Time Warp

FREE EVERY WEDNESDAY | METRO OKC’S INDEPENDENT WEEKLY | OCTOBER 12, 2016

Lyric Theatre's Rocky Horror steps right back onstage

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Mission stateMent Oklahoma Gazette’s mission is to stimulate, examine and inform the public on local quality of life issues and social needs, to recognize community accomplishments, and to provide a forum for inspiration, participation and interaction across all media.

P.25 By design, The Rocky Horror Show breaks all the rules. No one is sup-

City Oklahoma Contemporary and Automobille Alley

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Performing Arts Garrison Keillor

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Business Innovation District Business Nichols Hills Plaza development

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Visual Arts Picturing Indian Territory, 1819-1907

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Education digital textbooks Chicken-Fried News Letters

Visual Arts Symbiotic at Lightwell Gallery

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Books The Last Man to Hit .400: A Love Story

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Review Taqueria El Rey Feature Junior’s 43rd birthday Feature The Bleu Garten cocktail menu

Active Riversport Island Adventures

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Film Electric Nostalgia Calendar

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Event J French Event Special Thumbs Live Music

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Astrology Puzzles Sudoku | Crossword

19 Feature Hideaway Pizza expands 20 Briefs 22 Gazedibles Aw, nuts

25 Cover The Rocky Horror Show 26 Performing Arts OKC Ballet’s Rodeo: A Triple Bill

Gazette Weekly Winner! eleanor riley

To claim your tickets, call 528-6000 or come by our offices by 10/12/16!

For information on entering this week’s Gazette Giveaway see pg. 38

aRts & cUltURe

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posed to throw anything at an ordinary musical, especially not on stage. Society is supposed to need rules, after all. Without them, there is chaos. However, this Halloween season, Lyric Theater of Oklahoma is once again giving over to absolute pleasure. “It’s the one night we encourage people to be crazy,” said Michael Baron, producing artistic director at Lyric and director of this year’s production.

By Ben Luschen. Cover by Chris Street.

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Shared art

A founding mission pushes Oklahoma Contemporary to new heights with plans to build a new arts campus in Automobile Alley. By Laura Eastes

As a volunteer for Oklahoma Contemporary, 17-year-old Brianna Lodge encourages local children to dive into their imaginations by creating art.

The young artist doesn’t instruct when working with youth through the nonprofit’s arts camps and outreach events. Lodge makes frequent trips to the craft closet for supplies. She is known to carry vibrantly colored pipe cleaners in her pockets and is ready at a moment’s notice to pass them along to young artists. Her joy is watching the youngsters imagine, express and create. Nearly a decade ago, she was in their shoes, first learning how to express herself through art.

When Lodge volunteered at the most recent Oklahoma Contemporary Make + Take event, she was more than prepared to answer parents’ questions about the organization, a nonprofit encouraging artistic expression in all forms through education and exhibitions.

First, Lodge told parents about its summer camps. Then, she began to reflect on her experience, not mentioning the skills she secured as an artist but the confidence she developed. As Lodge described her first experience with Oklahoma Contemporary, she characterized herself as a shy and quiet student, too timid to ask her instructor for a pencil.

“It does help a kid come out of their shell,” Lodge told Oklahoma Gazette. “If it hadn’t been for Oklahoma Contemporary, I would still be so shy.”

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Lodge credits Oklahoma Contemporary for boosting her confidence to apply to Harding Fine Arts Academy, a prestigious charter school centered on the arts, and a photography camp at the University of Central Oklahoma. She was accepted into both. Now, the junior high school student is considering an art minor in college. At times, she has thought about a career as an art instructor for Oklahoma Contemporary or another similar arts organization.

Future plans

Over it’s 27-year history, Oklahoma Contemporary has influenced thousands of young artists, inspired novice to advanced artists, connected professional artists to the community and offered locals the chance to experience art of the highest caliber through free exhibitions.

Oklahoma Contemporary began as City Arts Center, an organization founded by Christian Keesee and the late Marilyn Myers in State Fair Park. From the beginning, leaders made it their mission to create

It helps complete the cultural landscape for Oklahoma City.

Donna Rinehart-Keever

Leaders and supporters of Oklahoma Contemporary, including Christian Keesee center move ground where the organization’s new arts campus will be in Automobile Alley. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

accessible arts programs. The guiding principal pushed the organization to never charge admission for an exhibition and constantly develop outreach programs to underserved communities.

The board’s commitment hasn’t wavered.

In fact, the mission served as the motivation toward developing a plan to expand the nonprofit’s reach. About eight years ago, early in the planning, board members and leaders discussed a new location for constructing a world-class arts campus to better serve Oklahoma City and the state.

A year ago, leaders revealed plans to move from the fairgrounds to an area just north of Automobile Alley near downtown Oklahoma City. Leaders touted the new location for its ability to put Oklahoma Contemporary in a spot more accessible to the public. Additionally, with the 4.6 acres, renovations to an existing building and plans to build, leaders envisioned an arts campus offering many of the center’s well-known programs and events, but on a grander and greater scale. For instance, with outdoor space and a design fabrication lab, patrons would find new options for creating, expressing and enjoying art.

In late September, a large crowd gathered at NW 11th Street and Broadway Avenue to see Keesee and fellow Oklahoma Contemporary leaders move a step closer toward the future of the organization as ground was broken for the new arts campus.

“A new more accessible center for art is very much needed now,” said Keesee, board president. “Today, a third of Americans are engaged in arts institutions or performances. Public funding for culture has decreased dramatically.

Nationwide, we are experiencing an arts education crisis. Despite its proven advantages in critical thinking and creativ-

ity, art has been eliminated in too many classrooms. Nearly half of the public schools in Oklahoma City do not have an art teacher. Exposure to the arts is something that no one should be deprived.”

Through a capital campaign, leaders have raised $15.5 million toward the $26 million project. The campus will be home to a 50,000-square-foot, four-story building called Folding Light, which will feature eight classrooms, gallery space, theater space and a dance studio. Plans also call for renovation of a 10,000-square foot building and creation of an arts park with space for outdoor exhibitions, educational programs and public performances. The arts campus will accommodate camps, classes, workshops, lectures, school field trips, exhibits, performances and more.

When Oklahoma Contemporary completes its arts campus in late 2018, it will amplify the arts to an already vibrant and diverse area of the city. Nestled north of Automobile Alley and to the east of Midtown, the area is home to a variety of retail shops and local eateries as well as places of work, worship and living. It’s an area known to attract people, including visitors.

“It helps complete the cultural landscape for Oklahoma City,” said Donna RinehartKeever, Oklahoma Contemporary’s executive director. “It is a strong, vibrant destination point for Oklahoma City.”

Big impact

Oklahoma Contemporary leaders’ vision is already becoming a reality. Make + Take, one of the organization’s popular outreach events for families, has utilized the new arts campus. Under tents, staff set up tables and chairs and prepare art supplies. They don’t wait long before families begin showing up in droves. The free weekend event offers children a variety of different art pieces to craft and create that match Oklahoma Contemporary’s most recent exhibit, enticing parents to want to check out the art.

Anywhere from 60 to 100 people will participate in Make + Take at the fairgrounds location. When Oklahoma Contemporary moves the event to NW 11th Street and Broadway Avenue, upward of 350 people visit the event.

“You have to be wanting to come here to find us,” Rinehart-Keever said when comparing the two locations. “There, we have more visibility. It’s location, location, location.”

Lodge can attest to the new location pulling people in. People passing by asked the volunteer about the gathering, if their children could participate and what Oklahoma Contemporary was. Lodge’s answer is simple: It’s a place to discover confidence, meet new friends and create art.

Keesee’s reply isn’t mush different.

Oklahoma Contemporary inspires audiences to dream big. To celebrate the organization’s ability to inspire dreamers, Tomás Saraceno’s Cloud City, a large-scale steel and acrylic installation, will continue to grace Oklahoma Contemporary’s future campus through Oct. 30.

To Keesee, it’s a signal of what’s to come: “It’s big. It’s visionary and it’s fun.”

The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools Presents

Ronald E. Bogle

Honoring

|

Paula B. Pretlow

|

Mason Williams

Tuesday, November 1, 2016 at Embassy Suites by Hilton

Oklahoma City Downtown Medical Center | 741 North Phillips Avenue

Champagne Reception & Reunion 6pm to 7pm Dinner & Induction Ceremony 7pm Please RSVP by October 21, 2016

You may RSVP by emailing debby@okckids.com.

For sponsorship information call Debby Guthrie at 405.604.5977 or emails debby@okckids.com

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buSiNESS

Lead lab engineer Paulina Mwangi talks about the GE Global Research Oil and Gas Technology Center laboratory during a recent tour. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Imagination, innovation

GE Global Research Center fits right in at OKC’s developing innovation district.

By Laura Eastes

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” Albert Einstein’s words are displayed inside the newly opened GE Global Research Oil and Gas Technology Center, a $125-million facility that opened last week in Oklahoma City.

The modern, 95,000-square-foot research and development center overlooks downtown Oklahoma City and the skyscrapers home to well-known oil and natural gas companies. The building is decorated with the words of some of history’s greatest inventors as well as the multibusiness company’s technology past and future efforts in the industry.

The beautifications match the promises of GE leaders and the more than 100 research scientists, engineers and technicians working at the company’s 10th research facility and the first designated for the oil industry. The center will become the home of breakthroughs, company leaders said, as staffs work to solve some of the industry’s largest challenges. It was the message touted by Lorenzo Simonelli, GE Oil & Gas president and CEO, during an Oct. 5 opening ceremony.

Imagination already has found a home inside the Oklahoma City research center.

Not long after GE’s 2013 announcement to come to Oklahoma City, the company started construction on a facility and built 6

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a team, which has worked out of rented space in City Place in downtown. Staff began to transition into the new facility, located at NE 10th Street and Walnut Avenue, in July.

Two of those staffers are research engineers Dustin Sharber and Ashraf ElMessidi. The two are part of a team developing a helicopter drone to test for methane leaks around oil wells. Called Raven, the technology could save oil and natural gas companies money and time in detecting leaks, which are environmental and public health concerns. If the model progresses passed Alpha, it would replace workers walking around wells with infrared cameras to detect for leaks. Raven’s ability to fly over the field, collect and send data to an iPadlike device can inform an operator of leaks and their severity.

“We took it from a concept on a piece of paper in June, 2015, to improving the concept and (conducting) field demonstrations just a couple of months ago,” explained El-Messidi from the third-floor ideation room. “We made tremendous progress.”

The work on Raven is one example of the GE researchers’ innovations.

Innovation home

GE is the newest anchor in the recently initiated Oklahoma City Innovation District, an area of 1.3 square miles of downtown that

includes University Research Park, Automobile Alley and University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Groups like the Brookings Institute and the Urban Land Institute have pushed innovation districts as a key for building successful and modern cities. Innovation districts are popping up in places like Boston; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Delray Beach, Florida. Typically, leaders develop the districts in areas already home to research institutions, tech startups, health or science firms or places with an emphasis on higher education. In addition to researchers, scientists and tech workers, the areas also draw young entrepreneurs. The idea is that people want to generate ideas, share those ideas and innovate. The close proximity to other startups, business incubators and established firms facilitates the connection of people, ideas and commercialization.

A 2014 paper by the Brookings Institute, which spurred interest by policymakers, leaders and urban planners across the county, introduced the innovation district concept as, “a radical departure from traditional economic development.”

We made tremendous progress.

Ashraf El-Messidi “Unlike customary urban revitalization efforts that have emphasized the commercial aspects of development (e.g., housing, retail sports stadiums), innovation districts help their city and metropolis move up the value chain of global competitiveness by growing the firms, networks and traded sectors that drive broad-based prosperity,”

wrote the Brookings Institute’s Bruce Katz and Julie Wagner. “Instead of building isolated science parks, innovation districts focus extensively on creating a dynamic physical realm that strengthens proximity and knowledge spillovers.”

The districts are believed to spur technology developments, create a community of inclusiveness and build sustainable economic development, according to Katz and Wagner. The two said innovation districts must expand beyond employment options and offer buildings with a mix of uses: housing, office and retail. Strong public transit and walkability play crucial roles in the success of innovation districts.

Last fall, the Brookings Institute and Project for Public Spaces began an 18-month study of Oklahoma City’s Innovation District.

The results of the study, which will examine the district’s economic strengths and quality of life offerings, are believed to provide the momentum for moving the district forward.

The study is backed by the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Initiative for Innovation and Placemaking and has garnered support from a number of local organizations, including the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber.

In September, 2015, Roy Williams, chamber president and CEO, shared with the Oklahoma City Council that the study would be “extremely important” and further shape the district’s development by establishing plans for integrating housing, recreation and transit.

“We are trying to create more places where people can live, work, play and learn in one location,” Williams said at the time.

Right fit

Oklahoma City’s innovation district is already an epicenter for research, health care, education and technology. The GE research center adds to the district’s growing reputation.

The new facility includes a high bay lab area, which is home to test wells and flow loop technology. When the lab goes live this month, up to 70 scientists can work at the same time. Some might be developing new technologies to enhance oil recovery or test a new style of jet pump.

Paulina Mwangi, lead lab engineer, said she is developing a way to better capture carbon dioxide for increasing production in oil and natural gas wells. Currently, techniques used on well sites might only capture 30 to 40 percent, she said.

“For all those years we’ve been producing oil, we still have the largest fraction left in the reservoir,” she said. “It is for good reason. The process we have created still lacks in efficiencies.”

Oil and gas production challenges fuel the work at GE. Many leaders believe its ideas, imaginations and innovation taking place at the research facility and the neighboring companies, firms and tech startups, help solidify Oklahoma City momentum toward a successful innovation district and stronger downtown.

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NEWS Plaza wants to be more than just a retailbased hub.

SoulCycle, a major fitness franchise with locations in Brooklyn and Beverly Hills, will move into center, as will Pure Barre, a fitness studio with another location in Edmond.

These studios will be the first of their kind in the center, he said.

After Crescent Market closed in 2011, which had called Nichols Hills Plaza home since the 1940s, Allsbrooks said much of the center was left vacant.

The announcement of Trader Joe’s last year, however, heralded a sort of rebirth for the area.

“We’ve already met and become friends with everyone,” Dyke said. “I’m looking forward to watching [the Plaza] grow into even more of a destination for people who live outside this area.”

En Croute

buSiNESS

Managing partner Crosby Dyke at the new En Croute restaurant in Nichols Hills Plaza. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Plaza evolution

Nichols Hills Plaza celebrates rejuvenated growth with addition of En Croute, Trader Joe’s and more.

By Kara Stewart

En Croute is a new, locally owned bar, restaurant and fromagerie, or cheese shop, for non-French speakers. It is also the brainchild of managing partners Crosby Dyke and Jonathon Stranger, with partners Tracey Zeeck, Robbie Haggard and Andrew Rice.

“En croute actually means to be baked in pastry,” Dyke said. “And that’s how we wanted it to feel, to just envelop you in warmth.”

En Croute is among the many new enterprises joining Nichols Hills Plaza this fall. The restaurant is located in the northwest corner of the plaza near Luxe Objects and Van Cleef Salon, and will open in midNovember, owners said.

Plaza general manager David Allsbrooks

said he has seen a lot of growth in the twoand-a-half years worked with the dining and retail center, and more businesses are opening this fall.

As general manager, Allsbrooks works with the leasing agents to help ensure new business are good fits for the plaza, factoring in the current businesses, available parking and the concept of bringing new energy into the community without straying too far from its close-knit feel.

“Not only is [En Croute] the only one of its kind, the placement on the northwest side of the Plaza is really important,” Allsbrooks said. “The idea is that having a restaurant open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks will boost traffic in that area.”

Diverse offerings

En Croute joins existing food residents Pops, Saturn Grill, CoolGreens, and Provision Kitchen, with The Coach House restaurant The Hutch on Avondale, which is now reopened under its new, progressive fine dining concept.

Dyke said of her new neighbors: “By not competing, but rather finding a place to complement all of the offerings, we end up part of this dynamic, comprehensive lifestyle center filled with things you can’t get just anywhere.”

Other new additions include the recently opened Trader Joe’s grocery store, a popular retail franchise in the northeast.

It opened in late September.

“I have someone ask me about it at least five times a day,” Allsbrooks said. “It’s definitely a popular topic.”

Also in the way of retail will be accessory boutique Rustic Cuff, known for its popular bracelet designs. Lily Rain, a clothing and accessories store, also will be moving into the Plaza.

With neighboring Classen Curve also in the process of expansion, Nichols Hills

En Croute’s inspiration arose from the small European cafes partners visited while traveling.

The space is made cozy with mint-green tile and a counter-height bar.

“We wanted to create an elevated but casual experience,” Dyke said. “A decadent environment with simple offerings.”

Open breakfast through dinner, the weekday menu features sandwiches, salads, espresso and pastries. Brunch is offered on Sundays.

En Croute will offer a three-course dinner Thursdays-Saturdays, which includes a soup or salad, entrée and choice of dessert or cheese board. Dinners are selected by the chef and are offered until sold out.

“It’s all focused on high-quality, mostly local ingredients,” Stranger said of the menus. “Just clean, simple flavors.”

Stranger also co-owns Ludivine and The R&J Lounge and Supper Club with Russ Johnson.

Stranger said he is excited to be curating a new taste for Nichols Hills Plaza.

Echoing the simplicity of the food menu, the drinks offered focus on quality over quantity.

In addition to espresso, En Croute will offer an elegant bar.

“There are about five wines and beer,” Zeeck said. “And we’re focusing on liquor pours, not cocktails.”

As its name says, En Croute also is a cheese shop, curated by Dyke, who calls herself the venue’s cheesemonger.

“Like any ’80s or ’90s kid, I grew up on Velveeta,” Dyke said. “It wasn’t until I began working for (specialty grocer) Forward Foods that I became interested in real cheese.”

En Croute will offer cheese trays to go, as well as in-house boards and samplings of cheese and charcuterie.

Dyke said artisanal and Old World classic cheeses from France, Italy, Portugal, Great Britain and America will be available.

New retail, fitness and dining concepts join growing Nichols Hills Plaza. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

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Digital shift Digital textbooks could change learning styles in Oklahoma schools.

By Laura Eastes

Educator Rob Davis has spent his career giving students a powerful sense of history and a look into the complexities of the past.

In his Yukon High School classroom, Davis introduces students to primary sources, like historical documents, eyewitness accounts and speech recordings.

He teaches Oklahoma History and Native American Expressions.

Reading from a textbook couldn’t be farther from Davis’ lesson plans. Through primary sources, Yukon students gain historical perspective and approach their learning like historians, diving into the time period and grasping the issues through the voices and words of tribal chiefs, early Oklahoma settlers, past governors and more.

“Yes, we can read about it,” Davis said, “but it’s better to hear about it or see it.”

In recent years, classroom technology has allowed those primary sources to be presented digitally, for example on iPads, in the hands of students.

According to Davis, technology and digital sources push his students to a higher level of understanding.

This summer, Davis shared and compared his resources and lesson plans with other history teachers in Oklahoma.

Those educators combined resources and their own classroom exercises to curate the digital textbook for Oklahoma History, one of nine courses covered in the Oklahoma Library of Digital Resources.

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New tool

Launched in August by the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA), the library offers free digital textbooks, lectures, activities and lesson plans for high school teachers. Housed in iTunes U, the library can be accessed at okdigitalresources.com by all 584 Oklahoma school districts at no cost. OSSBA and global technology company Apple collaborated and created the library, which can be accessed on both Apple and nonApple products.

The library ensures all Oklahoma teachers have high-quality digital resources to use while teaching in their classrooms. School board association leaders think schools can maximize their students’ learning power in technology, improve engagement and shrink the digital equity gap by utilizing the library.

It could also shift state dollars from textbooks to technology.

Oklahoma joins six other states in collaboration with Apple’s iTunes U to offer high school content. Currently, OSSBA and a group of middle and elementary school teachers are the first in the nation to develop a digital library for courses covering grades kindergarten through eighth grade. The library is set to go live in January.

Right time

When school began in August, Oklahoma educators were tasked with classroom

Rob Davis works with Erik Sproul in his classroom at Yukon High School. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

implementation of the Oklahoma Academic Standards approved by lawmakers in the spring.

Months before, a group of 40 educators began aligning resources to the new state standards. As part of the OSSBA digital library project with Apple, Oklahoma’s top high school educators selected resources to match the online courses. Teachers didn’t write the curriculum, but located, vetted and curated resources and exercises for teachers to use in their classrooms.

Last month, elementary and middle teachers began to curate the digital library for younger grades.

“We are making Oklahoma educators’ lives hopefully better,” said Davis, who took part in creating both digital libraries.

“We are finding and categorizing by state standards. Students will find [the content] useful, engaging and even entertaining.”

Ann Caine, OSSBA’s director of education leadership, heads the project. A former public schools superintendent, Caine said a majority of teachers want to integrate technology into their classrooms, but switching from traditional learning can take hours of preparation.

“At the end of the day, who truly has the time to vet what is high-quality and what meets the new Oklahoma Academic Standards?” she asked. “Teachers don’t have time.”

The digital library’s easy-to-use format makes it accessible to everyone, even those not entirely comfortable with using technology.

New direction

In the past, Oklahoma City teacher Dan Covey spent hours digging for digital resources that fit his life science courses.

The 13-year educator goes beyond basic Google searches and has located science simulations created by college research-

ers and projects posted online by the National Science Foundation. Covey sees technology in the classroom as an important asset to prepare students for the future, especially since students are already digitally fluent.

Covey said he was excited to work on the middle school science course for the digital library. The concept of a digital library utilized in the classroom connected with his approach to teaching at Belle Isle Middle School, which is part of Oklahoma City Public Schools.

“The resources that we are able to access you could never put into a textbook,” Covey said. “You can click to a document, which becomes interactive. If you don’t know a word, hold your finger down and look it up. You can highlight a section and search for more information. … This is interaction where kids can go off on learning tangents, very different than putting a textbook in front of them.”

In use

In Yukon, Davis is one of many teachers turning to iTunes U. At the swipe of a finger, Davis and his students can hear audio recordings of inf luential Oklahomans, like U.S. Sen. Robert S. Kerr, Wild West entertainer Gordon W. “Pawnee Bill” Lillie and civil rights activist Clara Luper.

In the moments after his students listen to a powerful speech by Luper, Davis announces his assignment. He wants his students to write a reflective piece. How did they feel when they heard Luper, the face of the Oklahoma civil rights movement, describe the social injustices she experienced decades ago in the neighboring community?

“My kids love it,” Davis said. “It is not the ordinary, but the extraordinary.”

Experience Chickasaw culture at our annual harvest celebration!

Kids take a pumpkin home!

A TASTE STE

OF AUTUMN FALL FESTIVAL • SAT., OC T. 15

Join us for a day to celebrate the harvest season!

Tour the village food arbors to sample Chickasaw specialties.

A pumpkin patch adds to a Fall Festival that includes Stomp Dance, stickball and butterflies. Come!

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chicken

friedNEWS

Creepy clowns

Nothing is scarier than a clown.

Sure, in preschool, clowns were funny, made balloon animals and performed magic tricks. Eventually, there comes a time in life when clowns are anything but cute or friendly.

With those florid noses, unrelenting grins and conspicuous hairstyles, they can appear untrustworthy and possibly sinister. Maybe reading Stephen King’s It more than once was a bad idea.

At Chicken-Fried News, we can only imagine that people in south Oklahoma City were seeing their worst nightmares with recent sightings and social media-based threats.

Earlier this month, reports emerged of clown sightings — or at least people in clown clothing — near SW 59th Street and Western Avenue and U.S. Grant High School, located on S. Pennsylvania Avenue, KOCO.com reported.

The TV station located a Facebook page that specifically threatened violence in south OKC during Halloween time.

South OKC residents can take comfort in KOCO. com’s report that the page was removed and Oklahoma City police say there are no credible reports of creepy, congregating clowns menacing public safety.

Unless you count this year’s elections.

Boogie rights

Many of the world’s greatest poets and storytellers (Aesop, Shakespeare, Smash Mouth) have told us “not all that glitters is gold.”

Were these wise men commenting on the strip club dancer pay dynamic? Probably not, but the expression still applies.

Former Oklahoma dancer Angel Wilson is suing both Little Darlings and Lawton’s Dragon West, claiming she was “deprived compensation,” NewsOK.com recently reported.

She alleges the clubs failed to pay her or her colleagues minimum wage.

Wilson’s lawyer told NewsOK. com that the clubs improperly classify the dancers as “indepen “independent contractors” when they should be treated as employees.

“Everyone thinks these girls make so much money,” he told NewsOK. com. “They really don’t make that much.”

Wilson’s lawyer also claims that she and other dancers are charged a house or bar fee before they can even perform. The attorney said they also are required to pay a nightly disc jockey fee.

At Chicken-Fried News, we believe adult entertainers are as entitled to a fair wage as anyone else.

Help wanted!

Have you ever heard anyone say, “Let’s wait until we get all the facts and then we will know?”

Well, we have the facts, and they ain’t pretty in regard to racial diversity in many of Oklahoma’s newsrooms.

The fact of the matter is Oklahoma newsrooms are white. One can easily argue our state’s newsrooms fail to represent minority populations.

According to The American Society of News Editors, “people of color make up about 17 percent of newsrooms staffs” in the United States. In Oklahoma, 14.5 percent of newsroom staffs are comprised of minorities.

Coverage from NonDoc.com, an Oklahoma City-based online news publication, reported that key Oklahoma newspapers — Oklahoma Gazette, Norman Transcript and Tulsa World — were not included in the study.

NonDoc.com summed it up nicely when managing editor Josh McBee wrote, “If you are a minority with any interest at all in pursuing a career in journalism, I strongly urge you to go for it. Your communities need you, and companies in this industry want you, perhaps more blatantly than in any other industry.”

Green party?

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cluding Right to Farm, changes to the state’s liquor laws and something about The Apprentice going on hiatus for four years.

But supporters of State Question 788 are already looking ahead to 2018, when the more than 67,000 signatures Oklahomans for Health collected will put medical marijuana to a vote of the people.

The 10-day period for challenging petition signatures passed, ensuring that the measure will go on a future ballot.

Oklahomans for Health would like a special election on the issue called for next year, but at a cost of $1.2 million, that might be a hard sell, according to Tulsa World.

Excited? Well, slow your joint roll. Not everything is as dried-and-deseeded as it may seem.

In the interim, Oklahomans for Health sued Attorney General Scott Pruitt for changing the wording of the ballot measure in a way supporters said would mislead voters into thinking a yes vote would fully legalize marijuana in the state.

As rewritten by the AG’s office, the ballot would read: “This measure legalizes the licensed use, sale and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma. There are no qualifying medical conditions identified.”

The lawsuit said, “This language would

mislead voter and/or make argument against or show partiality,” and asks the judge to restore the original ballot language, which said, “This measure amends the Oklahoma State Statutes. A yes vote legalizes the licensed use, sale and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma for medicinal purposes and must be approved by an Oklahoma Board Certified Physician.”

police received a 911 call and arrived at a carwash to find 51-year-old Patrick James Shultz spraying down a Chihuahua mix and a puppy in a cage with the industrialstrength pressure washer set on highpressure rinse.

KFOR.com reported that police records show Shultz was holding the sprayer a foot away from the animals, and then turned the sprayer back on after police turned it off.

The pups were scared but are expected to be okay, the TV station reported. They were taken to Woodland Animal Hospital.

Footage from KFOR.com shows warning signs cautioning car wash users about the danger of its hot water and highpressure spray.

“They’re dangerous, even to cars,” Gary Chambers, a man at the carwash, told NewsChannel 4. “You can pull

paint off a car with them, so you can darn sure hurt an animal.”

KFOR.com reported that Shultz has been in Oklahoma for at least two years and has been charged with aggravated assault and battery and burglary in that time.

Shultz’ reason for washing his dogs with the industrial washer was that one of them threw up and he’s from California and just doesn’t know any better.

He faces charges of animal cruelty.

High-pressure cruelty

Power washers just aren’t for dogs.

Obviously, dogs should never get their paws on them. We can only imagine the number of treed cats there would be if that happened. But power washers should never be used on dogs, either.

Sadly, one Comanche resident learned that the hard way.

KOCO.com recently reported that

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lEttErS

NEWS Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed or emailed to jchancellor@okgazette.com or sent online at okgazette.com.

Include a city of residence and contact number for verification.

Brookside gone

Now, it’s gone.

A boy and his father were about to begin their round of golf.

I was hitting balls at Brookside golf course early one Sunday morning when I noticed a boy of about 13 and his father walking toward the first tee.

Brookside was a scruffy little nine-hole affair, a place where you are as likely to see players in tennis shoes and T-shirts as Foot Joys and Izods. You would also see more tattoos there per hole than at any other course in the state. It is also the first place my father took me and my brother to play when we were little kids.

At Brookside, you placed your ball in a rack and it rolled down a metal ramp. When your ball was the first one in the ramp, it was your turn to tee off. Brookside also had two

cups cut on every green. When everyone in your group was on the putting surface, you placed the flag in the other hole and putted out on your hole, i.e. the flag you played to.

I loved Brookside, and although I had not played the course much in recent years, it was my favorite place to hit balls. I loved the atmosphere there, the lack of pretension. It was an “honest” golf course. You got what you paid for, and you didn’t have to pay much.

Brookside was the place where I played my one and only round with my grandfather.

On the way to the course, Pa Paw, as we called him, told us that he probably hadn’t played in about 30 years but he used to play golf on a course with sand greens. At that

time, there probably were not many courses in the state that had grass greens.

He brought his old, wooden-shafted clubs with him. I have no idea what happened to these clubs, but I wish I had them today.

By the time our ball came up in the rack, a sizeable gallery had gathered around the first tee, waiting their turn to tee off. I remember that Pa Paw took a mighty swing but whiffed his first shot. Then he whiffed again, but there were no comments or snickering from the onlookers, especially not from me and my brother, who realized that we might suffer the same fate.

Pa Paw took five or six putts on the first green. That was understandable when you

realize it was the first time he had putted on grass. On the second hole, he smacked his drive pretty good on his first attempt and took only four putts.

This pattern of improvement continued on every hole, and in fact, he parred two of the last three holes.

As I watched the boy and his father approach the first tee with their clubs strapped across their backs, it struck me that a game of golf with your father and/or grandfather is a pretty good thing, especially at an egalitarian course like Brookside.

Now it’s gone. Soon they will build a church on the property. This is appropriate, I guess — or maybe it’s redundant. For a lot of us, Brookside was a church.

Gary King Oklahoma City

Just stop already

Perhaps we should shut down all sewer lines and septic tank systems, as they might leak and contaminate drinking water.

And the Sierra Club should walk to their protests to reduce air pollution and the need for pipelines and refineries.

This makes as much sense as banning pipeline construction.

Alison Petrone (News, “Rights fights,” Laura Eastes, Sept. 14, Oklahoma Gazette) says, “We have to start acting.” Perhaps it is time for protesters to stop acting like fools.

Mickey McVay Oklahoma City

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review

Carne asada tacos | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Sunny Rey

Southside taco shop Taqueria El Rey’s expansive menu keeps diners happy and full. By Greg Elwell

thing customers across the metro love.

Taqueria el rey Many people were happily eating it during previous visits 100 S. May Ave. to the restaurant, so it’s no 405-270-7894 doubt delicious for those who enjoy menudo. I’m just not one whAT worKs: Tacos, burritos and of them. breakfasts are affordable and delicious.

Given how many menu items there are to choose from, whAT NeeDs worK: Menudo isn’t for all palates. it’s okay if one or two aren’t must-haves.

Tip: Burrito macho comes covered in tasty, Consider, for instance, housemade sauce. asada fries ($7.50). A much more relatable dish, it’s kind of like a plate of nachos, but with It’s a good sign when customers can’t fries instead of tortilla chips. Over the top decide which is their favorite dish at a is nacho cheese, sour cream, chopped restaurant. onions and a big handful of chopped carne After ordering a truly alarming amount asada. of food at Taqueria El Rey, 100 S. May Ave., The marinade used at El Rey is wonderI turned to a couple of fellow diners and ful and salty, but it plays a supporting role asked which menu items they liked best. to the thin, fatty steak.

“Everything,” they said.

It’s slightly toothsome, which helps it They eat at the little southside taco linger on the palate a little longer, impartshop frequently, hopping from tacos to ing a lovely burst of juicy, savory beef burritos, breakfasts to lunches and never flavor. That added chewiness gives the leave disappointed. dish a bit more longevity, too, so diners Judging by the steady stream of will take a little extra time to eat it. patrons coming in the restaurant, it’s a Carne asada shows up all over the feeling shared by many others. menu, as it’s one of seven meats available in most of the entrees.

There was only one dish I found disapDiners can also choose from carnitas pointing: menudo ($6.75).

To be fair to Taqueria El Rey, menudo is (pork), pastor (spicy pork), pollo (chicken), an acquired taste that I have yet to acquire. lengua (beef tongue), tripa (beef stomach) A soup made with beef stomach (also called and cabeza/barbacoa (beef cheek). tripe), tomato and seasonings, it’s someWhile tripa is advanced course work

Asada fries | Photo Garett Fisbeck

for taqueria novices, both lengua and barbacoa are much easier texturally and flavorfully for first-timers.

Beef tongue is an amazing protein, and when prepared by the staff at El Rey, it’s a slightly chewy meat that quickly turns tender.

It’s especially good in a taco, where customers have a little more leeway in saucing and customizing the taste.

Barbacoa is delicious. Though carne asada rightfully gets love and attention, barbacoa has an intense beef flavor and a texture that truly melts on the tongue, thanks to lots of collagen that suffuses the meat with a full, almost creamy feel when it is slowly cooked.

A good bet is a three tacos plate ($5.99 with rice and beans) or four tacos ($5). Get a barbacoa or a lengua taco to try, and then get some asada or pollo that you’re sure to love.

Chicken isn’t always a great bet in tacos because many insist on using dry and mostly flavorless chicken breasts. But Taqueria El Rey’s shredded pollo is juicy and spicy, giving a lovely blooming heat in the quesadilla ($5.25).

Quesadillas are unjustly maligned by taco purists because the dish is often little more than a surplus of melted cheese hidden between two pale flour tortillas.

Give this one a try, though, and note the care that goes into creating a golden, buttery shell.

The cheese that escapes gets fried crisp, which is a joy to devour. It’s a gooey, wonderfully decadent dish made all the more so with sides of sour cream and guacamole included in the price.

Chicken is the perfect meat to include in the quesadilla. There is enough heat and flavor from the pollo to balance out the mildness of the cheese. The juxtaposition of the fried tortilla with the soft interior is enchanting. It tastes like an advertisement for comfort.

Different but no less comfortable are Taqueria El Rey’s breakfast options, which are available all day.

Slam ($6.75) is a traditional breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon that would sate just about any early morning hunger.

But don’t overlook a breakfast burrito ($3.99), which is a big flour tortilla full of cheese, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and a choice of sausage, ham or bacon.

There’s mass-market hot sauce on the table, but before slathering it on, check up front for the squeeze bottles of salsas and sauces the staff at El Rey makes.

They’re fresher, more flavorful and have a wide variety of heat, depending on your taste.

The breakfast of my dreams is machaca con huevos ($6.95 with rice and beans).

Machaca is a seasoned beef that is dried and shredded, almost like jerky. But in Mexican cooking, the beef is rehydrated and cooked with tomatoes, garlic and peppers.

For this dish, the cooks prepare machaca with scrambled eggs, which soak up the cooking liquid and create a boisterous, beefy breakfast that is good with a fork and even better wrapped in a corn tortilla.

Also worth trying are the steak and eggs ($8.75). The steak is carne asada served with three eggs cooked to order, hashbrowns and toast.

It’s the perfect breakfast sandwich just waiting to be made.

The steak is tender and pulls apart easily. Eggs cooked over-medium have enough runny yolk to keep everything moist, and the bread holds it all together exquisitely.

Taqueria El Rey is one of the friendliest and tastiest restaurants around. Need another good sign? Just look for the one that says, “Open,” and head in.

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Junior’s owner Jim Shumsky sips a martini in the restaurant’s bar. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Junior partner Owner Jim Shumsky keeps the old-school magic of Junior’s alive long after Junior Simon’s death. By Greg Elwell

The walls are still red after 43 years.

“I made a solemn promise to Genell that I would never alter the decor or anything of the restaurant,” said Junior’s owner Jim Shumsky.

He has updated the restaurant, located in the basement of the west Oil Center building, 2601 Northwest Expressway.

The classic supper club needed new carpet, and Shumsky oversaw the replacement of kitchen equipment and repairs throughout.

But he’s holding fast to the promise he made when he bought the place from Genell Simon in January 2004.

“The general theme and the color has remained the same,” he said. “It won’t ever change so long as I’m alive and own it.”

Junior’s was started by the eponymous Junior Simon, who managed The Habana Club in Oklahoma City before opening his own restaurant in 1973.

The eatery was the first tenant in the Oil Center and quickly became a beloved hot spot for oilmen who worked in the building.

“People congregated here. They made a lot of oil deals here between 1973 and 1984, before Penn Square Bank closed,” Shumsky said. “People came in here the day it closed who had lost millions of dollars.”

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Junior’s struggled through the 1980s, as did the rest of Oklahoma after the oil boom went bust, but the greatest challenge came in 1984 after Junior Simon died. His wife kept it going and eventually saw the business rejuvenated with the return of the oil industry in the 1990s.

But by the early 2000s, she was looking for new owners to take over. One person she approached was Shumsky.

“I was a regular customer who entertained my clients here,” he said.

As an employee of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for almost 40 years, he brought many people to Junior’s to do business. Simon wanted him to put together an investment group to buy the restaurant.

“She was getting on in age, and they wanted to get rid of it,” he said. “The people I had lined up to partner up with me backed out. But I made an agreement to buy the restaurant myself.”

He had been a customer there since nearly the beginning. Drawn in by the dimly lit supper club with great food and service, Shumsky said there was some mystique to Junior’s that he couldn’t resist.

“It was a most accommodating place,” he said. “There’s something about table-

side Caesar salad and the way they served a good drink. They didn’t fudge any on the amount of whiskey they put in a glass.”

The late 1970s were a fun time, and Shumsky said for Oklahoma City, Junior’s is really all that’s left.

“Junior’s is just Junior’s,” he said.

Twelve years after buying it, Shumsky is still a regular. That’s key to running a successful restaurant.

“You have to like it to be successful.

You have to be here,” he said.

Most nights, diners will find Shumsky greeting guests and giving newcomers a rundown of the iconic restaurant’s history.

“People seem to appreciate it,” he said.

“They know they’re in someplace special.”

The restaurant continues to draw in new generations of customers, perhaps intrigued with Junior’s Mad Men-like style and cigar-friendly bar.

Shumsky said he thinks the restaurant is still one of the top steakhouses in Oklahoma City.

“We don’t brag about it; we just take care of the customers that come through the door,” he said.

First-time guests must try the tableside Caesar salad, which servers expertly assemble before diners’ eyes.

Shumsky said Junior’s was the first restaurant in the city to add the showy starter to its menu.

“If they’re steak people, I’d recommend the 8-ounce filet,” he said. “You can cut it with a fork.”

For seafood lovers, he recommends the imported Australian cold-water lobster tails or the king crab legs from Alaska. He said the surf and turf, pairing a 6-ounce filet with a 10-ounce lobster tail, is a decadent, filling meal.

As much as he loves the food, Shumsky is a bigger fan of the bar, where he can often be found relaxing with a glass of scotch and a cigar and talking with friends.

“We’ve had some really talented people who have played here,” he said.

Junior’s is one of the oldest piano bars in the city, hosting Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame member Justin Echols Wednesday evenings and blues singer and guitarist Steve Coleman every Thursday-Saturday.

It doesn’t hurt that the bar staff are also expert cocktail makers concocting recipes like a Brandy Ice dessert that is one of the restaurant’s most popular drinks.

“We make that fresh each and every day,” Shumsky said.

The blend of brandy, cacao, ice cream and nutmeg is like a smooth, alcoholic milkshake that’s big enough to share.

“We go through an awful lot of that each week,” he said.

Brandy Ice, like the red walls and the jazz music coming from the bar, will last another 43 years without changing if Shumsky has his way.

The Caesar salad, prepared tableside, is a signature dish. | Photo Gazette / file

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f e AT u r e

The Bleu Garten’s “secret” cocktail menu includes from left Caribbean Coffee, Blueini, Peary Nice and Apple Cider Mimosa.

New Bleu

Bartenders at The Bleu Garten created a menu of cocktails for chilly weather.

By Greg Elwell | Photos Garett Fisbeck

When the bar team at The Bleu Garten unveiled the food truck park’s new fall cocktail menu to customers Sept. 22, it was nearly 90 degrees outside, said bartender Brendan Jezioro.

That might not be the ideal temperature for most autumnal drinks, but this isn’t your average bar.

The Bleu Garten, 301 NW 10th St., is a wide, open-air venue that routinely plays host to three or four food trucks at a time.

The bars spread inside the expansive location have different functions.

There’s a center island where customers can get a variety of canned beers. On the southern end is a draft trailer for quick pours of domestic beers. But the main action occurs at the northeast bar, where the bartenders pull specialty brews from kegs and make craft cocktails.

“Our previous seasonal menus have been very patio-friendly, very clean and crisp,” said lead bartender Eric Likens. “Fall deserves something a little more complex.”

These aren’t thrown together at the lastminute, though. When managers meet each month, they taste-test new beers and liquors coming in and try cocktails designed for the next season’s menu.

“We started working on fall cocktails in July,” Likens said.

Likens said one great thing about The Bleu Garten’s popularity is that alcohol sellers are eager to bring them new items.

His favorite find this year is Ancho Reyes chili liqueur, which features prominently in two new cocktails: Stonewall and Ancho Fashioned.

Stonewall, a concoction made with Ancho Reyes, Sailor Jerry rum, ginger beer and apple cider, started off as two drinks, Likens said. But when neither the mule nor the spiced rum drink captured their hearts, the bartenders tried combining them.

“They blended together really well and we got the Stonewall,” Likens said.

Ancho Fashioned is a spicy take on an old fashioned, mixing Ancho Reyes with Wild Turkey bourbon, bitters and sweet 18

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and sour mix. Though the chili liqueur might give some pause, the flavor is surprisingly mild with a floral bouquet.

Lead bartender James Dickson said his favorite on the new menu is Fuego Y Crema, and not just because it’s so easy to make.

The simple beverage combines a shot of Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey with a pour of sweet, rich cream soda over ice. The flavor is easy to drink with a light tingle from the cinnamon-infused liquor that is well-suited for summer and fall weather.

One drink begging to be served around The Bleu Garten’s bonfire is Holiday Vibes.

The garnish of nutmeg at the end definitely evokes Christmas cheer, and the warming pecan whiskey mixed with creamy RumChata gives it a slight boozy bite.

Dickson said the northeast bar doesn’t get to have all the fun. The Bleu Garten recently started pouring a selection of liquor drinks by the draft trailer.

The “secret menu” features some falltinged flavors, including an apple cider mimosa and Peary Nice, which pairs applepear vodka with cranberry juice over ice.

Likens said he hopes the slowly falling temperatures will bring people into the food truck park more often. The Bleu Garten will stay open through November and then open during select weekends in December and January, weather permitting.

The Bleu Garten menu is always changing because of its rotating roster of food trucks. In a given week, visitors can choose from pizza, tacos, burgers, German food, barbecue, Indian food and sandwiches.

Board features, which are special drinks that change out more often than the seasonal menu, help.

Bartenders keep a close eye on which trucks are scheduled and try to offer drinks that will complement those cuisines.

While pairing drinks with food is nice, Likens said the main goal is always giving customers the best ones to enjoy the space.

That doesn’t change, no matter the season.

r e AT u r e

Pizza pioneers Hideaway Pizza busts out of the Sooner State to open its first restaurant in Arkansas. By Greg Elwell

It only took Hideaway Pizza 59 years to go 343 miles.

The pizza chain that started in Stillwater way back in 1957 as The Hideaway opened its first out-of-state store Oct. 10 at 5103 N. Warden Road in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

“Great pizza is an emotional thing,” said Hideaway Pizza co-owner Darren Lister.

That leads to a passionate outcry from fans, who ask when the company will bring a restaurant to their town.

The owners listened and responded by visiting areas where they see significant spikes in public interest to find out if they might be a good fit.

“There has been a lot of fan activity in Arkansas in recent years, and through our visits to the North Little Rock and Conway areas, we just felt a connection to the area and thought our pizza and style might resonate with people here,” said marketing and public relations director Rob Crissinger.

The 6,700-square-foot North Little Rock location is the company’s 17th. Another restaurant will open in Conway, in the spring.

That’s a long, strange delivery for the restaurant created by Richard “The Big Kahuna” Dermer and his wife Marti near Oklahoma State University in 1957. The now-bustling chain remained a solo restaurant for more than 30 years until 1993, when a group of trusted employees got permission from Dermer to form a company and expand to new cities.

The Dermers still own the Stillwater restaurant, 230 S. Knoblock St., and Marti was at the Oct. 10 opening to see the restaurant’s introduction to Arkansas.

While the company plans to focus on North Little Rock and Conway in the short term, it’s keeping open the option to expand to other cities in Arkansas and other states.

He said the values are still at the core of Hideaway Pizza as the company grows.

“We feel like if we get those things right,

our customers will be happy,” he said.

Crissinger said the restaurants added hand-tossed and gluten-free crusts.

“Hideaway Pizza has used the same original pizza recipes developed almost 60 years ago as the foundation for what we define as our perfect pizza,” Lister said.

“Both [thin and hand-tossed] styles are balanced to fit the unique spice of our sauce, never obscuring the flavors or textures. The dough and sauce are made fresh from scratch every day in each of our restaurants, and our cheese is hand-shredded daily.”

The restaurant has also gotten bolder with more creative topping combinations, including the honey-drizzled Pollinator pizza, with pepperoni, spicy capicola, salami and banana peppers and the German cuisine-inspired Bratza, which is a garlicglazed crust covered in Bavarian mustard, mozzarella, cheddar, sauerkraut, bratwurst, red onions and jalapeños.

That might sound like a great departure from the original, but Hideaway has always had a wild streak.

In the 1960s and ’70s, the Stillwater restaurant delivered pizzas with one of the largest fleets of Volkswagen Beetles in the U.S. Painted by the employees in wild colors and patterns, the delivery vehicles became part of the eatery’s identity.

Inside each restaurant are giant art collages and vintage kites inspired by Dermer’s stint as president of the American Kitefliers Association.

The North Little Rock location reflects that history, with images of the old VW Beetles on the walls, kites hanging from the ceilings and large-scale collages created with photos submitted by local residents.

Murphy said making pizza isn’t rocket science, but recreating their ideal pizzas every time for every customer is an art form they take seriously.

“It’s our passion,” he said. “That’s the real secret ... to our success and longevity.”

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Hideaway Pizza employees painted the restaurant’s Volkswagon Beetles in wild colors and patterns. | Photo Hideaway Pizza / provided

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eAT & DriNK b r i e f s By Greg Elwell

Cuppies & Joe was transformed Oct. 5 into Luke’s Diner from Gilmore Girls. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

•Stars Hollow, Oklahoma Gilmore Girls fans (and lovers of free coffee) lined up at Cuppies & Joe, 727 NW 23rd St., and The Underground, 1621 S. Douglas Blvd., in Midwest City on Oct. 5 to drink up at formerly fictional Luke’s Diner.

The shops were two of more than 200 locations across the country that were temporarily branded Luke’s Diner for the day by Netflix, which will begin streaming a four-part revival of the cult TV show on Nov. 25.

Oct. 5 was the 16th anniversary of the first episode of Gilmore Girls.

There were also pop-ups at The Coffee House on Cherry St., 1502 E. 15th St., and 918 Coffee, 2446 W. 11th St., in Tulsa.

Photo Gazette / file

School’s third-grade class and the University of Central Oklahoma.

Visit facebook.com/heardonhurd.

Well-traveled wine •Hurd-ling finish

Downtown Edmond street festival Heard on Hurd puts the cap on the season 6-10 p.m.

Saturday at the corner of Broadway and Hurd Street.

“Heard on Hurd is a fun way to spend a Saturday night out with family and friends to discover a new food truck or pop-up shop,” said Citizens Bank of Edmond president and CEO Jill Castilla. “Our team works hard to put on Heard on Hurd for the community, and we can’t wait to end the season with a great event this month.”

The final Heard on Hurd of 2016 features a corn hole tournament and live music from Kyle Dillingham & Horseshoe Road, Shane Henry and Matt Stansberry & The Romance.

Always a big draw, the street festival brings in lots of food trucks and street vendors. This month, diners can find newcomers Filipino Fusion, Deb’s Coffee Cart and Oklahoma Kettle Corn in addition to established favorites including Snow S’more, MOB Grill, Roxy’s Ice Cream Social and more than 25 other food trucks.

Throughout the season, 15 percent of alcohol and Heard on Hurd merchandise sales from The Patriarch Craft Beer House and Lawn, Bricktown Brewery and Tack Designs have been collected for donation to Edmond Public Schools Foundation. The total will be unveiled onstage at the event.

A kids’ area features soccer by OKC Energy FC and activities from Edmond Church of Christ, Ida Freeman Elementary

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Oklahoma City-based charity The Vilakazi Foundation hosts Wine for Wickets 7-9 p.m. Oct. 20 at Dunlap Codding, 609 W. Sheridan Ave. Named for Vilakazi Street in Soweto, South Africa, a road on which both Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu lived, the organization was founded by Leigh and Carrie Jacobs in 2009 to better the lives of South African children by improving their access to education, health and athletics.

Leigh Jacobs was born in South Africa and grew up in a segregated community during apartheid. When he visited his home with his wife Carrie, they wanted to find a way to give the children there the same opportunities their kids have here.

“Our kids have the benefit of electricity and a bathroom in the house, while so many families there don’t have that option,” said Carrie Jacobs. “Our daughters were lucky to be born where they are.

We want that for all kids.”

This is the seventh year of Wine for Wickets, which is the foundation’s signature fundraising event. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door and include tastes of South African wines, South African food prepared by Thunder executive chef Grant Johnson, live music and a silent auction. A designated driver ticket is available for $10.

Funds raised at the event will pay for improvements to a pair of partner schools in Knysna, South Africa. If the $2,500 fundraising goal is hit, one school will receive bathrooms while the other will get to replace its ad-hoc ceiling with a new ceiling and roof.

Visit vilakazi.org/wine-for-wickets for tickets.

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gazeDIbles

eat & DRINK

Aw, nuts!

Sometimes you feel like a nut.

Strike that. Nuts are superfoods full of healthy oils, omega-3 fatty acids and enough protein to keep a body going through a long day. You should always feel like a nut. The Mayo Clinic, which never actually endorsed mayonnaise, now tells people to eat nuts for improved heart health. Salted and roasted, smashed into butter or eaten raw, nuts are a tasty source of fiber and vitamin E. Hungry for a taste?

These Oklahoma City restaurants are cracking good places to try.

By Greg Elwell | Photos Garett Fisbeck and Gazette file

Café do Brasil

Pho Ca Dao

Cattlemen’s Steakhouse

Vegetables rule the salad game with an iron fist and a head of cauliflower. But leave it to the rebels at Café do Brasil to switch things up with a salad filled with chilled seasonal fruits and berries and dressed in passion fruit and raspberry sauces. It’s intensely fresh and light. It’s almost too light, until you notice the generous garnish of chopped walnuts on top of the salad, giving it the staying power to keep diners feeling fine all day long. It’s also gluten-free.

Much like the rain forest or a middle school gym class, Pho Ca Dao’s vermicelli bowl is a delicate ecosystem. Remove an ingredient and everything is off balance. The base of shredded lettuce and bean sprouts gives the noodle bowl lightness that plays against the heavier ingredients diners can choose from: grilled pork, fried egg rolls, shrimp or chicken.

Roasted peanuts and fried shallots on top give it an exquisite, savory crunch. Toss on the sauce, mix it up and enjoy.

What the?! How did Cattlemen’s lamb fries end up on this list? Sure, tender morsels of lamb are pounded thin, rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried until the exterior is crispy and the inside is delicious, but it’s a little off-topic for this roundup. This is supposed to be about the most nut-rageous dishes in Oklahoma City, not the appetizer that helped make Cattlemen’s one of the best-loved restaurants in the metro.

440 NW 11th St., Suite 100 cafedobrazilokc.com | 405-525-9779

RUSTIC ITALIAN FOOD AND ITALIAN WINE

Tues-Thurs 5PM-10PM | Fri & Sat 5PM-11PM Sun 5PM-9PM

Now taking reservations on Open Table 1 block from Civic Center & OKC Museum of Art

Gift Cards Available

305 N. Walker

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patroNookc.com

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405.702.7660

2431 N. Classen Blvd.

405-521-8819

1309 S. Agnew Ave. cattlemensrestaurant.com 405-236-0416

Stray Dog Cafe

Cajun King

Golden Phoenix

Sid’s Diner

A cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal is no way to eat the most important meal of the day. Go nuts and head to Bethany’s Stray Dog Cafe for a stack of nutty multigrain pancakes. The hearty sweetness of the flapjacks gets an extra textural boost from a mix of nuts incorporated into the batter, so each bite is fluffy, crunchy and delicious. Pour on the maple syrup and chow down while you check out the rest of Stray Dog’s delectable menu.

Plenty of Cajun and Creole foods are perfect for the buffet, where the steady heat keeps gumbo and crawfish étouffée the right consistency for diners. But there’s one dish the owners of Cajun King want delivered to each table personally: catfish almondine. Using flour made from almonds, tender strips of catfish are fried until they turn a pale gold.

The light, crispy exterior is unlike the heavy cornmeal-covered catfish served at most places. When the basket runs out, don’t worry — another one is on the way.

It’s not clear where, exactly, evolution hit a fork in the road that sent walnuts and shrimp down two different paths. One began growing from trees, and the other started swimming in the ocean, perhaps never to meet again. Or so it was until Golden Phoenix began serving walnut shrimp. An addicting dish of shrimp glazed in a creamy sauce and topped with walnuts and broccoli, walnut shrimp is proof that decapod crustaceans and tree nuts belong together.

The ice cream guy showed up late to the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups commercial.

“You got chocolate in my peanut butter!”

“You got peanut butter in my chocolate!”

But the man with the ice cream was busy enjoying a burger and a shake at Sid’s Diner in El Reno. Years later, Sid’s brought the trio together with its incredible chocolate peanut butter milkshake. Thick and sweet, it’s a perfect complement to Sid’s famous fried onion burgers and slaw dogs.

6722 NW 39th St., Bethany facebook.com/straydogcafe 405-470-3747

5816 NW 63rd St. 405-603-3714

2728 N. Classen Blvd.

405-524-3988

300 S. Choctaw Ave., El Reno sidsdinerelreno.com | 405-262-7757

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ArTS & cULTUre The Rocky Horror Show 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19-20, Oct. 26-27, Nov. 3; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Oct. 21-22, Oct. 28-29, Nov. 4-5; 9 p.m. Oct. 31; 11:59 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22, Oct. 28-29, Nov. 4-5 Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma 1727 NW 16th St. lyrictheatreokc.com 405-524-9312 $31-$66

cov e r

J. Robert Moore stars as Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Risqué spectacle Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma brings back The Rocky Horror Show for its wild, triennial production.

By Ben Luschen

By design, The Rocky Horror Show breaks all the rules. No one is supposed to throw anything during an ordinary musical, especially not on stage. Regularly, there is certainly no shouting while a production is underway. Society is supposed to need rules, after all. Without them, there is chaos.

However, this Halloween season, Lyric Theater of Oklahoma once again givesover to absolute pleasure.

“It’s the one night we encourage people to be crazy,” said Michael Baron, producing artistic director at Lyric and director of this year’s production.

The Rocky Horror Show runs Thursday through Nov. 5 at Lyric Theatre, 1727 NW 16th St. A special Halloween performance is 9 p.m. Oct. 31. Those familiar with the Tim Curry-led 1975 cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show can expect a close rendition onstage but a more fun and engaging experience. For those who have no idea what it means to “do the Time Warp,” here is a brief plot synopsis: Unassuming, everyday couple Brad and Janet are somewhere in the rural countryside when they find themselves in car trouble. They head to a nearby castle to use its phone, but they are welcomed in by Dr. Frank N. Furter (a corset-wearing, selfdescribed transvestite from the planet Transexual in the galaxy Transylvania) and an ensemble of lace- and leather-clad underlings, chief among them the trollish Riff

Raff and his tap-dancing sidekick Columbia.

From there, Brad and Janet must navigate through murderous, cannibalistic and frequently sexual plot twists and turns.

That might sound morbid, but Rocky Horror plays up its B-movie camp in a big way. Baron said this year’s production also ups the glitz and grandeur in a glam-rock version of the show. The interior aesthetic will be reminiscent of a New York club.

“It’s sort of like Rocky Horror meets Beyoncé,” Baron said. “It’s like a full-out light show with a crazy live band and backup dancers.”

Famous feedback

Rocky Horror is as much about what goes on in the audience as it is about what happens on the stage.

For $5, fans can buy a bag of favors and props to throw when cued and keep engaged during the performance. Proceeds benefit the theater company’s youth academy.

This year, fans can buy a “test-tube shot” (a pink lemonade shooter with citrus vodka, cranberry juice and sweet and sour mix) before the show at the Lyric bar to down during Frank N. Furter’s lab scene.

“As if the show isn’t crazy enough,” Baron said.

Over the years, the Rocky faithful developed its own script of callbacks and rituals tied to distinctive moments in the story. Guests will find items like a boa, a

party hat, a playing card, toilet paper, a rubber glove and other show necessities inside the Lyric bag.

In the past, fans have thrown food items like rice and hot dogs at the show, but most theaters, including Lyric, have stopped this practice because it is hard to clean up and damages the stage.

Show callbacks are for those “in the know,” but a quick internet search will lead anyone to a rundown of popular exclamations and when to say them.

Guests are encouraged to come in costume, be it as their favorite Rocky character or whatever they are going as for Halloween this year.

Because of the show’s insider feel, attendance can sometimes be intimidating for first-timers. However, inclusion is one of Rocky Horror’s foremost themes. Baron said rookies are not only welcomed to attend, their presence is often craved by Rocky veterans.

“You kind of relive your first time with them,” he said. “By the time the show is over, they want to come back the next time we do it.”

Those who cannot wait to relive the experience should consider attending another show before this season ends, because Lyric only puts on Rocky Horror every three years.

This is the fourth time Lyric has featured the production.

“Probably the board and the community would love for me to do it every year because it sells so well and is such a huge hit,” Baron said, “but it takes a lot of work to put together. And it’s not special if we do it every year.”

Iconic roles

The Rocky Horror Picture Show likely wouldn’t have developed broad appeal as a cult film without a standout performance from Curry as Frank. The English actor, who also portrayed the doctor in the show’s

original 1973 London and 1974 Los Angeles stage productions, set a high bar for all to follow with the character’s insatiable and unstable nature.

Baron said J. Robert Moore, this year’s Frank, rises to the challenge.

“He’s even more glamorous and fabulous than Tim Curry was,” Baron said. “He has elements of Tim Curry, but he’s just like 10 feet tall in those heels and he’s an amazing singer and actor.”

Moore, an Austin, Texas-based actor who was cast for the role in March, said Frank is fun to play because it allows him to go from hot to cold at the drop of a dime. The doctor is delightfully unguarded in speech.

“It’s one thing to stand there and smile and be a hero,” Moore said, “it’s another thing to stomp across the stage and yell and scream and get your way and make problems for people. That’s really more fun.”

Frequent Lyric guests likely saw Moore as the leading characters in the 2015 productions of Big Fish and Billy Elliot. This year’s cast also includes Andrew Keeler as Brad, Mattie Joyner as Janet, previous Rocky Horror director Matthew Alvin Brown as Riff Raff, Lexi Windsor as Columbia and Haulston Mann as Frank N. Furter’s musclebound creation Rocky.

Moore said while the production sticks close to the original script, the actors apply their own interpretations to their characters.

“Everyone knows these roles,” he said, “but since everyone does know these roles, we’re able to kind of twist them and play with them and make them a little more fun for us as actors and hopefully for the audience as well.”

Dream world

Rocky Horror stood out in the ’70s because it was a time when gay and transgender characters were not portrayed in the media, especially not in a way that treated all gender and sexual identities on the same level. It was one of the first times a film or play presented personal identity as a point on a broad spectrum, not as part of a simple, two-sided standard.

Baron said there was a time when it felt like every town in America had its own midnight screening of the film.

“It allows straight and gay people a safe place to have a good time, to express themselves,” he said. “The show has been going on for decades, and for a long time, Saturday night at midnight was the one time a week when a lot of people, particularly gay people, could go out and be free and not be ostracized.”

“Don’t dream it, be it” is arguably Frank’s most famous line (though it has plenty of competition). Moore said there is no better way to sum up Rocky Horror’s theme.

Frank certainly behaves in a villainous way, but at the character’s core are relatable senses of desire and freedom that many people share.

“As crazy and kooky and nuts as the storyline can be,” Moore said, “at the heart of it, you’ve really got someone telling the world, ‘Go out and get your chunk and have an amazing time doing it.’”

Visit lyrictheatreokc.com.

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performing ArTS

ArTS & cULTUre

Cavalier cowboys OKC Ballet presents a triple bill to delight audiences.

By Lauren Dow

Oklahoma City Ballet opens its 45th anbe very eclectic in nature.” niversary season with Rodeo: A Triple Bill, Our Private Rooms is a contemporary which brings a dance for every ballet enpiece that seeks to break walls around thusiast to the stage. private and interpersonal relationships and Rodeo, which runs 8 p.m. Oct. 21-22 and lay them in contrast with public personas.

The ballet is primarily composed of solos, 2 p.m. Oct. 23 at Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., presents one company duets and small groups of dancers, so Mills premiere, one world premier and one ballet sought out music that felt intimate. He chose that has not been performed by the company compositions by southern California comfor over 30 years. The eclectic mixed bill poser Dustin O’Halloran, who has combegins the 2017 season with innovation and posed pieces for feature films and won an tradition, bringing George Balanchine’s Emmy for the theme of TV show Serenade, Robert Mills’ Our Private Rooms, Transparent, after coming across his solo and Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo piano performances. to the spotlight.

The evening will close This is the first time in with Rodeo, originally choRodeo: A the company’s 45-year reographed by Agnes de Triple Bill history that Serenade will be Mille (the famous choreogperformed. It’s the third rapher of Oklahoma!) and 8 p.m. Oct. 21-22, Balanchine work performed scored by Aaron Copland.

2 p.m. Oct. 23 under artistic director The ballet features cowboy Civic Center Music Hall Robert Mills. Previous perboot-wearing dancers acting 201 N. Walker Ave. formances were Valseout the story of a cowgirl okcballet.com Fantaisie and Rubies. Mills who attempts to fit in with 405-297-2584 said Serenade inspired the the cowhands to find a “suit$15-$65 dancers to bring their own able man.” Mills chose the personality to the perforwork for its wide appeal and mance because the piece is without a plot. the balance it brings to the triple bill.

Bringing personality while refraining from “Serenade is a dreamy, moonlit neooverperforming is the key and where Mills classical work that is breathtakingly beautiful yet has no storyline. On the other side said “aspects of the work will be most fresh.” of the coin, Rodeo is a touching yet humorThe second performance is the world ous story with rousing and exciting chorepremiere of Our Private Rooms. The work ography,” Mills said. “So I think they conwas funded through an Artistic Innovations trast each other well.”

Grant from Mid-America Arts Alliance.

He always seeks to incorporate at least Mills created the piece to fill what he called one new work into the triple bills. “an aesthetic void” in music and movement.

“Even with iconic ballets like Serenade “The piece is derived from a very perand Rodeo, I still feel this is important,” he sonal place for me and utilizes a definite idea I wished to pull the movement from,” said. “Ballet, like any art form, does not exist Mills said. just in history; it exists within the artists The ballet represents a unique opportuthat are creating work today, the choreographers of today.” nity for Mills to create a work and know what Mills said the works continue his belief ballets would be performed alongside it. that ballet is a living art form because it’s “I have purposely created something performed in the moment and new ballets starkly contemporary to offset these two must be created. iconic works,” he said. “The program will 26

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performing ArTS

Home coming

Garrison Keillor stops in Oklahoma City as Saturday radio transitions to his absence. By Ben Luschen

A Prairie Home Companion as it is widely known under the guidance of the steadyvoiced wit of writer and humorist Garrison Keillor ended in July when he retired.

The widely popular, nationally syndicated Saturday radio program will continue under the guidance of new host Chris Thile, but many fans gave their allegiance to Keillor and the show’s format.

For the people of Oklahoma City, it doesn’t have to be good-bye just yet, at least not for one night. Keillor brings his farewell tour to Hudson Performance Hall, 2820 N. May Ave., on Oct. 20.

For years, people tuned in to hear Keillor’s humorous, satirical stories from the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. Other regular features include “Guy Noir, Private Eye” and regular advertisements from fictitious Powdermilk Biscuits, the best biscuit product ever made by Norwegian bachelor farmers.

Garrison Keillor performs Oct. 20 at Hudson Performance Hall. | Photo bigstock.

A Prairie Home Companion was first com / provided broadcast in 1974, back when the unorthodox concept was groundbreaking on radio.

“Thank goodness Minnesota Public in each of the last two years.

Radio was too poor to afford good advice,” Keillor’s replacement is tasked with Keillor said in 1999 as his show celebrated making A Prairie Home Companion releits 25th anniversary. “We only did it vant to a younger audience. Some of his because we knew it would be fun to do. It first guests include The White Stripes’ was a dumb idea. I wish I knew how to be Jack White and multi-talented musician that dumb again.”

Esperanza Spalding.

Keillor’s last show was recorded July “It’s an oft-uttered statement, but 1 in front of 18,000 people at Hollywood these are troubled times,” Thile told Bowl in Los Angeles and aired the next MotherJones.com when asked about how day. The host decided to end his more than his version of the show will be different.

“I am all the more fervently seeking the four-decade run to focus on his upcoming memoir and a movie set in Lake Wobegon. beauty that human beings are capable of “The memoir is about gratitude and developing, and I want the show to be a place for those beautiful things. So that, the screenplay about loyalty, neither of quite frankly, is our great goal, our great which are natural to me,” Keillor said in challenge.” an interview with USA Today. “To do them right, I needed to put the radio show It is certainly within Thile’s great talent to produce a worthy successor behind me. It’s the sort of simple decision that the moment you arrive at it, you program, but he is also the first to admit know it’s right.” there is no replacing Keillor. He might now The show, however, will not end with be off regular Saturday radio, but Keillor’s Keillor’s departure. The host hand-picked trademark voice and the feelings they asThile, known as a renowned mandolinist sociate with his broadcast will never leave with country music trio loyal fans.

Nickel Creek and the “I don’t think radio is Americana-classical memorable,” he told USA An Evening outfit Punch Brothers, Today. “I can remember radio with Garrison as his replacement. voices, old baseball announcKeillor Thile’s first show as ers, old newscasters. But full-time host airs what they specifically said, I 8 p.m. Oct. 20 Saturday. He previously cannot remember. People Hudson Performance appeared several times might remember a few jokes.

Hall on the show as a guest, They’ll remember ‘Where all 2820 N. May Ave. making his program the women are strong, all the hudsonperformancedebut at age 15 in 1996. men are good-looking and all hall.com Thile had brief stints as the children are above-aver405-721-8066 a guest host on the show age.’” $47.50-$71

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arts & CulturE “Oklahoma City, Indian Territory” by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler | Image Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art / Oklahoma Historical Society / provided

We wanted to do something which had not been done, which is to look at the history through visual imagery.

v i s ua l a r t s

Mark White

History looks Picturing Indian Territory, 1819-1907 paints a picture of Oklahoma long ago.

By Ben Luschen

2007 centennial celebration, Price began compiling a database of historic images from the Oklahoma and Indian territories.

He eventually suggested the museum organize a collection of images for a future exhibit.

“That was somewhat of a daunting process because he had compiled, at that point, well over 700 images of people, places and events,” White said.

Almost a decade later, the finished product is an exhibit featuring about 75 pieces collected from various sources, including Smithsonian Institution, other museums and different groups from within the state.

White said it was important to first understand what the key events in prestatehood were before finalizing the exhibit.

“We wanted to do something which, to that point, had not been done, which is to look at the history through visual imagery,” he said.

Before statehood, Oklahoma and Indian Territories captured the imaginations of an American populace that mostly would never get a chance to see the area firsthand.

The result, said Mark White, Wylodean and Bill Saxon director at the University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, is a wealth of art, paintings and imagery from the state’s pre-history.

Outside intrigue “Indian Territory was a place most Interest in Indian Territory grew nationAmericans had not visited and would not ally following the Indian Removal Act of ever visit,” White said, “so imagery, just 1830 that required several Native as much as the written word, would give American tribes to move from their homethem a sense of the really lands elsewhere in the complicated situation that country to what was one of Picturing existed here.” the nation’s most remote Indian P ic t u r i n g India n regions.

Territory, Territor y, 1819 -1907 Despite the forced 1819-1907 opened earlier this month removal of Native peoples and continues through to make room for the ex10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Dec. 30 at the museum, panding population of the Tuesdays-Sundays 555 Elm Ave., in Norman.

United States, many and 10 a.m.- 9 p.m.

White credited the idea Americans were intrigued Thursdays for the exhibit to Byron

by Native life and customs.

Through Dec. 30 Price, the director of the “There was interest, as Fred Jones Jr. university’s Charles M. there had been decades Museum of Art Russell Center for the before, in the perceived ex555 Elm Ave., Norman Study of Art of the oticism of the Native tribes,” ou.edu/fjjma American West.

White said.

405-325-4938 Around Oklahoma’s Famous painter George Free 28

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said, “there is this continuing interest in the native tribes, but there’s also this interest in Western culture that was popularized by Wild West shows like that of Pawnee Bill.”

The last years of the territories and the early years of statehood are marked by general excitement surrounding the Oklahoma land runs.

Contrary to popular belief, Oklahoma had not just one land run, but several between the years of 1889 and 1901.

White said the land runs were often depicted in the popular press, including publications like Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly, both the equivalent of what a publication like Time magazine has been in the last few decades, focusing on textual and visual coverage of news and events.

The state’s land runs were the first time any land had been claimed by virtually whoever was the fastest.

White said the events were so exciting and unique that they made often made international news.

Continuing relevance

“Geronimo, Apache, Fort Sill, OT” by Elbridge Ayer Burbank | Image Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art / Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art / provided

Catlin, whose work is featured in the exhibit, was the first white painter to depict the Plains Indians in their native territory.

At the time, it was nearly impossible for artists or anyone to visit Indian Territory on a whim.

Artists who did visit the state often had to do so on a military or research expedition.

Picturing Indian Territory puts an emphasis on art that was created by those who experienced the area firsthand, although White said that does not mean their work was without bias.

“Sometimes even what they saw here they tended to exaggerate or distort for their own purposes,” he said.

Interest in Native culture eventually broadened into a love of the romanticized American West.

“By the end of the 19th century,” White

While other places have become diasporas, White said few, if any, can claim such a diverse combination of people as the many tribes forced into Indian Territory.

The result is a complex history of political dynamics in the region.

“What the exhibit ultimately proves is that Oklahoma, in its former incarnations as the Indian and Oklahoma territories, has a very complicated and unique history,” the director said. “There are things that have happened here that really set it apart from any other state in the country and, I would say, also the world.”

Oklahoma history is far from the museum’s sole focus, but White said it does have a special interest in showing how things that happen here impact the nation and world.

“We like to be able to demonstrate that what has happened here and what continues to happen here does have a relevance outside of the state’s borders and that Oklahoma, in many ways, is a very interesting state,” he said.

Visit ou.edu/fjjma for more information about the museum and exhibit.

v i s ua l a r t s

OU students Reva Kashikar, Sterling Smith and Rebecca Curtis work on Symbiotic. | Photo Jarica Walsh / provided

Symbiotic craft OU students team up with area artists to create an art installation. By Jessica Williams

Artists are stronger in numbers in a new Table,” an installation revolving around exhibition from the University of balance.

Oklahoma’s School of Visual Arts.

“We decided to make the table like a Symbiotic teams students up with seaseesaw, so it’s physically having to balance soned artists to create collaborative instalthe difference between both ends,” said lations that encourage community involvejunior visual arts student Reva Kashikar. ment. Curators and University of Junior Rebecca Curtis said “The Oklahoma (OU) School of Visual Arts Community Table” reflects the ups and graduates Jarica Walsh and Katie Pendley downs of artistic endeavors. devised the show to redraw and expand “Some opportunities for artists are the boundaries of education. easily accessible, but the reward is not that “Art students are usually insulated from great,” Curtis said. “On the other end of the rest of the art world,” Walsh said. “We the table, we wanted to represent rare opthought this would be a great way to create portunities for artists that are more fulfillsome exposure for students as well as ing yet difficult to accomplish.” lasting mentorships.”

Symbiotic favors inviting, universally Art school is not within the well-fimeaningful pieces over ambiguous connanced STEM realm and, therefore, too cepts. Sterling Smith, a senior in the often exists in a vacuum program, said the audiwhere students are isoence is key in determinlated from larger coming how to present clear munities and profesideas.

Symbiotic sional growth. Walsh “As artists, we have and Pendley named the to reformulate our ideas 8 a.m.-5 p.m. show to signify the imto communicate with Mondays-Fridays portance of artistic colour audiences,” Smith through Oct. 28 laborations. said.

Lightwell Gallery “The name Symbiotic While the installaSchool of Visual Arts tions are temporary, really encapsulates the University of Oklahoma Symbiotic has created pairing between artists 520 Parrington Oval, Norman and community,” Walsh enduring connections art.ou.edu said. “We were thinking between burgeoning 405-325-2691 about that relationship artists and experienced Free and how reliant the art professionals.

“The piece itself is a world is on collaboration.” great accomplishment, but meeting young Intersections between artists and artists and introducing them to new ideas mediums produce conceptually profound and prospects as been the most important works, said artist Adam Lanman, who part of this experience. I can safely say I’d helped install the exhibit. work with these students again,” Lanman “I pitched the idea to the students, who said. “In fact, I’m already thinking of some developed it into an interesting and projects I can put them to work on.” thoughtful installation,” Lanman said.

Symbiotic runs through Oct. 28 in OU’s Among the show’s variety of media and Lightwell Gallery in the School of Visual thematic approaches, Lanman and his Arts on the OU campus, 520 Parrington group of students created “The Community Oval, in Norman. Visit art.ou.edu.

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H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H

Meet the Artists!

Cowboy Crossings Celebration Saturday, October 15 9:00 – 11:15 a.m.

Free with Museum Admission Exhibitions Open for Viewing Autograph Party Complimentary Cowboy Crossings Posters (while supplies last) 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Trunk Show Featuring Kerri Votaw Kliewer Jewelry 10:00 a.m. – Noon Book Signing & Demonstration Featuring Lisa Sorrell

Celebrate Cowboy Crossings and the

Presenting Sponsor Burnett Ranches, Anne and John Marion

Major Event Sponsor Kraig and Deborah Kirschner

Major Sponsors Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Norris and the Dellora A. and Lester J. Norris Foundation Sheila and Mike Ingram The Dobson Family Foundation

Supporting Sponsor Alan and Nadine Levin

Associate Sponsors Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau • NBC Oklahoma • Rockmount Western Wear Southwestern Stationery and Bank Supply Inc. • BancFirst • Bill Rey, Claggett/Rey Gallery American Cowboy • Cowboys & Indians • Western Art & Architecture • Western Art Collector Western Horseman

Museum Partners Devon Energy Corp.

E. L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation

1700 Northeast 63rd Street Oklahoma City, OK (405) 478-2250

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ARTs & CULTURE fraudulent performances, the price of fame for top-tier athletes is often an equally high level of scrutiny and distrust.

In Beesley’s book, Paul Demeter divides the country into thirds: those who think he is a hero, those who have been pulled in by the media cycle and those who know he is cheating.

“The reason he’s able to do it is the whole story,” Beesley said.

Play ball

books

Stanley Beesley’s new book follows a girl trying to expose the truth about her estranged father’s baseball career. | Photo provided

Sacred swing

A new book by Oklahoma author Stanley Beesley turns the spotlight back on baseball and its highest achievement. By Ian Jayne

Some people have baseball in their blood. Stanley Beesley is one of them.

“My brother, when he was 13 years old, took the clipboard from the maternity nurse in Yale, Oklahoma, and named me for his two favorite baseball players: Stan Musial and Warren Spahn,” Beesley said.

“Much of my youth was getting into unreliable cars and traveling on a road trip to either play baseball or to watch baseball.”

Beesley’s various passions came together in the form of his third book, The Last Man to Hit .400: A Love Story, released Sept. 1 by Pegasus Books.

The Last Man to Hit .400 follows journeyman Paul Demeter through the lens of his 17-year-old daughter Sylvia as he transforms the world of baseball and she attempts to uncover the truth.

Sylvia’s complex relationship with her father, who abandoned her when she was young, informs and drives her desire to tell Paul’s story.

“She’s got the inside track,” Beesley said, “She loves/hates him, and she’s going to expose him as a fraud and write the great-

est sports story of all time.”

Batting .400 in baseball is an achievement surrounded by myth and athletic glory.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the most sacred mark in all of sports. … It’s the hardest thing to do,” Beesley said.

Over the course of his life, Beesley has seen baseball lose significant cultural impact.

“Baseball used to be the national pastime,” he said. “The steroid era and free agency [have] diminished baseball, and now, baseball is almost an afterthought.”

The Last Man to Hit .400 explores a hypothetical resurgence in baseball, acting as the kind of story that is now a rarity.

“If some marginal player had a miracle year, it would bring baseball back,” Beesley said. “It would energize the country.”

In a world rife with drug testing and

Sports narratives often serve as vehicles for larger stories of human experience.

“People are going to look at the title and think, ‘It’s just baseball,’” Beesley said.

“No. It’s a love story.”

The stories that exist behind great feats of athleticism are often just as important as the final score.

“We’re a country that loves sports.

That’s why you don’t get just statistics and box scores,” Beesley said. “That’s why they have sideline reporters.”

Beesley’s lifelong love of reading and writing allowed him to craft a sports story that moves outside the baseball diamond.

He came from a family of teachers, and his experiences with education in smalltown Tecumseh fostered his creativity.

Reading provided Beesley, who was often sick as child, with an escape.

“That’s the way I got out of work,” he said. “My nose was always in a book. The only subject I was really good at was English. I had really good, basic Oklahoma teachers who appreciated great art, great literature.”

After a failed attempting at writing a novel in Paris, Beesley became a teacher back in Oklahoma.

“I had a young family, and I coached, and I taught and I drove a bus,” Beesley said.

He made time to write, though.

“I would get up at 5 in the morning, bleary-eyed, and would work,” he said.

While his job as a teacher prevented Beesley from writing full-time, his life provided him with plenty of experiences that, in turn, fueled his authorial ambitions.

He drew on his years of teaching and coaching in order to better write from Sylvia’s perspective.

“I’m a father. I’m a grandfather. I taught and coached girls and young women for 40 years,” Beesley said. “You have to read and listen and observe.”

After his years of teaching, Beesley now devotes himself to writing full-time.

“It’s a blast,” he said.

The most rewarding part of writing, Beesley said, comes on the days when he leaves the desk thinking he “knocked it out of the park.”

The Last Man to Hit .400 is available on amazon.com and in bookstores.

Cheers!

A special issue that focuses on celebrations, parties, entertaining and entertainment, just in time for the holidays.

Publishes November 16 Deadlines November 9

Call your account executive today at 405.528.6000 or email advertising@okgazette.com!

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Pirate Island is open weekends through the end of October. | Photo Georgia Read / provided

Ahoy, adventure The Boathouse District transforms its attractions during the month of October.

By Christine Eddington

Pirate island noon-6 p.m. Oct. 15-16, 22-23 and 29-30 Riversport Rapids 800 Riversport Drive riversportokc.org 405-552-4040 Free-$7

Haunt the River noon-8 p.m. Oct. 29, noon-6 p.m. Oct. 30 Lake Overholser Boathouse 3115 e. Overholser Drive riversportokc.org 405-522-4040 $35

Avast, ye landlubbers! Through October, the large island in the middle of the rafting course at Oklahoma City’s Riversport Rapids is transformed into Pirate Island, and it’s open to everyone noon-6 p.m.

Saturdays and Sundays.

“The idea for Pirate Island really came about because we wanted to find a fun way to use Riversport Rapids in the fall and to let people know that the rapids don’t close at Labor Day like swimming pools do,” said Michael Knopp, Boathouse District executive director. “This is a great time of year to raft. The water in October in Oklahoma is warmer than it is most of the year in Colorado, and we’ve got plenty of splash jackets.”

Pirate Island legend has it that the island emerged from the Oklahoma River long, long ago (in the bonny month of May), the creation of a troupe of feisty construction pirates who inadvertently unearthed a treasure trove of pumpkins, gold doubloons and candy, Knopp said.

Once on the island, children can enjoy hunting for treasure by following the clues on a mysterious map.

“At the end of the treasure hunt, kids will find the treasure chest, complete with a real live pirate and pirate’s assistant,” Knopp said.

A small pumpkin and a visit to the painting station are included in admission.

The island has been transformed with the addition of hundreds of pumpkins and seasonal but not-too-spooky décor.

“Our first weekend to be open was regatta weekend, and we’re very happy with attendance,” Knopp said. “Although we didn’t keep a count, Pirate Island crowds were steady.”

Pirate Island admission is $7.

Admission is included with any Riversport pass. Rafting is for riders 8 years old and older. Adults can join at no charge if they abstain from the action.

All of the other Riversport activities, including the zip line, sky trail, climbing wall and high-speed slide, also will be open. The recently completed bike park features world-class mountain bike and BMX courses.

Later in October, Riversport’s Halloween fun expands to Lake Overholser.

“Haunt the River is the last weekend in October at Lake Overholser, and it’s a spookier event than Pirate Island,” Knopp said. “We’ll have big, floating hayrides on pontoon boats, ghost stories, and people can explore the Kreepy Kayak and Spooky SUP Zone. The Trailhead Cafe inside the Overholser Boathouse will be open and serving soothing sustenance to those who survive Haunt the River and need a snack.

Haunt the River is open noon-8 p.m.

Oct. 29 and noon-6 p.m. Oct. 30. Haunt the River is included in a $35 Riversport Adventures Day Pass. Other activities include the Sky Scream double zip line across the water, the Candy Corn Climb, the Screamin’ Swing and Dead Man’s Drop. There will be plenty of pumpkins to paint at Haunt the River, and boat foliage tours of Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge are also included.

Visit riversportokc.org.

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ARTs & CULTURE

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Electric endeavor Oklahoma filmmakers’ Electric Nostalgia continues to earn accolades. By Tyler Talley

Winner of Best Oklahoma Feature Film at the 2016 deadCenter Film Festival, Electric Nostalgia is not a movie that automatically screams, “Oklahoma!”

A synopsis could read, “A grounded yet high-concept black-and-white science fiction thriller, the film’s inspirations range from writer/director Jacob Leighton Burns’ lifelong affinity of The Twilight Zone to Noah Baumbach’s 2012 comedy Frances Ha. The film tells the story of a woman (Lauren Analla) brought back from the dead in a body that is not her own.

Cerebral shenanigans ensue.”

Burns said Oklahoma served as the perfect environment for a film like Electric Nostalgia to take shape and described the state’s small yet growing film industry as “incredibly loyal, encouraging and supportive.”

“Everybody wants everybody to succeed and sees value in helping others succeed. I would never have been able to make Electric Nostalgia anywhere else,” he said. “The way the community encouraged and supported us through the entire process was amazing.”

Working with a $15,000 budget raised primarily through a successful Indiegogo campaign and a cast and crew comprised entirely of local talent, Burns utilized a number of OKC landmarks — the Paramount Building on Film Row and The Mule and the former Size Records in the Plaza District — during production that viewers might recognize.

Burns described the film’s three-week production in the summer of 2014 as exhausting yet rewarding. He said lead actress Analla likened the experience to

summer camp.

“When it was over, nobody wanted to go home,” Burns said. “Everybody on both sides of the camera was so committed to making the film the best it could be, but also doing our best to keep the atmosphere lighthearted and fun.”

Burns said he was briefly hesitant about making the film black-and-white, as it can often be interpreted as a somewhat cliché route for many first-time directors to take.

“There are a lot of misconceptions about black-and-white. It’s not just as easy as clicking a magical black-and-white button that converts everything for you,” Burns said as he explained the trial-anderror process in determining the right look for the film.

He believes it ultimately strengthened the film’s dreamlike aesthetic, creating a distance between our reality and that of the movie.

Burns said he was overwhelmed with shock and gratitude at the film’s reception at deadCenter. He described the first screening as “magical.”

“Making movies is a tough process, and that award was an acknowledgement of all the hard work, money, time and talent that many Oklahomans had put into the film,” Burns said. “It’s difficult to put into words what a wonderful feeling that is.”

In addition to its fruitful deadCenter turnout, the project screens this fall at film festivals in Austin, Texas; Orlando, Florida; and Tulsa.

Prosperous productions

In many ways, the film’s success represents just one in a continuing series of cinemat-

Producers Vinnie Hogan left and Zachary Burns right and writer/director Jacob Leighton Burns look through the camera on the set of Electric Nostalgia. | Photo Yasmin Shirali / Planet Thunder Productions / provided

ic precipices for Burns and his Planet Thunder Productions partners, brother Zachary and Vinnie Hogan. The three lifelong film buffs have produced 20 short films together as well as another fulllength feature, The Fable of Shannon Cable, written and directed by Hogan, which premiered at Austin Film Festival in 2013.

Hogan, producer and composer of Electric Nostalgia, said he immediately knew the film was the right choice for the trio’s next feature after Burns’ initial pitch combined with his own first read-through of the screenplay.

“I will never forget reading the script late at night, desperately wanting to go to sleep and yet needing to finish the last 20 pages so I could see what happens to the characters,” he said.

In a landscape dominated by everexpanding cinematic universes, Electric Nostalgia is representative of a humble yet noticeable wave of smaller, high-concept features gaining critical traction via word-of-mouth generated by outlets including the film festival circuit and Netflix. Burns cited recent examples like It Follows, Green Room and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night as inspiration to move the project forward and evidence that there is indeed a market for niche, standalone movies like his.

“Seeing these films gave me confidence

that there is an audience for the type of films I want to make, and I’m fortunate to be creating at a time when they are growing in popularity, especially amongst art house crowds,” he said.

Independent directors like Burns find themselves entering a marketplace in which directors are plucked from relative obscurity by major Hollywood studios and placed at the helm of the next tent pole.

Burns said his main intention moving forward is to simply keep making movies he wants to make, growing incrementally stronger with each production.

He also intends to work toward building his home state’s burgeoning film industry for the immediate future.

“I think for our industry to really break through, it’s going to have to come from within,” he said.

As more and more Oklahoma talent begins to emerge, it’s only a matter of time before someone makes it big.

Both Burns and Blue Thunder Productions will have multiple opportunities, given their packed slate of upcoming Oklahoma-based projects, including a second season of web series Talkies, a documentary co-directed by Jacob and Zachary, and Hogan’s second film as writer and director, Werewolf Scouts, due to begin production next summer.

Lauren Analla plays the lead role in Electric Nostalgia. | Photo Zachary Burns / Planet Thunder Productions / provided

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calendar are events recommended

by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

Reel Rock 11 Film Tour, film festival bringing the best climbing and adventure films to local audiences and gives outdoor enthusiasts the chance to gather and celebrate the sport, 6:30-11:30 p.m. Oct. 15.

Climb UP OKC, 200 SE Fourth Street, 405-6737448, climbupgym.com. SAT Coming Home, (CN, 2014, dir. Yimou Zhang) having been released from a labor camp where he was sent as a political prisoner, Lu returns home years later searching for his beloved wife and they struggle to recognize each other after great trauma, 2 p.m. Oct. 16. Oklahoma City University, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-208-5000, okcu.edu. SUN Passport to Global Korea: Breath, (SK, 2007, dir. Kiduk Kim) a tender romantic drama centering on the unusual relationship between a condemned prisoner and a married female artist, Pegasus Theater— UCO Campus, 100 N. University Drive, Edmond, 405-9742000, uco.edu. MON Western Movie Matinees: The Misfits, (US, 1961, dir.

John Huston) a divorcee falls for a cowboy who is struggling to maintain his romantically independent lifestyle, 1 p.m. Oct. 19. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. WED

HaPPenInGS Harry Potter Festival OKC Did someone use a Confundus charm?

Wasn’t Harry Potter’s birthday July 31?

Construction on Western Avenue prevented A Date With Iris, 4201 N. Western Ave., from celebrating the famous literary wizard’s special day this summer, so it’s throwing the second annual Harry Potter Festival OKC for the boy who lived 4-8 p.m. Sunday. The free event includes spots for photos in front of Platform 9 ¾, a chance for Quidditch enthusiasts to dodge bludgers outside The Garden Gnome Bonsai, 4141 N. Western Ave., and a Triwizard Maze built by The Escape OKC. Head to Honeydukes (42nd Street Candy Co.), 4200 N. Western Ave., to indulge your sweet tooth, or grab some fish and chips at VZD’s, which will be The Leaky Cauldron for the day. Katiebug’s Shaved Ice and Hot Chocolate will be on hand, too. Visit facebook.com/harrypotterbirthdaybash.

SUNDAy Photo A Date With Iris / provided

BOOKS Elin Hilderbrand book signing, New York Times’ bestselling author talks and signs her books along with promoting the final book in her Winter Street trilogy called Winter Storms, 6-7:30 p.m. Oct. 12.

Best of Books, 1313 E. Danforth Road, Edmond, 405340-9202, bestofbooksok.com. WED Byron Price and Mark White, authors sign Picturing Indian Territory: Portraits of the Land that Became Oklahoma 1819-1907, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 13. Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. THU Let’s Talk About It Series, discussion of Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson, with the discussion led by Dr. Tracy Floreani, 6 p.m. Oct. 19.

Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-842-2900, fullcirclebooks.com. WED

FIlM Western Movie Matinee: Lonely are the Brave, (UK, 1962, dir. David Miller) an independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up so he can escape with an old friend who has been sentenced to the penitentiary, 1 p.m. Oct. 12. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. WED Movie Night: Jurassic World, (US, 2015, dir. Colin Trevorrow) a new theme park is built on the original site of Jurassic Park, and everything is going well until the park’s newest attraction, a genetically modified giant stealth killing machine, escapes containment and goes on a killing spree, 7 p.m. Oct. 14. KickingBird Golf Club, 1600 E. Danforth Road, Edmond, 405-341-5350. FRI The Decalogue, (PL, 1988, dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski) comprised of 10 hour-long films inspired by each of the Ten Commandments; The Decalogue screens in sets of two episodes per evening, 8 p.m. Oct. 14; 5 and 8 p.m. Oct. 15; 2 and 5 p.m. Oct. 16. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. FRI -SUN

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Innovate or Die: The Innovation Series with Jamie Gallagher, Jamie Gallagher, North American president of Faber-Castell, discusses creativity as a key success factor in real business at the Innovation Series presented by Creative Oklahoma, 5-6:30 p.m.

Oct. 12. Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library, 300 Park Ave., 405-231-8650, metrolibrary.org. WED Art After 5, enjoy the Oklahoma City skyline along with live music, friends and cocktails on top of OKCMOA, 5-9 p.m. Oct. 13, 20 and 27. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. THU Ralph Ellison Creative Writing Workshop, author of To the Disappearance Todd Fuller continues the Ralph Ellison Foundation’s series of free, public creative writing workshops with his interactive session Diversifying Your Literary and Creative Genealogy, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 13. Ralph Ellison Library, 2000 NE 23rd St, 405-424-1437. THU In the OK Neighborhood Fashion Show, collaboration between local talent, retailers and designers to raise funds for Citizens Caring for Children; women’s, men’s and children’s ready-towear fashion, 7-9 p.m. Oct. 13. Hall of Mirrors, 201 N. Walker Ave., 405-297-2264, okcciviccenter.com.

THU

Zoo Fall Plant Sale, brighten up your landscape with beautiful flowers and plants propagated from the botanical collection such as bamboo, agave, palms and cold, hardy water garden plants, Oct. 14-16. The Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Place, 405424-3344, okczoo.com. FRI -SUN EdFest, free festival with live music, local food, musicians and brewers, games for kids and more with all proceeds supporting Edmond Mobile Meals, 6-10 p.m. Oct. 14. Festival Market Place, 26 W. First St., Edmond, 405-359-4630, edmondok.com. FRI

Legacy Park Arts Day, family-friendly afternoon of art and music in the city’s newest park; local musicians, artist and maker’s market, art activities for children and more, 2-7:30 p.m. Oct. 16. Legacy Park, 1898 Legacy Park, Norman. SUN Women Lead Presents State Question Forum, forums include a presentation by the League of Women Voters about the ballot language and potential impacts followed by Q&A with representatives for and against each question; 776: Modifications to the Death Penalty, 780 and 781: Criminal Justice Reforms, 789 and 792: Modifications to Alcohol Sales, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 18. Girl Scouts Western Oklahoma, 6100 N. Robinson Ave., 405-528-4475, gswestok.org. TUE

FOOd How to Create an Herbal Home, learn how to incorporate herbs into your busy lifestyle that are simple to grow and use; tips for growing, drying and using herbs, 1-2:30 p.m. Oct. 13. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events. THU Bacon & Brussels, an annual fundraiser for Midtown Association, which provides amenities, marketing and programming for the district; the event provides food lovers with a sampling of delicious bacon and brussel sprout-inspired food items from local restaurants, beer, music and games, 7-9 p.m.

Oct. 13. The Guardian, 1114 N. Harvey Ave. THU Cider Press Demonstration and Tasting, learn how cider is made and try out an old-fashioned cider press, 1 p.m. Oct. 14. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events. FRI Small Wonders: Microgreens & Shoots, learn to plant and grow pea shoots, kale, radish, dill and basil and learn how to avoid common problems, 11 a.m. Oct. 15. CommonWealth Urban Farms, 3310 N. Olie Ave., commonweathurbanfarms.com. SAT Heard on Hurd, enjoy a variety of food truck options, live music and shopping, 6-10 p.m. Oct. 15.

Downtown Edmond, 32 N. Broadway, Edmond. SAT

YOUTH Red Dirt Dinos, following a journey around the state and across the world, the dinosaurs that once roamed over Oklahoma’s red dirt landscape return to Science Museum Oklahoma; three interactive, lifelike robotic dinosaurs and a variety of hands-on components help visitors explore Oklahoma’s dinosaurs. Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 NE 52nd St., 405-602-6664, sciencemuseumok.org.

Pumpkinville, the woodland fairy tale town of Pumpkinville comes to life; enjoy crafts, activities and imaginative displays that get you in the spirit of the season, Oct. 7-23. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events.

Mad Science, learn the science behind creepy critters and what makes them so cool and try a few experiments of your own, 10-11:30 a.m. Oct. 15. The Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Place, 405424-3344, okczoo.com. SAT

Mid-America Street Fest, specially designed for people of all ages and includes carnival games and rides, pony rides, petting zoo, Boy Scouts’ monkey bridge, children’s tent, shopping, homegrown Oklahoma musicians, food trucks and more, 11 a.m.6 p.m. Oct. 15. Charles J. Johnson Central Park, 7209 SE 29th St., Midwest City. SAT

Adult Haunt the River Cruise, enjoy a haunted cruise along the Oklahoma River, 8 p.m. Oct. 15.

Exchange Landing, 1503 Exchange Ave., 405-7027755, okrivercruises.com. SAT Kicklahoma OKC, 17,000 square feet of sneakers, apparel, art, music and more, noon-5 p.m. Oct. 16.

OKC Farmers Public Market, 311 S. Klein Ave., 405232-6506, okcfarmersmarket.com. SUN

School’s Out Day Camp, a unique adventure during the holidays; fun and safe day cam for children to connect with animals and nature, Oct. 13-14, 20-21.

The Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Place, 405-424-3344, okczoo.com. THU

Chef Masters, interactive cooking class for kids teaching them the basics of cooking while filling their appetites, 6-7 p.m. Oct. 13. Yukon Community Center, 2200 S. Holly Ave., Yukon, 405-354-8442, cityofyukonok.gov. THU

LIVE! on the Plaza, join the Plaza District every second Friday of the month for an art walk featuring artists, live music, street pop-up shops, live performances and more, 7-11 p.m. Oct. 14. Plaza District, 1618 N. Gatewood Ave., 405-367-9403, plazadistrict.org. FRI

Zoo Halloween Party for Adults, get spooky and learn about some of our creepy crawlies at the zoo; wear a costume and be ready for ghoulish games, 7-8:30 p.m. Oct. 15. The Oklahoma City Zoo, 2000 Remington Place, 405-424-3344, okczoo.com. SAT

SATURDAy-WEDNESDAy, ONGOING Image Oklahoma City Museum of Art / provided

The Octonauts and the Deep Sea Volcano Adventure, join the team as they embark on an exciting new journey through an aquatic world full of adventure, interactive opportunity, and must-sea surprises from coast to coast, 6 p.m. Oct. 13. Hudson Performance Hall, 2820 N. May Ave., 405-840-2146, hudsonperformancehall.com. THU

2nd Friday Norman Art Walk, come early if you’re coming at all; offering free snacks, wine, live music and local vendors, Art Walk is the best Norman has to offer all in one place, 6-9 p.m. Oct. 14. Downtown Norman, 122 E. Main St., Norman. FRI

Moonlark Mystery Scavenger Hunt, solve a unique mystery through a fun, interactive scavenger hunt that takes you through six of OKC’s most popular districts; find clues hidden inside local stores, speak secret code phrases with employees, and decipher riddles, Oct. 15. The Paramount, 701 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-517-0787, theparamountokc.com. SAT

Sacred Words: The Saint John’s Bible and the Art of Illumination A large, handwritten and gorgeously illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in Minnesota takes center stage in Sacred Words: The Saint John’s Bible and the Art of Illumination at Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Islamic and Judaic examples of illumination are also included in the show. The exhibit opens Saturday and runs through Jan. 8 at the museum, 415 Couch Drive. Tickets for Sacred Words are free-$12. Children 5 and under get in free. Ticket prices include access to all museum galleries. Visit okcmoa.com or call 405-236-3100.

Malneirophrenia: Art of the Lullaby Showcase artist Eric Exton takes on the stigma of mental illness in the eerie but captivating exhibit Malneirophrenia: Art of the Lullaby. The exhibit also includes works by C. Jervey Hatcher, Harold Neal, Mikki Olsen and Bekah June. The goal of the show is to bring more awareness and understanding of those who suffer from mental illnesses. It runs 7-11 p.m. Saturday at Graphite Elements and Design, 1751 NW 16th St. Admission is free. Visit facebook. com/graphiteokc or call 405-615-4837.

SATURDAy Image Bekah June / provided

GO TO OKGazeTTe.cOM FOr FUll lISTInGS!

Bigfoot, Werewolves and Chupacubras, Oh My!, park naturalists talk about wildlife myths and urban legends surrounding popular Oklahoma wildlife species and dig deep to uncover the truth about the legends surrounding these creepy creatures, 3 p.m. Oct. 15. Martin Park Nature Center, 5000 W. Memorial Road, 405-755-0676, okc.gov/parks. SAT Archaeology Day, activities and learning traditional cordage, archaeologist-led tours and archaeoscavenger hunts, sandbox excavations, arts and crafts and more, 1-5 p.m. Oct. 16. Sam Noble Museum, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman, 405-3254712, snomnh.ou.edu. SUN Creative Costumes, little artists make original costumes using paper, paint, fabric and other materials, Oct. 17-21. Oklahoma Contemporary, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org. MON - FRI Fall Art Camp: Fundamental Hip-Hop, basic understanding of the history and early cultural influences of hip-hop and its effect on modern society; encourages teamwork, open-minded explorations, creative problem-solving and self-

confidence, Oct. 17-21. Oklahoma Contemporary, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org. MON - FRI Fall Art Camps: Spook and Scare Video Production, students make a fun and spooky short video inspired by the season; campers work to make a suspenseful visual story combining different camera angles and shots and then learn how to edit the shots, create unique special effects and add haunting music to complete the video, Oct. 17-21. Oklahoma Contemporary, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org. MON-FRI Tiny Tuesdays: Batty Art, come-and-go art-making program geared toward children ages 2-5 with a parent or guardian; use black felt and fuzzy feathers to create fun, batty art creatures, 10 a.m.-noon, Oct. 18. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. TUE

The Woman in Black, journey into darkness this Halloween season for a tale of the supernatural that will leave your spine tingling and your eyes disbelieving; based on the book of the same name, and currently the second-longest running play on London’s West End, Oct. 14-29. Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., 405-297-2264, okcciviccenter.com. FRI

acTIVe University of Oklahoma vs Kansas State, college football game, 11 a.m. Oct. 15. Gaylord FamilyOklahoma Memorial Stadium, 180 W. Brooks Drive, Norman, 405-325-8200, soonersports.com. SAT

PerFOrMInG arTS

yogaFest OKC, featuring yoga classes and workshops, a lecture series on topics related to yoga philosophy, meditation and Ayurveda, Oct. 15-16. Plaza District, 1618 N. Gatewood Ave., 405-367-9403, plazadistrict.org.

SAT-SUN

The Sound of Music, a new production directed

by Tony Award-winner Jack O’Brien; the beloved musical story of Maria and the von Trapp family will once again thrill audiences with its score, Oct. 11-16.

Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave., 405297-2264, okcciviccenter.com. WED -SUN

Beer Mile, four beers, one mile and an awesome time; runners, walkers and drinkers unite for a funfilled event capped off by an awesome after-party featuring live music, games and good people, 1-5 p.m. Oct. 15. Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, 405-218-1000. SAT

Mike Speenberg, comic Mike Speenberg has taken his own unique brand of generational comedy all over the country; fueled by stories of home and family, love of country and being drunk in public, Speenberg’s comedy hits home with everyone of us who have lived through crazy step-parents, above-ground pool parties and square pizza with canned corn, 8 p.m. Oct. 12-13, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Oct. 14-15. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 8503 N. Rockwell Ave., 405-239-4242, loonybincomedy.com. WED -SAT

OKC Thunder vs Minnesota Timberwolves, preseason NBA basketball game, 6 p.m. Oct. 16.

Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., 405602-8700, chesapeakearena.com. SUN Rayo OKC vs. Ottowa Fury FC, professional soccer game, 6 p.m. Oct. 16. Miller Stadium, 1777 S. Yukon Parkway, Yukon. SUN Full Moon Bike Ride and Run, a leisurely run or bike ride under the moon though downtown OKC; run at 7 p.m. Oct. 16. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events. SUN OKC Thunder vs Denver Nuggets, preseason NBA basketball game, 7 p.m. Oct. 18. Chesapeake Energy Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., 405-602-8700, chesapeakearena.com. TUE

VISUal arTS American Craft Week, national event celebrating the tradition of American craft in artists’ studios, galleries, museums, schools and festivals; enjoy various diverse events throughout the week, Oct. 12-16. Paseo Arts District, 3022 Paseo St., 405-525-2688, thepaseo. org. WED -SUN

News, Weather and Corpse Tune in for a murderous new show from Whodunit Dinner Theater. News, Weather and Corpse is 6:15-9 p.m. Thursday at Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, 1309 S. Agnew Ave. It’s dinner and a show with a buffet featuring steak and a choice of chicken or catfish with a salad, fruit, steamed vegetable medley, baked potato, a dinner roll and a dessert. Tickets are $48 for adults and $24 for children 8 years old and younger.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy meets 9 to 5 with deadly funny results. Visit whodunit.net or call 405-420-3222. THURSDAy Photo Terri Took It Photography / provided Gayle Curry, showcase of new works and an installation by artist Gayle Curry. Mainsite Contemporary Art, 122 E. Main St., Norman, 405360-1162, mainsite-art.com.

and bonnets from the museum’s permanent collection. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org.

October Artists, artists Deborah Burian, Verna Fuller and Renee Jones. Contemporary Art Gallery, 2928 Paseo St., 405-601-7474, contemporaryartgalleryokc.com.

Russell Hughes, oil paintings. 50 Penn Place Gallery, 1900 Northwest Expressway, Suite 113-R, 405-848-5567, 50pennplacegallery.com.

Painting in the Gardens Series with Wine and Palette, instructors help you paint a pumpkin, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Oct. 15. Myriad Botanical Gardens, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-445-7080, oklahomacitybotanicalgardens.com/events. SAT Power and Prestige: Headdresses of the American Plains, original exhibition includes nine headdresses from Northern and Southern American Great Plains along with historical photographs and other supporting artifacts including ledger art depicting Indian warriors

Art Opening, featuring Susan Morrison-Dyke and Tony Dyke, 6-9 p.m. Oct. 14. Art Hall, 519 NW 23rd St., art.theriseokc.com. FRI

History Never Dies George Washington Steele, Oklahoma’s first governor, is not a literal zombie, but he lives forever in the pages of history. History Never Dies, a Halloween carnival, is in its fourth year and originally began as the opening of Oklahoma Territorial Museum’s former exhibit Outlaw Turned Mummy Elmer McCurdy before growing into a yearly occurrence. The event runs 5-7 p.m. Oct. 22 at Oklahoma Territorial Museum, 406 E. Oklahoma Ave., in Guthrie. Admission is free, and food — including hot dogs, drinks and snacks — is provided. Visit okterritorialmuseum.org or call 405-282-1889. OCT. 22 Image Oklahoma Territorial Museum / provided Heaven Can Wait, Joe Pendleton finds himself being checked in for the hereafter by a Mr. Jordan when it is discovered Joe was called 60 years too early, the iconic Harry Segall comedy finds Joe in his new body as a wealthy man about to be murdered by his wife, 8 p.m. Oct. 13-15, 20-23, 2:30 p.m. Oct. 2, 9, 16 and 23. Jewel Box Theatre, 3700 N. Walker Ave., 405-521-1786, jewelboxtheatre.org. THU The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, an artist lands in a mental hospital, learns that insurance will only pay for a 10-day stay and concocts a plan to fool authorities into allowing her to stay in which she takes on the persona of Darryl Strawberry, 8 p.m. Oct 14-15, 21-22, 28-29, Nov. 4-5; 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 27 and Nov. 3; 2 p.m. Oct. 30. Carpenter Square Theatre, 806 W. Main St., 405-232-6500, carpentersquare.com. FRI -SAT Heathers: The Musical, the darkly delicious story of Veronica Sawyer, a brainy, beautiful teenage misfit who hustles her way into the most powerful and ruthless clique at Westerberg High: the Heathers, Oct. 7-8, 14-16, 20-23, 26-29. The Pollard Theatre, 120 W. Harrison Ave., Guthrie, 405-282-2800, thepollard.org. FRI -SUN

Cloud City, walk inside the transparent and reflective installation made of steel and acrylic so that grass may appear overhead and the sky reflect on the ground; open through Oct. 30.

Oklahoma Contemporary’s Campbell Art Park, NW 11th St. and Broadway Drive, 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org.

Drop-in Art, join guest artists each Saturday as they interact with families to create extraordinary works of art inspired by the museum’s collections, exhibitions and special occasions, 1-4 p.m. every Saturday. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. SAT Fall Adult Classes, develop your skills and explore your creativity in ceramics, 2-D and 3-D arts, fiber arts and photography, Oct. 3-Nov. 3. Oklahoma Contemporary, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org.

Featured Artists, Beth Hammack and Lu Beard showcase their works for the month of October. The Studio Gallery, 2642 W. Britton Road, 405-7522642, thestudiogallery.org.

Flying Solo, mixed-media exhibit by Diane Coady incorporating silk, clay, and paintings that tell stories of the self and weave together a personal narrative. IAO Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 405232-6060, iaogallery.org.

Gallery Reception: Cletus Smith, reception for Cletus Smith and Where the Roads Lead is held in conjunction with 2nd Friday Art Walk, 6-9 p.m. Oct. 14. The Depot, 200 S. Jones Ave., Norman, 405307-9320, pasnorman.org. FRI

Solo Exhibitions, JRB Art at The Elms presents three solo exhibitions featuring southwest artist Carol Beesley, mixed media artist John Wolfe and colorist Bob Nunn. JRB Art at The Elms, 2810 N. Walker Ave., 405-528-6336, jrbartgallery.com.

Studio Sampler: Adults, dabble in a variety of drawing and painting techniques using various media such as colored pencils, pastels, watercolor and acrylics; draw and paint different subject matter such as flowers, landscapes and still-life exploring your untapped talent, 1-4 p.m. Oct. 16 and 23. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. SUN The Stream of Stories, installation by artist Erin Shaw; larger-than-life-sized artwork in an environment reminiscent of a pop-up book, inviting them to become a part of the story.

Current Studio, 1218 N. Pennsylvania Ave., 405673-1218, currentstudio.org.

Color, Connections, Constellations, photographer Caroline Cohenour releases her debut collection of original watercolor works. In Your Eye Gallery, 3005 Paseo St. #A, 405- 525-2161, inyoureyegallery.com.

Cowboy Crossings Opening Weekend, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum hosts an opening weekend event and sale for two outstanding exhibitions; TCAA showcases the best of saddlemaking, bit and spurmaking, silversmithing and rawhide braiding, while the CAA features members who celebrate the West through painting, drawing and sculpture, Oct. 13-15. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org.

THU -SAT

Skull-Themed Group Art exhibition, exhibit in celebration of DNA Galleries’ 8th anniversary, Oct. 8-Nov. 6. DNA Galleries, 1709 NW 16th St., 405525-3499, dnagalleries.com.

Women at War, works of three renowned artists: Ebony Iman Dallas, Gay Pasley, and Edward Grady.

Owen’s Arts Place Museum, 1202 E. Harrison Ave., Guthrie, 405-260-0204, owensmuseum.com.

Happenings: Junk Hippy and Junkers Ball Barn Bash Country Living named Junk Hippy one of the 7 Flea Markets & Barn Sales You Won’t Want to Miss in 2015, and the massive vintage market is in El Reno 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Denny-Crump Rodeo Arena, 215 N. Country Club Road. Started in 2012 by Kristen and Shawn Grandi, the traveling Junk Hippy show is $5 to enter and features a wide variety of vendors selling vintage furniture and “all things junky.” Friday night is the all-ages Junkers Ball after-party 7-10:30 p.m., featuring food trucks, beverage stands for adults and music from Eddie and The EAT. Tickets are $10. Children age 13 and under are admitted free to both events. Visit junkhippy.com. FRIDAy-SATURDAy

Submissions must be received

by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date.

Late submissions will not be included in the listings.

Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible. Fax your listings to 528-4600 or e-mail them to listings@okgazette.com.

Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

For OKG live music

see page 40

Photo Eddie and The EAT / provided

GO TO OKGazeTTe.cOM FOr FUll lISTInGS!

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Steppin’ Out with Ben Vereen Friday, nOVemBer 18 @ OCCC

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community

college enter to win

okgazette.com/gWW gazette’s weekly winner will be announced each week in the table of contents

TICKETS ON SALE NOW at ticketmaster.com 800-745-3000, and the arena box office.

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Printed winners have 7 days to claim tickets

Must provide eMail, full naMe & phone nuMber.

event

MUSIC

Rapper J French is the son of percussionist Brother Num, a mainstay on tour with reggae legend Burning Spear. | Photos provided

Art dealer

Rapper J French hopes radio single ‘Dallas’ sells America on his music. By Ben Luschen

J French is a tireless salesHe still had his house out J French man, but not of drugs — here.” with Original Flow not anymore and never French moved on to and the Fervent again. several other instruments, Route These days, the local including the viola, recordrapper and former Austiner, trumpet and cello, before 9 p.m. Oct. 29 based car salesman pushes hip-hop took full force in VZD’s Restaurant & Bar his music, not crack his life. His ambition 4200 N. Western Ave. started writing raps in cocaine. Not yet a believer vzds.com secret as a teen, and he in French’s music? That’s 405-602-3006 probably because he hasn’t eventually found a path that $8 finished making his pitch, would lead him to places he which is a pretty good one. never thought he’d go.

Point one: He comes from a proud musical heritage. His father, Brother Num, Dark road is a New York-based reggae percussionist In 2004, French moved to Austin for three who toured with legendary Burning Spear years to further his music career with the for more than a decade. help of rapper friend Big Neal. That year, Point two: He understands music Neal’s album Live from Iraq, recorded theory. French’s father had him playing while the former soldier was deployed in instruments from a young age. He was the Middle East, was making waves in the writing sheet music before he ever wrote media.

French watched as Neal fielded quesa rhyme. In the digital age, where it is sometimes said anyone can be a rapper, tions on television interviews with Bill French stands out with structure and O’Reilly and MTV’s Sway Calloway.

It was more than the spectacle of it all technique.

Point three: His music has seen quanthat interested French. Neal gave him full tifiable radio success. His single “Dallas,” use of his studio; access that seemed like a speedy but classed-up and chilled out an impossible dream in Oklahoma. French post-club anthem, has been a most-realso felt like the move put him in the thick quested track at stations in Dallas, of the hip-hop world. Texas rappers like Houston and Austin, Oklahoma City and Chamillionaire, Paul Wall and Mike Jones Augusta, Georgia. took the hip-hop spotlight away from the French performs Oct. 9 at VZD’s coasts in the early to mid-2000s.

Restaurant & Bar, 4200 N. Western Ave. French started pushing his own CDs His album, Jaguar Jesus, is scheduled for in a local gas station parking lot, somea Dec. 9 release. thing that proved to be a true personal One point French will never argue is talent. He became so good at selling himself and his music that one day, a his brief history selling hard drugs.

Volkswagen dealership sales manager “It’s something I don’t even talk about,” he said. “I would never rap about it. You will offered him a job. never hear a lyric talking about that in my “This guy says, ‘Have you ever sold songs. I don’t exalt it, not that I ever did.” cars?’ He told me to just come up [to the lot],” French said. “I didn’t even have to Early start fill out an application until it was payday, French’s father had him on a West African and that was because I had to get the djembe drum almost as soon as his son check.”

French rose as one of the dealership’s could talk. In many ways, music became top salesmen, but when his daughter was like a second language, something the two could share. born in 2005, he found himself in need of French said his dad brought him out a lot more money. When he learned a drugon stage with Burning Spear as early as dealer friend was making close to what he age 5 or 6, but more frequent were exmade in a whole week in one day, he began tended periods of separation. to rethink his convictions. To better “Him being on tour, being away, provide for his family, he started selling drugs, too. became normal by the time I was around The rapper was in and out of the drug 12,” he said. “He wasn’t really around much, but he’d come back every other year game in a short, but eye-opening few or every year or twice a year sometimes. months. It’s a time he’s not proud of and

I was playing a viola in the fifth grade.

My friends didn’t even know what the hell that was.

J French

doesn’t like reflecting on, let alone making a song about. French remembers listening to rappers boast about selling drugs before he had to sell them himself.

The experience changed the way he looks at that kind of music.

“I know better,” he said. “I’m listening and thinking, ‘How true is that? How much sense does that make?’ Before, it didn’t have to make sense. Now, it has to make sense.”

Musical craftsmanship

French admits to being a nerd as a young kid in school, words fans are unlikely to hear from the mouth of image-conscious rap kingpins like Rick Ross.

“I was playing a viola in the fifth grade,” French said. “My friends didn’t even know what the hell that was.”

Often what is perceived as nerdy at a young age becomes a strength later on.

French uses his understanding of chords, keys and melodies as a built-in advantage

over many of his peers. It sometimes frustrates him when these things are not as apparent to other artists.

“I understand these different t h i ng s about music theory that I expect other people to know when they’re making beats,” he said. “I’ll have people send me a million beats and I don’t like any of them.”

French composes his raps like he would any other instrument in the song. His goal is not to copy what a beat is doing, but to blend with the instrumentation.

“What I try to do is make sure everything flows right,” he said. “When I’m doing a melody, I’m making sure I’m using my voice as a different instrument.”

Now based in Oklahoma City, French is constantly plotting his next move in music.

“I’m always trying to climb,” he said.

“I’m always trying to make the next move.”

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event

MUSIC

Lasting impression

Psych-pop band Special Thumbs aims for quality over quantity with vinyl debut. By Ben Luschen

Local psych-pop band Special Thumbs in the back of their car and they’re never hopes to start out by sticking out. seen again,” he said.

Greene and Riley describe their brand At a time when music has never been more disposable, Special Thumbs founders of indie psychedelic pop rock as “heady pop” Joey Riley, keyboard and in the vein of MGMT or vocals, and Patrick Tame Impala.

Greene, guitar and vocals, “This is our debut EP,” Special thumbs are taking their craft in Riley said. “We want it to eP Release the opposite direction. be something special, and with Gum The band hosts a release we want there to be someshow for its debut EP thing tangible. I don’t 9 p.m. Friday Pollen 9 p.m. Friday at know if ‘collector’s item’ Blue Note Lounge Blue Note Lounge, 2408 is the right term — that’s 2408 N. Robinson Ave. N. Robinson Ave. up to the fans — but it’s specialthumbs.com Instead of the usual something that’s tangible 405-600-1166 stack of CDs, fans will and a piece of artwork and $5 find a limited quantity of not something that will 10-inch vinyl records for purchase. never get utilized or be appreciated.”

Many bands choose to work their way The two met as teenagers in Colorado up to an eventual vinyl release. Greene said and bonded over a similar interest in music. while a vinyl record might mean fewer They often played music together but never initial sales, it should help make certain recorded anything serious. Riley moved to each record that does get moved is propOklahoma to attend college at Oklahoma erly appreciated.

Christian University. Greene, after gradu“People buy CDs and they throw them ating from Colorado State University, joined

Special Thumbs founders Joey Riley and Patrick Greene | Photo Special Thumbs / provided

him in Oklahoma to begin pursuing music with his friend in earnest.

The two started a band under another name but never found much success. Things began to click after they reformed under the Special Thumbs moniker with a new roster. Ryan McGuire (drums), Stephen Tarbox (lead guitar) and Jared Fatkin (bass) comprise the rest of the five-piece.

Riley and Greene considered thousands of band names before settling on Special Thumbs. Nothing seemed to stick, and the names they did like were already taken.

Their eventual handle was decided one day during what Riley called an “existential journey” finger painting outside on a hot summer day.

“Joey was doing some stuff with his thumbs that was really cool,” Greene said.

“I started trying to do it, but it didn’t look as good. I was like, ‘Man, you’re short and you’re ugly, but you do have these special thumbs.’”

The four-song Pollen EP took more than

a year, including an intensive re-recording process, to complete. The project was mixed

by Michael Trepagnier, an instructor at the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma (ACM@ UCO). The record features assistance from Oklahoma City folk-rock band Chase Kerby + The Villains. Kerby offers up some backing vocals while Ryan Magnani and Alberto Roubert contribute bass and drums, respectively.

“Those dudes just did a phenomenal, awesome job,” Riley said. “Those guys laid down four tracks in a span of six hours.”

The Pollen name comes from the idea that this is the beginning of something sweet.

Riley jokingly added that it’s also something fans are hopefully not allergic to.

“The songs, if you had to sum them up, are about the illusion of life, whether it’s in relationships or ingested substances,” he said.

Visit specialthumbs.com.

lIve MUSIC These are events recommended

by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members. For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

Brian Gorrell & Jazz Company, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond. JAZZ Evolution Underground, Oklahoma City Limits.

ROCK

Kwiksand, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK

WeDneSDAY, 10.12

Kyle Brewer, Jazmo’z Bourbon St. Cafe.

Opeth/The Sword, Diamond Ballroom. ROCK

Martha Stallings, Lottinvilles Restaurant, Edmond.

Scott Lowber/Will Galbraith/Ed VanBuskirk, Friends Restaurant & Club. COVER

Michael Fracasso, The Blue Door.

Sun Riah/The So Help Me’s/Magnificent Bird/Young Readers, Power House. ROCK The Mainliners, Vices Bar & Venue, El Reno.

ACOUSTIC

SINGER/SONGWRITER VARIOUS

SINGER/SONGWRITER

Montana of 300, 89th Street Collective. HIP-HOP Nathan Burris, Riverwind Casino, Norman. VARIOUS OBNEAC/Labrys/Plain Speak/Weak Knees/Beau Jennings & The Tigers, Anthem Brewing Company. ROCK

Tracii Guns/Enuff Z Nuff/The Dusty Rose Band/ Drunk on Monday, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK JD McPherson/Jake La Botz, Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa.

SINGER/SONGWRITER

tHURSDAY, 10.13

WeDneSDAY, 10.19

ZZ Top, Firelake Arena, Shawnee. ROCK

Cody Hassell, Vices Bar & Venue, El Reno. COUNTRY

Voodoo, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. ROCK

Ben Kilgore, The Vanguard, Tulsa.

Keith & Kristyn Getty, Council Road Baptist Church.

SAtURDAY, 10.15

Midnight Tyrannosaurus/Squnto, OKC Farmers Public Market. ELECTRONIC Steve Crossley Solo, Margarita Island. VARIOUS Whistle Stop Concert: Tony Lucca, The Depot, Norman. SINGER/SONGWRITER Heart, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Catoosa. ROCK

FRIDAY, 10.14 Boogie Fever, Remington Park. VARIOUS

Alex Burris, Grady’s 66 Pub, Yukon. VARIOUS Eldredge Jackson, UCO Jazz Lab. JAZZ

Howard Brady, Full Circle Bookstore. ROCK Kyle Brewer, Jazmo’z Bourbon St. Cafe. SINGER/ SONGWRITER

Lost Empires/Turbo Wizard/CobraJab/Caught Stealing, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK Push Play, Newcastle Casino, Newcastle. COVER

O C TO b e r 1 2 , 2 0 1 6 | O kg a z e t t e . c O m

SINGER/SONGWRITER

CHRISTIAN

SUnDAY, 10.16 Eric Herndon, Full Circle Bookstore. ACOUSTIC Korn & Breaking Benjamin, BOK Center, Tulsa. ROCK Musical Jam, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK Winter Wind Concert: Susan Gibson, The Depot, Norman. SINGER/SONGWRITER

MOnDAY, 10.17 Whores/Mothership/Big Jesus, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK

Replay, Remington Park. COVER

tUeSDAY, 10.18

The Rivers Edge, Riverwind Casino, Norman.

Debbie Henning, Puebla Tacos y Tequileria, Norman. ACOUSTIC

VARIOUS 40

SINGER/SONGWRITER

Vox Squadron, Wormy Dog Saloon. ROCK

Casey & Minna, Hillbilly’s. FOLK

Garage Band Jam, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES

Voodoo, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK

Bonnie Raitt, Brady Theater, Tulsa.

The Zulus, Henry Hudson’s. ROCK

Toby Keith/Casey Donahew/Ben Haggard & The Strangers, BOK Center, Tulsa. COUNTRY

Drive, Baker Street Pub & Grill. ROCK

Tyler Lee, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES

Randy Cassimus, Full Circle Bookstore. ACOUSTIC

Adam Carroll/Chris Carroll, The Blue Door.

SINGER/SONGWRITER

Whiskey Myers Red dirt and Southern rock band Whiskey Myers released Mud, its fourth studio album, last month to many rave reviews. PopMatters.com called the album an immaculate follow-up to the Palestine, Texas-based act’s 2014 record Early Morning Shakes. The band is also known as a touring force, opening for acts like Eric Church and Hank Williams, Jr. It brings its show 9:30 p.m. Friday to Wormy Dog Saloon, 311 E. Sheridan Ave. Admission is $20. Visit wormydog.com or call 405-601-6276. FRIDAY Photo Shore Fire Media / provided

Live music submissions must be received by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date.

Late submissions will not be included in the listings. Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible.

Fax your listings to 528-4600 or e-mail to listings@okgazette.com.

Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

GO tO OkGAzette.COM FOR FUll lIStInGS!

free will astrology Homework: Happiness, that elusive beast, may need to be tracked through the bushes before capture. What’s your game plan for hunting down happiness? Truthrooster@gmail.com ARIES (March 21-April 19) A study published in

the peer-reviewed Communications Research suggests that only 28 percent of us realize when someone is flirting with us. I hope that figure won’t apply to you Aries in the coming weeks. According to my analysis of the astrological situation, you will be on the receiving end of more invitations, inquiries, and allurements than usual. The percentage of these that might be worth responding to will also be higher than normal. Not all of them will be obvious, however. So be extra vigilant.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

The ancient Greek sage Socrates was a founder of Western philosophy and a seminal champion of critical thinking. And yet he relied on his dreams for crucial information. He was initiated into the esoteric mysteries of love by the prophetess Diotima, and had an intimate relationship with a daimonion, a divine spirit. I propose that we make Socrates your patron saint for the next three weeks. Without abandoning your reliance on logic, make a playful effort to draw helpful clues from non-rational sources, too. (P.S.: Socrates drew oracular revelations from sneezes.

Please consider that outlandish possibility yourself.

Be alert, too, for the secret meanings of coughs, burps, grunts, mumbles, and yawns.)

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

The Helper Experiment, Part One: Close your eyes and imagine that you are in the company of a kind, attentive helper — a person, animal, ancestral spirit, or angel that you either know well or haven’t met yet.

Spend at least five minutes visualizing a scene in which this ally aids you in fulfilling a particular goal. The Helper Experiment, Part Two: Repeat this exercise every day for the next seven days. Each time, visualize your helper making your life better in some specific way. Now here’s my prediction: Carrying out The

By Rob Brezsny

Helper Experiment will attract actual support into your real life.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) New rules: 1. It’s

unimaginable and impossible for you to be obsessed with anything or anyone that’s no good for you. 2. It’s unimaginable and impossible for you to sabotage your stability by indulging in unwarranted fear. 3. It’s imaginable and possible for you to remember the most crucial thing you have forgotten. 4. It’s imaginable and possible for you to replace debilitating self-pity with invigorating self-love and healthy self-care. 5.

It’s imaginable and possible for you to discover a new mother lode of emotional strength.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) It’s swing-swirl-spiral time,

Leo. It’s ripple-sway-flutter time and flow-gush-gyrate time and jive-jiggle-juggle time. So I trust you will not indulge in fruitless yearnings for unswerving progress and rock-solid evidence. If your path is not twisty and tricky, it’s probably the wrong path. If your heart isn’t teased and tickled into shedding its dependable formulas, it might be an overly hard heart. Be an improvisational curiosity-seeker. Be a principled player of unpredictable games.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Some English-speaking

astronomers use the humorous slang term “meteorwrong.” It refers to a rock that is at first thought to have fallen from the heavens as a meteorite (“meteorright”), but that is ultimately proved to be of terrestrial origin. I suspect there may currently be the metaphorical equivalent of a meteor-wrong in your life. The source of some new arrival or fresh influence is not what it had initially seemed. But that doesn’t have to be a problem. On the contrary. Once you have identified the true nature of the new arrival or fresh influence, it’s likely to be useful and interesting.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Most of us can’t tickle ourselves. Since we have conscious control of our fingers, we know we can stop any time. Without the element of uncertainty, our squirm reflex doesn’t kick in. But I’m wondering if you might get a temporary

exemption from this rule in the coming weeks. I say this because the astrological omens suggest you will have an extraordinary capacity to surprise yourself.

Novel impulses will be rising up in you on a regular basis. Unpredictability and spontaneity will be your specialties. Have fun doing what you don’t usually do!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) During the final ten

also an excellent time to lunch or refine a long-term master plan that will make you healthy, wealthy, and wise. Is this a coincidence? Not at all. The astrological omens suggest that your drive to be of noble service dovetails well with your drive for personal success.

For the foreseeable future, unselfish goals are wellaligned with selfish goals.

weeks of 2016, your physical and mental health will flourish in direct proportion to how much outworn and unnecessary stuff you flush out of your life between now and October 25. Here are some suggested tasks: 1. Perform a homemade ritual that will enable you to magically shed at least half of your guilt, remorse, and regret. 2. Put on a festive party hat, gather up all the clutter and junk from your home, and drop it off at a thrift store or the dump. 3. Take a vow that you will do everything in your power to kick your attachment to an influence that’s no damn good for you. 4. Scream nonsense curses at the night sky for as long as it takes to purge your sadness and anger about pain that no longer matters.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

A Buddhist monk named Matthieu Ricard had his brain scanned while he meditated. The experiment revealed that the positive emotions whirling around in his gray matter were super-abundant. Various publications thereafter dubbed him “the happiest person in the world.” Since he’s neither egotistical nor fond of the media’s simplistic sound bites, he’s not happy about that title. I hope you won’t have a similar reaction when I predict that you Sagittarians will be the happiest tribe of the zodiac during the next two weeks. For best results, I suggest you cultivate Ricard’s definitions of happiness: “altruism and compassion, inner freedom (so that you are not the slave of your own thoughts), senses of serenity and fulfillment, resilience, as well as a clear and stable mind that does not distort reality too much.”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Now is a perfect moment to launch or refine a project that will generate truth, beauty, and justice. Amazingly enough, now is

Has your world become at least 20 percent larger since September 1? Has your generosity grown to nearheroic proportions? Have your eyes beheld healing sights that were previously invisible to you? Have you lost at least two of your excuses for tolerating scrawny expectations? Are you awash in the desire to grant forgiveness and amnesty? If you can’t answer yes to at least two of those questions, Aquarius, it means you’re not fully in harmony with your best possible destiny. So get to work! Attune yourself to the cosmic tendencies! And if you are indeed reaping the benefits I mentioned, congratulations -- and prepare for even further expansions and liberations.

Some astrologers dwell on your tribe’s phobias. They assume that you Pisceans are perversely drawn to fear; that you are addicted to the strong feelings it generates. In an effort to correct this distorted view, and in accordance with current astrological omens, I hereby declare the coming weeks to be a Golden Age for Your Trust in Life. It will be prime time to exult in everything that evokes your joy and excitement. I suggest you make a list of these glories, and keep adding new items to the list every day. Here’s another way to celebrate the Golden Age: Discover and explore previously unknown sources of joy and excitement.

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes /daily text message horoscopes.

The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.

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PuzzleS

VOl. XXXViii NO. 41

New York Times MAgAziNe CROSSWORD Puzzle PaPer Jam

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75 Physicist who said, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it” 76 What may go to your head around Christmas?

78 Tribe under attack in Hotel Rwanda 80 Fruity drink 81 Islet in the Thames 82 Tip of Cambodia?

83 West Coast gas brand 84 Line part: Abbr.

87 Extends, in a way 88 Black mark uncovered in a background check 90 Trees used for making furniture 91 Agreement preceding a kiss 92 Flat need?

93 Little batteries 94 Rhimes who created Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal 96 Hit 1990s computer game 100 UPS delivery: Abbr.

101 “Sure thing!”

104 Elec., e.g.

105 She betrayed Samson 107 Like a simple-majority voting system 110 Con 111 Two-time NL batting champ Willie 112 Banks that are too important to fail?

113 “What are the chances of seeing you here?!”

114 “The ____ the limit!”

115 It’ll never reach its destination

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By Zhouqin Burnikel | Edited by Will Shortz | 1002 ACROSS 1 Waste generator?

6 Bookkeeper’s stamp 10 Talks a big game 16 Time-capsule ceremony 17 Lawn game that’s in the Special Olympics 18 Director of the Hostel films 20 First Amendment guarantee 22 Digital technology that provides higher-quality sound 23 Big name in chips 24 Like most 23-Across chips 25 Bad-mouth 26 In need of an ice bath, say 27 Dropbox competitor 30 Not just imply 31 Send into space 34 It’s not used in miniature golf 35 French topper 37 Miss in court?

38 Pulls a yard prank on, briefly 41 Duluth-to-St. Paul dir.

42 “Vous ____ ici” 43 Last shot, often 44 Give it a go 45 “Yee-____!”

46 How Chinese brides are often dressed 48 Hodgepodge 50 It may be full of bugs 51 Business reply encl.

53 Gigi author, 1944 55 DDE’s two-time presidential rival 56 App image 57 Biblical landing site 59 “Yeah, right!”

60 Now and then 61 Alternatives to Twinkies 62 Give for a bit 63 Pinch-hit (for) 65 Totaled 66 Beatles girl who “made a fool of everyone” 67 International commerce assn.

68 Fontana di Trevi locale 69 Aleve shelfmate 70 Entr’____ 71 Tuna variety 72 Attach, as a seat belt 74 Surfboard stabilizer

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Mmes., to Don Juan Commotion Commotion Orthodontist’s recommendation Key next to A Plot turner Darts about Rest spots for camels Amount ____ It’ll give you a lift Big name in medical scales Con “Hold on there!”

Start over “To be clear …”

Classic lie Rear end Final performance

Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3-by-3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9. www.printmysudoku.com

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43 Grilling site 47 Like Comic-Con attendees vis-àvis the general public 48 Bow-tie topper 49 Short rest 50 Much organic matter 51 Topping station at a Mexican restaurant 52 Three before seven?

54 Part of LIFO, to an accountant 58 Took courses 60 Target 61 Solo in space 64 Golf resort known for its Blue Monster course 65 Canadian hockey team 67 Shocked cry 71 “If memory serves …”

NeW YORk TiMeS CROSSWORD Puzzle ANSWeRS

AdVertising director Christy Duane, cduane@okgazette.com

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Account executiVe / AdVertising AssistAnt Leah Roberts

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Account executiVes Stephanie Van Horn, Saundra Rinearson Godwin, Elizabeth Riddle, Nathan Ward, Joel Scott

Dancer’s boss Another, in Aragón Ending with Jumbo Comedy Central host Daniel Suitable One writing about “hare loss”?

Water whirls Upright ____ Diego French pastry Basilica recesses No longer in the closet OB/GYNs, e.g.

Trees used for making wands Like some chances Weymouth of Talking Heads Rowdy revelry Like Sir Ben Kingsley “Bad” cholesterol, for short Most music radio stations “Understand?”

Rural power org.

Puzzle No. 1002, which appeared in the October 5 issue.

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13 14 15 16 DOWN 1 Hit band heard on the soundtrack 17 19 of Back to the Future 20 2 “Am not!” rebuttal 21 3 PBS’ ____ the Science Kid 25 4 The so-called “path of virtue” 28 5 Trees associated with the 29 underworld in Celtic myth 32 6 ____-mouthed 33 7 Throb 36 8 Summertime coffee order 37 9 Weigh down 38 10 Like flip phones, now 39 11 Things to settle 40 12 Word before strike or ball

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Y E A R W A G R A P Y L L E A W A N U D R A A R T N U B T I S T S

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A U G R A T I N

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T H E R A P Y

editor-in-chieF Jennifer Palmer Chancellor jchancellor@okgazette.com AssistAnt editor Brittany Pickering stAFF reporters Greg Elwell, Laura Eastes, Ben Luschen contributors Lauren Dow, Christine Eddington Ian Jayne, Kara Stewart, Tyler Talley Jessica Williams photogrApher Garett Fisbeck circulAtion MAnAger Chad Bleakley AssistAnt circulAtion MAnAger Duke Fleischer Art director Chris Street print production coordinAtor Ashley Parks AdVertising/MArketing design coordinAtor Erin DeMoss grAphic designer Anna Shilling www.okgazette.com Order mounted or ready-to-frame prints of Oklahoma Gazette covers, articles and photos at okgazette.yourheadline.com 3701 N. Shartel Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73118-7102 phone (405) 528-6000 FAx (405) 528-4600 Copyright © 2016 Tierra Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

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