Then you might go to the Midwest and hear more Germanic, Polish sounds. A lot of us have been trained by European conductors or composition teachers and then sooner or later you have to find your own voice. Not just as a composer, but as a conductor and as a performer.

You have to find what feeds your soul. For a lot of people like Jerod Tate, I think you will find his writing as having a connection with his mom

who had an Irish heritage, his dad who was Chickasaw. His mom was also a ballet dancer and choreographer, so he was around productions of Fire Bird and music by Stravinsky, so he grew up with these sounds. People may say that we have more of a pop culture in our music but we still have a lot of classical music in America. We have country and western and jazz, but I think it's where you are in the country that will tell you the style. Some areas of the country could be heavier in classical music.

NTown: Well what's interesting about all that, I could never peg the American sound, but when I listen to classical radio, if I hear it, I can tell that it's by an American composer.

Dr. Z: A lot of it is built on melodies. It could be an American folk tune or since it's a very large, expansive country, they can portray that openness we have here as opposed to European countries that could be very small and make it very dense.

Or the different types of temperatures we have from the north to the south. Or the different languages we have from the east to the west. Or if you think of the Deep South to the northeast, the languages are different. The languages will influence how people will hear. Sometimes it's faster, sometimes it's slower, and sometimes it has a little

drawl to it. Great composers lots of times go back to something that was very intimate to them and it kinds of feeds their soul. These composers that we bring in have had great success, where their music has been played from coast to coast, like the San Francisco Symphony or the New York Philharmonic, and we are having these pieces done in Norman, Oklahoma, which is great. That's one of our goals.

NTown: Tell me about Austria and the trips to Europe. How did that start?

Dr. Z: I was very fortunate to have gone to the Classical Music Festival very near Vienna in 1987 as a student, and now now 27 years later I'm the artistic director. I've always had this connection with the area just south of Vienna, in Eisenstadt, Austria where Haydn worked and lived. Haydn.

The Esterhazy, who hired Haydn had resources and could hire the best musicians from all over so there were Polish, Italians, Germans and Austrians who were all playing in his orchestra. This past year, I was able to work with a Slovakian orchestra, soloists from the Vienna Folk Opera, choirs from OU, Oklahoma Festival Ballet in September and we were all performing in See Q&A, Page 21

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Photo Provided A portion of Louis Ribak's lat 1960s piece 'Red Canyon Rising' is characteristic of the Fred Jones Museum's latest exhibit, with its rich colors and abstract approach.

• Fred Jones art exhibit reveals groundbreaking past 11.14.14

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By Doug Hill

The term “Southwestern art” may bring to mind paintings of buffalo or aspen trees. That would be typical but there’s another largely overlooked facet to this region’s rich cultural history. The University of Oklahoma's Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is currently exhibiting “Macrocosm/ Microcosm: abstract expressionism in the American Southwest,” through Jan. 4. It’s a comprehensive look at the style of art that’s most often associated with the revolutionary movement that began in postWWII, Beat Generation New York City.

In fact, the then-controversial art was being produced simultaneously in this corner of the world as well.

Plans for bringing together

this ambitious collection of art began in 2009. Museum Interim Director and Eugene B. Adkins Curator Dr. Mark Andrew White is the exhibition’s curator and author of its exhaustively researched catalogue.

The show is mostly paintings and some sculpture produced between approximately 1950 and 1970. Its artists were either working in or had been influenced by living in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and/or Texas. A strong thread that runs through the show’s narrative is that this region geographically, geologically and visually is an extraordinary part of the globe. Art reflects what artists see, feel and sense intuitively.

The vast stretches of landscape, brilliant colors and seasonal differences of the south-

west had an emphatic impact on their work.

Artists selected for representation include those who came from elsewhere such as the enormously influential Elaine de Kooning and regional natives such as Oklahoma’s Eugene Bavinger whose career was mostly here. Bavinger’s large (69”x69”) canvas titled “Red Earth” has a significant presence in the show and a detail from it is included on the catalogue cover.

His hypnotically appealing “Atmosphere” (1960) was painted on linen and appears to shimmer irresistibly, resembling a green and golden meadow on a sweltering Oklahoma afternoon. Curator White notes that the transfixing painting creates See Southwest, Page 22

CAUGHT on camera OU ceramics facility fires up its kilns for the public during Fuego Friday Photos by Nick Powers

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Right: Kelley Osborn goes through the glazing process during Fuego Friday, an annual fundraiser for the OU student ceramics group Red Clay Faction.

Fuego Friday, which previously focused on iron pours has shifted its focus to ceramic firings.

Below: A Fuego Friday presenter (in Halloween makeup) opens the doors to one of OU's kilns, exposing the 2,300 degree flame to show how the glazing process works.

Norman Ballet Co. 3 col. X 4.75

Reverse engineering the sound • Kyle Reid reviving old-time jazz style

By Jessica Bruha

It was a Monday night and a gloomy sky had already fully darkened by 7:30 as Kyle Reid left a broken down van to walk to an evening interview.

A tall glass of beer sat on a small table inside a dimly lit restaurant, slowly draining as the local musician talked about his latest project, things that inspire him and the choices made that brought him here today.

His interest and pursuit in music began when he got his first guitar at the age of 15.

“I wanted a guitar because I rewatched Back to the Future again at that age and that scene where Marty McFly plays ‘Johnny B. Goode’ – that’s the coolest thing ever,” Reid said. “So then I thought, well, I want to play guitar like Chuck Berry.

I wanna be a rock 'n' roll guitar player.”

Being a rock 'n' roll star may be a common childhood dream, but it wasn’t a fleeting dream for Reid like it can be for so many others. He quit skateboarding, going to football games and all other activities he’d been doing outside of school.

“I basically just spent all of the rest of my high school years in my room playing guitar and listening to records and picking up bits of music from here and there, figuring out what I liked,” he said. “That was a hard thing, too. I didn’t grow up in a family that dove too deep into music.”

Reid explored early Rock, like Chuck Berry, dove into Classic Rock, transitioned into Blues. Then he found his way into traditional Jazz, Dixieland Jazz and Gypsy Jazz, which is where he’s currently at. His project, Kyle Reid and the Low Swingin’

Chariots, is a small combo jazz band with horns, guitars, upright bass and drums, “playing original swing music and traditional standards,” he said.

The band released its album, “Alright Here we Go …” in September and are hoping to release the album on vinyl soon.

“All of the songs on the album we just released are original songs that are written in the style of old jazz tunes. So that was the real thrust of the project,” Reid said. “It’s happy music and it makes me happy to play it.”

The music is something a lot of different audience members can enjoy, whether you are listening intently because you are a jazz fan, or just because you want something to tap your foot or dance to, he said.

The band plays at a variety a venues which often sets the tone for what kind of experience it will be.

Reid said he enjoys playing at rowdy bars like, The Deli or Grandad’s, and venues that lend more of sit and listen approach, like The Depot and The Blue Door.

Reid started getting into jazz in college after a roommate introduced him to French Belgium gypsy guitarist Jean ‘Django’ Reinhardt.

“As soon as I heard his music I thought, ‘That’s it. That’s the sound,’ because it’s just so happy. There’s just something about swing music and early jazz music that I really love because it’s accessible, it’s melodic, it’s danceable and it’s uplifting. It’s just happy music,” Reid said.

Reid became heavily influenced by jazz musicians like Fats Waller, Louis Prima and a name that everyone knows, Louis Armstrong.

Also while in college, he came to the realization he didn’t have to pursue a career in engineering phys-

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Sarah Kirby / NTown Kyle Reid performs Nov. 9 at The Depot as a part of the Winter Wind Concert Series. ics. He could play music for a living.

He stuck it out and graduated from the University of Oklahoma, but now dedicates much of his time and energy to music.

“For the longest time I told myself this is a hobby because everybody chases the rock star dream and ends up broke, alcoholic and you know, a sad sack,” Reid said, adding that he’d just been playing gigs for fun until he finally started to book gigs that paid more than his bar tab. Then the gigs started paying his rent.

Today, his day job is music; a job that inspires others, but also requires inspiration from others.

“If you’re a creative person, it’s im-

portant to be inspired by what other people are doing. Or just be inspired by something,” he said. “You have to get it from somewhere because it takes so much energy to create something.”

Those looking for a little inspiration in the form of music have the opportunity to look no farther than their own backyard as the Normanbased musician regularly takes the stage displaying his passion and talent for anyone willing to watch, listen and maybe even drink a beer to.

For more information about Kyle Reid and his project Kyle Reid and the Low Swingin’ Chariots, visit kylereidmusic.com.

movie reviews Hidden gems on

“The American” (2010) In the midst of a snowy Sweden winter, Jack (George Clooney) and his lover, Ingrid, appear to be any 10 ordinary vacationing couple.

The pair go for a walk through the beautiful, tree-lined countryside, when Jack notices footprints in the snow. He grabs Ingrid’s hand and breaks into a sprint, hiding behind a rock outcropping as gunfire rings out.

Jack pulls a gun of his own, prompting 11.14.14 a shocked, “You have a gun?!” from Ingrid. He expertly eliminates two assassins, telling Ingrid to go call the police from the cabin. As she runs away, Jack calmly shoots her in the back.

To say that “The American” grips the viewer from the start would be a serious understatement. The scene detailed above spans the film’s first five minutes, and sets the tone for director Anton Corbijn’s intense character study. Clooney’s Jack is a hitman, and one of the best in the world. In an early conversation with his shadowy boss, Jack reveals that Ingrid likely had nothing to do with the attempt on his life in Sweden, but killing her was the only way to make sure he was safe.

Based on the Martin Booth novel “A Very Private Gentleman,” it is this extreme form of social isolation that provides the real focus of “The American,” as the film follows Jack to a small town in Italy. There, he attempts

By Scott Strandberg

In this age of digital media, Netflix Instant Play is entering nearly everyone’s homes. The streaming service is now a part of nearly 35 million American households, a number which is growing by the day. With that in mind, this column serves to highlight films you may have overlooked on Netflix. Everyone sees the big ads for "World War Z" and "Pain & Gain" when they log in to the

to leave behind his life as an assassin, though for him, trust can be just as deadly as the men who will inevitably attempt to track him down.

Shot in the Italian province of L’Aquila -- the least-densely populated region of Italy — the sumptuous landscape is a character in itself. The film is packed with gorgeous wide shots of the mountainous countryside, the vastness of Jack’s surroundings playing a stark contrast against the claustrophobic nature of his lifestyle.

Jack develops a tenuous friendship with the town priest, a man worthy of his trust, but also smart enough to see through Jack’s shaky facade as a magazine photographer. He also finds himself drawn -- in different ways -- to two women. Mathilde is a client (almost certainly an assassin herself) who hires Jack to custom-tailor a rifle, and exudes the seductive danger of a classic Hollywood femme fatale. Clara is a prostitute with whom Jack seeks comfort, but she too may be far more than she seems.

For a film about contract killers, “The American” sets up its scenario with great care. Corbijn slowly ratchets up the tension with methodical precision, resulting in a film that feels much like Alfred Hitchcock’s best suspense thrillers. The tension builds to a thrilling white-knuckle climax, one that pays off the preceding slow burn with a heart-pounding action sequence, and a surprising amount of emotional resonance.

Jack is a character who is, by necessity, obsessed with details. By that guideline, “The American” is the perfect film for this character to inhabit, and Clooney the best actor to portray

service, so I’ll recommend films each month that may not pop up on the Instant Play home screen. There won’t be any negative reviews here, just suggestions that could come in handy on that random Wednesday evening when nothing is on TV. Follow Scott on Twitter @scottstrandberg

him. Jack is an outsider in the small, tightly knit village, but he would be an outsider anywhere. There is no place in proper society for a man like Jack.

He has merely adapted as best he can.

This is Clooney at his very best; his performance infuses Jack with a sense of guilt, of longing, of regret. We really know nothing of Jack’s past, but Clooney’s body language tells the viewer more than any voice-over or flashback could. Jack is a man who feels the impact of every mistake he’s made, every life he’s ended. He also knows that he is perhaps undeserving of forgiveness.

“The American” is rated R for violence, sexual content and nudity.

“Knuckleball!” (2012) The knuckleball is one of sport’s great oddities. At no time in baseball history has there been more than a handful of players in the majors who throw the pitch. It’s possibly the most unpredictable aspect of a highly unpredictable sport. Managers don’t know how to coach it. Catchers don’t know how to catch it. Hitters don’t know how to hit it.

“Knuckleball!” -- co-directed by documentarians Anne Sundberg and Ricki Stern -- sheds light on the uniqueness of the pitch, and the few men who throw it. With other pitches, the hitter reads it according to the spin on the ball as it approaches to the plate. What

makes the knuckleball so unpredictable is the fact that it doesn’t spin at all. That, combined with the fact that it’s thrown slowly -- about 25-30 miles per hour slower than an average fastball -- makes the pitch extremely hard to hit, when thrown correctly.

However, only 70 to 80 players in baseball history have made a living throwing a knuckleball. In the film, it is referred to as a second-chance pitch, and that’s largely true. Learning to throw a knuckleball is something that marginal players will do as a last resort. They’ve come to realize they aren’t likely major-league material, and trying a knuckleball is a (usually unsuccessful) last-ditch effort at making it to the big show.

“Knuckleball!” focuses on the only two active knuckleballers from the 2011 season. Tim Wakefield was the oldest player in baseball, at age 44, and chasing his 200th career win.

Meanwhile, the 36-year-old R.A. Dickey had just recently tasted sustained success for the first time. Along for the journey with Wakefield and Dickey are legendary former knuckleballers Phil Niekro and Charlie Hough, who act as mentors to their younger counterparts.

Whereas Wakefield spent 17 consecutive seasons with the Red Sox, Dickey and his family moved 37 times in a 15-year span as he chased his baseball dream. He was the Texas Rangers’ firstround pick in 1996, but a post-draft physical revealed that he did not possess an ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his elbow. The Rangers revised their $800,000+ offer, instead signing Dickey for just $75,000.

The stark contrast between the careers of Wakefield and Dickey

provides the film’s emotional core. Even though knuckleballers typically have longer careers than other players, Wakefield was pretty much washed up by 2011, and his long, arduous journey to 200 wins can be a bit painful to watch.

Dickey, on the other hand, was just getting settled with the New York Mets, having found himself after 15 years of dogged perseverance.

Great documentaries often focus on the fringes of society. “Knuckleball!” hones in on the brotherhood of just four men who exist on the outskirts of Major League Baseball. Even within the confines of baseball culture -- a niche segment of society to begin with -- these are men who no one understands. That is, no one but each other.

(Wakefield retired after the 2011 season, leaving Dickey as the only knuckleball pitcher in baseball. In 2012, Dickey won the Cy Young Award for the best pitcher in the National League. He currently earns $12.5 million a year pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays.)

“Knuckleball!” is not rated.

“Snowpiercer” (2013) Global warming reached its breaking point.

A last-ditch effort to cool down the atmosphere backfired tremendously, sparking a new ice age.

The few survivors live aboard the Snowpiercer, a train which circles the globe in perpetual motion.

“Snowpiercer” is the first English-language film from writer/director Bong Joon-ho, creator of acclaimed Korean films “The Host” and “Mother.” Bong manages to maintain the uniquely Korean zeal of his previous films, while still creating something easily accessible to American audiences.

The locomotive is divided by class, with the rich supposedly eating steaks up front, and the poor living in the back of the train, subsisting on “protein blocks,” which look like bricks of brown gelatin. What’s so interesting about “Snowpiercer” on a narrative level is that it doesn’t show the seeds of revolution being planted. The lower class has already had enough by the time the film starts -- and they have a plan.

A gruff, dirty Chris Evans -- nearly indistinguishable from his clean-cut “Captain America” persona — stars as Curtis. His right-hand man

is an elderly man named Gilliam (John Hurt); clearly a nod to legendary absurdist filmmaker Terry Gilliam (“Brazil,” “Monty Python”), whose work was a huge inspiration to Bong.

Curtis and Gilliam have planned the revolt for months, and the film picks up just as they prepare to make their big move. The first step in the plan is freeing the train’s imprisoned former head of security, Namgoong (Song Kang-Ho), a junkie who promises to lead them to the front of the train, in exchange for drugs.

Tilda Swinton (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) plays Mason, the liaison between the front and back of the train. Mason gets many of the film’s best lines -- “My friend, you suffer from the misplaced optimism of the doomed” -- and Swinton delivers them with hysterical irreverence. She clearly had a blast with this villainous role. (Also, keep an eye out for a certain University of Oklahoma alum, who has a tremendous cameo as Wilford, the man who lives at the front of the train.)

Writer/director Bong injects his film with a surprising amount of humor, keeping the somewhat clunky social commentary well in check.

While “Snowpiercer” was far from a mega-budget investment, its visual effects are frequently exhilarating.

The frozen cityscapes, bridges and mountains -- while beautiful -- frequently reiterate how truly impossible surviving outdoors would be.

The action sequences sizzle with energy, as Bong never runs out of creative ways to have two groups of people fight each other. Set design is another standout element, as the band of misfits makes their way from the dreary rear of the train to the increasingly glamorous cars further forward.

In the end, this is Evans’ film, and he carries it with ease. He has two lengthy dialogue sequences in the film’s final act that up the emotional ante considerably. One is a powerful conversation with Song with both men displaying impressive dramatic range, in a scene in which Evans speaks English, while Song speaks exclusively in Korean.

“Snowpiercer” is an oddity, to be certain. It’s tonally scattershot, as absurdist comedy and tense, high-stakes action frequently co-exist in the same frame. Yet that’s part of what makes “Snowpiercer” so much fun. Bong wants nothing more than to entertain his audience, and he employs every technique he can to make sure that happens.

“Snowpiercer” is rated R for violence, language and drug content.

Joe's Taverna 2 columns x 10 inches

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Wall to wall:

By Mack Burke

Rick Sinnett can’t find canvases at the store. Not since he made the leap to full-time muralist. Now, he’s on the hunt for barren buildings and the chance to transform the mundane and sterile into explosions of rich color.

If you live in the 405, you’ve almost undoubtedly already seen his work. From the converted silos at the OKC Rocks indoor climbing facility, to the side of the Studio 420 building

on E. Main St., his work stands out with towering color.

His latest target, The Financial Services building at Main St. and Peters Ave., is ripe for the picking. A nightmare for the acrophobic, It’s a 140-foot by 80-foot wall of possibility to Sinnett.

“It was kind of weird.

Initially, as I was painting the mural down at 420 E. Main St., I would find myself looking back over my shoulder at this canvas. I remember thinking to myself, ‘wow, that’s a perfect

canvas.’

He usually scouts his canvases, but in this case building owner Jim Adair was scouting him. Adair had seen his work and thought it would be a good way to add to the downtown landscape.

“Rick had done the mural at the (420 E. Main St.) and it looked good. And he thought our building was the perfect canvas. So it took about four months to put it all together.

We’re very excited. You know, obviously it’s located in the

Muralist Rick Sinnett brings big ideas to downtown Norman arts district and thought it was a good accent for downtown,” Adair said. “We love Rick’s work. He’s a very gifted artist ... and he can paint six stories in the air.”

It’s not for everybody. It’s a battle with the elements. The wind whips through scaffolding and the sun bakes down. Rain comes out of nowhere and you’d better hope you don’t drop anything.

“Obviously the elements are a challenge,” Sinnett said.

“The heat of the summer, when

you’re up against a concrete wall and if it’s 100 degrees outside, that can be a challenge.

Wind, when you’re up of the ground 100 feet or so can be a challenge. It is kind of terrifying to paint something like this, but there are always challenges. I’m not easily defeated. There are times where you get frustrated, but I try to push through those moments. It’s kind of therapy for me. When I get the brush in my hand, I’m in another world.”

Then, there’s the sheer size

of the project. It’s daunting, but it all starts with pen and ink.

Then it gets transferred to the computer where it’s scaled for size.

“When you’re face to face with the red-tailed hawks I’m painting now, it’s got a wingspan of 70 feet. So, when you’re right up on it you kind of get lost. You can’t see it,” Sinnett said. “You just paint one inch at a time and then at the end of the day you step back See Mural, Page 22

Kyle Phillips / NTown Muralist Rick Sinnett goes to work sketching out a stencil on side of the Financial Center Offices building at Main and Peters Ave. The building will serve as a giant canvas for Sinnett who has been contracted to paint a giant mural on the building’s east wall.

11.14.14

Photo Provided Muralist Rick Sinnett paints a giant mural titled “This Land” on the facade of the OKC Rocks climbing facility in Oklahoma City. The converted silos made a great canvas for Sinnett who completed the project in 2013.

12

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13

Wall to wall:

By Mack Burke

Rick Sinnett can’t find canvases at the store. Not since he made the leap to full-time muralist. Now, he’s on the hunt for barren buildings and the chance to transform the mundane and sterile into explosions of rich color.

If you live in the 405, you’ve almost undoubtedly already seen his work. From the converted silos at the OKC Rocks indoor climbing facility, to the side of the Studio 420 building

on E. Main St., his work stands out with towering color.

His latest target, The Financial Services building at Main St. and Peters Ave., is ripe for the picking. A nightmare for the acrophobic, It’s a 140-foot by 80-foot wall of possibility to Sinnett.

“It was kind of weird.

Initially, as I was painting the mural down at 420 E. Main St., I would find myself looking back over my shoulder at this canvas. I remember thinking to myself, ‘wow, that’s a perfect

canvas.’

He usually scouts his canvases, but in this case building owner Jim Adair was scouting him. Adair had seen his work and thought it would be a good way to add to the downtown landscape.

“Rick had done the mural at the (420 E. Main St.) and it looked good. And he thought our building was the perfect canvas. So it took about four months to put it all together.

We’re very excited. You know, obviously it’s located in the

Muralist Rick Sinnett brings big ideas to downtown Norman arts district and thought it was a good accent for downtown,” Adair said. “We love Rick’s work. He’s a very gifted artist ... and he can paint six stories in the air.”

It’s not for everybody. It’s a battle with the elements. The wind whips through scaffolding and the sun bakes down. Rain comes out of nowhere and you’d better hope you don’t drop anything.

“Obviously the elements are a challenge,” Sinnett said.

“The heat of the summer, when

you’re up against a concrete wall and if it’s 100 degrees outside, that can be a challenge.

Wind, when you’re up of the ground 100 feet or so can be a challenge. It is kind of terrifying to paint something like this, but there are always challenges. I’m not easily defeated. There are times where you get frustrated, but I try to push through those moments. It’s kind of therapy for me. When I get the brush in my hand, I’m in another world.”

Then, there’s the sheer size

of the project. It’s daunting, but it all starts with pen and ink.

Then it gets transferred to the computer where it’s scaled for size.

“When you’re face to face with the red-tailed hawks I’m painting now, it’s got a wingspan of 70 feet. So, when you’re right up on it you kind of get lost. You can’t see it,” Sinnett said. “You just paint one inch at a time and then at the end of the day you step back See Mural, Page 22

Kyle Phillips / NTown Muralist Rick Sinnett goes to work sketching out a stencil on side of the Financial Center Offices building at Main and Peters Ave. The building will serve as a giant canvas for Sinnett who has been contracted to paint a giant mural on the building’s east wall.

11.14.14

Photo Provided Muralist Rick Sinnett paints a giant mural titled “This Land” on the facade of the OKC Rocks climbing facility in Oklahoma City. The converted silos made a great canvas for Sinnett who completed the project in 2013.

SOONER THEATRE 3 col. X 4.75

Just sayin’

Velocirapturus domesticus

book reviews

By Mary Newport

By Mary Newport

"Making Masterpiece" Rebecca Eaton 2013

"Sherlock Holmes" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1887

Trivia question: What do British period dramas, an American oil company and a doting mother have in common? They're all part of the tricky mix that went into making Masterpiece Theatre such a huge success.

Now, 28 years after its founding, the drama anthology television series is known simply as Masterpiece, but it's still celebrated for its quintessentially British mix of literary adaptations, mystery series and historical re-imaginings.

Masterpiece did not spring fully-formed from the bosom of Brittania.

Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of the series for 25 years, had much to do with which shows were picked, what actors were cast and how the entire enterprise was handled. In “Making Masterpiece,” she shares the secrets of her success, the stories of her failure and no few interesting anecdotes about some of the famous faces she's gotten up close and personal with.

The book is partly a history of Masterpiece from its conception to its modern incarnation, and partly the story of Eaton's life as she rode the whirlwind – or occasionally was dragged by it. Her history is every bit as fascinating as the series'. Eaton, the daughter of actress Katherine Emery, was raised in Pasadena, California – hardly the place one expects to find a fascination with hot tea and the stiff upper lip. She jumped at the chance to go to London, and spent two years as a production assistant for the BBC World Service.

It fueled her passion for all things English, something that served her well in her role at Masterpiece. She learned to juggle motherhood and constant travel, went through five miscarriages with her ever-supportive husband and experienced the crushing panic of losing sponsors and very nearly being sacked.

Surprisingly, for someone so long invested in the good pacing of television shows, Eaton has a great deal of trouble keeping events in order. She dives into a story that happened a decade ago, jumps from there to more contemporary incidents, then a few chapters later refers back to the previous decade again, as she has apparently just remembered something else that happened. Every now and again she includes a story about someone who died three chapters before. It makes for a dizzying read, and a slightly jarring one. Readers with poor memory may want to take notes.

The poor pacing is completely made up for by the cast. Masterpiece played host to a names like Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey, Daniel Radcliffe in his first acting role for David Copperfield and Benedict Cumberbatch in the modern Holmes adaptation, Sherlock. Eaton shares snippets of conversation, fun facts about sets and costumes, and behind-the-scenes stories about odd occurrences or serendipitous chances that brought productions together. Fans of British television will get a kick out of seeing their favorite actors through Eaton's eyes, and Anglophiles in general will identify with the tale of a determined American student who set out to get a piece of England and almost bit off more than she could chew.

Overall, the book is less a memoir and more a cozy, erratic conversation, with random tangents, topic switches and personal memories tangled inexorably with professional ones. It should by no means be considered a comprehensive, or even mildly complete, history of Masterpiece Theatre, but it's a fascinating look at the work and life of Rebecca Eaton, offering insight into the development of great shows and juicy tidbits about the professional and personal quirks of quite a few actors.

Read if: You own anything with the Union Jack on it.

Don't read if: Fancy frocks and upper-crust accents leave you cold.

Originally, he starred in four novels and 56 short stories. Later he became the subject of comic strips, stage plays and countless films. He met Batman in one of his many comic book cameos, and Abbot & Costello on one of his myriad radio adventures. He spawned more television shows than you can shake a magnifying glass at. Today he's on T-shirts and backpacks, immortalized in board games and the sustaining force behind a whole industry of funny hats.

It's clear to see that, 127 years after he first appeared in print, Sherlock Holmes is still going strong. In fact, that may be an understatement — Sherlock is hot right now. (Benedict Cumberbatch anyone? How about Robert Downey Jr.? Don't get me started on Jude Law as Hotson.) Holmes has far outlasted his shelf life; name one other character created in 1887 who's feeling half as hale. Yet here he is, a household name. How is it possible that, with all that's changed over the years, the man is still an international sensation?

The best explanation I can give is this: Start at the beginning. Somewhere in all the 15 hype about the BBC’s Sherlock, CBS’s Elementary, all the films and rewrites, very few people have actually read the original stories. They’ve become cultural hear-say, known only as the forerunners of the modern incarnations — and it’s a damn shame.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s work is timeless, vivid and beautiful. The Sherlock Holmes stories are not mere dry prose; they’re the rich, thick scent of tobacco rolling into the evening air, the soft yellow wash of lamplight and the distant bubble of chemicals. Suddenly, they’re a rap on the door, a pair of wide, desperate eyes and a waft of strangely familiar perfume. All at once they’re the distant scream growing closer, the sharp bite of gunpowder in the nose and the scarlet splash of blood across the cobblestones.

Holmes is enigma made flesh, the keenest mind of his age whittling away at strange experiments and ghastly secrets before going out for a round of bare-knuckle boxing 11.14.14 with rowdy toughs or a night at the theater in his best waistcoat. He is bored to catatonia by a day without a case, but he obessively catalogues the minutia of every life that passes before his eyes. He is courtly in all his dealings but finds almost everyone to slow to tolerate -- except perhaps John Watson. Watson is his constant companion, no mere sidekick but a warrior in his own right, a soldier come home to fight a different kind of war. He is all gentleness as a doctor, all fierceness in the face of danger and eloquently admiring when he chronicles Holmes’ adventures.

To put it simply, reading the original tales is like having a warm cup of tea while a sophisticated gentleman entertains you with scholarly stories of putrefaction and a kindly doctor pats you on the shoulder while shooting a man dead with his other hand. It’s an ideal way to spend a cold winter night.

Of course, the sheer volume of work makes the tales hard to tackle, but there’s no lack of suggestions for where to start. Personally, I’m sticking to my earlier advice: start at the beginning. “A Study in Scarlet” is the first Holmes novel. It begins with the history of veteran John Watson returning home from Afghanistan, wounded and aimless. He meets a strange but charismatic chemist looking for someone to share lodgings — and history is made. The novel is both a beautiful example of Doyle’s crisp, laconic adventure writing and his dreamy, descriptive illustrations of man and nature. It’s fascinating, satisfying and insidious; once you finish it you feel the first slow, steady tug of a lifelong addiction to Sherlock Holmes. The entire series is available for free from Project Gutenberg at gutenberg.org. You’re welcome. Get to it.

Read if: You like Victorian England, mystery and unraveling the clues.

Don’t read if: You dislike British history, unconventional crime solving and classic wit.

album reviews

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By Doug Hill

Artist: Moonlight Towers Album: “Heartbeat Overdrive"

Austin is the only city in the world believed to still have working moonlight towers. They were the late 19th century precursor to modern electric street lamps.

11.14.14 Based in that Texas music mecca, the band Moonlight Towers take their name from the tall cityscape illuminators. It’s highly appropriate because the guitar, drums and keyboards quartet are a beacon of rock 'n' roll.

Their new album "Heartbeat Overdrive" dropped earlier this week and it’s happily representative of the great American genre that’s been praised and damned for over sixty years.

It’s a compact nine tracks of wellcrafted goodness. None of the songs’ lyrics are head scratchers. They face life’s most difficult challenges headon and turn them into triumphant and hopeful anthems. “Come Back to Tara” was inspired by lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter James Stevens’ dad’s advice to his daughter who was going through a painful

By Doug Hill

marriage disintegration.

Pop’s a "Gone With The Wind" fan. He urged the young woman to come back and lick her wounds in ‘Tara,’ his tongue-in-cheek name for the home where she grew up.

Moonlight Towers’ sound is sophisticated rock that relies on virtuosity rather than bombast. It won’t be surprising to hear this music in movie soundtracks one day because of the variety of moods these songs evoke.

“Exit My Mind” is the familiar theme of a troubled lover’s power that refuses to fade. It’s among the disc’s gentlest tunes, recalling 1964era The Kinks and boyish Rolling Stones.

Gentle doesn’t translate into languid. Moonlight Towers’ strength is their ability to take what are largely gloomy themes and imbue them with musical energy. Last track “Crawling Back” flies at breakneck speed. It has the kind of guiding light rock intensity that lures people straight onto dive bar dance floors.

Artist: The March Divide Album: “Billions"

Billions is an album of ten songs

by San Antonio’s The March Divide.

It’s a distillation of what seemed like a zillion hours listening to indie rock in Norman’s micro venue Opolis from 1997 to 2006.

Comparisons of this music with The Promise Ring and Pedro the Lion immediately come to mind.

Emo is a term not applied frequently in 2014.

The March Divide’s Jared Putman and Patrick Reetz give the genre another long lingering soul kiss with these tunes.

Unchecked emotion gushes forth from the get-go on first track “I Told You So.” Promises not kept, obstacles to affection erected and indefensible nonsense all make for furious rock n roll vitriol. “You’re so wrong,” Putnam sings in conclusion.

There’s nothing like having the last word. The song is up-tempo and irresistibly infectious. Even though these songs are about tempestuous and usually painful relationships they’re all incredibly fun to listen to.

Rolling thunder percussion and well-crafted guitar lines pulse throughout. You’d expect a song titled “November Suicides” to be horrific, but it’s essentially dramatic moping about his lover’s dirty looks.

“Dumb Luck” is the cheeriest composition. It boasts nerdy pillow talk chorus, “We are young in our distance to the sun/ And we know all our fortunes that will come.”

Unrequited heart throbs are an Emo staple.

The March Divide eschews cardiac arrest for a shot of punk adrenaline in “Given Out.” Back-up shouting echoes the lead vocalist to make it a screamo anthem. “Situations” is remarkable for Putnam memorializing the fact that he got caught looking down the blouse of a woman he’s smitten with at a gathering of friends.

His guitar may be gently weeping but happily they leave together. Billions of reasons could undoubtedly be collected for why a stake should be driven through Emo’s heart but Billions isn’t one of them.

CAUGHT

Halloween in Norman Photos by Nick Powers

on camera

ehouse ol. X 9.5

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Top left: Aubrey Morgan gets some face paint during the OU Hispanic Student Association's Dia de los Muertos celebration on the OU campus.

Top right: Kathleen Kelly and Sarah Ranowsky at O'Connells Pub. Bottom: Kelby Luna, Cassidy Smith, Mary Berger and Kalab Silva on Campus Corner.

Das Boot 3 col. X 9.5

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CAL

Peforming arts studio 3 col. X 10

Check out NTown’s top ten for November and early December!

1

• On the ice When: Nov. 29 - Jan. 4 Where: Andrews Park • Lace up those ice skates and brace for fun (and/or impact) at the Norman Outdoor Holiday Ice Rink.

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• 'Little Women' When: Nov. 14-23 Where: Weitzenhoffer Theatre, 563 Elm Street.

Adapted for stage by Marisha Chamberlain and inspired by the classic book of the same title by famed author Louisa May Alcott.

Additional performances are at 8 p.m. Nov. 15, 20, 21, and matinees at 3 p.m. Nov. 15, 16, and 23

5

• Holiday Gift Gallery 2014 When: Nov. 14 - Dec. 24 Where: The Firehouse Art Center The Firehouse Art Center will be open late for shopping during the 2nd Friday Art Walk: Friday, Nov. 14 and Dec. 12 from 6 to 9 p.m.

If you need a special painting for

your home, an exceptional piece of jewelry or a unique wedding gift, you may have come to the Firehouse to select one.

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• 'Oklahoma Nutcracker' When: 3 p.m., Nov. 30 Where: Nancy O’Brian Center for Performing Arts The Norman Ballet Company Presents "The Oklahoma Nutcracker," Sunday Nov. 30, 2014 at the Nancy O’Brian Center for the Performing Arts

Tickets are on sale now, with prices ranging from 15-$25. For information and to purchase tickets please visit ticketstorm. com, or call 1-866-966-1777.

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4

• Winter Wind concert: Peter Mulvey When: 7 p.m., Nov. 16 Where: The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave. Peter Mulvey, whose playing ranges from tender acoustic picking to rootsy blues & jazz returns to the Winter Wind stage.

The Boston Globe describes

Mulvey as “Gleefully mercurial... equal parts breezy jazz and whispery folk."

Tickets are $20.

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Mama Sweet album release When: Dec. 5 & 6 Where: The Deli, 309 White St. After a long hiatus and with thousands of miles in between them, the original members of Mama Sweet, along with keyboard mastermind Dan Walker, will release their long awaited sophomore album "21

Cimarron Opera will partner again with the Norman Arts Council for the Downtown Norman fall festival on Friday, October 24.

This free event will feature the

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• 'Meet me in St. Louis' When: Dec. 5- Dec. 14 Where: Sooner Theatre Based on the heartwarming movie, the audience is invited to join the Smith family at the 1904 World’s Fair, and see how their love and respect for each

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perennial favorite, Cimarron Opera's Wolves & Witches. Short 20-minute shows will begin at 6, 7, and 8 p.m. followed by a fun craft for kids to complete.

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echo" during a two-night stand at The Deli in Norman. If you aren't familiar already, here's your chance. With members strewn across Oklahoma and the Pacific Northwest, they don't come around often.

Joe's wine, spirits 3 col. X 9.5

Artist Talk: 5 - 6 p.m., Nov. 14

• Cleveland County Craft Show When: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., Nov. 29, 30 Where: Cleveland County Fairgrounds

can muster to Stash for the 2nd Friday Art Walk Concert Series.

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Closing Reception: 6 – 10 p.m., Nov. 14

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• 2nd Friday Concert Series featuring John Calvin Abney w/ Idabel & Stranded at the Station When: 7 p.m., Nov. 14 Where: Stash, 412 E. Main St. The self-described singersongwriter, guitar-gunslinger will bring all the energy a performer

• Can You Hear Me Now — Holly Wilson Dialogos E Interpretaciones II: The Americas: A South America/United States Print Exchange When: November 14-15 Where: Mainsite Art Gallery, 122 E Main St.

other is tempered with the genuine humor that can only be generated by such a special family.

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Art • Dreamer Concepts: A Community Art Space (428 E. Main St.) is open at their new location, showcasing the work of emerging artists • MAINSITE Contemporary Art: Home of the Norman Arts Council (122 E. Main St.) displays Can You Hear Me Now — featuring new work from Oklahoma artist & sculptor Holly Wilson — and Dialogos E Intrepretaciones: the Americas, a 20 print exchange featuring artists from across North & South America. MAINSITE is also showcasing the work of NAC Individual Artist Award winner, woodworker, musician and furniture designer Hunter Roth in the Library Gallery as well as Norman photographer Casey Kim in the Water Closet Gallery. A special artist talk with Holly Wilson will kickoff at 5 p.m. before the closing reception.

• Firehouse Art Center (444 S. Flood Ave.) is hosting its annual Holiday Gift Gallery. This festive, yearly expansion of the Firehouse’s gift shop into the gallery exhibition space provides an opportunity for the FAC to highlight and support local artists by showcasing their work for sale to the 11.14.14 public. The Holiday Gift Gallery inclues a wide assortment of original and handmade artwork on high-quality crafts.

• The Depot Gallery (200 S. Jones Ave.) is open with an Art Chat and reception for its 4th annual Small Works Show, featuring works from Rick Fry, Almira Grammer, Brad Price,

Bert Seabourn and John Seward.

• Jacobson House Native Art Center (609 Chautauqua) features the work of three of Oklahoma’s contemporary artists: Virginia Stroud, Robert Taylor and Merlin Little Thunder.

• Kid’s Corner (Corner of Main & Peters Ave.) comes back — weather permitting — from 6-8 p.m. this November thanks to TRiO, which is arranging free art activities for families to enjoy. TRiO assists low income and first generation students on their pathway to post secondary education. They serve schools in the Austin area and specialize in financial literacy, college exploration, college application processes and financial aid processes.

• LOCAL (2262 W. Main St.) is showcasing the glass work of Rick & Tracey Bewley, the husband-and-wife pair behind the new Norman Public Arts-sponsored sculpture on the corner of Main and Porter.

• The Social Club (209 E. Main St.) welcomes featured artist Bethany Young, an Oklahoma native and photographer who captures her love of the state’s landscapes with her work printed on wood.

• STASH (412 E. Main St.) opens up with new featured artist Trisha Thompson Adams, along with new work from Annah Chakola of Boho Gypsy and a special art auction to benefit Second Chance Animal Sanctuary. They will also host this month’s 2nd Friday Concert Series show, featuring John Calvin Abney, Idabel and Stranded at the Station.

• Dope Chapel (115 S. Crawford St.) has a sketchbook/ journal/notebook/diary show, featuring a massive collection gathered from artists across the country. They end the night with Shishio’s record release show, featuring an assorted group of Oklahoma bands and noisemakers like Askanse, Weak Knees, Repioneers and Sardashhh.

• Gray Owl Coffee (223 E. Gray St.) is exhibiting posters produced following a pilot project on the molecular gastronomy of coffee conducted OU students.

• Third Eye Gallery and Ashtanga Yoga Studio (120 E. Tonhawa St.) has Tiffany Edwards and the Boop Collection.

Edwards is inspired by mythology, nature and the universe.

• Sandalwood & Sage (322 & 324 E. Main St.) has musical guests Jahruba and friends drumming & strumming the night away. Lori J & Lana K — the Sterling Sisters — are back and will have their own special brand of Native and Oklahoma Jewelry in sterling silver and beads and as always light refreshments.

• Studio Ink (220 E. Main St.) will feature Tulsa native

OU school of drama 3 col. X 3.25

Charles Caleb Burgess. His aerosol and acrylic pieces bring richness to everyday life through rhythm and non-traditional color.

• Bigfoot Creative (315 E. Main St.) is featuring new work by husband and wife Hoka Skenandore and April Holder of Shawnee. The Native American artists will be joined by acoustic music and more.

• D.M. Wealth Management (201 E. Main St.) is excited to showcase new work by Gloria Lamar. Lamar worked at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum for over a decade. She now focuses on her art work, winning awards at Midsummer Nights Fair and Mayfair in recent years.

• Bell’s Mystical Beginnings (529 E. Main St.) is hosting their 2nd Friday Drum Circle with girls from A Mirage Dance Company. There are specials on Oracle and Tarot Readings and free 10 minute healing energy sessions.

• Gallery 123 (123 E. Main St.)

Music • Norman Arts Council and Norman Music Festival present the 2nd Friday Concert Series, this time featuring some of the most gorgeous folk music the state of Oklahoma has to offer with John Calvin Abney, Idabel and Stranded at the Station.

The show is free, all-ages and starts at 7 p.m. at STASH (412 E. Main) in the STASH Annex.

• Norman Arts Council and Guestroom Records (125 E. Main) are collaborating to bring you Random Noise, an eclectic series bringing you even more music during the art walk. This month we’ve got the guitar-driven indie pop of Bored Wax, along with the Death Cab for Cutie-inspired Plain Speak. It’ll start at 7:15 p.m. and wrap up before 9!

• The Bluebonnet Bar (321 E. Main) is happy to present the gypsy jazz, blues-inspired noise of the Ardent Spirits along with Okie-centric balladeer B.A. Fielder at 10 p.m.

• Michelangelo’s Coffee & Wine Bar (207 E. Main) plays host to a free performance by Heartbreak Rodeo from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

• Opolis (113 N. Crawford) is alive with a record release party for The Bourgeois, also featuring psych rockers Helen Kelter Skelter and indie poppers Gum. Doors open at 8 p.m. with the show starting at 10. $5 at the door.

Q&A (from page 5): let in September and we were all performing in the Esterhazy palace. To me, that's heaven. You are bringing people together who may never be in the same room, we are all working towards a product that's musically driven and has a positive message to it. I love that. We are creating art. The more time I spend in some of these other countries and I come back, I read about all of the violence in America. It literally stops me in my tracks. Classical music does something to one's soul, it tames the beast, it creates beauty.

We need beauty in this country of ours. There seems to be more hatred and people being nasty about things. Having people stop for 15 minutes and listen to a beautiful flute solo, there's got to be something in there that does something to your soul, making you reflect. If music only makes you remember the great times or the good times that are coming or the good times you are in, or missing someone, or loving someone, that's the beauty of music.

That's why I do this. I think music has something of value to our society. I think music makes the world a kinder place, it makes you feel. You have to produce music of great quality or else it says nothing to anybody. That's our challenge.

NTown: When you go to prepare for a concert, what are some of the challenges? What's your process?

Dr. Z: The more structured I am, the more creative I can be. My rehearsals and preparation, how I learn the music, how I prepare the rehearsals, how we rehearse each piece, the information, like the source and the message the composer is trying to tell the audience, I give to the players, all of that helps the music come to life. I make sure it's not just organized sound. What moves the listener is different for every person.

NTown: So you were a percussionist, right?

Dr. Z: Yes, I played the drums from elementary school through high school.

NTown: Being a conductor and approaching someone about an instrument that you don't play, is it more related to the sound that you want to hear?

Dr. Z: Yes, and I'm fortunate to have wonderful players in the Norman Phil and I learned so much from these musicians. But I am a servant to the score, what the composer wrote. It's non-negotiable. If the composer wrote something, you have to do it. Sometimes you don't have everything in the score, like in Bach, where there are very few dynamics, and you have to really figure out what

NTown file photo Dr. Richard Zielinski shares the stage with visiting composer Michael Daugherty during the Norman Philharmonic's one-year anniversary concert.

Bach was thinking about. That's why I do my research. I love the historical aspect of the piece, the source. It's a very personal connection I have with the composer. That's why when the composer is still alive, I talk to them about it. Composers have a very specific reason why they wrote something. I like doing score study and thinking, "why did he or she do this there?" That's my job, find the source, and then, try to sculpt sounds with my gestures. Once the orchestra knows that I know the score, they trust you. For "Tracing Mississippi," this is the Oklahoma premiere so there will be a lot of new sounds hitting the orchestra and the audience.

They are playing something completely new.

Players like that and it gets them pumped up. I have to find a connection to real time, what's happening right now. What I love about making music in real time, there is an edge to it. There is so much excitement in that. My teachers taught me the value of music to our culture. We are doing something in Norman that a lot of communities aren't able to do. When you look at the other arts in Norman, you realize this is a pretty happening place. People care about the future here. Education, family, religion, they are still important here.

NTown: What was the funniest moment you can share from a concert?

Dr. Z: Oh man, I've launched a few batons, hit a trombone player in the head once. I keep an extra one on my stand. It's always an adventure. an assistant forgot to put a score out on the podium, so I walked out on stage and realized there was no

score on my stand. My assistant realized this, and we proceeded to retuned orchestra for another five minutes as my assistant tried to locate my scores.

21

NTown: What's the future of the Norman Phil in the next 10 years?

Dr. Z: We will do more concerts, keep the mission of doing American music of our time, continue to highlight our players, and do more outreach concerts for the community. I would like to do more collaboration with places like Sooner Theatre, the Firehouse, and the Norman Music Festival. I would like for us to have a sister city in Europe like in Austria and Poland where we can do an exchange.

There is so much potential for the Norman Phil to do exciting things. I would like for us to become a recording orchestra. There are a lot of composers where their music is never played if it's not recorded.

If we can turn this into a recording orchestra we can help promote American composers. Just think of the variety of music we’d bring to our community. I'd like to see how we can combine popular music with classical orchestras and just experiment. I think this would be a great place to experiment. People are open to ideas here, they like doing something different here.

They have that kind of spirit in this part of the country. We have to keep creating new ways of bringing music to all kinds of people and to experience music with people. It's exciting. I believe the music we make in the Norman Phil can have a positive effect on our community. Creating beauty through music can touch one’s soul in a very positive way.

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Southwest: (from page 6)

22

a nexus between Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism. “Atmosphere” is part of the museum’s permanent collection. Seeing a photograph of the painting doesn’t come anywhere near the experience of viewing its exciting vibrancy and vivid colors as it hangs on the museum wall.

Along with place, the time period had its own impact on the art. After WWII the southwest grew rapidly with a major scientific center at Los Alamos, NASA in Houston and the new USAF Academy in Colorado Springs. Millions of former service people were benefiting from the GI Bill and some studied art. New York artist Louis Ribak opened the Taos Valley Art School in 1947 to cash in. His “Red Canyon Rising” (late 1960s) is among the more stunning canvases in the show.

Black fissure-like strokes and crescents punctuate a vividly orange-red arroyo.

Abstract art and commercial advertising seldom meet but Ribak’s late 1950’s oil on Masonite painting “Suspension” is a notable exception. The image was used in Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California magazine ads soliciting new employee graduate students.

“Contemporary education, like contemporary art, continues to find expression in new areas,”

the copy reads alongside Ribak’s painted trio of suspended shapes against an overcast-gray atmosphere.

A pair of curious paintings by Ben Culwell represents the Dallas-Ft. Worth arts scene of the time. Both his “Backyard Sundance in Suburbia” and “Texan” are documented to have been created over two decades between 1954 and 1974. During those twenty years he was meticulously layering paint on their wooden boards.

The results are dizzyingly chaotic bursts of color and form that create Culwell’s own intersecting geometry of urban and prairie landscapes. The paintings’ titles are clues to his observation of the Lone Star State becoming a new magnet for people and ideas in the mid-twentieth century.

Taos and Santa Fe, NM come to mind immediately when considering Southwestern Art. Less salient is the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque which was indeed a hotbed of modernist encouragement as early as 1949. Macrocosm/ Microcosm gives the Lobos’ lair its proper due by including works by UNM professor Raymond Jonson and his students Richard Diebenkorn, Charles Littler and Rita Deanin Abbey. Littler’s “Desert I” (1960) is a blue-green collision of angles under a black storm-layered horizon.

It has foreboding textures and mood that sug-

gest the desert as a malevolent environment. The desert was a place where nuclear weapons were tested, an existential concern among many of the era. Elaine de Kooning was a visiting professor at UNM in 1958 and her magnificently expressive “Albuquerque” (1960) rated prime placement in the show. It’s the first massive (82”x77”) paintings you see walking into the main exhibition room.

Previously inspired by New York architecture, de Kooning credited New Mexico with opening her eyes to new painterly vistas.

With only a few exceptions the works are nonrepresentational. The handful of sculptures come closest to portraying objective subjects. Duayne Hatchett’s “Landscape West” (1962) manages to wring a stylized roadrunner and blazing sun from oxidized scrap steel. OU design professor emeritus James Henkle’s “Growth” (1952) employs five slender vine-like stainless steel rods rising together and apart in graceful undulations from a wooden base.

Macrocosm/ Microcosm is among the most thoughtful and attractive exhibitions at The Fred in recent memory. The museum is open every day save Monday and major holidays. Admission is free courtesy of a grant from the OU Office of the President and the OU athletic department.

Mural: (from page 13)

11.14.14

and hope that you laid down enough paint that it starts to look like something. That’s one of the toughest things. There’s just not enough time in the day to paint.”

The design, a massive red-tailed hawk, has been on his list for a long time. In fact, he came up with design fifteen years ago. In fact, he came up with design about 15 years ago. He was just waiting for the perfect spot to spread its wings.

"I've been painting scissor-tailed fly catchers all over the place, but to me, the red-tailed hawk is just as much a symbol of Oklahoma as just about any other bird," he said.

What started in his youth as pen and ink doodles has morphed into something grand. He's creating something for everyone now.

"For me, the thing about it is, it's not so much about actually painting the mural. It's about public art," he said. "As an artist, it's one thing to be able to travel the country, sell your art and be able to pay the bills off your art, but I think it's human nature to want to do something for the better good of mankind. When you're selling prints and stuff like that, it's appealing to a point, but it wasn't really feeding my soul. I was always searching for something a little more."

It's a point of pride for him and after painting

Photo Provided Muralist Rick Sinnett paints a giant mural titled “This Land” on the facade of the OKC Rocks climbing facility in Oklahoma City. his first mural about three years ago in the Blue Dome district in Tulsa, he's come up with a plan to paint 11 murals on Route 66 from Oklahoma border to border. Three down, eight to go.

It's a giant task, but he knows what he's doing.

He expects his current project to take about a

month to complete. Then it's on to the next one.

From wall to wall and border to border, it's all coming together, one inch at a time.

Mack Burke @TranscriptNTown mackburke@gmail.com